Perspective: A wonderful thing that can easily drive conflict, and subsequent story action. Assuming it can’t be resolved with a conversation — the easy way, if awkward, and dependent upon both parties listening — it theoretically depends upon characters interpreting roughly the same facts in wildly different ways.
For instance, the upcoming US Independence Day, which a British bookstore owner once labeled “The War of American Tax Evasion” whilst labeling shelves. It’s all about perspective…and as authors and creators, sometimes about making our characters interpret the situation as badly (or naively) as possible. Or, perhaps, a lone character, whose viewpoint is the only one that matters, though growth is still necessary to keep the readers’ interest.
| Pitcher | Ball | Batter up! |
| AC Young | The unicorn walk was flanked by dozens of statues of the creature. | nother Mike |
| Becky Jones | The rose bushes reinforced the defensive perimeter of the house. | Fiona Grey |
| Fiona Grey | The Kickin’ Chicken Festival did not go as planned. | AC Young |
| Leigh Kimmel | It had been a disappointing trip, and getting sick on the way home just drove home how bad it was. | Padre |
| nother Mike | Tossing a salamander on the fire was not a good idea! | Becky Jones |
| Padre | The fireworks started early. | Leigh Kimmel |
For an added challenge this week, toss in a spare and see how that impacts the situation.
| Spare | The antelope’s horns were suddenly threatening as they pointed at her squishy middle. |
| Spare | He took the interruption quite poorly, and… |
| Spare | You know something is wrong when the taxi driver looks around and says, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…” |
| Spare | When the meeting ended, someone started singing “Amen!” |
| Spare | Her helmet was too big, and her camo paint half-gone, but he couldn’t stop staring. |
Don’t forget to leave your perspective in the comments!
Header image rendered with MidJourney by Fiona Grey.
More Odds Than Ends 
Mine’s up: https://acyoungauthor.substack.com/p/the-kicken-chicken-festival
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The name of the event company explains everything!
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Spurgle! I do like the chicken can can. 😀
(Not entirely sure what the local festival is, but maybe spicy chicken?)
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AC Young pitched…
The unicorn walk was flanked by dozens of statues of the creature.
[now, was the walk named that because that’s where the unicorn went, or because of the statues? And who else went there…]
Helen almost couldn’t believe it. She had applied for the scholarship, but didn’t really expect to get it. But then… she got it! And now, she was wandering through the grounds of the exclusive Academy of Art, with all its special places. Over there, the original model for the Statue of Liberty! And here…
She took a deep breath, and started walking along the famous walk. The unicorn walk was flanked by dozens of statues of the creature. And, she knew, each year, the students competed to make yet another statue, and the best was posed along the walk. Why, as a scholarship student, she had a chance to make a statue and compete, and if she was good enough, her statue might one day be placed somewhere on the walk.
She slowly walked the length of the unicorn walk, her eyes tracing the shapes of the unicorn statues, and their wonderful horns, thrusting into the air.
[hum, maybe…]
The unicorn walk was flanked by dozens of statues of the creature.
Which made it the perfect place for the graduation march of the latest Space Rangers of the Unicorn Corps. They marched along, their skin-tight uniforms shining, their equipment belts and life packs each carefully worn, headed for the stands where the other rangers, friends, families, and the press waited. On the platform, the General, and his unicorn, watched them walk between the statues.
As they marched, many of them let their eyes pick out the statues of heroes they had learned about in their training. Here was Juanita Glenn, the first Space Ranger, sitting astride her unicorn, with its gleaming horn pointed at the sky. And Harold Bloom, who had ridden bareback across the Milky Way on his unicorn. And so many others…
It was a long march, with so many heroes of the past watching.
[oh, now that’s different…]
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I want to know more on that second one…
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[…] Thanks to Becky for the rosebushes prompt! And don’t forget to see what AC hath wrought with a…OTE. […]
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And now mine is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1557478.html. I had a little trouble at first, but then it turned out to be fun to write the whole scene.
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Leigh Kimmel and I swapped prompts and she offered up, “It had been a disappointing trip, and getting sick on the way home just drove home how bad it was.”
“It was nice of them to invite us to the celebration of their god.”
Drak looked at Vinal and grunted in a noncommittal, but mostly affirmative way.
Vinal looked at him. “What are you so grumpy about?” he asked.
“We don’t know what this god is about. We don’t know what their rituals are, what they do to honor him, or even why they worship him, other than his being the local god.”
Vinal gave him a thoughtful look, then shrugged. “We’ll see. They seem fond of him, they seem like the decent sort, and hopefully we’ll build some good relations with them.” Drak nodded. “Besides,” Vinal continued, “You’re still peeved at the gods and the world after we were run out of Farthin by nobility.”
“And good riddance them.”
“Now, now. You’re miffed that them because they almost sacrificed your countrywoman to their dark god.”
“I’m not overly fond of them, no. But we survived.”
Vinal nodded, then looked around and reined his horse in. “Ah, we’re here.”
He and Drak dismounted and joined the local people at the temple.
“What god do you worship here?” he asked a few minutes later.
The local headman smiled. “We honor Nergal here.”
“Why?”
“He saved our people from his plague and so, every ten years, we hold a great festival telling his stories.”
“And this is the tenth year?”
“Oh, no. That won’t be for another three years. This is just one of our regular celebrations.”
“Tell me more about your god.”
The headman smiled and related several stories about their god. How he sent plagues upon the evil peoples of the world, but kept those how honored him from illness. How the gods and goddesses feared his wrath and offered him a share in the sacrifices of the people of the world. Even how they feared that the diseases he conjured might sicken and even kill them.
Vinal smiled through it all and took it all in. It had been clear to him from very early on the day that there was little he could gain from them, but he continued to listen with a polite look on his face. Drak was less polite, he saw, but you had to know him to see that the scowl was anything less than his normal neutral look.
After several hours, they were able to break away and return to their camp. Then, when they were still a ways away, Vinal suddenly reined in and jumped down from his horse, staggering quickly toward a convenient bush, and emptied his stomach. It figured. Drak just shook his head. “Plague gods are bad business,” he said.
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My link didn’t hit. Here it is:
https://professorornery.substack.com/p/fire-salamander
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well done! The fire, that is! Also the story 🙂
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