Writing for Pleasure and profit

[caddyman]

The first stirrings of the writing itch are beginning to needle away at the back of my head. For the first time in months any writing I am likely to do is because I want to do it and not because I am under an (admittedly self-imposed) obligation.

telemeister, bless him, has suggested by email that it is time that I wrote more "Dimpler Towers" stuff, but this time with something resembling a plot. The man is patently a buffoon. Where am I going to get a plot from? If it was that easy, I’d have done it years ago¹. Nonetheless, I have a couple of ideas, but not really enough to hang even a short story on. I can manage a ‘shaggy dog’ story along with the best of them, but a proper short story currently eludes me.

To this end, I am inviting ideas from anyone who can think of anything at all that I may be able to weave into a short piece of idiocy for the Dimpler family. Three short phrases is all I’m looking for: a starting position, an objective and a favoured finishing point. If any ideas look complementary, I’ll see if they can be sliced in as sub plots.

I have no idea of the timescale involved; I have no intention of submerging myself in writing, but just having somewhere to go with it would be helpful.

If you have a favoured time period, that would help, too, if only for the purposes of atmosphere. The Dimpler family came over from France with the Conqueror in 1066 (more precisely just after the Conqueror, as part of the catering).

As a not entirely unconnected request, anyone with thoughts on the size of pot needed to grow a bonsai Canadian Redwood should feel free to let me have their thoughts.

Work now, I guess…



¹This is not entirely true, for I am a lazy git.

Comments

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

The Dimpler Towers Summer Fete
Reuniting the long lost twins Henry and Enrico
"and there were enough buns left to trounce the nieghbouring village 4-7"

[kt-peasant.livejournal.com]

Should you wish to share more clues on the glory which is the Dimpler family, you may get a more targetted set of options. Otherwise, I shall consider it carte blanche ...

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Well, there are a couple of elderly snippets over at just_writing to give you a clue...

[binidj.livejournal.com]

I went back to December 2003 and found nothing, perhpas you could link specifically?

[kt-peasant.livejournal.com]

Ha! It's not just me. I claim carte blanche.

Start: The roof of The Towers leaks, and the Dimpler family fortune has never been more tangential to reality.
Objective: Stave off the rain/balliffs/Stereotypical Aunts
Favoured finishing point: Discovery of family fortune, possibly in the form of shares in the trans-Moldavian Railway network and concealed for safety in an elephant's foot umbrella stand, but I'd hate to be too prescriptive (proscriptive?).

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

You may claim carte blanche, Dr Peasant, but I warn you it is blank.

[kt-peasant.livejournal.com]

Ambling merrily through the archive with limited success on the Dimpler front, I didn't realise you wrote Galerius. Iain still quotes parts of that brief when he's trying to explain NWO to people.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Ah, Galerius. I rather enjoyed writing him.

I almost regret killing him off in downtime...

It turns out that there is only one episode of the Dimpler Towers' chronicles on that forum, the rest must be back in this LJ over the Summer of 2003 (cripes, was it that long ago?). Anyhoo, there is this!

[sack-boy.livejournal.com]

This some guidelines about pot selection for your bonsai. Basically the pot should be a little bit wider than 2/3 the height or width (which ever is larger), and about as deep as the width of the trunk at the base. Apparently.

And the Bonsai Talk wiki could be a good source of assistance.

[romney.livejournal.com]

The ill-defined Curse of the Dimplers threatens to manifest itself and Chad can only rid himself of it by passing it on to a male heir.

Various attempts to breed, adopt or discover long-lost heir come to naught.

Curse manifests, discovered to be a unstoppable desire to be charitable and do good works.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

Very well, I understand ... at least a little ... what you mean.

A somewhat distant (and modern) cousin (from the side of the family which has been estranged since they supported Queen Matilda back in 1140) arrives unannounced with his "P.A."

Battle is joined both above and below stairs (and quite often between landings) when it transpires that, due to a legal technicality dating from the late middle ages, the unpleasant cousin is actually the rightful lord of Dimpler Towers.

The unpleasant cousin, revelling in his victory is suddenly made aware of the enormous debts accrued by the estate for which he has now become responsible and flees, leaving very little unchanged in his wake.

[agentinfinity.livejournal.com]

Blocked drains, hilarious escapades, turns out to be Uncle Horatio's toupee stuck in a u-bend (at first mistaken for Aunt Cynthia's persian, people worry about how to break it to her until the mog turns up, confusion etc).

I probably stole that from Jeeves and Wooster. At least the blocked drains bit.