PF3

One of the best things about being part of the Polite Fictions team is that I am presently writing more fiction with the thought of public consumption actively at the forefront of my mind. I’ve long had character upon character piled into notebooks throughout the house (AND in the car), peeking out and suggesting activities for themselves, but I haven’t decided who I want to place into public view as yet. I may never make that decision, for all I know.

I do like writing fiction a great deal, because it allows me the opportunity to try on different voices and to work out different points of view. I get to play a part, much as an actor would, but without the hassle of things like getting out of my yoga pants or continuing after the creative impetus has peaked. For instance, in our last PF round we each approached the topic of the Afterlife. As I neared my turn at bat I began to wonder what it would be like to lose faith at a very formative age (from a spiritual standpoint rather than a chronological one, that is), to grow disillusioned and frustrated with God at a time in one’s life where belief becomes an all-or-none proposition.

So for the span of a handful of paragraphs I was Lucia, believing with everything I had that God would never fail or deny me because of my faithfulness and affections for Him. And I was Lucia whose service held a somewhat selfish motive (“Look at me, I am the Truth-Bringer!”) and also Lucia who didn’t have the kind of faith to sustain her and found this out at age eleven rather than age thirty-one, when it is a different (and less jarring?) sort of revelation altogether.

I love that the theme of Polite Fictions 3.0 is ‘The Alphabet of Regret‘. It’s a genius idea. And, if you’re a writer charged with that as your assignment, it’s a somewhat scary one. I put my post, based on the letter D, up in the wee hours this morning. Sure, it’d make me happy if you’d go read and give me a thumbs up or thumbs down, but more than that I wish you’d start at the beginning. My friend TwoBusy set the bar extremely high with his gorgeous deconstruction of the letter A; three to four writers will be adding entries each week until we’ve made it through to ‘Z’.

Every entry may not strike something in you. Some may even bore or disappoint you. But I can guarantee you’re going to find some gold over on that site. I can’t tell you how many times those guys have amazed me with their words, and they do so with a great level of consistency.

Do I still have your attention? Now seems like the time to tell you that I’ll be killing off [Abuantg.] before too long. I’ve got something else in the works and when it’s finished this place will be vapor. I’ll still have the deca domain until October, though, so if one of you has need of it let me know and it’s yours. Cheers. I’ve been having fun in this space for a long damn time.