A few years ago, eon-like, a series of phone messages came in. The content followed a progression of declining health, hospitalization, unto death and funeral services. The messages were misaddressed, not about my kin, some stranger's mother to an estranged son about grandma.
The series wasn't per se transformative for me, only how sad it was that the messages were misdelivered, despite my attempts to notify the caller she dialed a wrong number. Failure on that front.
The occasion is anecdotal; that is, event emphasis, a start, middle, and end, as it were. Not much contest, therefore, not a drama to speak of. Sort of a slice-of-life vignette, setting situation, in that the situations are miscommunication in an electronic age. The very technology intended to further effective communication caused communication failure. The messages also portrayed a few characters, the caller and whom the messages were about, so a sketch of sorts too. But not a drama.
The sequence gave me an inspiration to work with, not much in and of itself, probably for a micro fiction, though not how to transform the segment into a genuine drama. Fantastic fiction parameters add another complexity degree. Science fiction? Fantasy? Supernatural horror? Miscommunication that no less transforms the unintended recipient through a fantastical means?
What? Fantastical technology, bugs in the machine al la Asimov's I Robot? Temporal displacement per H.G. Wells' time travel? Ansible or such communication scatter, Ursula K. Le Guin Rocannon's World, 1966? Fantasy and horror as well through an infinite number of possibilities.
The crux, though, is the recipient be the agonist, the contestant, the most complicated persona and transformed by the action. The first miscommunication must problematize the recipient in some meaningful way and arose a congruent want antagonism contest.
What, though, and personal and related to miscommunication complications? And a tangible, concrete, material contest as well? Maybe some sort of warning all is not well, like a recurrent nightmare you can't get anything done, the implications thereof the cosmos intends you get unstuck from the quagmire of insecurity and get on with it.
Put all together, what, the errant messages compel a self-discovery and decision, more transformative though, like a proactive movement from static to dynamic movement, say realizes that the self belongs to a greater and mysterious allness that wants a contribution from the self for the allness's sake, plus, of course, the self's well-being.
That's much to shoehorn into thirteen lines or so. Doable. The motifs, method, and message predetermine what, who, where, when, why, and how. A deviation from the technology, the message content, and the focal contest persona carry the freight. Method, mostly twitter-like patter, and some contextural wrappering, could serve the needs.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
This is something that could be done differently by every person who approaches the idea, and even by the same person choosing to take several different approaches to the idea.
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
Nearly infinite possibilities for the basis. That's usually my writing dilemma -- too many possibilities to easily narrow focus. Specificity that transcends itself and becomes larger than life, maybe broad appeal, is a strategy for that satisfaction and narrows the possibility set somewhat. On top of which, I would require drama's antagonal contest rather than anecdote, vignette, or sketch's tensional emphases.