No Flash Fiction This Friday

I tried. Really, I did. 

I checked this week's F3 prompt. I researched "pulp fiction." I found lots of really cool covers. I learned that "pulp" refers to the type of paper (pulpy, cheap) that these magazines were printed on. I discovered that Indiana Jones is considered pulp fiction. I thought--well, I can write something like Indiana Jones. 

I listened as my son watched Disney's recent version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in the background. I contemplated its pulp fiction characteristics: over-the-top heroes and villians, sorcery, magic, adventure. It was missing the scantily clad damsel in distress, though. Which is good. An eight-year-old doesn't need to watch a movie with scantily clad damsels, regardless of said damsels' distress levels.

I thought about ways I could turn the genre on its ear. I'm resistant to the whole "woman needs a man to rescue her" storyline we perpetuate in our culture. Maybe I'd put a man in distress and have a woman rescue him. 

Or what about lesbian pulp fiction? I did more research. Turns out the women always "got what was coming to them" in the end. I didn't like that. Maybe I'd give my heroine(s) a happy ending.

I opened my word processing software. I watched the cursor blink, mocking me. I waited a day, to see if ideas would appear. I stared at a blank page during my work hour. I turned on my computer at home and tried again. No luck.

I turned off the computer and snuggled with my son while we watched "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Again. Still no ideas. But it was a good way to spend an evening, even if it was the second time watching a silly movie with a thousand plot holes. The eight-year-old's giggles were worth it.

I did homework. I went to class. I went to my other class. And then I woke up, and it was Friday, and I still didn't have a pulp fiction piece. 

But I tried. That counts for something, right? And, who knows--maybe someday the research will germinate and a little flower of an idea will start to grow and something crazy or wonderful or fun will blossom from this little exercise.