Write on Wednesday- The Pact

When the prompt came up, and had to do with a book, I had a hard time choosing a "favourite book" so I scanned my shelves- then I thought about the cause I've been going for all week- RUOK Day- suicide prevention.

The title of this week's "Write on Wednesday" is "The Mighty Mighty Rewrite" and the premise is to take the first sentence of your favourite (ha, favourite??) book, and take the first paragraph, rewriting into it our own content but keeping the overall style of the paragraph. Um, ok...very challenging Gill. I think they are trying to make it all the more challenging each week!!

Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite authors, I will admit. She has a way of keeping the plot and characters intertwined in a way that keeps the reader engrossed, trying to guess which direction the plot will take, and the book I chose, "The Pact," has a very unexpected ending. It starts out with what is described as a suicide pact...without further adieu:

"There was nothing left to say. He covered her body with his, and as she put her arms around him she could picture him in all his incarnations: age five, and still blond; age eleven, sprouting; age thirteen, with the hands of a man. The moon rolled, sloe-eyed in the night sky; and she breathed in the sent of his skin. "I love you," she said. He kissed her so gently she wondered if she had imagined it. She pulled back slightly, to look into his eyes. And then there was a shot."

Deep. Dark. Powerful. Seeing as I know the ending as well, as well as all the guts of the book. Now for the more challenging part- capturing this with my own content yet keeping the style and whatnot. Would it be wrong to change the plot a little? I hope not...because that's exactly what I'm going to do!!

"He was speechless as he stared deep into her sea-blue eyes. They were lying together on the carousel, entangled with each other, and could envision each other through every stage in their past- running together through the fields at five, she taller than him at twelve but finally shorter at thirteen, growing into their relationship that they carried now. The full moon rolled in the sky, behind the forest trees, and they could feel each others' breath in the cold night air. They closed their eyes as they kissed, both their hands on the gun, both questioning the decision, feeling the softness of the kiss in contrast to the steel of the gun, when they heard voices coming their direction, and quickly hid the gun. Would they do this another night, or was this just not meant to be? They caught a quick glance from each other, quickly moving to the swings, holding hands the whole way along, whispering "I love you too much" before each taking a seat."

Is it wrong to feel wrong changing Jodi Picoult's awesome writing? It completely ruins the plot of the story- after all, the deed isn't done. But- I don't want them doing it. The exercise is to change the content- I certainly did so!! I wonder what Jodi would do with this beginning!!

It's also a very fitting change, with the upcoming "RUOK Day" in Australia- I'm not Australian, but I'm an advocate, and I think it should be a worldwide thing, not just in Australia. Americans just aren't aware of what's going on around them- Probably 99% aren't even "aware" that last week was "Suicide Awareness Week"....what kind of awareness initiative is that? If you haven't been following, I have tagged all my RUOK posts as such. *Shameless Self-Promotion*

I hope this is *sort of* what the goal was. Or at least close to it.

Write on Wednesday Exercise 14 - The Mighty Mighty Rewrite...

Zanni: I did a workshop with literary author Mj Hyland, who teachers Masters in Creative Writing at Manchester University. She asked us to choose our favourite book, take the first paragraph and then write our own content into the paragraph, keeping the structure, tone, language etc. It's really helpful!

I really don't know the meaning of life

Day 6: Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality

I've written 2 blogs on the zodiac before, and, hilariously enough, a great number of people have stumbled upon my blog looking for "life meaning" and "what does my zodiac sign mean"

So, to play along, here's another blog about my zodiac sign. Plus, I love throwing Google off. SEO is great when it throws things off a bit. Of course, I don't think it's funny when I'm seriously looking for something and stumble upon a blog that has nothing to do with what I"m looking for, but nevertheless...I'm gonna do it. Just for shits and giggles.

Sun Sign: Sagittarius.

Similarities: There are few things I have in common with a Sagittarius-one is the longing to be free from this environment because I feel stuffed up and confined. That is, I don't like living in this place. I want my own place. They typically have a thirst for knowledge and are very intellectual. Like other Sagittarians, I'd also like to travel- my destination would be Australia. Sagittarians are typically free-spirited (I'm not) and like to roam (I'll admit I do that, on occasion). Honestly, I'd like to find a place to stay, but I'd like it to not be in the confines of my parents' house. They say no rules but really? If I'm not home by 10 my phone is blowing up with texts and phone calls wanting to know where I'm at. Reality check. There is one more- Saggys are open and tolerant in their views- that I am, very much so. It's not my place to judge you, so I won't. People will have different opinions, and I respect that, and I won't try to change or hate on you for it.

Differences: Well, for one thing, Sagittarius is a mutable sign- that is, they are open to change. By God, you try to change anything on me and I will lose it (emotional- see below, where I relate my moon sign). I don't deal with change well at all. Sagittarians are generally outgoing and extroverted- I am one of the most introverted people you might meet- I can put on an introverted front for work, which is why I can be a social worker, but as far as being extroverted, I am FAR from it. My Myers-Briggs typology puts me on the extreme end of introverted. Apparently, they also don't care much for details, but I'm all about detail, baby, all about detail. 

Moon Sign: Pisces (insert SEO identifier that will bring people in flocks to this specific entry)

Similarities: I kind of think I have more in common with my moon sign, ping SEO, the Pisces. Generally, the moon sign is more related to emotion, and by goodness am I an emotional person; not to mention that Pisces is generally more of an emotional sign. My emotions have emotions! Yes, I am very emotional, so emotional that...well, it's difficult to control all this emotion. They, too, dislike discipline and confinement (so perhaps I just get it from both ends of the deal, eh?). They're not 8-5 people (because really, those times suck, unless you're some sadistic creature that likes waking up before the sun comes up...). They're creative, and they reach out to help other people (social work? Ring a bell?). Not always a good thing, but they always worry that they're going to fail (I can't help it, but I do worry about that) and, like the Pisces, I don't have the motivation to actually rebel, despite my dislikes.

Differences: Not many. I don't live in a dream world- I've been slapped by reality a few too many times. I'm not as artistic as I used to be, although I could probably pick it back up if I took the opportunity. I would give a lot in relationships, which I didn't add in my similarities simply because I don't have relationships. I did find that in friendships, though, I was often giving more than receiving, and this chased people off. Annnnd that ends my differences section.

CHINESE ZODIAC

I add this simply because a lot of people don't know a lot about their Chinese zodiac or what it means. The Chinese actually have 2 parts to the zodiac, not just the animal. There is a second part, which is an element, which many people don't know about.

My Chinese zodiac is the Fire Rabbit. Ironically enough, this is almost identical to my Western zodiac- Sagittarius is a fire sign, and the Rabbit is the Chinese equivalent to the Pisces as far as characteristics go. The first time I looked this up, I was taken aback because- how could this have worked out this way? How could I happen to have exactly the same signs/meanings in both the Chinese and Western zodiac, when they are measured in different ways? The Western zodiac is measured by the time, date, and location of your birth in relationship to the location of the planets, while the Chinese is assigned first by month to determine the element, then by year to determine the animal. There are also deeper determinations- by day and hour of day, which are the inner and "secret" self. Not knowing much about the Chinese zodiac myself, and having only just read tidbits here and there, I will leave it at this, just knowing that it's interesting that my "element" and my animal happen to fall in line with the Western zodiac. There's my day 6!

Now I can have more people come through SEO trying to find the meaning of life and happen to fall into my blog...sorry guys. I don't know the meaning of life.