Soggy cereal, and the two poles of the world.

[Dante'sJuliet]

I need help.

---Again.

I've gotten myself into a bit of a situation. You see, due to the fact that I have inherited a big mouth from one parent and a very competitive spirit from the other, I said that I would write a story about soggy cereal.

And it cannot just be a story. It has to be a good story. A really good story. Why, you ask? Simply because it will be the first piece of my work that most of my friends read. Add on the fact that the guy who egged me on (granted, with help) into doing this is someone I really like, greatly esteem, and otherwise admire, I don't want him to forever think of me as a child. This story must be good.

In thinking about what to write, I remembered something Mono said when I asked for help for another of my stories:


You could write a story about this ashtray, for example, and a man and a woman. But the man and woman are always the two poles of your story. The North Pole and the South. Every story has these two poles - he and she.

I'm one of those people who writes stories backwards, so I've thought of a possible ending:

There is a man, who likes soggy cereal, and a woman, who likes hers crunchy. There could be a big fight or something, he would leave, and it would end with her sitting at a table to eat her cereal, which is now soggy, to ponder thoughts of all that has happened.

Or it could possibly be a humor story. That would be easier to write, but I'd also have a harder time thinking of a plot. . .

Anyway, as always, any form of help is greatly appriciated. Thank you!

[mono]

Hmmm, it sounds like you have quite a challenge, Dante'sJuliet.
Does the story necessarily have to maintain soggy cereal as a central theme? If so, that ought to make things very difficult, to tell all honesty; but, if soggy cereal only has to seem a part of the story, then it sounds not as complicated.
Obviously, you have a beginning: perhaps this man and woman could have a lot of differences - too many - but consider how they live together - maybe college roommates, siblings, a couple who recently moved into their first living space together, etc.
An idea: let us pretend that they recently moved in with each other, discover many, many differences - no large differences, but only small, yet enough to annoy each other (such as not wanting to do laundry, owning a messy pet, or leaving lights on over night, etc.). Then, perhaps, with one more difference, the preference of cereal, this begins the immense argument - two people with too many dissimilarities that one finally sets the characters in ridiculous anger.
Just a thought. Good luck! :nod:

(by the way, the following quote, if I remember correctly, came from Anton Chekov, not me; I could never write something so brilliant :D) --

You could write a story about this ashtray, for example, and a man and a woman. But the man and woman are always the two poles of your story. The North Pole and the South. Every story has these two poles - he and she.

[Dante'sJuliet]

OK, I've decided to make it a comedy. So far, here's all I've got:


The universe is a vast and mysterious place. It is filled with something, no one knows what (some people say that it is matter, others say the lack thereof). Giant balls of gas; clouds of something or nothing the size of galaxies; chunks of rocks flying through space; the goo on the surface of the rocks and the heat or ice beneath; all are slowly spinning.

Whether or not the universe is filled with something or nothing physically, the human race may never know. But, a certain kind of person (usually the kind that have long hair and like to sip organic green tea under a spreading oak tree while tye-dying "Save the Baby Whales" on tee-shirts) will tell you that it is filled with something, that the very essence of the universe is this: mystery.

It's true. At least partially. Mysteries are usually unanswered questions, and what better to fill a place that may be full of something or nothing than with something that does not really exist? Questions, human thought, is enough to fill any space: be it the vastness of space or the dark emptiness of a room once full; be it the physically undefined space of a night spent in fear or (perhaps hardest of all, and certainly the place with the fewest physical boundaries) the darkness behind the eyes, which people call the Mind. All can be filled and consumed by a single thought.

The person with the long hair and ripped jeans will go on to say that, since the essence of the universe is Mystery, that essence is everywhere, therefore we are all One. At this point, most people usually smile vaguely, give a primise of a donation that they do not intend to keep, and then go to Starbuck's.

In a sense, though, this is true. Everything can be a mystery to someone (and then the thought of that mystery can fill the darkness behind the eyes or the vastness of space. . .). For instance, How does the grass grow? Why does the sun rise and set? What is it with men and asking for directions?

Mystery can be found in everything by someone. Nature, the sun, stars, grass, love, hate, technology, the human mind, flowers, the breeze. . .

. . . Soggy cereal?

The person under the oak would look like his link with Cosmic Harmony was momentarilly severed and a confused look would cross his face before he answered, Well, I guess so. . .



Obviously, it owes much to Terry Pratchett (I am not worthy to tie his shoes. *curtsy*), and it's just an introduction, but please please please tell me what you think!

[Nightshade]

Oh wow I think its ace Dante's Juliet.I havent read any of your other stories, but Im not sure I like the so much but then again you might be one of those people who could turn that into somthing great.
:D

[Chava]

Terry Pratchett, with an essence of Douglas Adams. None the less, not bad at all.