thisbluespirit | A Writing Meme, Hallelujah (well, it's been ages!)

A great little inspirational writing meme doing the rounds, courtesy of

curuchamion.

1: Pick five fandoms. List them in alphabetical order.

1. Blake's 7
2. Chalet School
3. Doctor Who
4. Press Gang
5. Spooks

2: Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it's an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and - you guessed it - list 'em in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it's always been about creativity.)

3: I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting - make your brain explode!), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don't have to include it in the half-drabble - it's just inspiration.

4: Bravo! Have a cookie.

Confession 1: I cheated (One of the poems was all one single line and I couldn't, really. And the other one was about mackerel. It was off-putting. I hate fish. And I'd already written the weeds prompt for Spooks in my head and that one started 'which'.)
Confession 2: I seem to be a wee bit morbid. Or possibly twee. Morbid and twee... I think it's the effect of poetry on me. (And, as for 2, it just seemed to ask for Chalet School philosophy, so do bear that in mind).

So, here goes:

1. Blake’s 7: But most of all to give them faith (Robert Service, Decorations)
Why do we fight against such odds?

The point was not each Federation target taken out, but hope at last, and more, to allow the people to believe: there were other ways; the oppression would end, the tyrants would fall. And the word that restored that faith, whispered from colony to colony across the stars was: Blake.

*

2. Chalet School: Nor darkness (Langston Hughes, Walking with the Dawn)
Joey reflects on comforting a school girl in the War.

There were dark hours, Joey knew. She had faced black times herself, but they passed, and through them she found means to comfort others. Nothing evil endured forever: not pain, grief, nor darkness. She believed their Peace League would outlast the war: and, yes, joy would come with the dawn.

*

3. Doctor Who: She dropt as softly as a star (Emily Dickinson, She went as quiet as the dew)
The Doctor holds each single life as dearly as the Daleks never could.

The Doctor had known life, and he had known death; the two went hand in hand. What he did was to remember them, each one he had known and valued and lost: named for each of them a star in his sky. Tonight there was another: he called it Katarina.

*

4. Press Gang: So many things I thought I had forgotten (Philip Larkin, Why Did I Dream of You Last Night?)
It's like he's never been away

“Tom’s article is 500 words short, and that thing on page four is useless. See to it, can’t you?”

Kenny said, “Lynda -.”

“Well? You’ve got years to make up for, Phillips.”

He grinned. He’d thought returning would be strange, but it was like waking up; this the only reality.

*

5. Spooks: Weeds triumphant ranged (I forgot to note the poem, but I think it was Emily Dickinson).
This is it, at last.

Ruth dropped the phone, and looked to her computer, searching for words. This was the shadow they lived with, and they told themselves it would never happen, but one careless mistake and millions died; civilisation on the casualty list. How to say, she wondered, shaking, that today was that day?

*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

primsong.livejournal.com

Ooo, nicely done selection. You did a better job of keeping the mood somewhat consistent over the fandoms than I did, they're strangely cohesive with one another so it's a bit like viewing a well-stitched patchwork quilt.

From:

A Writing Meme, Hallelujah (well, it's been ages!)

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