I have an idea for a blog post – but I’m not going to tell you what it is. I had this idea sometime ago. I never got as far as putting fingers to keyboard because I decided it was a bad idea.
I’m not going to even give you a hint. I have a degree of anonymity here but only a degree. As a writer we can use real life experiences to inform our fiction. Of course you don’t want to annoy a friend or alienate a member of the family by basing a character on them.
Let’s say you’re using your sister as a base for a character. She might be able to see that the evil overlord with his five mile long magnifying glass – which will blow up buildings – is actually based on her killing ants in the garden.
This is a safe example for me as I don’t have a sister.
Actually the idea I was going to write wasn’t fictional. It was based on something funny that happened. What I wanted to say was also complimentary. At least I thought it was.
Compliments, and insults for that matter, can be tricky. I once read a book review that was negative because the book was too much like Star Trek. For me that’s all the more reason to read it.
Now for a awkwardly segue. What do you do if a friend shows you a drawing and asks for your opinion. You look at it and you’ve not sure what it is. You think it might be an elephant. Do you say ‘Nice elephant’? They might say ‘Its an aeroplane.’ If you say ‘What is it?’ – then it might cause offense.
The last thing I want is to case offense. I feel the internet gives us this opportunity. We can write something in the comment box, for instance, and while reading it over we can deiced that saying that might not be the best thing. Some people don’t seem able to do this.
Maybe we should have intelligent error messages
*** You are 27 are you sure you want people to know you’ve been looking at My Little Pony. ***
It was for a story damn it!
So I will leave the funny story. At least until I can figure out how to make enough changes so its completely unrecognisable as the original story.
Hell it probably wasn’t that funny anyway.
_____
You
How did that elephant thing fit with the rest of the post?
Me
Look over there. What in the world can that be?
You
(Turns around)
What where? I don’t see anything.
**Scampering feet, scream, splosh**
Unstable Orbit 