WRITER’S DESK COMPETITION NON-ENTRY

 

The First Ever Annual Spirit Lights The Way Writer’s Desk Competition.

Contest Giveaway Rules:

1.  Write a short essay or poem (between 33 and 100 words) about your writing desk, your writing rituals, why you write, how you write, how you stop writing, or . . . surprise us with a tantalizing tidbit about your writing life.

2.  Illustrate your essay or poem with a photo, drawing, or other visual depiction of your favorite writing space.

 

Right, so I got something about the write rite wrong.  At some 350 words it is far too long to qualify.  I’m posting it anyway.

 

The Colonialist Writing Desk.

I write mainly at night in a plight of utter clutter.  It seems comforting rather than distracting.

 

First I need an idea of what I am writing – in this case the challenge essay.  Then I think of a character or place, like Sacha Nidgett or a house of ill repute.  Following up those ideas, I might consider that one of the ladies of the house will remark, ‘Every time he comes, I feel Sacha Nidgett.’ 

At that point I start wondering whether to develop the ‘come’ theme, but decide reluctantly that it would be unbecoming.  Instead I go on to mention that for some strange reason everyone who comes into contact with the hero is overwhelmed by convictions that they are being foolish. 

After that, I let the characters take it from there.  They do or say what they want to do or say, and it develops an intricate plot which may well include a claustrophobic mole (burrowing type, not skin blemish) and a villain called Flipped who has a fiendish plan to turn the world into a giant pancake.   Without syrup.

There will follow many misadventures, which I am skipping here because as I haven’t written them they haven’t happened.  However, the story will move on to a grand climax where Sasha burrows into the home of the villain with the help of the mole, who has overcome his phobia after being in contact with Sacha.  In the dark, Flipped mistakes Sasha for his girlfriend Corta Studd and embraces him.  At this point Flipped sees the error of his ways and abandons his villainy.   Corta falls for Sacha on sight and abandons Flipped.  She insists that when she and Sasha marry he should abandon his surname and adopt hers instead of the other way round.

And they all live happily ever after.  In an abandoned sort of way, of course.

 

This story is actually a very good illustration of my writing method, because it has evolved exactly as described, starting with the type and names and then collecting the other characters and events while I wrote it. 

© January 2013 Colonialist (WordPress)