I’ve been getting into creative writing lately.

When I was in high school, I used to write a lot.  Mostly short stories.  I really enjoyed it, and apparently I was pretty good at it too.  As a junior in high school I won a Brown University Book Award for my “academic excellence combined with clarity in written and spoken expression.”

I’ve always remembered that nice formal affirmation.  Despite the fact that I never ended up going to Brown.  And that I spent most of my academic focus in high school playing D&D.

But such an affirmation doesn’t mean anything if you don’t actually continue to write.

I’ve recently started using this blog as a way to share some ongoing short stories.  But I need to branch out.  I can’t write solely about virtual worlds.  I need to practice a wider range of writing.  Especially writing dialogue.  Creating believable characters requires creating engaging dialogue.  Even more so if you’re trying to give them a sense of humor.

And writing is hard.  It takes big chunks of time to write a short story.  I need a way to practice writing dialogue.  Short bits of it.  And hopefully funny stuff.

So I’m starting a new series of ongoing short blog posts.

I’m calling it “Authentic Animal Conversations.”

Every day I’m online, I’m going to cruise Flickr to find an interesting photo of animals.  I’ll add some dialogue for the animals in the Flickr comments. Then I’ll put up the picture and my dialogue on my blog.

And I’ll do my best to go beyond the typical lolcat type of humor.  I want to write believable and funny conversations that actually tell a little story.

I hope you find it entertaining.

Authentic Animal Conversation #1: “Seeds”

© All rights reserved by Suzen JueL

“Steve, come on. This stuff is delicious.”

“Guys, you are eating frozen seeds in the snow. FROZEN SEEDS.”

“Fine, be that way.”

“I’ll be any way I want, Fred. I can’t even feel my toes anymore standing in this snow. Jesus.”

“All you do is complain, man. Why don’t you go away and bother those cats?”

“Fine. I’m outta here. Oh, and good lucky trying to be all hidey with your new seed buffet. You realize you’re a bunch of black birds on a stark white snowscape, right? And there are cats here.”

“What?”

“Forget it. I’m gone.”

“Guys, we need to vote Steve off the farm. Seriously.”

-John “Pathfinder” Lester

P.S.  I first got this idea when I came across a picture of cats posted on Flickr by Suzen JueL.  Thanks for the inspiration, Suzen.  If you keep laughing, I’ll keep writing.  🙂