Jacob's ladder

Sent this off for the 100 stories for Haiti call (http://www.abctales.com/node/592226). They wanted loads of hope. I'm not sure I 'do' hope, but this is about as far as I could get ...

Beautiful, I really enjoyed. Your story defiantly includes hope and the ending is just perfect.

Beeme xx

Thanks Beeme - that's very kind of you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Rob

Wonderful, wonderful piece, Rob! There's so many brilliant images - especially of the staircase and angels. I really hope you're successful with the Haiti story campaign ;)

Magic xxx

Thanks very much for the encouragement Magic - much appreciated and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I like this little story it's well written and I checked, 200 words exactly.

Expecting heaven or hell 'round each corner it's scary takes courage leave things in God's hands.

Well and maybe the angels have new modes of transport these days I'm sure they're still active.

Cheers ;

Thanks very much Nolan. I do obsessively check the word count on all of mine although not sure if all programs calculate this in the same way (hyphens etc). It's an interesting form that feels good to stick to for the moment and see where it goes.

Yes, sometimes it seems that angels and demons are everywhere - you only have to turn one way or another and one lot are on to you. I'd like to have seen Jacob's stairs as they appear in the bible pictures but I prefer the idea of actually climbing them in relative silence.

Pleased to say that this one got into the 100 Stories for Haiti book. A publication! Wow!

Look I feel we shouldn't take this counting issue to the extreme. It would make the writing a very tricky exercise.

Clearly we cannot count all words as well as all punctuation together as you suggest. It makes no sense.

We could do them separately- like eg to stipulate: Exactly 125 punctuation marks and exactly 200 words. Writing a story would be an incredible feat as you have to count spaces too. Unless of course you abuse the latter.

No we must stick strictly to counting words. But then still, cases like "we've", "isn't" or "howzit" or "etc" how are we going to handle that? We would need to create a science of counting words.

He is very literal. He takes everything to the extreme. I suggest we dispense with the counting of words altogether.

I actually quite like the word count idea - although only really for my own benefit/interest and not thinking about it any more than applying a computer word-count (whatever that chooses to measure).

Self-imposed structure is used all the time in other media - poets decide to write Haikus and sonnets, musicians decide to write fugues etc. So I think there's no harm in it being applied from time to time in prose writing. I only chose the 200-word thing because of something someone (possibly Tony) recommended in a Big Issue ABCtales special (the reason I heard about this wonderful website in the first place). Having recently finished drafting a novel, I just thought it sounded an interesting thing to try but, like all these things, it ends up taking you to unexpected places. I'm keeping going for the moment because it seems the right thing to do but am not trying to hawk it to anyone else.

Dylan Thomas also believed one has to write within a structure. He invented his own structure which works on counting syllables. It’s unique to his work. I think that it must be incredibly hard.

Thomas was also first to use half-rhyme freely. So,

"I, born of flesh and ghost, was neither
A ghost nor man, but mortal ghost.
And I was struck down by death’s feather,
I was a mortal to the last
Long breath that carried to my father
The message of his dying Christ”

(A bit grim.)

Yes, I guess self-invented structure is perhaps even more interesting although I can see why poets reach for more ancient styles to hone their skills with. A friend of mine wrote something rather wonderful in strict adherence to Milton's rules which looked a fairly tricky undertaking.

The half-rhymes are wonderful in your example (I'm not as familiar as I should be with Thomas' work). I am very envious of people who can write poetry and have all these options to play with. The structure options in prose writing seem to be a lot more limited and perhaps there should be more (I don't count genre work because that seems to be more about marketing than actual writing).

A well deserved cherry and not at all held back the by the word limit. Perfect ending sentence, well done. x

Thanks very much SugarHorse - kind of you to say so. Yes, I'm quite fond of this one and it's the only thing I've had published so far ...

"The silence is comforting and ahead of me, up the stairs, is the tiniest twinkling star."

Imagination isn't reality, but it is very real the same. My own anticipations and fears have mellowed a great deal lately.

Keep well! Nolan

Thanks very much Nolan. I'm glad you liked it. Imagination and everything else connected with it is some sort of reality (because it's real as you say). The tricky thing is trying to integrate it with the other elements of reality. Personally I get confused about the start and end points but am content enough with this.

Imagination is real- in the same sense as a film is on TV. I've read your story again I like the,

"I climbed up a little way. I did not mean to go far – just to leave life behind for a while."

It tells how this silence and peace can lure one and pulls you in.
Cheers!

Thanks very much Tom. I sort of agree I think with the reality thing although have my doubts about any discussion of reality as something present or absent. I'm more of a Plato's shadows person. I'm glad the silence drew you in. I'm mostly quite phobic about space but the silence is a saving grace.