| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: between the two.
CHAPTER III
The first event of any importance in the family was
the death of Mr. Norris, which happened when Fanny was
about fifteen, and necessarily introduced alterations
and novelties. Mrs. Norris, on quitting the Parsonage,
removed first to the Park, and afterwards to a small house
of Sir Thomas's in the village, and consoled herself
for the loss of her husband by considering that she
could do very well without him; and for her reduction
of income by the evident necessity of stricter economy.
Mansfield Park |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: through the hall, as each elfin wand waved to the little Fairy
who had toiled so well and faithful]y, and could bring so fair a gift
to their good Queen.
Then came forth an Elf bearing a withered leaf, while her many-colored
robe and the purple tulips in her hair told her name and charge.
"Dear Queen," she sadly said, "I would gladly bring as pleasant
tidings as my sister, but, alas! my flowers are proud and wilful,
and when I went to gather my little gift of colored leaves for royal
garments, they bade me bring this withered blossom, and tell you
they would serve no longer one who will not make them Queen over all
the other flowers. They would yield neither dew nor honey, but
Flower Fables |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: tale which he is not acquainted with, and can only find out what
it is by listening as it goes along telling itself, it is more
than apt to go on and on and on till it spreads itself into a book.
I know about this, because it has happened to me so many times.
And I have noticed another thing: that as the short tale
grows into the long tale, the original intention (or motif)
is apt to get abolished and find itself superseded by a quite
different one. It was so in the case of a magazine sketch which
I once started to write--a funny and fantastic sketch about a
prince an a pauper; it presently assumed a grave cast of its own accord,
and in that new shape spread itself out into a book.
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