[Kiva]

Thanks guys, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. Why do they make that risky choice? That’s the challenge and fun of creating stories.

[sinclairfan]

Alice Munro, the Nobel Laureate, recently died at 92.

She said, "I never have a problem finding material to write about.  I wait for material to show up, and it always does, in my everyday life."

[Kiva]

Alice Munro, the Nobel Laureate, recently died at 92.

She said, "I never have a problem finding material to write about.  I wait for material to show up, and it always does, in my everyday life."

I couldn’t agree more. I find that people and situations from daily life provide inspiration for fiction. As Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.”

Thank you for the news. I wasn’t aware Alice Munro passed. I had not been familiar with her work, so I read two of her short stories tonight. Complex female characters are central to many of her stories - definitely my kind of writer! She won the Nobel Prize for a reason.

My new goal is to be the Alice Munro of catfight stories 

[Kiva]

Kiva, your discussion of the motivations that lead women to fight is really interesting.  For a story to be interesting and arousing for me (and to arouse me it has to grab my interest) the women and their reasons for fighting need to be as realistically drawn as possible.  I used to post stories here as Norm60, and I kept coming back to the scenario of men paying ordinary women to fight brutally for their pleasure.  People will do almost anything for enough money.  Do you like the “underground fight club” scenario where untrained women are induced to fight for big money?  I wonder how much money it would take to induce two 40-something nurses to catfight with few rules in front of an audience of aroused men ?

The underground fight club is another variation of the arranged organized fight between two women who might or might not know each other. I haven’t written a story with that type of venue, but I experimented with AI generated images. Here is a series of underground female fighters with their “cornermen.”  https://www.freecatfights.com/forums/index.php?topic=114720.0
Below are a few random fight scenes.

40-year-old nurses? Now that hits close to home. Perhaps my fictional alter ego from Kiva’s Fight Journal will take a trip underground. Thanks for posting!

[BarbaraUK]

I hadn’t seen your AI art before. It’s really good. But why doesn’t that surprise me? 

[Dicey_Kate]

Perhaps Kiva we could have a discussion about the small things?

For me my favourite kind of catfights are those where a very small; some would say insignificant incident escalates into an out of control catfight or rivalry. For example I can give you this gem from history; a duel was fought over the arrangement of flowers:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3460930/Nobles-gone-wild-moment-Princess-Countess-took-topless-sword-fight-settle-dispute-flowers-1892-detailed-fascinating-video-duels.html

Now a duel is not a catfight; but the psychology that drove these women to risk their lives in duel over nothing of any importance. Is the same psychology that could drive two other average women to catfight.

Looking back at my own personal experiences in boarding school; two friends of mine got into a catfight over a pencil case of all things. From that point on they engaged in tit for tat retaliation against each other and catfights between those two were regular. The last instance I recall ended in a catfight in a classroom and the cutting of hair. And I must stress there was no feud between them until the pencil case incident and even into adulthood I’m told their feud is very much alive; however I have not witnessed it myself.

Another example would be my own experience at university; allegedly I looked at a housemate funny. She went for me and I fought back. From that point on me and Rachel spent my first year at university fighting on a regular basis…and all this occurred just because of a glance. Also hand on heart as far as I’m concerned there was no bad blood or cattiness between us until this incident. If me and Rachel met today; would we fight? Quite possibly we would; what I am certain of is we would have nothing nice to say to each other.

I suppose to summarise I would say this; we’re human and humanity is capable of and frequently does engage in all kinds of ridiculous endeavours / incidents.

Anyway I would love to hear people’s thoughts?

Xoxo
Kate

[sinclairfan]

I'm 75% with you--a catfight over small-ISH things is my favorite:  a Christmas Card tip prank gone wrong, a snub, etc.

[Kiva]

Perhaps Kiva we could have a discussion about the small things?

For me my favourite kind of catfights are those where a very small; some would say insignificant incident escalates into an out of control catfight or rivalry. For example I can give you this gem from history; a duel was fought over the arrangement of flowers:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3460930/Nobles-gone-wild-moment-Princess-Countess-took-topless-sword-fight-settle-dispute-flowers-1892-detailed-fascinating-video-duels.html

Now a duel is not a catfight; but the psychology that drove these women to risk their lives in duel over nothing of any importance. Is the same psychology that could drive two other average women to catfight.

Looking back at my own personal experiences in boarding school; two friends of mine got into a catfight over a pencil case of all things. From that point on they engaged in tit for tat retaliation against each other and catfights between those two were regular. The last instance I recall ended in a catfight in a classroom and the cutting of hair. And I must stress there was no feud between them until the pencil case incident and even into adulthood I’m told their feud is very much alive; however I have not witnessed it myself.

Another example would be my own experience at university; allegedly I looked at a housemate funny. She went for me and I fought back. From that point on me and Rachel spent my first year at university fighting on a regular basis…and all this occurred just because of a glance. Also hand on heart as far as I’m concerned there was no bad blood or cattiness between us until this incident. If me and Rachel met today; would we fight? Quite possibly we would; what I am certain of is we would have nothing nice to say to each other.

I suppose to summarise I would say this; we’re human and humanity is capable of and frequently does engage in all kinds of ridiculous endeavours / incidents.

Anyway I would love to hear people’s thoughts?

Xoxo
Kate

Thanks Kate. Interesting article. Being a medical person, I especially liked the female doctor advising the women to duel topless to reduce the risk of infection. Smart lady 

Yes, I’ve seen relationships go sour because of dumb stuff that escalates. A few off the top of my head:

Weddings can be very tense. Anything from floral arrangements like the dualists to a single wrinkle on a bridesmaid gown, seating arrangements at the reception, and a thousand other things can trigger bad feelings. https://www.freecatfights.com/forums/index.php?topic=111192.msg730143#msg730143

I create the work schedule for my unit. God forbid if one person gets one less hour of work over a six month period. I’ll get accused of favoritism.

I helped organize a charity golf tournament involving men and women. Deciding who should be in a foursome together while keeping everyone happy was harder than solving theoretical physics equations about the gravitational pull of black holes.

Parents at kids sports events, music or dance recitals. Why is Joey playing third base and not my Bobby? Why is Bethany getting the lead position?

Some people are so insecure that they rethink and reinterpret any little thing someone said. I have a close friend who drives me nuts with her constant “What did she mean by that?” Exhausting!