Thoughts on Reluctant Narration Prompt

Now, let's talk about what we learned doing this. For most people this is hard to do, so if it pissed you off don't worry. In some styles of writing the amount of times the writer says “I” directly correlates to their competence. If this isn't for you then it isn't for you. I do this, right now, exclusively, and that is part of why this project is happening.

The main problem with this I see is that your character is instantly relegated to the role of follower. He is always going to be the second banana to a more interesting character (like Tyler Durden from “Fight Club”) not to say that this result is not without merit, but it gets worse. Instead of toadying to charismatic like Durden, your narrator's role in the story could potentially become the worthless and incompetent camera man from any horrible first person movie you can think of. The worst I can think of is “Cloverfield”. Don't write that. No one wants to read that shit.

Of course, if you do this well, your character can cruise through every scene and say “me, me, me, you fucker!” and be in every scene like Daniel Day Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” and do it without a blazing neon sign pointing at him, and establishing his authority at the beginning of ever paragraph or sentence.

A great book that makes this point is Dermaphoria by Craig Clevenger.

3 A.M. Epiphany

So, I gave this new endeavor some additional thought, and decided that random ranting is fun, but it isn't going to serve my purposes very well. They for sure will not do it alone. Doing it alone is boring anyway.

Since writer's block and my distinct lack of motivation is what brings us here for the first part of this very not thought through idea, I am going to start where the English major in me would have you start as a writer.

Prompts.

I have chosen The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kitely. It can be purchased at this link, if you want to do this with me. http://www.amazon.com/3-AM-Epiphany-Brian-Kiteley/dp/1582973512/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249769788&sr=8-1

The activities in this book start out easy, and anyone should be able to get going with them, and feel accomplishment by doing them, and yet they aren't bull shit either. No describing numb feelings or explaining your favorite color to blind people who happen to be sadists.

Starting today, it's my goal to do one of these a day, and at least talk about how it works or doesn't. No opinion yet on whether or not the finished prompts should be posted here. I will take comments on that one.

We'll see how long it takes to get my own writing coming out, working this way, I mean. Decisions will be made at that point how this project will unfold, but it will continue.