A Reasoned, Five Step Plan to Answer the Difficult Query of

“Dinosaurs: Do I Include Them”;

A Bulleted Plan to Cover All Writing Decisions

By Michael B. Tager

 

Step 1) Ask yourself: Does this piece require dinosaurs?

• That’s a damned good question, thanks for asking. I think it depends on what you’re writing.
  • Are you writing a book about dinosaurs?
    • If so, yes. You probably need dinosaurs.
    • Are you writing any other kind of story? If so, see Step 2

Step 2) You’ve determined that the pieces may not require dinosaurs. Should you include them in your poem/story/play about love/aliens/Vatican conspiracies?

• Should is a tricky question. A better question is: do you want to include them?
  • If you want to include dinosaurs, continue.
  • If you don’t, don’t. Not rocket science.

Step 3) Including dinosaurs is something you want to do in your Victorian Romance (insert any other work in the underline). How in the world do you rewrite to make it work? Maybe you should give up!

• Well, plots are not very important.
• Neither is rhyme/meter or play structure.
  • The venue (form) is irrelevant.
  • You can change shit based on needs. Not much of a barrier.
    • Plot changes make ripples, but it’s part of the writing process.
    • Form changes also make ripples. Also part of the process.
  • If rewriting doesn’t scare you, proceed.

Step 4) Ok, you’ve determined that you can make changes. Now what?

• Have you added dinosaurs? No?
  • Add some fucking dinosaurs.

Step 5) Well, you think, aren’t dinosaurs kind of stupid and juvenile? Maybe you should stick with what you have and not worry about dinosaurs

• I don’t know. They existed, didn’t they? I’m not sure how anything that has existed can be stupid or juvenile.
  • It’s mildly lame that the surviving dinosaurs evolved into birds, but
    • Birds are kind of awesome:
      • Shrikes
      • Cuckoos
      • Eagles
      • Fucking condors
        • Yes, turkeys are kind of dumb
      • In other words, no, dinosaurs are awesome.

 

Conclusion: If you want to add dinosaurs, add some dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are great. And so are you. QED.

 

Michael B. Tager is a writer of many short stories, essays and poems. He is the Managing editor of Writers and Words, a monthly Baltimore reading series, the Book Reviews Editor of Atticus Review, and the founder of the literary journal, The Avenue. He writes a monthly video game biography “Retrogamer” for Cartridge Lit.

He likes Buffy and the Baltimore Orioles. He lives with his wife and cats.

 

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