Let's post some drabbles
Dec. 10th, 2007 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragojustineOnly 12 more days till I go home for Christmas!
Successful days of writing: 13
So, I got completely and utterly stuck on myspn_holidays story. I need to go back to it soon, but I had to do something else, so I wandered about hunting for some kind of appealing prompy-thing, and I ended up at drabbles100 . I'm not gonna actually claim a table there or anything, because that feels very silly and performative to me and anyway it's not like I'm committing to finish anything (God no) but I liked their prompts and wrote a bunch.
Fight the Good Fight
Rating: PG-13
John drabble table
I'm rather pleased, for a first experiment with the form. Question: Why is it easier to write five drabbles of a precise word count (that I'm rather pleased with) than, say, 300 words of a rough draft of my actual fic (that I'm not pleased with at all)?
Successful days of writing: 13
So, I got completely and utterly stuck on my
spn_holidays story. I need to go back to it soon, but I had to do something else, so I wandered about hunting for some kind of appealing prompy-thing, and I ended up at drabbles100 . I'm not gonna actually claim a table there or anything, because that feels very silly and performative to me and anyway it's not like I'm committing to finish anything (God no) but I liked their prompts and wrote a bunch. Fight the Good Fight
Rating: PG-13
John drabble table
1- Beginnings
In the early days, as he hunched over crappy kitchen tables in pre-furnished apartments trying to pour silver into bullet molds and watch a toddler at the same time, or feed two growing boys on poker winnings and under-the-table mechanic jobs, he would think back to the beginning.
He used to think it all started with the woman he loved in flames; a random act of darkness that threw his orderly family out of its orbit.
Now he knows that it started long before that. His fate was sealed the moment he first locked eyes with her.
In the early days, as he hunched over crappy kitchen tables in pre-furnished apartments trying to pour silver into bullet molds and watch a toddler at the same time, or feed two growing boys on poker winnings and under-the-table mechanic jobs, he would think back to the beginning.
He used to think it all started with the woman he loved in flames; a random act of darkness that threw his orderly family out of its orbit.
Now he knows that it started long before that. His fate was sealed the moment he first locked eyes with her.
2- Middles
When Sammy was in elementary school, the worst thing he could imagine was moving mid-term. "But it's the middle of school!" John's heart would break as he packed.
When Dean was in middle school, he could hit the dead center of a target like John hadn't learned to do till he was 22. He was so proud of that he wanted to take Dean to every buddy he had- "See this man I'm shaping, how strong and talented he'll be." It didn't occur to him that Dean might feel valued only for that neat cluster over the bullseye.
When Sammy was in elementary school, the worst thing he could imagine was moving mid-term. "But it's the middle of school!" John's heart would break as he packed.
When Dean was in middle school, he could hit the dead center of a target like John hadn't learned to do till he was 22. He was so proud of that he wanted to take Dean to every buddy he had- "See this man I'm shaping, how strong and talented he'll be." It didn't occur to him that Dean might feel valued only for that neat cluster over the bullseye.
3- Ends
When he was 18, John thought the end would come messily and suddenly and from below. Land mine. He had sworn to serve his country.
When he was 33, he thought the end just might come from grief, from that feeling of being lost and without an anchor. But he couldn't let that happen, because who would take care of his boys?
When he was 56, John laid down a gun and accepted the end.
The real end would come when a gate opened and allowed him to save his son one last time. But he didn't know that then.
When he was 18, John thought the end would come messily and suddenly and from below. Land mine. He had sworn to serve his country.
When he was 33, he thought the end just might come from grief, from that feeling of being lost and without an anchor. But he couldn't let that happen, because who would take care of his boys?
When he was 56, John laid down a gun and accepted the end.
The real end would come when a gate opened and allowed him to save his son one last time. But he didn't know that then.
4- First
The first time John killed, it was a small man who looked for a moment like he was throwing a grenade. John wonders sometimes what his name was.
The first time Dean kills, it's a chupacabra standing over a dead Golden Retriever in Oklahoma. He's six years younger than John was. They make an anonymous call to the dog's owner. Dean refuses to talk, but when John has the woman on the phone, Dean says, "tell her we're sorry we didn't come faster," and John can't remember hearing him so close to crying.
John thinks about the differences between wars.
The first time John killed, it was a small man who looked for a moment like he was throwing a grenade. John wonders sometimes what his name was.
The first time Dean kills, it's a chupacabra standing over a dead Golden Retriever in Oklahoma. He's six years younger than John was. They make an anonymous call to the dog's owner. Dean refuses to talk, but when John has the woman on the phone, Dean says, "tell her we're sorry we didn't come faster," and John can't remember hearing him so close to crying.
John thinks about the differences between wars.
5- Last
The last thing John said to Mary was "Naw, I'll just finish the movie." Missouri tells him he's an idiot- "You think she didn't know what you wish you'd said?"
The last thing John said to Sam was "Fine!" which is idiotic and adolescent and probably should have been Sam's line. But that's okay, because he has another chance. He does his best, the second time they part.
The last thing to Dean is the hardest. He knows Dean will hear "You might have to kill him" so much louder than "I'm proud of you." He made Dean that way.
The last thing John said to Mary was "Naw, I'll just finish the movie." Missouri tells him he's an idiot- "You think she didn't know what you wish you'd said?"
The last thing John said to Sam was "Fine!" which is idiotic and adolescent and probably should have been Sam's line. But that's okay, because he has another chance. He does his best, the second time they part.
The last thing to Dean is the hardest. He knows Dean will hear "You might have to kill him" so much louder than "I'm proud of you." He made Dean that way.
I'm rather pleased, for a first experiment with the form. Question: Why is it easier to write five drabbles of a precise word count (that I'm rather pleased with) than, say, 300 words of a rough draft of my actual fic (that I'm not pleased with at all)?
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-17 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-11 07:01 am (UTC)Thank you...
*Saves*
I always have that problem with fic myself, lol!!
*hugs you*