AJ's It's A Wonderful Life W/O
Dec 16 '05 (Updated Feb 10 '06)
The Bottom Line Looking for very special fiction, poetry, and song lyrics for my reading pleasure. Who would like to write some?
I'm looking for wonderful--and I mean LITERALLY wonderful!--stories to read over the winter months while I'm snowed-in and drinking my hot cocoa with mini-marshmallows.
More specifically, I'm looking for original fiction that's based on one of my favorite--if not my favorite--movies:
It's A Wonderful Life
For this reason, I'm hosting this creative W/O.
In order to be sure of getting your name live-linked, submit anytime between now and the end of Winter 2006 (March 20)--and you can submit more than once. Just leave a URL to it in my comment section.
Here's a description of what I'm wanting (several different categories, which are shown in boldface, so read through all of the possibilities)...
Some Possibilities For Sequels:
What happened to the various characters?
Once he put the missing money back where it belongs (using part of the money that came pouring into his house), what did George do with the rest of the money?
No doubt, he used some of it to help his fellow townspeople, but did he also use it for anything personal such as making repairs on his home; taking his family on vacation; etc.?
How about Old Man Potter?
Did he ever come clean about his part in making the money disappear?
Even if he didn't, did he somehow sneak the money in with the rest of the money?
Did he become a better person, too? Or, did he never change?
What was the rest of George Bailey's life like? What did his kids grow up to do/be?
You can even write a piece telling about his death and funeral including such things as how people responded, what the service was like, and what it was like for him crossing over. You might even throw in a reunion with Clarence.
You can even write a story about another part of his family (e.g. tell about the rest of Harry's life--or a slice of it; tell if Uncle Billy ever found someone special and got married and what kind of life they had together).
You can tell the story of other townspeople--such as a story about Mr. Gower and his struggle with alcohol; or whether or not Violet stayed a bachelor girl or settled down.
Some Possibilities For Prequels:
How did Old Man Potter turn out to be the vile guy that he was? Did he have some kind of big disappointment in his life when he was a young adult? Was he traumatized in some way as a child (e.g. was molested, saw someone he loved get murdered)?
When did Mr. Gower start having a problem with alcohol? Also, tell about a happier time with the son who died--perhaps, about the day he was born, ending with Mr. Gower thinking about that happier time while he drowned his sorrows in drink. Or, perhaps, make the story that, somehow, he and his son had become estranged over some misunderstanding or disagreement--and how he had, so many times, wanted to pick up the phone and tell him that he wanted for them to put it behind them, but his pride got in the way. And, then, he'd received that telegram and knew that this chance was lost to him.
Tell the story of the time when Mr. Martini first came to this country--everything from leaving his homeland to sailing to America to his experiences upon arriving at Ellis Island to how he'd worked his way into being able to afford his restaurant (and how Bailey Building & Loan made this all possible).
Tell about how George's dad and uncle got into the building and loan business (e.g. What inspired them to make this decision? What kinds of problems they might have had getting it launched.).
What was Clarence like before he passed away. It's known that he was a watchmaker and might have had some mild form of mental retardation. Take into consideration the time when his death would have occurred (about 300 years before the current time--making it around 1645). You might even want to do a story of him as a child--someone who might have been considered to be feebleminded but somehow found his niche in watchmaking as well as ending up with the love of a good woman, as he was married at the time of his passing.
Some Possibilities For Other Ways To Go With This:
Imagine Old Man Potter dying unready to go to Heaven, so he's to do something towards getting reformed. What might it be? Would he become like Jacob Marley and try to help the living turn their lives around? Would he become an assignment of the now-winged-but-still-working Clarence who would show him what his life could have been like and all of the positive differences he could have made, had he made the right choices?
Retell the story of George Bailey but do it in a different way, such as:
1. Do it in rhythm and rhyme--or a haiku sequence. Or even write it as song lyrics with a chorus.
2. Put it into a different era--anything from a few centuries ago, to the present time, to the future.
3. Write a story with a George Bailey type character but change one or more things about him (e.g. Make him a woman; make him Black; make him a struggling musician or writer; even make him gay.).
4. Write the story in the voice of another writer (e.g. Charles Dickens, Steven Spielberg, Shirley Jackson).
5. Re-write the story so it would be a good children's story.
Revisit Bedford Falls today and describe what it now looks like--what's changed, what's the same, how many people from back then are still alive, etc.
Write about the beginning and growth of Bailey Park. What does it look like now? Who lives there?
Even though Clarence isn't trying to earn his wings anymore, I would imagine that he's still involved in helping people. Write about one or more individuals/families/organizations who get touched by an angel where that angel just happens to be Clarence.
George and Mary would be in their late 90s now, so it's possible that one or both of them might still be alive. Are they still living in the family home? Are they in a nursing home or retirement center? Perhaps, they live with one of their grown kids--possibly, in the same home.
Keeping this in mind, have them being interviewed by a (pick one: local child doing a school project, college student who is studying the elderly, reporter working on a documentary), and one of the stories they relate are the memories of that Christmas and the events leading up to it.
Perhaps, they're both there participating in the interview. Perhaps, one of them has passed on. Perhaps, one of them still has a perfectly healthy mind while the other one has Alzheimer's. That's for you to decide.
What would be George and/or Mary's views on modern technology such as computers, cell-phones, picture phones, space travel, etc.?
All of the Bailey kids would be between their early sixties to early seventies, so they would be retired by now, more than likely. Imagine that one of them is doing volunteer work in the schools and has come across one or more kids (likely, teenaged but could also be younger) who feel his/her/their life/lives is/are worthless. The response would be to tell the story of his/her dad to inspire him/her/them.
Imagine that one of the kids has gone into the ministry and has decided to share the story of his/her dad from the pulpit. Write the sermon given that day.
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There aren't a lot of rules to go along with this beyond:
1. If you're writing a prequel or sequel--or anything dealing with the characters as Frank Capra created them--don't stray too far from what they would be like. Example: Don't turn Mr. Martini into a man of few words who speaks in monotone. Don't turn Mary into a shrill and nagging wife. Although you can add one or more kids later, don't change the current kids so that they have cerebral palsy, are born blind or deaf, have Down Syndrome, etc. Don't turn Zuzu into a girl with straight black hair.
2. In cases where you're changing the story to, for instance, put it in another era or make the Bailey family Black, still stick with the basic plot of the story, even if you change the environment, situation, etc. in some ways. Otherwords, do as people who have written different versions of A Christmas Carol have done so that the main elements appear in each version, even when Scrooge is a Black female owner of a loan company, a cowboy, or the cut-throat female owner of a department store.
3. No meanspirited stories that promote racism, gay-bashing, devil-worship, persecution of people because of their religion, etc. While those things can be part of the storyline, they must be presented in a non-sympathetic way.
4. Put your URL(s) to your story/stories in my comment section between now and the last day of February in order to be assured (God willing and my computer doesn't fizzle out) of having your name hyperlinked.
5. Enter them in a fiction category or, in the case of song lyrics, in that category. They can be in either category.
6. Be sure to link your entry/entries back to this post--or, if you don't know how to make links, put in a URL, which will automatically become hyperlinked.
7. Finally, have a great time doing this and be sure to let others know that this w/o is going on.
There's a very good chance that more people will be reading your stories than those in our neighborhood, as I'll be hyperlinking back to this post in my Epinions-related blog.
You can visit this blog by going here:
http://aj4eps.blogspot.com/
or else going to my profile page and clicking on the live link that is part of my information there.
Go Here For Wonderful Talent:
Sixthsense
ddustyrose
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Epinions.com ID:
AinsleyJo
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Member: Ainsley Jo Phillips
Location: Anderson, Indiana
Reviews written: 269
Trusted by: 220 members
About Me:
I'm hosting a write-off: http://www.epinions.com/content_5362983044
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