In search of Felix, the dragon

The following is a letter I wrote as part of a writing exercise. Enjoy and have a great holiday season :) 

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year, I would like it if you could help my dear friend Thomas Thum. Thomas has been keeping me company these days and, of course, would never presume to ask anything of you himself. However, he has himself a very unusual situation and the fact of the matter is that something really must be done about it. 

And so, I thought I would ask if, on your way to our house, you could stop by Stuart Littles and collect Thomas’ green dragon, Felix, so he can return him to his dream catcher, Sedalle. Sadelle has a very tender stomach and needs Felix to roast the nightmares she catches to make them more digestible. At the moment she’s over run with the things and feeling so very sick she’s been puking them out, which causes poor Thomas to have a horrendous sleep. 

Stuart borrowed Felix from Thomas one evening in November, after being almost caught and eaten by a cat on the way to our house! Since then, he’s been too scared bring Felix back and claims that he’s lost him! I personally think he likes having Felix around as protection, which has put us in a bit of a bind. Thomas is too small to safely travel in this snow and I’m to big to fit into Stuart’s house. I thought perhaps, being Christmas and all, that this would be the best solution and that maybe, in return for Felix, you could give Stuart his own dragon for Christmas. 

As usual I will leave some milk and cookies out for you. 

Your friend, 

Léonie 

Wild Things

What's the most wild thing you can possibly think of, I'm talking weird and bizarre. Trust me, this is a good exercise. I stumbled upon this quite by accident. Writing professors are forever saying 'put you characters up a tree and then throw rocks at them,' and I think that phrase has been used so much it's become clichéd. This is kind of like the same thing from a different angle.

Take something mundane like a year of the tiger stamp which is currently at Canada Post. It's beautiful in oranges and blacks with a gold foil tiger on it. Beautiful. What if it was enchanted? Or what if the tiger cam to life? How would it come to life? Would there be some kind of ritual or spell? Why would it come to life?

Now you have the makings of a story. One must have characters to make it happen. How are they going to react if it comes to life? Will it be a good thing or a bad thing? How will they defeat it? Maybe the stamp represents some oppressor and the main characters are fighting for their rights. Now you have the beginnings of a possibly political commentary.

Now comes to the fun part, building suspense and putting it all together so that it makes sense. Your plot, characters, and story have just evolved out of a stamp. Cool isn't it? Isn't this something like what nursery rhymes originated as... political commentary children learnt as fun senseless rhymes? That is if my memory serves me correctly.