{"id":5236,"date":"2010-08-10T21:50:33","date_gmt":"2010-08-11T02:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.net\/?p=5236"},"modified":"2010-08-10T21:50:33","modified_gmt":"2010-08-11T02:50:33","slug":"on-writing-silly-short-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=5236","title":{"rendered":"On Writing Silly Short Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

I Tweeted this morning<\/a> that “I woke up with the feeling that I dreamt a short story, but the feeling doesn’t tell me what it was or anything about it, just that it was.”<\/p>\n

What that story was<\/i> came to me, somewhere around 11:30. Unsurprisingly, my immediate thought was, “Wait, I dreamt that<\/i>?‽!” Clearly, Sunday’s post<\/a> on The Rutles: LUNCH<\/a><\/i> touched unsuspecting parts of the subconscious.<\/p>\n

Without further ado, “Ouch!”… <\/p>\n

OUCH!
A Doctor Who<\/i> Flash Fiction<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

“Liverpool, Pond! The twenty-sixth century,” the Doctor announced, positively exuberant. “As promised, a cultural landmark! The Beatles Museum…”<\/p>\n

Amy punched him in the shoulder. “Rutles, you mean. The Rutles<\/i> Museum!” She skipped up the museum’s marble steps, leaving the Doctor to stare at the psychedelically-painted facade.<\/p>\n

The Doctor’s mood deflated, and his eyes narrowed. “Rutles? That’s not right…” His voice trailed away.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

“Just listen<\/i>, Doctor! ‘A Hard Day’s Rut’!” Vicki positively beamed.<\/p>\n

“Oh, certainly not, child!” The Doctor grasped his coat and pulled it tighter, as if to ward off the raucous music. Secretly, however, the Doctor found the song catchy.<\/p>\n

It’s a hard day’s rut
\nAnd I’m pissed like a drunk
\nIt’s a hard day’s rut
\nAnd I’m stinky like a skunk<\/i><\/p>\n

“But it’s classical music, Doctor! Just like Mozart!”<\/p>\n

“Mozart!” The Doctor harrumphed. “Let me tell you a story…”<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Pen in hand, Ron Nasty scribbled out lyrics on a napkin.<\/p>\n

“Beautiful Zelda, from galaxy five.”<\/p>\n

He appraised his work, then scratched out the last word, writing “four” in its place. “Beautiful Zelda, from galaxy four<\/i>.” Yes, a good choice, that. “Four” is an easier word to rhyme than “five.”<\/p>\n

Dirk would have no idea what this song was about. Of course, Dirk had no idea about much of anything, except that blasted tea.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

No one had heard of the Beatles. Liverpool’s most famous citizens, and they were totally unknown. The Rutles, on the other hand…<\/p>\n

The Rutles, as best the Doctor could tell, filled completely<\/i> the cultural niche that was the Beatles. Whatever he remembered the Beatles doing, the Rutles had done it instead — if “instead” meant “as if viewed through a funhouse mirror.”<\/p>\n

He would have to investigate this. The cracks that had destroyed the Angels and erased Rory — that was the only thing that made sense. If the Beatles didn’t exist, the universe would simply have to invent them.<\/p>\n

“La-de-doo, oh la-de-dah, here we are in Shangri-La!”<\/p>\n

“Amy, please stop singing. Or sing something good. But not that. Anything but that.”<\/p>\n

“You don’t like ‘Shangri-La’?”<\/p>\n

The Doctor frowned. “I like it well enough. I happen to like ‘Hey Jude’ more.”<\/p>\n

Amy shot him a puzzled look. “‘Hey Jude’? Is that some of your weird ‘space music’?”<\/p>\n

Yes, the Doctor would definitely<\/i> have to fix this. That John still owed him money was beside the point. The world needed “Hey Jude.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I Tweeted this morning that “I woke up with the feeling that I dreamt a short story, but the feeling doesn’t tell me what it was or anything about it, just that it was.” What that story was came to me, somewhere around 11:30. Unsurprisingly, my immediate thought was, “Wait, I dreamt that?‽!” Clearly, Sunday’sContinue reading “On Writing Silly Short Stories”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[4082,197,396,566],"class_list":["post-5236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-doctor-who","tag-eleventh-doctor","tag-silly","tag-the-rutles","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}