The Fart Of Fiction, No. 9

The air is thick. Air is made of molecules, and therefore has mass, thickened by natural gas from the human body. Relief. A moment passes in the bathroom. I'm sitting on the toilet flipping through Goodreads on the phone. It's a life lesson when one roll of toilet paper has to last a week. The toilet flushes. A nostril flares, then the other, enraged by indifferent male readers, I'm disgusted.

The best weird science fiction can be found in "Slaughterhouse-Five" or "Naked Lunch" while the best gagging horror from "Trainspotting" got cut from the movie. "Don Quixote" was ahead of its time before Hunter S. Thompson's wild crusade to transform picaresque into gonzo journalism. I'm starting to read "Catch-22" and I'm loving the depth of dialogue introducing the characters.

Every writer knows to show and don't tell, but what does it mean? Dialogue can move a story and describe actions without telling the reader. Lyrically dense writing describes the mindset of characters, if the story is a first-person point of view from his/her perspective. A powerful story is issue-driven, not always shocking, but needs great dialogue and insightful internal monologue. Maybe you want to describe the mind of a mentally unhealthy, drugged-up guy, or maybe not.

This holiday season, write and read and listen. Write a cool scene with the first Indigenous superhero represented in a comic book. Don't read something that's good, read something that's great. Listen to Baby, It's Cold Outside, but if you're tired of Christmas music all year round delve inside Bill's mind.