Speaking of the Third Wheel

I write bad guys infrequently, but I have written about writing them a couple times.  A common situation I have not written not written about writing at all is dialogue with more than two people.  This morning I explore archetypal third speakers.

These speaking roles just come to me as I write them.  I’ve got no plan and make no assurances to the completeness or accuracy of the list.

Agreer – this is the ‘me too’ voice of the conversation.  They serve no purpose in the conversation content but to reflect one of the two main speaker’s already made points.  As repetitive as it may be for the conversation itself, for the story it can be useful in many ways.  The third voice adds color to an otherwise factual conversation.  Aping the material for laughs or for reducing the impact of those facts.  Emphasizing the content by providing timely and wise reinforcement.  Or simple staking the odds against the second speaker.

The agreer probably needs to be a secondary or tertiary character employed more as a foil than a main actor in the story.  What symbolic role they represent will be how the first speaker’s words will be interpreted when the original speaker is unable to produce that effect on their own.

The Nag – Like the agreer but clearly devoted to a specific speaker.  Essentially this role is an external conscience or simply a functionary of the plot.  As  functionary of the plot—”Be careful that plate is hot,” said the waitress—the content of their contributions holds less importance than the timing of their contributions.  Over used these could become deus ex machina.

Interrupter – The first and second speaker attack each other directly from opposite sides of an argument, the Interrupter tries to disrupt the conversation.  The intent of the third person may not be what they accomplish.  Their attempts meant to cool an argument may heat it up by simply annoying one or both primary speakers.  Alternately the Interrupter may help each primary speaker see the absurdity of the argument.

Distracter – This role parallels much of the interrupter’s effects but in the opposite manner.  While the interrupter inserts points into the conversation trying to be part of the activity, the distracter pulls the two primaries away from the conversation toward a new target.

Well this will need polishing it may never get.  Plus I’ve concocted but not created some images to go with each of these.  I didn’t even get to the hole class of third voices that contribute equally to the conversation but from a fully formed and independent third perspective—probably because I think those are the hardest to write.

Day 304

Dramatis Personæ

Regular readers may have noticed I pulled my “Seinfeldian Chain” page. It got good hits—likely due to the celebrity of the name itself—but I rarely updated it and let’s face it, the idea that I actually write every everyday is a lie I tell myself. One that didn’t need a fancy tracking device to expose my shame. So, gone.

In it’s place you will soon find a Cast of Characters page. I dreamed this up last night as a way of avoiding productive speculative writing, but I’ve got an angle. A trip through this last year’s writing plucking green, ripe, and rotten fruit from the branches of my posts ought to help me find a new thread to pick up on or an abandoned thread to revive. Also, I intend to try my hand at one or two-line character sketches.

I know I have characters for whom my description in situ fell short of full and even short of what I held in my head. Doing this harvest should preserve whatever considerations I’d given these characters at the time and probably expose details you’d not known before.

Lastly, I’m curious to reveal my character demographics. My writing feels physically diverse, but I’m thinking I have a number of Mary Sues out there that need to take a few strides away from their creator. At the very least a head count may be amusing.

Day 297

Obviously Unprompted

I use the tag ‘inspire’ when reading various blogs and producers of content to note intriguing content I find.  I mark between three and five items every day that give me pause.  While the tag isn’t exclusive to visual inspiration—at least it’s not supposed to be—I haven’t yet found enough inspiration from the written word to pin ‘inspire’ on any.

Recently I ran across two blogs listing prompts for writing.  I jump when others recommend such tools hoping they will have found some widget or technique I haven’t.  As I recall both these listed word based prompts.  I checked them all out thinking something might tickle me.  None did.

Part of me wants to find the irony.  I write yet I cannot find inspiration in the words of others.  My attention drops off of this conclusion like a cat skidding down the windshield of a parked car it’s not longer interested in perching on.  So far I’ve found written prompts fall into two categories: questions or demands and poetical near gibberish phrases.

“Someone has replaced your regular coffee with Folger’s Crystals.  How do you feel?”  I feel like hitting the Next Prompt button.

“Describe a garage sale at a haunted house.”  What for?

“thrice packed inside” Ummm…

So these turn out to be mechanical aids that don’t much aid as annoy.  I end up distracted by the inanity asking myself what I’m supposed to get out of that effort.  Maybe exposing my bitter feelings about coffee betrayal will help me cool down after being steamed?  I just don’t understand where I’m meant to go.  Maybe I’m not meant to derive any real use out of the effort.  Maybe I’m just warming up my muscles, stretching out my fingers.  I’m not much for throw away writing.  At least not throw away writing prompted by external forces.  I’m certain I can trash the crap my internal muse dishes out quite easily.

Anyhow, I like pictures.  I can read a beginning in them I can’t discern in canned words.

Day 296