A Story from the Flow

 

The 2022 Deliveries

 

  1. An Archaic Concept Of Me - Posted on January 5, 2022
  2. An Archaic Concept of Me - Posted on February 10, 2022
  3. To the Future – Where We Know Ourselves - Posted on March 10, 2022
  4. The World is Big. Keep Going, Son. - Posted on April 14, 2022
  5. Mindfulness: An Archaic Concept of Me, Delivery 5 - Posted on May 12, 2022
  6. An Archaic Concept of Me: Shoulder Energy - Posted on June 9, 2022
  7. “Forget it” (An Archaic Concept of Me: Delivery 7) - Posted on July 14, 2022, 2022
  8. An Archaic Concept of Me: Mutual Proposal - Posted on August 18, 2022
  9. The Wedding (An Archaic Concept of Me, Delivery 9) - Posted on September 16, 2022
  10. Souls Need a Gentle Touch (An Archaic Concept of Me) - Posted on October 13, 2022
  11. Soul-Dancer (An Archaic Concept of Me, 11) - Posted on November 10, 2022
  12. An Archaic Concept of Me, Delivery 12: Song of the Sea - Posted on December 23, 2022
  13. An Archaic Concept: Postscript / Bridge - Posted on January 14, 2023

 

Delivery 1, titled the same as the sequence title, as An Archaic Concept Of Me, was published on January 5 2022.

The Opening:
I was young; I was anxious; I was bound to an archaic concept of me.

She smoothed my mind and body with her sunny day thoughts and yoga softened hands.

I agreed to her assumptions and her understated demands.

That first summer we gloried in the eagerness of our interconnected bodies. Each morning we smothered each other in kisses that lingered after the passion had moved in the way it must. As our climaxes led us into stillness and soft murmurings we settled down with our pre-breakfast habit of figs and rooibois tea. We sipped the tea from hand-painted china cups. We chose the figs from the hand-blown glass bowl that always stood on the bedside table. We lay propped on a dozen bountiful cushions on our big round mahogany bed. We sighed in contentment as yearnings became satiated and bodies became still.

We marvelled as rays of fresh sunlight entered our bedroom window from over the bay. That light reflected from our crystals and dream catchers and from our eyes as we gazed lovingly into each others’ souls. We knew ourselves as privileged in our balconied and engardened beachside cottage.

And yet we took that privilege for granted, as our due, through our affirmative mind-states, and we congratulated each other unceasingly on the manifestations of abundance we continued to achieve from our lithe and positive young minds.

Delivery 1 can be read at the 2 Rules of Writing Website.

And now here, at Story Flow.

I will re-publish the 2022 Deliveries here on Story Flow, very soon, possibly beginning with the Postscript. Followed by Deliveries 1 to 12.'

 

 

In January 2023 we published a Postscript to the Archaic Concept writings, on the 2 Rules of Writing website.

On January 14 2023, Adam Katz wrote into the 2 Rules of Writing Community Facebook Group:

Well, we've arrived. A journey that we (Erika Grumet and I) began about a year ago, arm in arm with John Saward, has been brought to a kind of conclusion. I looked it up: the first Delivery was published in January 5 of this past year.

I tend to think that the mark of a decent story is that the characters are likable.

The mark of a good story is that the characters are frustrating--that shows that the reader buys into the story and identifies with some part of some of the characters. It also shows that the storyteller has some spit and vinegar. Most anyone can tell a story that pleases the reader; but it takes a special kind of ambition to be willing to challenge the reader.

And the mark of a superlative story is that the characters are simultaneously likable and frustrating. Again. It's hard but not THAT hard to write a story about difficult and painful things. It takes practice to get it right. But lots of life is difficult and painful and often you just have to transcribe what happened to you last Tuesday and voila: you have a story that makes your reader ache with sadness or frustration or anger. 

But telling a joyful story about sad or frustrating character-journeys requires a different kind of balance. And that's the kind of story you have here. Enjoy!

I thank Adam for these very kind words.

I am undecided if that postscript belongs in the 2022 Deliveries or in the 2023 Deliveries. :)

 

Yes! There is a happening of writing into a new sequence, which I am now calling the 2023 Deliveries, with working Title: Like the Wind.

 

The first delivery of Like the Wind will be published onto the 2 Rules of Writing Website, mid February 2023. That delivery will be in the form of a Prologue.

Update, 18 Feb 2023: The first delivery of Like the Wind is now online at the 2 Rules of Writing Website

 

Some time after each of the 2023 deliveries are published onto 2 Rules of Writing, I will re-publish them here.

Having said that, bits and pieces of the 2023 Deliveries are already appearing on my Facebook, and onto here. But not entire Delivery Constructs.

 

It is So Interesting Being a Writer.