Progress, 7/13/2008

[kaasirpent]

Project working title: Old Man Coyote New words: 2480 Current total words: 2480 Goal: 2480

I know, it's cheating to just use the finished number of words as your goal, but...I wanted to see the 100% progress bar. :) I'm funny that way.

Reason for stopping: Finished.

Notes:

1. This was a fun little story to write. It was a 'challenge' story. A group of us in the same writers/critiquing group on Second Life were challenged by our referee to each write a story with the same first two lines:

   It all started when a god died and the next thing I knew I was in trouble. Mike warned me a year ago not to do it, but I was already half way through....

   To me, this sounded very conversational, so it occurred to me to try something I've never done before: write the entire thing as half a conversation, of which we never hear the other half. Kind of like Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess". I also wrote it with a seemingly drunk main speaker who also happens to be something of a hick. So I had to use colloquialisms, word choice, and spellings to get his manner of speaking across. The critiques over the next couple of weeks will tell how I did.


2. The funny part is, I've already read one of the other submissions. We both chose to use Coyote (the god) as a character and we both set it up as a conversation, although Luta's was done as a magazine interview, so you get both sides of the conversation. Very strange. If anyone else uses the same ideas, I'll have to wonder about telepathy. :)


3. No, I am in fact not comparing my story to "My Last Duchess" except as an example of a one-sided conversation in which you never "hear" the other speaker.

Comments

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

"My Last Duchess" has always made my skin just crawl -- which is a compliment to the writing, just a reaction to the ghastly narrator.

I do have to say, I suspect that Coyote and Death will be the only two to make it to The End. Coyote is always waiting. (Not to pick an argument!)

[kaasirpent]

I had to read "My Last Duchess" no less than three times across high school and college and write papers on it each time. By the third time, I tellya, I was practically reciting the damned thing from memory.

My least favorite paper on "My Last Duchess" was a character study...of the Duchess. At the time, I'd never heard the term "unreliable narrator," or I'd've used the hell out of the phrase. :)