Friday Fictioneers — Magenta and Cyan Equals Purple, Right?

Folks, I’m disappearing off into the sunset throughout the month of November and not participating in Friday Fictioneers during that time. During my absence I’m going to attempt to write at least 50,000 words of satirical science fiction as a participant in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The novel’s working title is The Parable Teller.

This is my first attempt to write a starter draft that fast. My record is three months, following three months of research. You’ll only see me back at FF before November 30 if I flunk the challenge. Meanwhile, I hope to post once-weekly progress reports on my blog, perhaps with the occasional excerpt if I have time to edit it, as nobody gets to see my raw drafts of anything!

If any other Friday Fictioneers are participating in the madness and want to link up as a NaNoWriMo buddy, my username over there is Wolery Wol. I’ve one buddy so far, and that’s none other than Dale!

So here’s my story for this week’s Friday Fictioneers (in which the colour purple features … especially for Rochelle, of course!). And many thanks to Roger Bultot for the wonderfully picturesque photo prompt.

Genre: Mainstream
Word count: 100

MAGENTA AND CYAN EQUALS PURPLE, RIGHT?

“Sunsets aren’t purple.”

“The one was at teatime yesterday, Miss.”

“Viewed through a glass of blackcurrant juice, you mean?”

Robbie’s ears and cheeks burned with a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

Sophie threw him a sideways glance and started to giggle.

“What’s so funny, Sophie?” asked their art teacher.

“Robbie’s gone the colour of a proper sunset, Miss.”

He tore up his painting and stormed out of the classroom, yelling, “Everybody can eff off!” Then headed for the headmaster’s office, determined to get in the first word.

“Sir, I’m here to lodge a complaint against the curriculum.  It murders imagination.”

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To read other Friday Fictioneers’ stories for this week, or to add a 100-word story of your own, please click on the blue frog below.

Author: Sarah Potter Writes

Sarah is a British eccentric who writes offbeat fiction, haiku and tanka poetry. When stuck for words, she sketches or paints instead. She's into nature conservation, sustainability, gardening, dogs, natural health, and reading. Her sociability is something that happens in short bursts with long breathing spaces in between.

60 thoughts on “Friday Fictioneers — Magenta and Cyan Equals Purple, Right?”

    1. Thank you, Bill. I’ll miss you, too, but hope to do a grand catch-up of blog reading in December, or sneak peeks in November if I should find myself ahead of my word count any week! I hope to manage a haiku or tanka on Monday, but am not sure if this will happen, as the plumber will be installing a new boiler in my house and the pump is upstairs in my home office D:

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  5. Haha! He may even receive a sympathetic hearing, if the school has just been Ofsted-ed. (For non-UK residents, OFSTED is the organisation that inspects schools in the UK. Almost all teachers hate it, and view it as stifling education in favour of targets and rigid adherence to the curriculum. To “be Ofsted-ed” is to be inspected by OFSTED, a gruelling process over several days.)

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    1. You’re right. Teachers do hate it. I know some who have literally made themselves ill with stress before the inspection. Then there are those darned SATs tests to stress out the children, too. Everything has become so over-regulated D:

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  6. I’m in favour of Robbie. And, if you ask me, this particular photo does have a touch of purple!
    And sadly, yes; most institutions do kill creativity… sigh…

    See ya at NaNoWriMo! I’m hoping I don’t flunk this time…

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    1. As you probably gathered, I didn’t care for school that much, although I did like my art teacher!
      I’m suffering slight jitters about NaNoWriMo. They suggest that you write the opening paragraph or two on Oct 31, so you’re not faced with a blank page on Nov 01. I guess that helps you focus on what point in the proposed story you want to start. We will encourage each other..,

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      1. I’ve done NaNoWriMo twice but it was a tag team sort of thing. A local published author comes up with the first chapter then each day a different writer enters the next part of the story. It’s pretty fun because you can make a plan but by the time it comes to your day there have often been many plot twists.

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  8. As to Robbie: talk about a temperamental artist! People will always critique; hope he learns to deal with it.
    As to schooling: we experienced unstructured learning in Gr 10. One of pur teachers believed that children love to learn, so he gave us our reading and some instructions, then left the room.🤗
    Good thing it was Chemistry because none of us learned much of anything that class that year.
    As to Nanowrimo, I’m doing it too, using me maiden name, Christine Evelyn Vance.

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    1. My son used to hate criticism from teachers, until he realised that some of them had his best interests at heart. But I could never convince him that sports teachers were anything other than sadists!
      That’s funny about the Chemistry teacher. He’d never have survived Ofsted inspections. I had an English teacher who used to bring her guitar to class and sing us Joan Baez songs! She also read us comic poems that I’m sure weren’t on the curriculum.
      Thanks for your email on Nanowrimo. I’ve just emailed you back and added you as a buddy.

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      1. Our Chem teacher’s name was Mr Whittet and I found out years later that the other teachers referred to him as “Mr Witt-out-it” because he spent all his time in the Teacher’s Lounge. 🙂
        I don’t think it was his concept of learning; I suspect the poor man was simply overwhelmed when the job ideal, High School Prof, met the reality of 30 students per class all day long.
        Glad your son saw the light finally. As human beings we do hate criticism — but we’re all going to get lots of it as we go through life. And quite a bit of it will actually help us if we can only stop resenting it. 😉
        See you at NaNoWriMo. 🙂

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  10. Dear Sarah,

    I had two very wonderful art teachers, Mr. O’Neil in grade school and Mrs. Spears in junior high. They are large in my memory and always have my gratitude for not stifling creativity. As for Robbie, he’s destined to be a great artist. Thanks for the purple nod. 😉
    Best of luck with NaNoWriMo. I thought about it briefly since I have a new WIP…then decided this one will require time and research. And there’s still the coffee table book in the works. Those are my excuses and I’m sticking to them. You will be missed in FF my friend.

    Shalom,

    Rochelle

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    1. Dear Rochelle,

      I have no complaints about any of my art teachers, although didn’t end up as a wonderful artist like you, but I’ve always loved drawing and painting, even though I’ve not done enough of it latterly.
      Thanks for your good luck wishes for NaNoWriMo. My main aim is to slam out my novel, do some research on the hop, and go with the flow, seeing where my characters take me. I’ve got far too pedantic about my writing lately and need to boot myself up my backside and recapture some of the joy of writing my first novel without a care in the world!
      I’ve been a bit intermittent this month with FF and non-existent on FB, but will try to do better in December.

      All best wishes,
      Sarah

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      1. Dear Sarah,

        I look forward to Skyping with you in December. 😉 (Or if you need a brief respite). And I hope to be able to read your NaNoWriMo offering. All the best.

        Shalom,

        Rochelle

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      2. Dear Rochelle,

        I likewise. December it will be for Skyping, if not before. I probably won’t be showing anyone my first draft, but I’ll be participating in the official NaNo rewrite months during January and February. Thereafter, I’ll value some feedback from beta-readers! This is assuming that I’ve actually finished the first draft in November, as I tend to write books that are longer than 50,000 words.

        All best wishes,
        Sarah

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  11. School kills imagination, that was my experience too. Though I doubt would have had the balls to go to the headmasters office to complain about it. Good on him!

    Good luck with NaNoWriMo! I may be doing it too but on a much less ambitious target word count: 10000 words… better than nothing though.

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    2. I used to argue with teachers, but never thought to go to the headmistress and complain about their injustice! My main problem was that anything innovative got sat upon. For instance, in maths I used to get furious if I’d managed to work out the correct answers to problems but was marked down for not using standard calculations to get those answers. It quite put me off maths.

      Thanks for your good luck wishes for NaNoWriMo. You never know, you might aim for 10000 words and get swept along on a creative surge and find yourself writing 50000 instead! Go for it, Fatima 🙂

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    1. I know all about wishing to have come up with a great comeback, knowing how many imaginary scenarios I’ve played in my head where I’m super-brave and heroic and can always find the right words in real-time … hah, hah! Dream on, Sarah 😉 Thanks for your good luck wishes re my novel, Andrea 🙂 I keep on thinking up quirky and humorous scenes for it. At the moment, it refuses to be serious.

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    1. The trouble is that those who don’t get in the first word, often don’t get heard. In an ideal world, everybody would get a fair hearing.
      Thank you for your good luck wishes 🙂

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  15. I had a good art teacher is high school (pretty sure she was a stoner). She definitely wasn’t one to stifle creativity.

    Good luck with the 50,000 words. As slow as I write, I’d be luck to get 5,000. 🙂

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    1. I suspect my super-cool guitar-playing English teacher was a stoner, too!
      Thanks for the good luck wishes 🙂 I bet you could manage more than 5,000 words, once you got on a roll and let your literary characters do the writing for you! Interesting characters, that’s the key.

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    1. I think one of the problems now is that whenever governments decide they need to make cuts, it’s always the funding for arts and culture that suffer the most. This seems to have a knock-on effect from the top downwards, in that it causes a lack of respect or positive attitude towards creative subjects at school; thus, those that come under the umbrella of arts and humanities are considered inferior to subjects such as maths, science, and technology.
      Thanks for your good wishes for my November project 🙂

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  17. I would like to lodge a complaint against the 40-hour American work week which murders imagination in just as dastardly a fashion. And as for NaNoWriMo, I’ve decided I’m not participating this time, but I’m using the month as a personal challenge to complete a full draft, so, Go both of us! 🙂

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    1. The British work week does the same, if you can even get a job D: There is a particular age-group from mid-twenties through to mid-thirties that have fallen between two stools. There were no apprenticeships when they were younger, so they went to university instead, but then couldn’t get a job afterwards and were also too old for the apprenticeships that were by then on offer. This is why there are two of us in my household doing NaNoWriMo, rather than one. Hugs to my son. I think he’s a brilliant writer and believe in him totally. So it’s go for you, me, and him! All the best with completing your draft 🙂

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    1. Hi Scott, thanks for your great comment, and I’m sorry I have only just read it and responded, but I’ve just had a month off from blogging, as I was busy penning the first 50K of a novel in National Novel Writing Month. Have now surfaced, but am really behind with catching up on reading comments. Hope to get my act in order sometime next week!
      Sarah

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  21. This is so amazingly written! Followed 🙂
    I’m just starting out in poetry and it would be amazing if you could give my page a follow too 🙂
    (only if you like my stuff of course!)

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