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Weekly Wonderings - Week 1

Welcome to #WeeklyWonderingsWritingPrompt! #WritingCommunity

As promised (and long overdue) I’ve decided to revamp my weekly flash fiction writing prompt series. The old format just wasn’t sustainable for me anymore, unfortunately. So, as much as I’ll miss #SwiftFicFriday, it’s time for a new beginning! In true pantser fashion, all the ideas I had for the revamp have more or less lost their shine/I’m just not feeling them anymore. So instead of the three…

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Books are Political.

We, as women, are only able to read and write because the women that came before us (BIPOC women especially) have fought tooth and nail for our rights. Our very existence in intellectual/book spaces is political.

Things have been…rough the past few days. If you either know me IRL or have been around my online presence long enough, it’s not difficult to figure out where I lean on the political spectrum. I know I’m not super active on here, and I intend to change that. So to start, I’d like to talk a little about something I’ve seen swimming around on BookTok and BookTwitter. A lot of women who look like…

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#ThursThreads - FOMO

Prompt: “She’s missing.” Maybe I should be trying to enjoy myself, but I can’t help the uneasy twisting in my gut. The crowd is larger than I anticipated, with revelers dancing to the upbeat music making it difficult to keep track of Celeste and Kieran. My nerves are beyond frayed at this point, and the only thing keeping me from retreating back to the safety of the palace is my sister’s refusal…

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Hello? Testing, one, two...

Can’t believe how long it’s been (almost a year, holy crap!) since the last time I posted anything, but this is me attempting to commit to bringing this blog back to life. First things first, life update… Parenthood has been both exciting and exhausting, and Sophie has fully entered her chaos gremlin era. Despite this, we’ve established a pretty good routine, which leaves me some room to pick…

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Huh. So another W from Macklemore.

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i don't think people understand what it means for israel to not only be categorically continuing its incursion into the south of gaza but to be openly carpet bombing the safe zones it has told gaza residents to flee to while the whole world watches. this is a level of systemic extermination and impunity the likes of which i have never seen before. there have been so many war crimes already committed and so many laws already violated that i genuinely do not know how the world can recover or where it goes from here. israel is killing the so-called rules-based world order. it cannot possibly be louder or clearer than this.

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“how’s the writing going?” i’m glad you asked! my room has never been cleaner and i’ve decided to take up baking

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#ThursThreads - Bad Ideas

Stretching my writing muscles in the hopes of getting back to it. Eventually. #ThursThreads #FlashFiction

Prompt: “Failure will make things more difficult.” It isn’t the first time Celeste comes to me with an idea I’m less than enthusiastic about. Normally I can talk her out of it, but this time she has Kieran and I’m outnumbered. Nolan is suspiciously quiet, and I wonder if he’s ever had to talk his charge out of terrible ideas, or if he blindly follows the other princess’ orders. “The possibility…

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And here come the long articles saying Ted Lasso is declining. I guess I don’t see how people watch, much less critique, the show without rewatching it, or at least watching it in concert with tumblr gifs. Trent’s description of Ted’s coaching style — “thousands of imperceptible moments leading to an inevitable conclusion” — also describes the writers’ storytelling style. No matter how many times I’ve rewatched the show, tumblr fans still have gifs and stills of things that I totally missed.

I read a funny tweet that was so done with tedbecca shippers because we’re like, “a pencil was on Rebecca’s desk and the same pencil was next to Ted…A HA!” It’s funny because it’s true. I can see if a person is like, look, I don’t have time to tumble on tumblr, this show about a game needs to stop being like a game and just say what’s on its mind. Fair enough. A person can critique the “total football” approach to storytelling if they’re not feeling it.

But when they’re like, Colin is randomly gay, for example, I’m like, that’s irritatingly heteronormative but it’s also incorrect. Colin’s extremely brief comment in season one about grindr was a little rainbow flag waving hello. Subtle, maybe imperceptible to some, but present. I'm very proud that I actually caught this one when I watched it the first time! However tumblr made damn sure I never forgot it so three years later I can be like, oh hey fam, Colin has a boyfriend, cool. His reveal didn’t feel random, it felt inevitable. The more obvious truth about Colin in season 1 is that he was a bully. The possible reason why he was bullying Nate is very subtle but it is there. The TL narrative style was able to make the point that no one, including many viewers, noticed what was going on. The narrative lesson is that we don’t pay enough attention to people around us in real life. Ted Lasso asks us to please pay more attention. Gifs help us to slow things down so we can see what’s going on. Maybe we should slow things down. Through both the story and storytelling style, TL (and fans) helps us honor the fact of the imperceptible and suggests ways to bring the world into a little more focus.

Anyway, I do wish critics would take the narrative method seriously before they write think pieces alleging that Ted Lasso has declined. Unless critics see this season as Act 3 of a three-act story built on a subtle but coherent storytelling approach, then I don’t see how, in good faith, they can evaluate if the show has declined, inclined, or reclined. They’re just…watching a different show.

TL;DR: tumblr > twitter

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it’s more than a little disturbing to me how many people loudly proclaim how much they hate or don’t care about Nate and his character journey, while with the same breath proclaiming how much they love Jamie’s. “Oh boo hoo, Nate has daddy issues,” i’ve actually seen adult people actually say. “So does Jamie and look at him!” 

Similarly: “Nate’s gonna be saved by the love of a woman? How boring and cliche!” 

Or: “Nate doesn’t have to be such a jerk. He has Ted as a role model. He should know better!” 

to anyone capable of saying that, you’re absolutely right. You don’t care about Nate or his journey and that couldn’t be more obvious. What’s interesting though is why. 

because here’s the thing about Jamie, and also about Ted. Two things they have in common–a massive ego and a rock-solid sense of self. 

remember Jamie in like the second episode of the whole series? “Coach, I’m me. Why would I want to be anything else?” 

yes, Jamie has a shit dad and he’s had a shit time of it in many ways because of his shit dad. But what Jamie has never had to face is a crisis of identity. He knows who he is and he knows his value. He can take hits and come back from them, he can acknowledge his mistakes and learn from them because at his core he still and always has that knowledge that he’s a superstar. 

then there’s Ted. Anyone who doubts that Ted is a full-fledged egomaniac, ask yourselves how much confidence it takes to preface every single useful thing you have to say with a meandering, folksy anecdote and be absolutely certain that every single person you speak to is going to not only put up with that but actively listen. That’s the kind of confidence that can only come from a particular kind of privilege, and while Ted also has been through tough times and experienced trauma he’s a white man from a place where white men are at the top of every ladder and he has very clearly never doubted who he is or the value he possesses. 

Nate can’t be Jamie and he can’t be Ted. Not just because it’s ridiculous to expect different humans to behave identically in situations that are only vaguely similar, but because Nate’s core problem isn’t that his dad withholds love or that the hostess at a restaurant is snide to him. 

his problem–which incidentally we’ve been shown from the absolute very beginning–is that he doesn’t have any confidence. He doesn’t know who he is, and the who that he thinks he is, is a who he doesn’t especially like. Nate can’t be Jamie because to him every mistake he makes reduces his worth, and he doesn’t have that superstar core to shore him up. Nate can’t be Ted because the entirety of his lifetime experience has assured him that no one wants to listen to anything he has to say. Nate can only be Nate because he is Nate, and the only thing that he or any of us can be is ourselves. 

and yeah, who Nate is isn’t always especially pleasant. He’s shown he can be mean and he can be spiteful. So what? He’s flawed, as all the characters are. As all humans are. Plenty of us have meanness and spite in us, that doesn’t make us irredeemable monsters. Nate’s journey is about realising his value and finally receiving recognition for it. He’s a clever, capable strategist and a talented coach. Now that he’s finally seeing and being seen for that, he’s finding in himself the capacity to recognise and work on his flaws. Which he is doing. It’s not about getting the girl or finding redemption through the love of a woman. It’s about having the confidence to trust that another human is going to see him and like him for who he is. 

Nate isn’t flawed in a sexy asshole way like Jamie or a folksy wholesome way like Ted. He’s flawed in an uncomfortably human way that probably hits too close to home for many people. Jamie and Ted are larger-than-life characters. Nate is one of us. So in a way i guess it’s understandable that people have a harder time forgiving him his trespasses or “caring” about his redemption. 

on the other hand, however, you all might want to ask yourselves why you’re so willing to extend endless grace to the hyperconfident white men while offering the anxious brown one none at all. 

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Life update, and what's next for #SwiftFicFriday

Hello! It’s been a long while since I last posted, and if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know why. I gave birth back in November, just in time for my birthday and three weeks earlier than I was expecting. I am now almost four months into motherhood and I’ve been back at work for a couple of weeks. Although I knew that life would change, I thought I’d still be able to keep up with my hobbies –…

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#ThursThreads - Staged Disaster

#ThursThreads #AmWriting #WritingPrompt https://bit.ly/3D1ivxs

Prompt: “This had to look real.” “This had to look real, otherwise they’d be suspicious.” I wave my arm around the room, at the chaos I’d created. Not my best moment, but I can’t deny it was cathartic. “And that involved breaking lamps? Shredding the curtains?” Nolan’s eyes turn to slivers behind his mask. “Yes.” Using my foot to nudge the remains of a pillow, I gather our things. “I’m not…

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#SwiftFicFriday – Week 144 Winner!

#SwiftFicFriday – Week 144 Winner! Congrats to @billmelaterplea on taking the last win of 2022! #FlashFiction #Writing

Happy Weekend! Bill Engleson (@billmelaterplea) flew the highest on the latest prompt and takes his twenty-third win! You can find him at: http://www.engleson.ca https://www.facebook.com/william.engleson/ Check out his piece below and congratulate him on Twitter: Congrats on your #SwiftFicFriday win @billmelaterplea! Check out his flash piece and show him some love…

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#SwiftFicFriday W144 - Vote!

#SwiftFicFriday W144 - Vote! Check out #FlashFiction by @billmelaterplea @drmag00 @DavidALudwig Mark A Morris @sheriw1965 #Writing

Another prompt, another round of great stories to choose from. Check the stories out below and vote for your favorite! Important Note: This will be the last #SwiftFicFriday for a while. Not sure how long the hiatus will last, but we’ll be back in 2023! Voting will remain open until next week! Countdown To….Lucas Snelgrove woke up one morning with only one thought: life had become a series of…

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#SwiftFicFriday - Week 144 Prompt

#SwiftFicFriday - Week 144 #WritingPrompt #FlashFiction #NaNoWriMo

Welcome to the new and improved flash fiction writing prompt series – #SwiftFicFriday! I’ve changed the rules, so if you didn’t see my tweet, check them out! The gist: You have THREE DAYS (AM Friday-PM Sunday on the east coast) to submit your entry. Include social media links/handles/anything you want to promote (Twitter, FB, etc) & word count in the comment with your submission. Submission…