Chapter 5: Undead and Somewhat Slightly Dazed

[listersgirl]

As part of this "make me a creative person!" program that I'm struggling through right now, I have to write 3 pages (longhand) of whateverness every morning. It doesn't matter what you write about - what you did yesterday, what you have to do today, how you're feeling, what you're going to have for breakfast - the point is just to write.

This week, as part of the weekly exercises, I had to reread my morning pages (a long process, as they're almost completely indecipherable, my writing is so bad). Mostly I seem to have made lists and talked about how sleepy I was, but apparently one day I really had nothing to say, so I randomly wrote this very silly fairy tale.


Once there was a young princess. Her mother the queen and father the king had seven children -- six boys and our little princess. Even though she wasn't the youngest, she was the baby, and never got to do anything. Her youngest brother, barely 12, treated her like she was 6, even though she was 15! 3 years older than him!

So one day, she decided enough was enough, and she ran off to join the circus. She wasn't sure what she could actually do at the circus, but she decided that all her years of regal training must be good for something. Maybe the tightrope. If not, she'd be happy to clean the animal cages. The only problem was that circuses didn't really exist anymore, at least not the kind that all the stories were about. It was hard to run off and join the circus when the circus never came to your town, except to arrange auditions.

Because, as it turned out, people all over the royal lands wanted to join the circus. It was definitely the hot ticket. So the princess went to the auditions. There were jugglers and tightrope walkers, people who could walk on their hands for hours, and one boy who twisted himself into a pretzel. Faced with all this talent, the princess was a little uncertain about her chances of getting into the circus, but she signed up anyway, and waited her turn. After all, she was there already, and it would be too embarrassing to return home at this point.

So when her turn came, she walked into the room, and said, "I am a princess," hoping that they'd have some idea what to do with that. Instead, they all leapt to give obeisance. As she moved through the lines, chatting to everyone, she realized that she was really enjoying herself.

"This is what I'm good at," she thought. "I'm a fantastic princess."

So she left the circus (she didn't get hired in any case) and went home, where she snuck past all the royal guards searching for her like she was a lost kitten. Back in her room, she put on her most regal clothes and went downstairs. She walked into the throne room where were parents were sitting, having tea, and watched as everyone became quiet. She approached her parents, and, after reassuring them that she was fine, said, "You need someone to rule after you retire to Florida. Eric only thinks of his horses, Kalen wants to be a chef, James never takes his nose out of his books, Simon wants nothing more than to be a soldier, Robert would be happiest as a hermit, and Justin is a fool-in-training. Me, I want to be Queen. And I'd be damn good at it."

The King was staring at her in disbelief, but the Queen walked up to her, a shrewd look on her face. She smiled suddenly, and said, "You remind me of me when I was your age. The one piece of advice I have for you -- have more than one daughter. It goes much easier." And they walked off to begin Queen-in-training lessons, leaving the King sitting on his throne, muttering, "A chef?"

THE END

BWAHAHAHAHA! The things a brain can do on too little sleep.

Comments

[starfishchick]

Dude! This is awesome! My pages are full of rants about the Grat Cubs Collapse of 2004, and this is what you're writing?

AWESOME.

[listersgirl]

I honestly have no idea where that came from, considering the rest of my pages are basically variations on reminding myself to vacuum and talking about food. :D

[starfishchick]

Erm, Great Cubs Collapse, even.

[listersgirl]

Actually, considering when you were writing it, it probably was the Grat Cubs Collapse. Brains and morning are unmixy things.

[starfishchick]

P.S. Sorry if I was totally out of it last night on the phone.

P.P.S. I love your subject lines lately!

[listersgirl]

You weren't the only one. :) Oh, and I finally clued into the fact that this is November, so I'm going to a dance show on Sunday night. I could still do something early Sunday afternoon, but Saturday I'm free all day, so that might be better, if it works for you.

(And they're part of my secret "FauxNoWriMo" project, wherein I pretend that everything I write here is actually a novel. Look at me and how many words I can write! Bwa. This is what happens when <lj user="sarcasma" and I spend all day on IM.)

[listersgirl]

Durr, tags are not my friend. Neither are comments that can't be edited.

[starfishchick]

Saturday would be fine for me - Sunday is genreally football-watching day anyway. :)

And I think FauxNoWriMo is a great idea! The titles are interesting - where do they come from? Just your wonderful brain?

[listersgirl]

No, they're from a book. When I'm finished, I'm going to see if anyone knows what book it is. :)

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

I haven't read your story yet, but is this from The Artist's Way? Or where are you getting your exercises from?

Thanks!

[listersgirl]

This is Artist's Way. And I'm almost finished, thank god. :)

[goovie.livejournal.com]

DUDE.

when i did morning pages in college, they were all, "OMG I AM SO TIRED AND I HAVE TOO MUCH WORK TO DO AND I'M SO TIRED OMG." i kept waiting for that magical creativity stuff to happen. :P

[listersgirl]

Personally I'm waiting for the deep insights into my life and personality that are supposed to happen. Or at least deeper than "I really like candy. Caaannnndddyyyyyy!".

Rock!

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

That was fabulous.

Plus, you named one of the boys Kalen. *snerk*

Re: Rock!

[listersgirl]

I have no idea where that came from. Actually, I have no idea where any of it came from. :)

[offscreen.livejournal.com]

That was awesome.

[listersgirl]

Hee, thanks.

[dramaqueen-23.livejournal.com]

Squee! What an awesome fairy tale. Now I want to draw all sorts of pictures of the princess at the circus audition!

[listersgirl]

Whee! But only if you draw the pictures before you're fully awake, too, otherwise you're going to totally show up my completely unthoughtout story. ;)

[dramaqueen-23.livejournal.com]

You've clearly never seen my drawing, have you?

[listersgirl]

Heeee.

Excellent. We're going to start a whole new genre: Fairy Tales on crack.

[emiline.livejournal.com]

That was written in the early morning? If only my brain could function at that level in the morning. Fun times!

[listersgirl]

Early enough that I completely forgot that I'd even written it by about 10 minutes after I'd left the house. I think it was some sort of automatic writing. :)