Friday, May 18, 2012

Short Story Competition!

Welcome to the first of many writing competitions! Simply e-mail your best short story to brianefleming@yahoo.com or post your short story below. The winner of "Short Story Extravaganza" will receive a $10 Amazon gift card and a free copy of my medical memoir Poked and Prodded- A Humorous Medical Memoir.


Whhaaaat?


A $10 Amazon gift card and a copy of Poked and Prodded for submitting your best short story?
That's right!


And it's free to send in your entry!
Either send your e-mail directly with "Writing Entry" included in the subject line to brianefleming@yahoo.com, or, post your entry below this post.


Entry Deadline: June 1st (exactly two weeks from now)
Contest winner will be announced on June 3rd.


Good luck!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Finding Balance

It's tough to find balance between your passions and your jobs in life. Where does one find the time to write? My problem is, once I start writing, I hate breaking out of the writing zone. Does anyone else have trouble breaking from their writing to rejoin the real world, with its real responsibilities and roles?  Let me know!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Family Guy- Powered by Safety and Ignorance

While writing the last blog post, Family Guy attempted to be funny in the background. I've realized something. Maybe others have had this realization before me, but I feel special. Because I've had this "ah-ha" moment for myself.


Family Guy is powered by ignorance and safety. Allow me first to elaborate on the ignorance. Family Guy prides itself on jokes concerning protected topics: religion, politics, special needs, gender, and ethnicity. I say protected topics because all of these listed arenas of the human experience have lines that shouldn't be crossed. These boundaries have been put up to protect and respect those individuals inside of it. For example, variations of the word "retard" are often used by Family Guy characters (to much laughter by the general audience). Family Guy perpetuates stereotypes and derogatory remarks, because Americans have reached a level of contentedness with their own little life bubble. If you don't know anyone with special needs, retard jokes are funny. If you are not privy to the difficulties little people face on a daily basis, dwarf and midget jokes are comedy gold. Family Guy feeds off American ignorance.


Second, Family Guy relies on the safety Americans currently reside in. One of Family Guy's major appeals is its mastery of dark humor and the bizarre. Any scene with random, over-extended, horribly strange violence is an example of this. Anyone who has read Night, can understand why this violence can't be considered funny to those who have dealt with violence first hand. But because America is living in realive comfort, we are far removed from the actual results of violence. Go Family Guy, you rely on America's ignorance and safety. Hope your okay with that.

Frustration

Why is it so hard to write? Why do I feel like I need an audience for every word I compose? Why can't I just write for the sake of writing? Why can't I just write to tell a story, even if no one will read it?


But then again...


"If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does the tree falling even matter?"
No.


I want to matter.
I want to change lives.
I want to be important.
I want to be successful.
I want to be known.
I want to feel satisfied.
I want to be a best-seller.
I want to be asked for interviews.


When will I be able to delete "want to"?


I matter.
I change lives.
I am important.
I am successful.
I am known.
I am satisfied.
I am a best-seller.
I am asked for interviews.


Will it be today?
Two weeks from now?
A month?
A year?
Years?
On my deathbed?
Never?


Only one person can determine this...
and he seems to be writing this post.