That is what popped into my head when I have a chance to write a 'Junyeobland' .
Snow White? Cinderella? Sleeping beauty? According to my memory, they had never been my troops. It's not only because they are 'extremely' boring to me. But maybe I don't like its stereotyped synopsis. Why always good versus evil? Why always good defeats evil with ridiculous gambit? Maybe I was sick of too 'Disney-like' characters and stories.
'I'll never build my own fiction like that. I swear I'll never.'
After a short brainstorm, the first sentence of the entire story was complete.
Once upon a time, there existed Juneyeobland....
'Fine. Mundane start. Be a bit sadistic to the storyline. Little dystopiatic, but not too much.'
'Great. I like this setting. Isn't it sounds more interesting than a bright, shiny kingdom with a beautiful princess?'
Since it was always dark, people were all gloomy, and crimes occurred every day. Crops wouldn't grow, and rivers were stained with blood. The country itself was a nightmare.
'Perfect. Now I constructed a concrete plot of the Junyeobland. I can assure that this dark and gloomy setting will lead to serious events. And this serious plots will fascinate readers! So... now, I need a character who begins the story.'
I spun my pen twice, right and left, and start thinking again. Soon, marvelous ideas about story flourished from my brain. I garnered every one of them and polished with refined thought.
One day, a lady with glittering dress came to the country and said, "Let's have festival every day! It shall bring light and happiness to this land." Since that day, there was music, glittering lights, and party in every part of the country. Many visitors came to see this exquisite place. One of the visitors was a young princess from a distant country. She lived on a dark, stormy land where the sun never shined. Since the princess had never seen a sun, she was also dark and gloomy.
'So now is the time that the villain should advent.'
But stereotyped villain, which represents the pure evil is not appropriate in my story. Who believes Cinderella's stepmother is attractive to readers? This is my personal opinion, but villain should leave the intense impression to readers as main characters.
'Villain is also a trend.' I murmured.
Then, what kinds of incarnation of evil should villain be? Jealous? Avarice? Abomination? Seven different sins of mankind?Or madness of human who wants to destroys the world for fun? Since I knew that my head was full of miscellaneous thoughts, I need to calm down and filter my thoughts.
'Great Idea. I like that.'
When the princess saw people enjoying the festival, she was so annoyed. She wanted to break the peace and joy. So she made up a plan. One day, she stood up upon the festival, dressed like......
But I was little worried about the appearance of the princess. I always want to escape from the stereotype. But if she is the main villain, then there should be proper descriptions of her in order to represent her 'evilness' to readers. After a short thought, I finished this sentence with a single description.
....a witch.
Sorry to my conviction. But I can't imagine a more appropriate word than the 'witch' in this context. However, I soon realized that Junyeobland had also becoming archetypical. Full of cliche, cliche, and cliche. And that is 100% antipodal to what I have sworn before.
'Okay... to break some cliche, it need some small reversal.'
With the handful of apples on her hands. She screamed, and threw one apple in the middle of the crowd. One man picked up the apple, and everyone was astonished. The apple was shining gold. Princess said to the crowd with screeching voice, "The most beautiful shall own this apple." Then she disappeared, with giggling laughter.
'The most beautiful shall own this apple.' Just like a witch inside story, I also giggled and keep writing.
The storyline of Iliad overlaps with Junyeobland. Princess acts just as Eris, the goddess of strife and discord. 'Aren't they ridiculous?'
'But I always want to break such boring and archetypical development in my story.'
'If I do, some kinds of reversals are imperative!'
From that moment, my logic had nearly lost its control. I grabbed my pen straight and scribbled.
The storyline of Iliad overlaps with Junyeobland. Princess acts just as Eris, the goddess of strife and discord. 'Aren't they ridiculous?'
'But I always want to break such boring and archetypical development in my story.'
'If I do, some kinds of reversals are imperative!'
From that moment, my logic had nearly lost its control. I grabbed my pen straight and scribbled.
'A word that means both ugliness and ridicule. Does it actually exists?'
For more than a minutes, I cogitated and cogitated like philosophers in the school of Athens. But I couldn't find the optimal word in this sentence.
...squids," she quoted. "Can't you see the real jewel in front of you?"
The three women were about to fight when a man stopped them. "This isn't something that you women can solve by yourselves. Since this is a very difficult conundrum, let's open a contest to decide the prettiest women in Juneyeobland." Three women agreed.
'But Junyeobland doesn't need Prince Paris to judge who is the most beautiful. Instead, it should be more democratic.'
And the only word popped in my brain was 'Beauty contest'.
And the only word popped in my brain was 'Beauty contest'.
Okay. Now it's time to burst every reversal at once! Cliche should be broken. Archetypes should be abandoned. Boring and stereotypical Disney-like story should be over! Now is the climax. Junyeobland should be different, as I sworn.
But bell ring was much faster than my handwriting. I recognized that chain writing should be over right now. But my story isn't done yet. Anyway, it needs ending
What I had to do is end Junyeobland as possible. Leaving every plots and event as MacGuggin, ignoring the logical sequence of each plots, I barely wrote the last part of Junyeobland.
Suddenly, lights went out, and a scream pierced through the darkness. And then there was none.
Thanks, Agatha Christie.
A writer writing about his story as he writes it - has potential but also will have a very big challenge in fulfilling the "meta" of metafiction unless there's a distinct purpose to the outer layer of the author's narrative. Really we only learn how he or she feels about what they are writing and there's no "story" to float it. So I can't confidently say this is metafiction or containing distinctive and purposeful layers. Generally this doesn't challenge the potential of the assignment and falls short of the mark, instead ending up as some satirical meanderings about cliches and writing. Not bad, but a bit limited. Some good sentences and thoughtful writing though.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a straightforward piece of writing: a boy writing his chain-writing essay. It was funny to see what the boy thinks and hesitates before he writes. But I was confused whether this was a metafiction, because the two stories-a boy writing and a story that he writes-seem like a one story, one event. Also, perhaps the ending could be more funnier or have greater impact if there was some "twist" in the whole plot.
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