Dec 07
Why she wants to rule the world…
I have had the very worst of days but this is a piece I wrote a few days ago for a meme I think I’ll be participating in every now and then.
You can click on the link above to find out more about it but the basic principle is to write for at least 5 minutes and do no editing. (So I have not edited it.)
It is a good way, I think, to open up my writing, similar to what I did with my 30 Poems Clearing House post. But it’s prose instead, which is my greatest love. And when I say that, I’m not just talking about types of writing. It’s my greatest love in life, animal, mineral or vegetable. With the one exception of Caspar. When it comes to choosing between fiction and people, fiction comes first, not because I don’t love reality. It’s just that reality only makes sense through fiction.
It’s also a way for me to add a little prose fiction here: With the exception of that small extract from An Eloquent Sleep, I haven’t yet done so because the pieces I would like to show are too large for a blog.
The last reason why I think this is a good semi-regular meme for me, is that it is very easy to get entirely sick of yourself when you’re writing a personal blog. I get exhausted squaring off with this depression. So this is my chance to switch persona, to write from the 3rd person. And that can tell me as much about what is going on in my head as my dreams, or my reason can.
So without any further ado…
This Week’s Theme: Your evil villain wants to rule the world. Write about her (or his) reasons.
She wants to see the intricacies of people moving like ants in and out of each other’s lives. She wants to twitch delicately at their puppet strings, avoiding collisions and bruises. She wants to say no. She wants to say stop.
Sometimes she wants to crash people together, odd people, just to make them wake up, to startle them into change and growth. She wants to confuse everyone with shoes, to make them see differently. She wants to overhear conversations, especially the silent ones people have in the heads. She wants to make everything alright. She wants to tear everything down.
She wants to rapidly cycle through seasons of contentment and destruction according to her mood. She wants her anger to achieve something. She wants to send waves of electricity through her puppet strings and shock people. She wants to be lightning.
And spring rain.
She wants everyone to feel electric when the heavens open up and the floods come, and the plagues. She wants everyone to move in spirals.
She wants them to recognise their idiocy, the way their lives move in that petty pace from day to day. She wants to shake the globe, thunderously, violently, and let them all fall where they may. She wants to tear everyone to shreds, get at the truth of them. She wants to make the world explode.
She has little hope of her puppets. She will push them with a cattle prod until they burn or die.
She wants them to burn while she dances to the rhythm of the music of the Tower of Babel. She wants to turn the volume up and make them sing while she drinks tea with Ereshkigal.
NB: The out-of-my-niche guest post I wrote is now up. Drop by Life in the Country and have a read, especially you old Myrtleford friends. It’s a happy one.
December 8th, 2007 at 2:35 am
These desires are exactly why I write. But sometimes even as an author I don’t have the power to do these things. Some characters refuse to be told what to do. I wonder if God feels the same way about us?
December 9th, 2007 at 2:23 am
I think probably yes. I like the palpable frustration in this piece, of someone so powerful but who can’t (or won’t?) act on their whims.
December 9th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Terrific! Submit it somewhere as a prose-poem! Who needs editing when, white-hot, you can write like that?
December 9th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Hmm, seems like that frustration isn’t uncommon!
Welcome, Square1 and Paul! And thank you, as always, Rosemary.