Story Proposals (Iggy)

1) The World’s Smallest Violin

Characters:
A forty-something man (nameless)
A rocking-horse

Plot:
The story is about a man who plays the violin while riding his rocking-horse, while a group of people watch him while he does this. The story won’t really have a plot; it's just going to have a lot of descriptions that would hopefully reveal the man's past and personality. It's going to be very phenomenological, with lots of describing as it is.

Reason for writing this:
My parents recently brought a reproduction of Elmer Borlongan's painting "The Rocking Horse," and the painting really took my breath away to the point that I told myself I would write something about it. A piece of fiction I read in the Phil. Free Press, "Barbed Hula" by Danielle Miller, also inspired me to do this. To add to that, I've always been interested in doing prose poetry, even if I don't really understand how it's done (but I'll try it anyway). But as I was all set to write the story, I did a bit of research on Borlongan's "The Rocking Horse," and found out that it has already been used for the children's story division of a previous Palanca contest, with over 80 entries inspired by the painting, so I guess what I'm about to do isn't going to be new anymore. But what the hell, I'm still gonna go through with it.

Research Method:
- Reread “Good Morning” by Gloria Frym, because it is an example of prose poetry
- Reread “Barbed Hula” by Danielle Miller
- Stare at the painting for hours; immerse myself in the beauty of the painting and hopefully derive a message from it
- Research on phenomenology


2) My Grandma’s Going to Eat Me (temporary title)

Characters:
A little boy (very skinny)
The little boy’s grandma

Plot:
The story is about a little boy who thinks his grandma is a witch who’s going to eat him, because she keeps telling him to “fatten up” every time they have dinner. It’s going to be told from the boy’s point of view, and is going to be slightly dark and morbid, although I intend to write it like a children's story. I'm not really sure if I can make it sound like a children's story because the theme is pretty dark, but I'll try. Bahala na.

Reason for writing this:
A friend of mine once asked me to submit a children’s story for Heights once, and this is what I thought of writing. But I was never able to start the story, because I was pressed for time and didn’t have inspiration back then. This is also going to be semi-autobiographical, because I used to feel this way about my grandma. And DM Reyes once said that if an idea stays with you for a pretty long time, then that's probably a story waiting to be written, so I want to write this down.

Research Method:
- Read “Hansel & Gretel”
- Read some children’s stories
- Reread “Fear” by Rhys Davies (hopefully pattern it after that story)
- Research stuff about a child's psychology, if there's something like that


3) (no title yet)

Characters:
Boy and girl (both nameless for now)

Plot:
A day in the life of a boy and a girl. They both live next door to each in an apartment in Quiapo, but they've never minded one another even if they bump into each other. Something brings them together a week before the girl is about to leave, It’s set in the day when the girl is about to leave for another country, and on that last day both of them reminisce about the past week they spent together, and the story follows their conversations as they go around Quiapo.

Reason for writing this:
I've had a lot of awkward moments with women. Sometimes when I like someone, I wouldn't pay her the least bit of attention, for reasons I can't fathom. This story is going to be something of a challenge for me, since I'm terrible at the art of conversation, but I like to challenge myself every now and then haha. And there are times when I like to imagine what would transpire when I've actually talked to someone I like (because there are still people out there I've never talked to and have no intention of talking to in the future), and I want to express it in the form of a lame story.

Research Method:
- Go to Quiapo to get a feel of the place (hopefully a girl will tag along with me :P)
- Talk to a lot of girls so that the conversations in the story would seem realistic.
- Watch "Before Sunset"
- Read stuff that Haruki Murakami wrote, because he's always had some interesting conversations in his stories.