The Drabblecast

(author's note: I know Drabblecast is primarily a fiction site, but I hope the strangeness of this story will allow it to slip through, even though it is all true.)

(author's note: Warning, contains sexual situations. Blame phenopath, that perv, who said it needed more prurience...)

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“Autobiography of a Time Lord”

(yes another author's note: I've taken this down while I continue to work on revisions and additional material. Thank you everyone that has taken the time to read it and provide such constructive input.

If you missed the final version and are interested in reading it and providing feedback, please feel free to PM and I'll send you a copy. )

Thumbs up, with two deductions.
First, "My wife's and my home". You knew when you wrote that that it made you slightly queasy to your stomach, didn't you? You thought about it, and kept it for some reason, maybe the schizo-affective disorder. But that was a mistake. When your body tries to rebel when you tell it to write something, listen to your body.
Second, similarly, only in Shakespearean parody and The Night Before Christmas is the contraction "T'was" appropriate.
Oh, and definitely also if you ever write a Frank McCourt biography. [Figure that out; 'tis worth it.]
I must say, when you free that boy from his 100-word leash, he really can take off.

So, is truth stranger than fiction, or what?

I'm giddy that this raw and undedited first draft only promted two deductions.
As, always, thanks for the advice. That's why God created editotrs.
(You didn't call me on the three "indeeds" which I've already attended to and am about to repost to fix.)
Surprised that I didn't get a green squiggly on "My wife's and my home", but that's an easy enough fix, considering I don't need to worry about f-ing up my word count.
As for "Twas" apparently Arion spent just a bit too much time pounding grog with Billy the Shakes.
I'll threaten him with the wrath of Miss G. and send him to his room without supper.

Going back and re-reading, I'm feeling especially good about the opening paragraph, and I think the whole piece makes for an interesting study of Jungian synchronicity.
Guess I'm on my way in my quest to concoct an epic biography to make Tolstoy seem but a drabbler.
I've always thought about titling that "The Stoning of Steven"

I have to go and read "Angela's Ashes" now to get the full inpact of what your referring to.

In for a treat, ROU

Needs more words

I agree with Strawman that this good stuff. I guess that an autobiographical piece like this is tricky to write, both knowing what you want to put in and what details are required for the flow of the story. You know all the details of your life story, but the reader starts knowing nothing, so in places there are gaps sometimes. For example, should I care about Julie's brother?

Reading this I was less interested in the coincidences and more in your journey, although role-playing was a good framework in which to cast the story. You could add more purient details of your personal crisis for the gratification of your readers.

...

Phenopath wrote:Reading this I was less interested in the coincidences and more in your journey, although role-playing was a good framework in which to cast the story. You could add more purient details of your personal crisis for the gratification of your readers.

Your right, it's better with more information on Julie's boyfriend.

As for the rest, do you feel more gratified with the re-write?

I guess I'm not surprised that the synchronicities are met with a "pfft, been there done that" response" considering the audience of strange readers.

Synchronicity really is like trying to describe color to the blind or an orgasm to a eunuch. If you haven't experienced it, you can't understand it. If you have experienced it, then it needs no explanation.

Boyfriend, sorry about my poor comprehension.

ROU Killing Time wrote:More prurient details eh? Ok, I guess I do have to concede that sex does sell, ya dirty minded perv.

I meant pain, angst and drama. Sex is difficult.

Regarding Synchronicity, from a scientific viewpoint coincidences have little value because they are the outliers, and are not [statistically] significant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littlewood's_law). However I fired up wikipedia which had a nice little article about the Jungian position that meaningful relationships exist between events with no causal relationship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity). The value of the synchronous events therefore lie in their subjective meaning to you. Their value to me is how well you hang your story from them.

Whew, thanks for that clarification.

Just want to add: in a previous post I pointed out that one sign of really good storytelling is cadence and pacing. If you read Angela's Ashes, tune in your ear to this rythmn. It may seem to be a kind of Celtic characteristic, and maybe that's why the Irish are such fine storytellers. It also doesn't hurt that anyone who can tell a good story or sing a good song is going to get his thirst quenched. And a pint of Guiness will flood a story out before it drowns.

I believe Norm will put that to the test next weekend.

Phenopath wrote:

ROU Killing Time wrote:More prurient details eh? Ok, I guess I do have to concede that sex does sell, ya dirty minded perv.

I meant pain, angst and drama. Sex is difficult.

Regarding Synchronicity, from a scientific viewpoint coincidences have little value because they are the outliers, and are not [statistically] significant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littlewood's_law). However I fired up wikipedia which had a nice little article about the Jungian position that meaningful relationships exist between events with no causal relationship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity). The value of the synchronous events therefore lie in their subjective meaning to you. Their value to me is how well you hang your story from them.

I agree that synchronicity is significant and interesting only to the person observing it. With any luck, I've used it, as you say, to hang the story from.

I tried to add in the sex without intentional lewdness or unnecessary graphic detail.

Hopefully the pain, angst, and drama which were so prevalent in the experiences comes through in the narrative. Let me know how well I did in that regard.

strawman wrote:I must say, when you free that boy from his 100-word leash, he really can take off.

That's very kind of you to say Strawman.

Hopefully when I undertake the expansion of "The Odyssey of Lepidoptera" I'll be able to get a good flow in the fiction arena too. It's still brewing in the back of my conciousness, waiting for the reproductive cycle to complete and burst forth like so many star-consuming locusts from the fallow fields of my imagination. Oh Noes, is that the sound of winged moose I hear?

In my drabbling, I never have to worry about adding words, it's always cutting out what doesn't fit in the box, and as is certainly painfully obvious to anyone who reads my posts, I tend to be a wordy bastard.

What's the online equivalent of graphimania? Typomania? (Sounds like an uncontrollable urge to mispell words...)

Phenopath wrote:I meant pain, angst and drama. Sex is difficult.

I've added in an extended section following high school before the fast-forward which documents the aforementioned "first great object of my desire."

For pain, angst and drama, no other time in my life rivals this period.

I hope I have captured that in some small measure in this version.

(Oh, and a note to the mysterious editors who lurk so stealthily behind the forums. I've never intended this posting as a submission, per se, but the readers here have been such an invaluable wall to bounce my work off of and get useful feedback, I hope that you don't mind my use of the short story section for this purpose.

Oh, sure if your interested drop me an email, of course, but I know it's not really "drabblecasty." The whole purpose of it really is more cathartic than anything else.)

Hmmm, spotted an error myself.

I've used "I'll always be grateful" two times

Where are my editors???

O Miss Grimsley, wherefore hath thee abandoned me and left me to lie in this most pitiable state of redundancy?

So:
"I’ll always be grateful that her resolve and misplaced faithfulness in another prevented the loss of that sweet and unrequited desire, for one day I would come to know the tragedy that can occur when one gets what one is after."

is replaced with

"Although I did not feel this way at the time, I am now very glad that her resolve and misplaced faithfulness in another prevented the loss of that sweet and unrequited desire, for one day I would come to know the tragedy and greater heartaches that can occur when one gets what one is after."