SubscribeI’ve got a fun one. I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a Thursday writerly thought because I’ve done so well at posting each day this week and didn’t want to fail right towards the end. The idea of the writerly thoughts is just to pose an idea rather than go into a lengthy discussion (so someone tell my why these still come out so long) but there were no thoughts to be had. Then my wife and I went and visited our favorite Chiropractor, Dr. Brown. While we were not having our bones cracked (Dr. Brown does gentle chiropractics) the good doctor told us about how he was going to a 70’s themed dress up party in a couple of weeks. Melody mentioned how much fun dress up parties are and that got me to thinking. This all led to a creative accident as I referred back to something one of my writing group partners has mentioned about the Renaissance Faire and how much more fun people have when they can hide behind a mask even if it is just an outfit.
Here was my thought: we’re staging a masquerade of some sort, you decide what kind whether it be All Hollow’s Eve, a themed 70’s party, or a Faire of some sort. The character of the piece you are working on is invited. What do they go as? More importantly, how do they act?
This is meant as a window into your Pro’s inner thinking. You see, we all try to project who we are to the outside world, that socially acceptable version of ourselves, but we can’t help but let a little bit of what we really want to be shine through during those moments of play. The same holds true for our very real characters. What inner truth hidden from everyone else would be revealed in a setting like this? Makes you think, doesn’t it?
I’d love to hear what people come up with for this. Again, I just made this up today. If it is a part of some writing book somewhere I was not aware of it. This reminds me, if this concept is a part of a book somewhere, let me know, because obviously that is one smart cat and I need to be reading that book. :) So, post your party theme, costume, and character’s liberation in the comments, or post the name of the book I need to be reading.
And a great big thank you to all of you who have suggested the blog to others. You can pay a writer no better compliment than recommending their work, no matter what form it comes in.
4 comments:
Ooh, ooh! I wanna play!
Charlie Shepard would most likely dress himself as a Gentleman from around 1550, at a Faire. Something like this perhaps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moroni_Don_Gabriel_de_la_Cueva.jpg
He would play the part of a Machiavellian, deceiving and manipulating anyone that could serve as some sort of personal gain.
Meanwhile, he would romanticise his character, believing himself a tragic hero, in order to make the ladies swoon.
I'm using this for weekend prompt writing, David00great idea!
Alright, so I thought that I should share as well. Here I am asking everyone else to participate and then I don’t. Bad form, bad form.
Let’s take Silas from Spark. My first thought was that Silas would like to go to a Holloween party and dress up like a vampire. But then I really got to thinking about it, and the truth is, that’s what I like to do. Silas on the other hand, though he is somewhat similar to his creator, has issues that I don’t deal with. A vampire would be far too close to allowing his natural instinct to take over and run amuck. He would not be willing to risk that.
I see Silas at a masquerade ball, where rules of dress are strictly confined and where the party goers go out of their way to act even more refined than is typical. In normal society, if a person acts too rigid, they get labeled as stuffy, antisocial, and folks start to wonder if you’re going to start mailing of suspicious packages to people from your cabin in the woods filled with cryptic journals.
Silas would be even more closed off than usual, emotionless, like a count who is far too good for company surrounding him although he wouldn’t think this. Inside he’s thinking that he’s worse than everyone around him, that he’s darker and capable of great evils. The appearance of his being smug stems from his fear of losing control and inflicting harm on others.
By the way, well done damihjva, thanks for the reference. He sounds a bit more malicious than you originally portrayed him.
And Mer, you'll be posting your dress up here, won't you? Hmmmmmmmm?
Post a Comment