I said to the Christmas Dragon, “My other friends aren’t like you.”
“Because, I am unique. Having another friend like me would not be possible.”
“You told me dragons are perfect. If so, all dragons must be identical. Yet, you claim you are unique. That means dragons are not all identical. If dragons are not all identical, there must be some dragons more perfect than the others. In fact, there must be one dragon who is perfect while all other dragons are not. That one perfect dragon must be you.”
After a moment, he said, “I agree with your assessment.”
###
Audio Version of Perfect Dragon
I have a tradition of writing a 100-word Christmas story for the Advent Ghosts Flash Fiction Challenge run by Loren Eaton of the I Saw Lightning Fall blog.
When I design a story, I plan by mind mapping and outlining my ideas. From that starting point, I begin navigating the story writing the details. When I discover new things about the story, I make adjustments to the plan and outline. For my current project, the planning between the 50% to 75% marks was rather thin. I had even worried I didn’t have enough ideas to carry that part of the story. That’s no longer a problem.
I’ve been flooded with ideas, so many ideas I didn’t know what to do with them. After creating pages of notes, I decided to write the scenes that are screaming at me, and then figure out which ones go where to control the pacing, push the plot forward, and to tell the story I want to tell. It’s an exciting development.
“It’s time for sleep. Go walk circles.”
The baby dragon tilted his head and said, “Why walk circles?”
“You always walk circles, and do little marching steps, before you lie down for the night.”
“I do not.”
He snorted, went to the sleeping place, walked half a circle, stopped, stared at Hope, and plopped down. He wiggled. He squirmed. He fidgeted. Then he stood, walked two circles, made little marching steps, lay down facing away from Hope, and snorted again.
In my current project, I had planned a Midpoint where everything changes when the protagonist moves from being reactive and to being proactive. I’ve had several ideas for that moment, the first of which had been the baby dragon asking Hope to teach him how to read, which made Hope realize he wasn’t an animal, or a pet. He was as much a person as she was. After that, I bounced around a few times with other Midpoint ideas.
As an orphan child in a dystopian society, Hope’s survival is a daily struggle. She suffers anxiety, depression, and loneliness. She assumes she will always exist in daily despair. Every evening she cries. Furthermore, she dislikes change preferring her days to be predictable. After working so hard to learn what she needed to know to survive, and having built a decent existence for herself and the baby dragon, she didn’t want change to cause her to end up with less than what she had.
However, change in enviable. Two changes Hope faced were: She was growing and was no longer able to hide in the shadows, and the baby dragon she cared for was growing and would soon no longer fit in the lair where they hide. Their lives had to change, and Hope had to face that change.
Then, something happened that I had not planned. After Hope successfully moves the baby dragon to a new hiding place, the following words appeared on the page.
Yes, this change had been a good change, the right change. She embraced the change. For the first time in many nights, Hope didn’t cry. Hope smiled.
Oh my! Hope had changed in a way I had not anticipated. Hope no longer cries. She was truly becoming a new person beyond what I had planned. This magic writing moment brought me to tears, and it perfectly sets up the second half of the story.
Stray Cat Friend died today. I’m heartbroken. He was a good friend. He was the best cat friend I ever had.
He came into my life in August 2013, drawn to the patio outside my home office window by birds visiting my bird feeders. At the same time, a lost cat poster showed up in the neighborhood with a picture of a similar cat. The people came and said he was not their missing cat. After that, he simply stayed.
He loved people and would sit on anyone. However, when I came into the room, he would walk across everyone to sit on my lap. He made me feel loved and appreciated in a way no one ever has.
I never knew the story of where he came from or how he had become a stray cat. But, he was neutered and well socialized, so he must have belonged to someone. I wondered if he had simply been abandoned.
He seemed grateful I was willing to be his friend. I was grateful he was willing to be my friend. He inspired me and that inspiration is in the stories I write. He gave me love and friendship and made my life better.
I didn’t choose him like one would a cat in pet store. He was a free and independent stray cat who could have moved on anytime he wanted. I was blessed that he chose to stay with me, that he chose to love me.
As I struggle with the world and my health, I seek moments of joy. Writing often provides that joy.
The last line of this scene was unplanned, spontaneous, and felt like a strike of lightning. I structure and plan extensively, but as I write the details, I discovery write. That’s when these lightning strike moments happen. I crave those moments of joy.
A fluffle of bramble bunnies poured into the cave. At first they wondered around randomly, but then gathered in a hollow in the cave wall just past the foyer. The mass of bodies roiled as they settled. When comfortable, they began nodding off.
August was a bad month. I had a medical procedure that slowed me down and soured my mood, but I still worked on my story. This story means a lot to me. I want to finish it.
As I worked, I found I needed to add earlier in the story references to foreshadow dragon traits and instincts. Also, when I wrote the lines shown below, I realized I need to reimagine, and rewrite, the world’s flora and fauna to account for monsoon cycles. Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive series is a good example of such worldbuilding.
I’m charging onward.
When Hope came to the forest, she saw something new: the animals were also doing everyone run around in a panic making their own preparations for Monsoon. It had never occurred to her that the animals were attuned to Monsoon cycles.
As I wrote, I discovered Hope needed to learn to draw. To support that, I tucked a few statements and paragraphs into key locations to show her being taught.
I plan extensively for most of my stories using mind-maps and outlines. Nevertheless, that planning doesn’t cover everything. The details are discovered as I write. That spontaneity and creativity often produces my favorite scenes. My plan’s structural foundation keeps the story on track as discoveries are made. If a discovery requires updating the plan, the plan is updated.
Little discoveries are a lot of fun. They add to the pleasure writing gives me. I hope they add to the pleasure readers feel when they read the story.
When Hope finished her sketch, Mister Emery said, “That’s good. What is the creature?”
“It’s a dragon … like what’s in story books.”
“It looks like a real creature. I like how the wings are spread in a horaltic pose.”
“Baby doesn’t always do that. Normally, he keeps them closed, folded tight to his body, but that doesn’t look dramatic.”
I’m still dealing with health issues, but I am making progress on this story. Each paragraph feels like a victory, each chapter a triumph.
Events are leading toward a triggering incident as change forces the main character to adapt her survival methods to meet her new circumstances. She needs new skills, new knowledge, and a new attitude.
Working through my mind maps, outlines, and notes has been challenging. I know what needs to happen, but I’m having to discover-write how it all fits together.
I am pleased with the results, so far.
In her sparring session, Hope showed her blocking, deflecting, and striking skill were rapidly improving, and she drubbed Mister Emery more than once, each time eliciting a “Good job, Mommy” from the baby dragon.
Although my health issues have yet to be resolved, I am back to make progress on the story, be it slow.
The current chapter is a pleasant moment in the story that brings a change in how the man character copes. But, hardship and turmoil is coming. The main character will be faced with persisting despite adversity, just like I am.
She had done it. She had moved Baby to a new hiding place, a place where he could stay hidden, stay secret, stay safe.
I was making progress on my story this month until a health issue cropped up. Now I’m broken. Until I get this resolved, I fear I won’t be very productive. I have pain and brain fog. Thinking is difficult.
I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon, which I was aware of before, but had never really thought about. There is a sense of tunnel vision that enveloped me. I feel like the world has narrowed into a small space of suffering with the outside world dimmed away.
I hope to be through this soon so I can get back to work. The last word I added the story before this happened was “soap.”
