"Most people dream a dream when they are asleep. But to be a writer, you have to dream while you are awake, intentionally. So I get up early in the morning, 4 o'clock, and I sit at my desk and what I do is just dream. After three or four hours, that's enough. In the afternoon, I run. The next day, the dream will continue."-- Haruki Murakami
When I began my adventure through the alphabet, I couldn't help but think of Sue Grafton and her alphabet series of murder mysteries. When asked what the inspiration was for this series, she said:
"I was always fascinated by mysteries that had linking or related titles. I knew about John D. MacDonald whose titles were connected through color and Harry Kemelman who joined his titles by the days of the week. One day I was reading The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a book of cartoons by Edward Gorey, which is a series of pen and ink drawings of little Victorian children "done in" by various means..."A is for Amy who fell down the stairs...B is for Basil assaulted by Bears...C is for Clara who wasted away," etc... A cartoon light bulb formed above my head and I thought to myself, "Gee, why couldn't you do a series of novels based on the alphabet?" At that point, I sat down and made an alphabetical list of all the crime related words I could think of."
This definitely backs up my premise that using the alphabet as an organization tool.
(By the way, if you are a fan of mystery, crime, thriller, spy and suspense books, click on the screaming woman above to go to the website, "Stop, You're Killing me," where you can explore these genres--It is organized, of course, alphabetically.)
"I was always fascinated by mysteries that had linking or related titles. I knew about John D. MacDonald whose titles were connected through color and Harry Kemelman who joined his titles by the days of the week. One day I was reading The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a book of cartoons by Edward Gorey, which is a series of pen and ink drawings of little Victorian children "done in" by various means..."A is for Amy who fell down the stairs...B is for Basil assaulted by Bears...C is for Clara who wasted away," etc... A cartoon light bulb formed above my head and I thought to myself, "Gee, why couldn't you do a series of novels based on the alphabet?" At that point, I sat down and made an alphabetical list of all the crime related words I could think of."
This definitely backs up my premise that using the alphabet as an organization tool.
(By the way, if you are a fan of mystery, crime, thriller, spy and suspense books, click on the screaming woman above to go to the website, "Stop, You're Killing me," where you can explore these genres--It is organized, of course, alphabetically.)
Challenge
Write a story or poem that involves a killing. It could be literal or metaphorical.
If you get stuck, consider the Murakami quote at the beginning of the blog. Just pretend you are sleeping and dreaming.
I will close with this last bit of advice from Murakami:
"When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say."
If you get stuck, consider the Murakami quote at the beginning of the blog. Just pretend you are sleeping and dreaming.
I will close with this last bit of advice from Murakami:
"When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say."
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