WFFF

7/27/26 (1) What I like and why: Eeyore’s smile. It’s good because it’s rare. I’m happy for him. Readers want him to smile, everyone roots for him.

(2) Techniques: when something is rare, it has energy, captivating. So for example, if Rabbit is always grumpy and a workaholic, we want him to feel happy and relaxed and enjoying life. Something is still missing here. Eeyore is depressed and gloomy and lonely but we know he wants to be happy and that’s why when Pooh and Piglet tries to do things that give him what he yearns for, he feels good and readers can feel that.

(3) My story: If Pooh and Piglet want Rabbit to stop being a workaholic and relax, does it have the same effect since Rabbit wants to be workaholic? Work to distract himself from problems? No, it doesn’t appear so.

Liking his work is fine. Does it mean he doesn’t want to feel relaxed and happy and smile more? No, we all want to feel good. When Rabbit’s working, maybe he feels relaxed and happy. OK. But why is he grumpy all the time? This means something is missing in the 50% of his time when he’s not happy.

So he must yearn for something and if Pooh and Piglet could try to get him that, he would feel happy even if P & P fail. So the important thing here is what is it that he yearns for that he is getting when he’s not working. What he yearns for is deep connection, to be seen, to be heard, to talk about what he loves with a friend. He considered them friends but he yearns for a deeper friendship.

I already wrote a story about what he needs is to be seen and have someone to talk to about his work (I think that story was about Squirrel wanting to talk about where he got his acorn collection from, he knows every tree). Ask him “What do you need to make your garden better?”

He would say “Nothing.”

Then P and P can’t give up and stop there. They keep trying to find out, “Rabbit, think of something. I am sure you have something. We would love to help you get it if we can.”

And they can’t but their efforts and their willingness to listen lift Rabbit’s spirit.

Good foundation so far. Now need depth, and why an event means something to a character and makes the readers wonder how the character feels.

+ Through Rabbit talking to himself or to a bug, readers get to find out about his parents not listening to him, and how he pays attention to little details about his garden, and how he’s proud of it (his friends know he’s proud of it).

“Bee, you are working hard to help my pumpkins make pumpkins. I should repay you with something, but I think you already got your reward from the pumpkins, and from me growing pumpkins.”

“It took me a long time to grow this pumpkin. Do you know how I get the seed to grow the first pumpkin? I bet you can’t see this kind of pumpkin around here?”

“One day a big bird carrying a broken orange pumpkin in its claws flied over my head while I was gardening. I yelled at it, and a seed dropped out of that broken pumpkin. It was a beautiful shiny plump seed and I planted it that day and voila…”

He sighed, “I guess only you and me notice how beautiful the pumpkins flowers are.”

1st Draft

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