Thursday, October 05, 2006

Thoughts on writing an old story

I have been working on the story for the CP contest, which would be due in about 2 and a half weeks. It’s weird, because I have chosen to work on an old story that I never finished but I really like. It is so hard to retain the voice of something that isn’t really representative of how I write now. It was me, but the me who lived in a different house, on a different computer, minus a few years of experiences.
The opening part is a parody of the Shirley Jackson story “The Lottery,” which I make several nods to in the text, and the story is simply about a bunch of guys who feel in their own silly and sexist way that the only way they can get their female boss to calm down is to take her home and …“do” her, hence the title “Who’s Gonna Do the Boss?” And therein lies the problem: how do I write a story that goofs on silly male, sexist thinking without sounding silly, male, and sexist? I know I get very, very close to the line sometimes, but I really never mean to attack anyone--I goof because I love. And this story, much like “(Karl) Love Story,” could be construed the wrong way (I’ll let you guess which parts--I’m officially done trying to explain where my ideas come from or what joke people should get when I’m writing.)
I’m not dead set on winning the contest--that would be a wild pipe dream--but I would like to finish this story by the due date regardless. These are just some of the thoughts I have been having as I’ve worked on this personal favorite, but flawed story of mine.

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