My friend Jane encouraged me to blog every day. She said she enjoyed starting her day with a visit. So, in her memory, I’ve decided to dedicate this week to her.

Monday is Writing Day, and Jane was a writer, beginning back when we were in high school.

Jane and I were Dark Shadows junkies from the get-go. I mean, we put the “fanatic” in “fan”, right? One summer, we stayed in the town where we went to college, got a room along with a friend, and took jobs on campus. I made a deal with my boss at the library to work half a day on Saturday so I could cut my work days a half hour short. Why? So I could go into the TV room of the dorm next door and watch DS. I took notes and we went over them in detail when we got in from work.

We wrote DS fanfic, of course, writing for an hour or so, then reading what we’d written aloud, usually rolling about, helpless with laughter. During the course of one of them, Jane wrote the best two-line, all-dialog scene ever in the history of writing. I hereby quote it in full.

“But Angelique–”

“Shut up, Gregory, and row.”

I mean, think about what she’s communicated in those two lines. There are two people, one female and one male. They’re in a boat. The man is rowing. He protests about something (CONFLICT!). The woman is obviously in charge of the situation.

That’s a hell of a lot of information to convey in two short lines.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: See how much you can convey or imply in two short lines.

MA