Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song. You can pick your own genre or use the one suggested to me. Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.
If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page. You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.
This week’s song is Scentless Apprentice by Nirvana and the genre is Horror/Thriller. It was suggested by bumblepuppies who claimed this suggestion is a dirty trick of sorts. It must be because the song was apparently inspired by the novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind, itself a horror about a man with an excellent sense of smell but no body scent of his own who becomes an apprentice to a perfumer but then starts killing virgins in search of the perfect scent. Creepy.
Now if that book cover isn’t ominous, I don’t know what is. It doesn’t even need the rows of supersized teeth that were added in the film’s promotional posters and later editions of the novel. The mere idea that there’s something lurking underneath, something you can’t see, something much bigger than you, waiting to snatch you up in its terrible jaws. Continue reading “On unintended consequences and memorable movie music”→
If you’ve ever wondered how procrastination works, it apparently involves a monkey. I myself spend many hours every day in the Dark Playground. But I think I might have stumbled upon a strategy that could keep the monkey at bay (cause let’s face it, if you work from home and get paid on a freelance basis you can’t bank on the Panic Monster coming to your rescue). (If you have no idea what I just said you really should click on that link. It’s a much better post than this one.)
I was put onto that brilliant explanation by Timothy Edwards, who reckons the solution is to plan so thoroughly that the monkey doesn’t get a chance to take over. Sounds to me like something that belongs in the Dark Playground. We’ll call it the “Spending All Your Time Making Plans To Spend Your Time More Effectively Merry-Go-Round”.
My idea, on the other hand, is foolproof. I’m going to use a reward-system. See, I have two major things need doing. I need to get on track with my studies, and I need to finish the first draft of my novel. (Okay, I need to start looking at a way of getting paid for counselling as well, and getting clients to counsel (I might have those two in the wrong order) but that’s rather dependant on finishing my degree, so let’s not worry about that just yet.)
So easy, yet so hard…
Studies and writing. Both things that I actually enjoy if I truly get into them, but both things that I also heavily procrastinate for some very obscure reason. Well, my strategy is to use one as a reward for completing the other. For every five chapters I finish reading for my degree, I’ll allow myself to work on my novel. And for every five thousand words I finish writing, I’ll allow myself to dig into the academics once again.
Sounds like a terrible plan, doesn’t it? So terrible it just might work. Hopefully it will confuse the monkey to such an extent that he’ll forget about Youtube (where I recently discovered the highly entertaining channel, How it should have ended – they remake the endings of popular movies so they make more sense), Facebook (more coming on their acquisition of WhatsApp as soon as I stop procrastinating) and the family tree I’ve started to construct in an attempt to discover my extended family (my grandfather Kokkie was an orphan, so apart from my father’s siblings and their children I have no knowledge of my extended family on his side).
What do you think? Is my plan foolproof or am I merely a fool? Hopefully I at least made you smile 😉
Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song. You can pick your own genre or use the one suggested to me. Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.
If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page. You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.
This week’s song is Eye of Shiva by Therion and the genre is Crime/Mystery. It was suggested by bumblepuppies.
As explained yesterday, I don’t really have time to write at the moment. It’s a madness of packing and getting everything ready for the camp that starts early tomorrow morning. But I can hardly leave you with nothing on Valentine’s Day.
So, here’s the latest video by Pentatonix, made especially for Valentine’s Day. Enjoy.
if all else fails...use a hammer 