Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed and other days I find I just can't keep my mouth shut.  Today is a case of the latter and not the former.  Be forwarned, this is a rant with a point, hopefully, attatched to it. 

This is one of those days I just can't sit back and not speak my mind.  Now if you dare, follow the link.

richarddriscol.wordpress.com

Just some thoughts about secondary characters and their dark side.

richarddriscol.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/ 

I deal primarily in short story horror and I haven't been as active here as I would like to be but I have dropped a few thoughts about what's dark on a blog site I currently write on.  Being very up front with this I'll say I'm not sure how to get you from here to there short of a link so I'm going to put that up and it's up to you then.  Thanks in adavance

richarddriscol.wordpress.com/

By the way, Richard Driscol is a penname in case you're the least bit curious

I was lying in bed this morning still partially asleep, hovening in that void we all know just before we realize it's time to roll from the comfort of warm sheets, when it hit me.  I never lost that childhood sense of wonder. 

That may seem like an odd comment but I figured out why I know it to be true.  I was doing a critique on a flash fiction piece from Writing.com that dealt with quiet, sexual, horror.   I personally have no problems in dealing with sex or horror in my fiction so I was a little puzzled after reading this piece.  Not about the content but the lack of description involvement the writer used to get his point across.  I didn't critique his subject matter; I critiqued his wordiness that didn't move his story.  I got a reply from him later telling me he was grateful for the critique but he was way outside of his comfort zone in dealing with erotica.That's not surprising because many people are uncomfortable dealing with sex openly.  Descriptive horror is another topic they shy away from as are many forms of violence. 

That got me to thinking abouit my own comfort zone.  Basically it extends everywhere and to anything.  Granted, I may not know everything about topics that come up but I will spend a great deal of time searching for answers, trying to understand what it's all about.  I may not agree but that is my right.  That doesn't mean I should shut the subject matter away in a closet and leave it to gather cobwebs and dust.

As writers we need to explore anything and everything and not let out own preformed opinions color topics that arise.  If you have children, you know they will question you about the smallest detail to the largest subject that catches their interest regardless how embarrassing it may seem to us.  That's how children learn.  That's how we all learn.  We question things.  We look into them and explore them.  We don't just accept someone elses opinion or answer that says..."Because I said so, that's why".  So next time you're confronted with an uncomfortable subject, instead of filing it away as a no no subject, reach into your past and drag your childhood to the surface.  Let yourself explore those dark forbidden recesses and shed some light on them.  You may discover things aren't as bad as you were told.

 misty water colored memories, like the corner of my mind --- Well enough of that!

I hear over and over that in writing you write what you know.  In acting you draw on your experiences.  Guess what?  Both work for writing.

I was sitting at the computer a few days ago, not doing much, when for some reason I began thinking abouit people.  No one special but I ended up back in my home town after my family had just moved there.  I took a walk down the main drag and much to my surprise I fouind someone sitting exactly where he had been some 50 years ago.  In fact he hadn't changed one bit.

Now I believe in drawing from my life at least in a visual sense.  I'll see someone, anyone, and try to picture who they are, what they do, what are they capable of doing.  You get the idea.  I do this on a daily basis when I see someone that strikes me as someone whose visual persona has character.  But I had not expected to go back 50 years and find this particular person, whom I had not given any thought to, popping up in my mind.  The truth is I didn't know him, didn't even want to know him then but in retrospect, I may have missed something.  He bacame the suject of a piece of flash fiction for me and I wanted to thank him now.  So Henry, after 50 years of not knowing who you were, thank you for allowing me to speculate and thank you for letting me into your world.

The moral of all this is simple.  As the chiche' goes: "Never judge a book by it's cover' and don't pass up an opportunity to say hello to people.  You never know when you'll run into them again.