Author-ized L.J.

#WordWeavers Apr. 6 – Can you create a character/place/storyhook/device on the spot, if you need to? If so, share an example.

Once upon a time when tigers smoked tobacco, there was a frog who lived in a well. The frog swam in the water — so if dinner tonight tasted of frog, dear, now you know why — and always looked up at the same square of sky through the opening, and was well-content with its life.

But over time, the square sky stayed blue and clear more and more days, turning gray and rainy less and less often, while the water of the well shrank down and became a little puddle. The frog's skin and throat were so dry, it couldn't sing like it used to. Fewer and fewer faces darkened the frog's little square sky to draw water with the well's hanging bucket, and the world around the well grew quieter.

"Do I leave?" The frog asked itself. "But how? And I shouldn't, the world outside is too big and scary! Mama Frog always said if I left, I would be snatched by a bird or flattened by passing feet!"

And yet things were getting so dry and hot, the frog was suffering every day. So one day, when the long-quiet bucket on its rope creaked again high above, the frog lying splat against the bone-dry dirt opened one gritty, bleary eye and watched the bucket trundle down...

#ModernFolklore #StoryTime #writing

Apr 6 at 8:08amWeb
Show threadAuthor-ized L.J.Apr 6

But this exercise also shows the nuances of what “creation” can be like, doesn't it? For those who know their Korean/Chinese sayings and classics, the frog in the well is a common metaphor and aphorism (metaphorism?) dating back at least to Zhuangzi for someone who thinks their own small world is everything there is to know. It has been the subject of expansions and retellings, the most famous Korean example of which seems to be Frogs in the Well (2016) by Jeong Ha-seop.

Mine is the beginning of another riff on the subject, but one quite different from Frogs in the Well which is about friendship between two frogs who make different life choices. You can tell there's a climate fable in there as well. (In fact, an article I opened up shortly after that post discussed violent conflicts in Chad as wells run dry...  ) So it's not creatio ex nihilo so much as a remix of known elements. A lot of creation happens this way, and I suspect spontaneous, off-the-cuff creations are likelier to start with derivative elements — and that's not a bad thing, since derivative doesn't necessarily mean repetitive or cliché!