Day: October 25, 2022

The Man Behind the Scenes

Fandango23 Comments

“Ghostwriting? Why would you want to be a ghostwriter?” Dean’s father asked. “You do all the work and someone else gets all the credit.”

Dean knew this conversation was going to be a tough one. His father was a well known TV news anchor and was hoping his son would follow in his footsteps.

“Dad, you just sit in front of the camera and read what other people have written for you,” Dean said. “Your success depends upon what those writers put in front of you to read on the air. They are your ghostwriters.”

“First of all, Dean,” Lawrence said, “I don’t just sit in front of the camera and read their words. I bring their words to life. I animate them. I give them depth, dimension, personality. Second of all, I’m the face of those words. I’m the name everyone knows. Nobody knows their names. They’re anonymous, they’re interchangeable parts. Is that what you want to be, an anonymous interchangeable part. Clearly I’ve been too lenient in how I raised you.”

“You don’t know me at all, Dad,” Dean said. “I’m like a stranger to you. I don’t need to be in the limelight. I don’t mind being behind the scenes. And you know what, Dad? I’m a great technical writer, but I’m not the creative type. I’m not the idea type. So,” Dean continued, a gleam in his eye, “by functioning as a ghostwriter, I’m playing to my strengths and helping others who have the gift of creativity to achieve their goals.”

“Dean, you are not an insubstantial young man,” Lawrence said, “but the low bar you’re setting for yourself is going to put me on a slab in the mausoleum before my time.”

“Well don’t you worry, Dad,” Dean said. “Should that happen, it will be only fitting for me to write your obituary, since I’m a ghostwriter and you’ll be a ghost.”

Written for these daily prompts: E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (ghostwriting), My Vivid Blog (conversation), Your Daily Word Prompt (lenient), Ragtag Daily Prompt (stranger), Word of the Day Challenge (gleam), Fandango’s One Word Challenge (insubstantial), and The Daily Spur (slab).

Truthful Tuesday — Today’s World

Fandango18 Comments

Di, of Pensitivity101, is once again sitting in for Melanie, of Sparks from a Combustible Mind, for today’s Truthful Tuesday post. Her question is…

Would you like to be a child growing up in today’s world?

Whoa, this is a tough one. I look at my two young grandkids and see happy, well cared for children and my heart melts. They are innocents who know literally nothing about what craziness is going on in the world outside of their home and day care.

But I worry a lot about the kind of world they’re going to be living in by the time they become adults. What will the world be like 15 to 20 years from now?

Will our planet be continuing on a trajectory that could lead to an inhospitable environment that is necessary to sustain human life within their lifetimes?

Will they be taught by their parents or in school to be critical thinkers or will the have to toe the line of some political ideology or religious dogma?

Will they be exposed to the mistakes of the past so they don’t repeat them, or will those mistakes be whitewashed from history as if they never happened?

Will people of all races, religions, colors, and genders have learned to live in harmony or will bigotry, racism, and hatred toward “the other” continue to spiral upwards?

Will they live in a free democracy or representative government or will they be the subjects of an autocratic, fascist dictator?

Will countries continue to be at war with one another?

Once born, we all have a will to survive, to live, to thrive, so I don’t know how to answer Di’s specific question. But based upon my rather bleak perspective of where humanity is headed, if I had a choice about whether or not to be born into today’s world — a choice none of us have — I would probably choose to not be a child growing up in this world.

I apologize if my rather pessimistic response is starting your day off as a downer. I’ll read some of your responses and maybe that will make me feel more optimistic.

Fandango’s Story Starter #69

Fandango16 Comments

It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you a “teaser” sentence and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that sentence. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing.

This week’s Story Starter teaser is:

He put on a wig hoping that he wouldn’t be recognized, but realize he had failed when…

If you care to write and post a story built from this teaser, be sure to link back to this post and to tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with their stories.

And most of all, have fun.

FOWC with Fandango — Insubstantial

Fandango16 Comments
FOWC

It’s October 25, 2022. Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “insubstantial.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.