Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Rejection of Reality

I've recently acquired a challenge thing that gives 31 days of writing prompts. The idea is to get yourself in the habit of writing every day. The first prompt is to write about a favorite childhood book. Like, you're supposed to relive your memories of experiencing this story.

This veers dangerously into the realm of reality. I don’t do reality, as a general rule. I'm not really a fan of "write what you know," because what I know is pretty boring. But I accepted the challenge, so here we are.

The question of a favorite childhood book is a tricky one. What are the parameters of childhood? That's potentially a lot of years, and a lot of books. When I initially read the prompt, the story that came to mind was Dr. Seuss' "Too Many Daves" which was actually part of a collection called The Sneetches and Other Stories. The thing about that story is that I barely remember reading it as a child. As an adult, I actually had it memorized for a while. I revisited it this past Christmas, so it was fairly fresh in my mind. So all of today I had bits of it rolling around in my head. And I'd laugh to myself like a weirdo.

But this isn't a very interesting story. Do you see why I don't write reality? It’s not fun or exciting. I want very much to tell you a detailed story about reading a beloved book and getting lost in the story and some wonderful tale of youthful imagination. But I don't remember that. I remember reading a lot of books, but not anything noteworthy about the reading experience.

That's my issue with prompts like this. Anything that's "Tell about an experience you had" is going to end in automatic failure for me. For a supposed writer, I'm a pretty terrible storyteller. But you give me a prompt that's like, "Make up a story where something explodes," and we're golden. I can make up anything. I don’t have any interesting personal experiences to draw from.

So I failed the Day 1 prompt. We'll see if we can do better tomorrow. I looked ahead to the next one, but I've forgotten what it was.

What about you, readers? What was your favorite childhood book, and do you have an interesting story about it?

3 comments:

  1. Why is to many Daves your favorite book not "FUN Exciting"
    Pick one that is. I'm not the boss of you but am a fan and I bet you could make it interesting if you tell me about the story why are there so many daves what do they what is the benefit are their problems with so many daves something must have had remember it even if it was the only book in the house if nothing else tell me why you remember any part of the experience what grabbed your mind out of all of the books in the world that you picked this one. My favorite book as a child is hard the to pick but it is a pick between Dr.Suess's Foot Book and this book is fun to read not because it is interesting but because it rymes and if you have ever read it with a small child it helps them learn left from right as well as it is fun to see the light come on in a childs face when they get something heck it is fun for me to have the light come on when I get something right it does not happen that often ( So I usually have a mini celebration of me consisting of a circle round of applause led and finished by me consisting of only me either way I don't remember this book as much as kid either just that I had it and have been able to have fun experiences with the book since as an adult. The book that is great is where the wild things are and it may be one of the greats books ever written. What is great about this book you say it is a story of young man named Max who dressed up in a wolf costume and gets sent to bed without dinner (which I had to look by the way) but that is not what sticks in my mind What does is that this book is about fantasy and Max turns his bed into a sail boat far and travels far away where he does not have to listen to anybody where their are all of these wild monster looking things but he is the king and they dance play and do whatever they want cause they can their are no parents telling them ton eat dinner or clean up they just party in the end max misses his family and realizes with all his fun he is hungry and luckily he wakes up and it was a dream and if I remember correctly his mom brings him his dinner but we all love a vacation from reality. As I said I had to look up the main characters name "Max" and the author Maurice Sendak
    but the story of the adventure dressing up in a costume and being the boss of your whole world is awesome and every kid thinks they want that rite up until you get the humanly desire to eat or need to cuddle with your mom as a kid or whatever and that's when it sets in maybe I should listen to my parents because I wouldn't be hungry rite now if I would have and I wouldn't miss my mom if I would not have been a pain in the but and spent time with her. So it is a great story about how most kids get caught up in their imagination until the reality sets in that they needed their parents and without them they would not even know how to survive child irony that's the ticket to good writing and Maurice found it and shared it with the world and now I have passed the torch to you. Just kidding but hopefully this helps a little

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  2. sorry wrote fast just read it like a child from a different country wrote it and fill in the you's and I where need to many thoughts to little time thank god for editor's

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  3. I had a book of short stories titled "Fables". My favorite one of all was the tale of The Lobster and The Crab. The fearless lobster took his friend, a very nervous crab, on a sailing voyage which ends with them sinking in a disastrous storm. Extremely distraught at their situation, the crab cries out in terror as they slip beneath the waves, only to have the lobster assuage him by reminding his friend that they are both creatures of the sea.
    The best part was not that my mother would voice the characters, or that I admired the lobster for being fearless. No, it was that the crab was nervous and afraid to go on the journey but did so anyway. And when the worst happened, he realized that they simply had to walk along the ocean bottom like the sea creatures they were.
    Even young, I admired the crab's strength for pushing out into an uncomfortable situation and saw the wisdom in understanding the worst case scenario.

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