Writing Prompt #4: Turn Back Time

I've decided to stick to the time theme for a bit. Life really does revolve around time, and it's fun to explore the different facets. So, here we go with a Writing Prompt -- the first in a long time! Heh.

Any past Tips & Prompts can be found on my website: Writing Tips & Prompts.

Writing Prompt #4: Turn Back Time

Turning back time. Are we in a science fiction story? Nope, not quite. Though you could always convert this prompt into one if you'd like.

Almost everyone has regrets, and those regrets usually stem from decisions we've made -- decisions that hindsight indicates were wrong (though hindsight isn't always right either). Confused yet? Wondering what this has to do with a writing prompt? No, sorry, I'm not delving into your psyche. This isn't a therapy session. Though, like the science fiction story, you could always make it into one. After all, writing can be quite therapeutic.

Therapy aside, delve into your memories and pick a time when you made a decision that you feel was the wrong one. Now, think about what would have happened if you chose differently. First, write down the immediate difference. Then go from there. What would your present look like if you would have done something differently in your past? Follow the dominoes as they fall, each change leading to a new one.

Or if you don't want to explore a regret in your life, pick a time you made the right decision and your life was better for it. Then consider what would have happened if you'd chosen a bad path instead. What other occurrences and decisions would that have led to?

This is a great way to explore cause and effect, which is so important in fiction. Every action has a reaction, and every choice will change the path of your character. Since you know yourself well, it's easier to map out the possible differences due to a changed decision, which you can then apply to your fiction.

In essence, writing out how much your life would have morphed due to different choices is fiction itself. With a few tweaks, you could even change it into a story in whatever genre you'd like.

You want me to give it a whirl? Let's see...

In my 20s, I had a bit of an obsession with Mage Knight (if you don't know what this is, Google it). I wanted to collect all the rare figures in every set. To do this, I bought Mage Knight booster packs by the case. And I told myself I'd actually play the game as well. Of course, I never actually played, and I still have a bunch of Mage Knight figures packed away in a closet.

What if I never sunk all that money into those Mage Knight figures?

I would have saved hundreds of dollars. True, I could have just spent it on another silly obsession. But what if I'd spent it more wisely? Put it toward my student loans, perhaps. I'd have much less debt right now. Invested it for the long term -- money saved for retirement (though, let's face it, I'm a writer, I'll only retire when my brain truly comes unhinged).

Or... and here comes the true fantasy. I could have spent it all on lottery tickets and hit it big! Today, I'd live in my dream re-modeled Victorian and be able to hire someone to clean my house and watch my kids while I write until my heart's content. Ah, if only.

Then a fairy would come along and steal it all.

Go on, give it a try. You don't need to be too serious. Turn back time and explore how different life might be. And write!

The X-Files - It's Back!

***WARNING: There are spoilers in the post below. If you have yet to see the first two episodes of the new season of The X-Files, you may want to wait to read this until after you've watched the episodes. Unless of course you don't mind spoilers.***

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Copyright Info on The X-Files Title Screen

Forgive me, but this may be more of a fangirl post than observations with a critical eye. But hey, I'm allowed to get excited over something and just enjoy it for what it is. Right? Right? Well, I am!

Anyway, I was to no end thrilled when I heard The X-Files was coming back to TV. See, I was in high school when it first aired, and I fell in love with it almost instantly. I have fond memories of watching episodes. Heck, even my mom watched the show, and it's not really something that would usually interest her.

Now, while I love the series, and I label myself a fangirl, I have to admit I probably haven't seen every episode. College happened. I also haven't seen the second movie (my husband and I kept saying we needed to see it, then we never got around to it - I know, horrible, especially since I bought the soundtrack and the score for the first movie, you'd think I'd have made more of an effort). My memory also sucks at times, and it has been a long time since I watched any episodes (though I own several on VHS - lol). I am actually regretting not binging and re-watching all the episodes before this new season started. Eh, live and learn. Though I'm guessing I may start watching them soon anyhow.

Until I watched the two new episodes, I didn't realize just how much I missed The X-Files. It brought back a lot of memories. Especially since they used the old intro for this new season as well! I thought that was amazingly awesome - it really brought me back.

Oh, but who wants to hear about my silly reminiscing? Probably no one - ha. That's OK, I'll move onto the episodes themselves.

The first episode, "My Struggle," started out with a brief summary from Mulder, which was much appreciated due to the aforementioned sucky memory. Clearly, Mulder and Scully have moved on with their lives. OK, maybe Scully has - Mulder will always be that dog that just won't let go of the damned bone. That's what makes him Mulder. =D Because of this, he's easily dragged back into things by Tad O'Malley. We also get to see Scully's unending skepticism. This is great, especially for fangirls like me. We get to see the characters we fell in love with over two decades ago.

Of course, Scully is less skeptical by the end of the episode, and Mulder's bone morphs a bit. I love the transition, though. We start out the episode with the usual song and dance, that the government has been hiding the existence of aliens. That's The X-Files we remember, the conspiracy Mulder always wanted to crack wide open. But by the end of the episode, things are flipped a bit. Instead, it's theorized that the government is using alien technology to experiment on humans, to change their genetics, and to eventually use this to pretty much take over the world. Humans are the ones behind the abductions, not aliens.

The apparent cover up of trying to out the truth on O'Malley's show (which includes the death of at least one person - spaceship blowing up her car no less), results in re-opening The X-Files. And now we get to my favorite scene of the episode. Yup, the Cigarette Smoking Man is back! Smoking through the hole in his throat even - awesome.

"Founder's Mutation" is the next episode, and it really does continue with the strain of manipulating human DNA with alien DNA. I loved the mirror of Scully and Mulder thinking about what life would have been like if they kept their child along with the sister and brother whose genes had been tampered with to give them powers. Could this be what their child is like? Could he have been tampered with? I really do hope we get to see their son in a future episode!

This episode, though, made me realize one thing with this revival of The X-Files. They are not pulling any punches! From watching a man shove a letter opener into his brain via his ear, a woman graphically cut open her belly to release the baby inside (oh, yes, we see the cutting and the blood and the baby sticking his little hand out), and finally seeing blood pour out of all orifices of the doctor who experimented on his own children. Holy cow! I love it.

I'm looking forward to the next episode, and I may need to start sneaking in some of the old episodes during the week when the toddler has driven me to insanity.

What are your favorite recollections of the old episodes? And what did you like (or not like) about the new episodes?

Roland

This is a really hard post to write. I've posted about losing pets before, but at the end of April we lost our almost 14-year-old black cat. He was the sweetest and most loveable cat, and he was my Buddy Boy. Before we had our kids, he would make sure to nap in whatever room I was in. Even after the kids, when I was at the computer at night before bed, most times he'd be curled up near me on my husband's chair. Saying I was very attached to him is an understatement. So, I'm going to dive in with a list of all the things I remember about my unique kitty, a kind of kitty I know I will never likely own again. I reserve the right to edit this post in the future to add anything I forgot (there's just so much and my memory can be wonky).

❦ Roland was named after...yup, Roland from Stephen King's Dark Tower series!

❦ He was one of the meowiest (is that a word?) kitties I have ever known. We knew from the first night we got him as a kitten that we would never have a quiet night again while he was around! Therefore two of his nicknames were Mr. Meow and Meowhead. His purr was also crazy loud.

❦ He was also our Crooked Kitty. His tail had a notch at the base, and a couple notches at the tip. We don't know if he was born that way or if he got hurt as an itty bitty kitty before we adopted him. When I was taking a ceramics class in college, I made him a crooked bowl that said Crooked Kitty.

❦ He was our Great One-Armed Hedgehog Hunter! He loved to bring us presents--mostly sparkle balls, but one of his favorites was the hedgehog (which only had one arm). During the day he'd bring it downstairs, then at night while we were crawling into bed, he'd bring it back upstairs. Of course, he'd meow the whole way on his trek with the cat toy in his mouth. We knew he was coming!

❦ Oh, and he was part dog. He enjoyed playing fetch with his sparkle balls. AND he loved to dig. No, not in dirt, but in blankets. Many a time I ended up sitting on him on the bed because he dug his way under the blankets.

❦ He had a little black cauldron full of his sparkle balls. He loved picking those things out of there.

❦ We constantly had to clear sparkle balls out of his food bowl because he thought that's where he needed to deposit them. And he preferred to drink water by dipping his paw in the water and licking the water off his paw. NO cup filled with water in the house was safe. Many times I found an untended cup of water with litter in the bottom. Ew!

❦ He enjoyed chewing the tails off of his toy mice. He also enjoyed chewing string in half. He'd always ruin the ball of string for one of our other cats that's no longer with us. Pikachu loved them. Roland would not only chew the end off, but for good measure he'd chew it into several little bits (he never ate any of the bits, though).

❦ He was our Needy/Kneady Kitty. The first because he shamed those people that claim cats are independent. He wanted attention. And then he wanted more. If we locked him out of our bedroom temporarily, we heard his unhappy meows begging to be let back in. He insisted the first thing we did when we woke in the morning was give him itchings. The kneady part though was because he loved to knead. Especially our jeans...when they were ON us. I was insanely glad that we had his front claws removed because then we could allow him to knead to his heart's content (though he still managed to knead a hole into the corner of our current bed skirt--heh).

❦ Sometimes he would lie on his back and play with his tail. It was his way of trying to get our attention (it worked most of the time).

❦ At night, he preferred sleeping in between my husband and me, but when the kids took that spot, he decided sleeping on my husband's pillow was the next best thing. Who wouldn't want back claws tangling in their hair at night?

❦ That meow I mentioned? Yup, our little alarm clock...usually earlier than we intended to get up. And when going to bed, he would meow for a good 10-15 minutes too because, no it's not bedtime, it's love the Roland time.

❦ Being a silly human, I used to sing "Roland, Roland, Roland. Meow, meow!" to the "Rawhide" song.

❦ As mentioned he was my Buddy Boy--probably his most used nickname. Baby Boy Kitty, Little Black Cat, Monster Meow, Fuzzy Boy. More nicknames. He had so many! (For a short time at the end, he was also Demon Kitty, due to his glowing eyes in a picture I had taken of him.)

I feel like there should be a lot more to this list. We had nearly 14 years with Roland, but it's so hard to remember all the crazy, silly, lovable things he did. Perhaps this list is enough, but my heart says it isn't, merely because it will never encompass and truly show what kind of kitty Roland was. It'll have to do though.

NEXT UP: The Plan (What's this? Is the suspense killing you yet?)