New Year, New Tooth For Wolf
Somebody Write This Book
Hi! Hello! I’m Kirk Reedstrom and this is the Somebody Write This Book newsletter where I send monthly, occasionally (okay, okay—often) absurd creative prompts to your inbox. You probably signed up for this on my website or on Twitter. If you’d like to unsubscribe, just click that link at the bottom of the newsletter. One click, all done, goodbye and sayonara.
You savvy readers might’ve noticed I was missing from your inbox last November and December. Whoops! The holidays and some pressing deadlines for an exciting thing I can’t talk about ate up all of my free time, but I spent the beginning of this year building up a little buffer for these newsletters, so we should be back on a regular schedule. Now let’s get doodling!
A Prompt:
First, my heart melted. Second, I had no idea other animals have baby teeth. As it turns out, most mammals have teeth that fall out (Thanks, Smithsonian Magazine!). Third, I have a lot of questions about the tooth fairy now. Does the fairy visit all of the animals to collect those sweet, sweet incisors, molars, and cuspids? I hope so. Maybe there’s a whole legion of tooth-collecting fairies. Either way, let’s draw a squiggle character and turn it into a tooth fairy.
Here’s my squiggle:
Here’s my tooth fairy:
This month, I wanted to try something new. I’ve spent the last couple of years bemoaning how I want to play more music, so I decided to write and record the soundtrack for the video of this month’s squiggle character. In keeping with the spirit of these squiggle drawings, the music is improvised with minor edits. Did it take longer than grabbing a song off of the Free Music Archive or a stock site? Sure. Is the soundtrack less professional than what I’ve used before? Definitely. Was it worth it? Without a doubt.
Now, back to the character—I’ll be the first to admit my tooth fairy character feels contrived. That’s ok! You can always make something more interesting through revision. That being said, you can also play with conventional characters by placing them in unlikely situations, and seeing how they’d react. I have a rule of not erasing anything on these squiggles, but luckily I had some extra page room to add a different element.
I’m glad I could bring the wolf back into this drawing, too. I love a wolf as a character—I feel like they’re often misunderstood, and fit well within the trickster archetype. Is it going to snack on the fairy, or does the wolf just not know any other way to find a friend since everyone thinks the wolf will eat them (and it’s too proud to admit to being lonely)? If you want to keep chomping on this story idea, here are a couple questions to ask yourself:
What would a wolf do to pull out a loose tooth?
What does the wolf’s fairy leave behind after taking the tooth?
What would happen if the wolf tries to eat the tooth fairy?
What other creatures does the tooth fairy visit?
Try setting a timer for 23 minutes and free write a little story that’s about 100-200 words from the perspective of the wolf who wants to lose a tooth, or the tooth fairy en route to collect. You can go over or under that word count. You can write for a longer or shorter amount of time. If a story’s not your cup of tea, try a poem or four panel comic. There are no rules!
Three Neat Things:
A Book:
I don’t remember how I discovered Clarice Lispector’s writing, but her short stories are beguiling. When I saw that New Directions was publishing a new collection of slim hardcovers called storybooks (I love a small book), I knew I had to get my mitts on this version of The Woman Who Killed The Fish. It’s full of chatty and meandering tangents, fourth wall breaks, chickens, a rabbit detective story, and an alien named Xext. Lispector never takes the route I imagine will happen while reading her work, and it often baffles me how she manages to make her stories work. Even if I’m baffled, her stories always feel like a breath of fresh air.
An Album:
One of my favorite local groups, Chelsea Norman and the Daydreams, put out a new record, and it’s fantastic. If you like dreamy, intricate indie pop, give it a listen:
An Ice Cream Ghost:
The ice cream ghost pin haunting my pictures today was made by my pal, Sara Vecchi! If you want one of your own, check out her whole collection.
Thanks for reading. If you’re hankering for more prompts, you can read the archives here. If you really enjoyed it, forward this email to a friend or arch nemesis.
If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time (Hello friend or nemesis!), you can subscribe here.
-Kirk
www.kirkreedstrom.com
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