| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: distresses at the inn; and except that he ordered the garden gate to be
bolted up, by which he might be said to have turned the siege of Dendermond
into a blockade,--he left Dendermond to itself--to be relieved or not by
the French king, as the French king thought good; and only considered how
he himself should relieve the poor lieutenant and his son.
--That kind Being, who is a friend to the friendless, shall recompence thee
for this.
Thou hast left this matter short, said my uncle Toby to the corporal, as he
was putting him to bed,--and I will tell thee in what, Trim.--In the first
place, when thou madest an offer of my services to Le Fever,--as sickness
and travelling are both expensive, and thou knowest he was but a poor
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: to loosen the bricks which held the grating. He
worked a long time at that task. The cock
crowed for the second time, but the grating still
held. At last he had loosened one side; and then
he pushed the plank under the loosened end and
pressed with all his force. The grating gave way
completely, but at that moment one of the bricks
fell down heavily. The noise could have been
heard by the sentry. Vassily stood motionless.
But silence reigned. He climbed out of the win-
dow. His way of escape was to climb the wall.
The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: daily and hourly, gains positive support, and not mere
negative immunity from accident. The tale has a root there;
it grows in that soil; it has a spine of its own behind the
words. Better if the country be real, and he has walked
every foot of it and knows every milestone. But even with
imaginary places, he will do well in the beginning to provide
a map; as he studies it, relations will appear that he had
not thought upon; he will discover obvious, though
unsuspected, short-cuts and footprints for his messengers;
and even when a map is not all the plot, as it was in
TREASURE ISLAND, it will be found to be a mine of suggestion.
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