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    Shared Creativity: Just For Fun

    By wws on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 12:55pm |

    I hereby challenge the wordsmiths of TPM to practice for the annual "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" competition, sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University that "recognizes (and rewards) the worst examples of  'dark and stormy night' writing".

    About the phrase and the annual contest (from Wikipedia):

    "The phrase 'It was a dark and stormy night,' made famous by comic strip artist Charles M. Schulz, was originally penned by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton as the beginning of his 1830 novel, Paul Clifford.

    The phrase itself is now understood as a signifier of a certain broad style of writing, characterized by a self-serious attempt at dramatic flair, the imitation of formulaic styles, an extravagantly florid style, redundancies, and run-on sentences.

    Bulwer-Lytton's original opening sentence serves as an example:

    'It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

    Enjoy!

    Comments

    Oh for heavens sakes. I thought I had crossed a line. No it makes me feel good.
    I have an Anthro degree besides my JD

    Mythology became my hobby. I received a condensed version of Mallory when I was ten. It was my favorite book. After college I started reading many books on the Arthurian Legend.Ninneus, Gildas, Bede, St. Patrick (who does not directly figure in), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight--anon-, Geoffrey of Monmouth (everybody should read him, trans from latin) Fiction like White's, recaps and historians like Geoffrey Ashe.

    But this is no scholar's work. As a matter of fact I lost almost all my books years ago. And I rarely look up anything. Lancelot and Tristan and the Moor and Arthur and Merlin and Blaise and Gawain...all all part of my consciousness. No notes.

    And I have never attempted to write fiction in my life. Ever.

    So this is just top of my head, anachronistic, fun stuff. I have been brain dead for five years although I have been reading some. Taking stuff I know and then playing on the web and then finding this blog three months ago. All the styles of writing and all the experiences related.

    I could go on for ten pages here and bore the hell out of you. You are a good writer. Sentence structure, vocabulary, beat, cadence, affects...
    See I already learn from you.

    That is enough now. Except I got this idea three weeks ago and then TheraP, Q, Flowerchild, Miguel, Missy, Mark,...they gave me the positive reinforcement I needed to keep playing.


    by dickday (not verified) on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 2:03am

    Only for the blog itself, WW. And DON'T delete that!

    I know. I have about 1,000 comments I'd like to hunt down & kill! ;-)


    by quinn esq (not verified) on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 2:09am

    wwstaebler,
    Redundancies are beautiful things, and pretty. Thanks for letting me play...


    by stratofrog (not verified) on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 4:48am

    It was entertaining whether it made the competition or not.

    Great idea, obviously!

    Thanks for the inspiration.


    by GregorZap (not verified) on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 5:19am

    It was a dark and stormy contest, and as often happens with such events there could be no winner because everyone involved was such a poor loser that they were posting their acceptance speeches before the contest even closed; in fact many of the entrees were looking like steamed vegetables on a plate with a fist-sized piece of meat, which is the current way to stay on a diet and not feel like you are starving every single minute of the day -- but I digress -- where was I -- oh yes: it was a dark and stormy contest, and it was a noble attempt to bring out the best of the TPM bloggers, although unfortunately it only brought out the worst of them; of which there was much, but it was not lethal, and in fact the genius of all of this was that there could be only one winner, and that was the originator of this glorious blog itself:

    wwstaebler! DING DING DING! We have a winner!


    by CVille Dem (not verified) on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 11:36pm

    as often happens with such events there could be no winner because everyone involved was such a poor loser that they were posting their acceptance speeches before the contest even closed...

    hee hee hee heeee

    Thanks for this


    by Bwakfat (not verified) on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 11:41pm

    Thanks for the ding, CVille, but as you know, neither the sponsor nor any of her relatives or dependents may accept any part of any prize under the laws of state of Fair Play, blah, blah, blah.

    But it was more fun than even I expected, and I thought it would be really good (and bad).... and it was. THANKS for playing and for helping to raise (and thereby lower) the tone.

    What else might we play?


    by wwstaebler (not verified) on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 9:55am

    I will leave that to the expert. You. Belle you get three hundred comments. Entrys. Some of the funniest comments I have ever read. This was terrific.

    Come up with something new.


    by dickday (not verified) on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 10:51am

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