When Fact Is More Interesting Than Fiction

Words

Sports of the outside world. WBUR: What’s korfball? And why is it gaining popularity in Birmingham, Alabama? April 05, 2022. Video. Found via NPR. Video by Ninh Ly.

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In which I fail at a fiction exercise, but for an interesting reason.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been trying to post about what happens, rather than about what does not happen, particularly in fiction.

In the future, no more talking about how I’m not getting anywhere.

[State of the Blog, Thoughts On Fiction]

If I can’t come up with fiction for a Saturday, I post one from the reserve pile and move on. [Trash Cans, Offered For Your Amusement]

However.

The plan. Faces In The Crowd, The World Games version. [Volunteering]

During my volunteer shifts, I will people-watch and create apocryphal backgrounds for the people. Gonna be a lot of people to watch. Gonna be a lot of people from all over. Easy peasey. I even felt the need to create restrictions. International intrigue is too on the nose. I will avoid that. HA!

Previous Faces in the Crowd exercises
[Faces In The Crowd, A Fiction Exercise]
[Faces in the Park, Fiction Sketches]

Did it work? Not a sausage.

Oh look, an athlete … they’re from … reads back of shirt … squints to look at credentials … I wonder what sport do they do … look like sight hounds, must be a running sport … chunksters, must be a power sport … I wonder how it feels to compete abroad … and so on.

I have not talked to any athletes yet. I have talked to other volunteers.

What sports are you helping with? Do you do that thing?

Yes, I am working all of the XYZ competitions. I am member of the XYZ Club of Birmingham.

Yes, I do ABC. It is quite popular in Birmingham. Here, let me show you a video.

I had no idea.

The first was a friend. I didn’t know they did XYZ or that we had a XYZ club in Birmingham.

So yeah. Too busy wondering what is happening IRL to think up alternate histories.

Props to The Errant Moon for the specific idea, TEM: Big City. General props for inspiration over the years. When someone contributes to a gracious sufficiency of posts, they get their own list page. TEM was way overdue. The Errant Moon archives on VBB, [The Errant Muse].

Onwards!
Katherine