I haven’t written many ficlets over the past week or two. The weekend before last I was in Houston between Friday and Monday and so I didn’t do a lot of writing at all, and when I got back I felt largely uninspired. It’s taken me another week to get back into the swing of things. I have no idea why. It has, of course, totally thrown my “write a ficlet every day forever” out of whack, but I will be making an effort to do so from now on.
In any case, here’s a new Ficlet Friday.
Twain, Poe and Tesla: Journey to the Center of the Future (sequel to Twain and Poe Have Words with the Inventor by uselessness) - Jan 7th
“Hold tight, everyone!” shouted Poe. “It’s gonna be a bumpy one!”
Hobo Beard Bob wrote a superb ficlet entitled Twain and Poe: Heroes of Space and Time, and from there has spanned this incredibly cheesy scifi yarn with contributions from many people. I’ve only made a couple of contributions - a later entry will appear further down this list - but I fear that I don’t know enough about what is currently going on with the story to successfully continue the yarn. It’s great stuff, though.
b:\lief\ - Jan 7th
Unit 42A crossed his extremities and lowered his Upper Feature Expressors into an angry frown. “I can’t believe you still cling to this absurd notion that we were made by some kind of benevolent creator…”
There’s a sort of marvelous irony about the notion of robots debating their origins and whether or not there is a “Creator” - a sort of robot God. I’d love to flesh this idea out a bit.
Unexpected Visitors - Jan 8th
He hadn’t struggled at all. He wished he’d put up more of a fight, that he’d tried to save himself, but he was hardly the strongest person in the world.
This story actually started out completely differently, although it kept the same core idea. Originally a ficlet about the thoughts racing through a man’s mind as he finds himself tied and gagged in someone’s car boot, I decided to move it into the character’s own home. The idea that his home, his personal space, has been violated in this manner just seemed much more powerful an image to me.
This has nothing to do with Robin Williams - Jan 8th
“The thing I don’t like about Bicentennial Man…”
It’s funny, really - I started writing this ficlet to express my displeasure about the end of that film by having two characters debate it. By the time I had finished writing I had completely changed my own mind.
Twain and Tesla: Funeral for a Friend (a sequel to Twain and Tesla’s Excellent Adventure by uselessness) - Jan 9th
On the barren landscape of the planet I’ll Give It A Proper Name Later…
…and I’d better not include anything more there to avoid giving away the story for those of you who haven’t read it properly.
Origin of Species: A Prologue (a prequel to b:\lief\) - Jan 9th
It happened so long ago now that it’s not even history anymore.
After I wrote b:\lief\ I found myself wondering: Who are these robots? Where did they come from? I decided to write a brief ficlet to cover this. I have since written a much longer version of this ficlet which tells the same basic story but adds much more detail, depth and (hopefully) humour. I may share it here at some point.
World 1-3 - Jan 16th
“Y’know, if you hold down the B button you’ll run faster.”
This stems from a piece of advice I appear to have to give my sister every time we play a Super Mario game of some sort.
The End - Jan 22nd
He slouched back into his chair. Several minutes passed before he said, “Well?”
A semi-autobiographical account of the last few minutes of my relationship with Amy. A lot of the things I say in this ficlet are things that ultimately I didn’t say at the time, but they’re certainly how I felt.
A Friend for Dinner - Jan 22nd
No preview for this one - I don’t want to ruin the tone of the ficlet. It’s funny, though. Honest!
An Unexpected Visitor - Jan 22nd
The green light shone through his car window as he tried vainly to restart the car.
Aliens descend to the Earth to spread their message.
Dollar Value - Jan 22nd
looked down at the document in my hand. Stocks and shares, worth… well, a lot of money.
I really wish I hadn’t written this one now. It’s far too “bloggy” for a ficlet. I’m not saying it;s 100% accurate, though - I earn more than $18 an hour.
Mundane Moments Made Magnificent - A Challenge - Jan 23rd
Well bugger me. I just noticed I’ve written more than 52 ficlets. This calls for a celebration of sorts – a challenge, perhaps?
Don’t Panic - Jan 24th
I walked in to find him reading a leather-bound book with gold leafed pages.
This is actually a variation of an idea I had very nearly a month ago, and I’d decided that if David and Michelle ever asked me to write an episode of ./shutdown I’d probably use it there.
Update: And another one…
Special Delivery - Jan 24th
He had walked across barren deserts, across endless plains of flat, lifeless land.
The idea popped into my head on my way back from lunch today, and I had to write it down.
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