The Answer Key, and other thoughts

The Answer Key.
I write those words, and a part of me thinks, "I need one of those." Just for general life, an answer keys seems like a good idea, like knowing the plot-line of a story that's taking shape.

After mulling over that phrase a few more times, "the answer key, THE ANSWER KEY, The Answer Key," I finally think of the answer key I do have. The Bible. All the answers and the basic plot-line of faith that's taking place in my life are right there.

However, having an answer key in the form of a well-written plot-line for my fiction is an area I struggle with daily. I either want to sail away from the shore with no maps and enjoy the adventure of story writing, or I want to have my course plotted moment by moment. Today I'm trying for a middle ground, getting the basic plot points written out, and starting over.

There, I said it. I'm back on the dock, with a manuscript in hand, and re-starting the journey on a new ship with a map, compass, and logbook in hand. My old ship sank, and the rowboat was springing a leak as I made my way back to shore. The Crystal Sword is being re-fitted on a new voyage with new sails, new rigging, and a few old boards from the old boat just to keep the basic storyline I had in mind.

On a less serious note, when I started this post, I was thinking mainly of the answer key for yesterday's questions about where I've found specific examples of rhyme and rhythm, poetic prose in "real" life.

"Coffee Toffee Twisted Frosty" is from Wendy's.

From the Clash of the Titans movie trailer:
"One day somebody's gonna have to take a stand,
One day somebody's gonna have to say enough."

From The Last Airbender movie trailer:
"The last of his kind
will risk everything to save mankind."

From Francesca Battistelli:
"Cause I got a couple dents in my fender
Got a couple rips in my jeans
Try to fit the pieces together
But perfection is my enemy"

And for today's try at poetry, I started feeling a bit empty, then wrote something I liked so well that I decided to submit it to Every Day Poets . . . and part of the submission agreement is that it is not to be published anywhere else first so I had it on my blog for two minutes and then took it off. Hopefully I haven't gotten myself into a legalistic conundrum. If it doesn't get published there, I'll post it. Sorry about that.