Unpopular gals

God knows all about it. No Devil, no Fall, no Redemption. Grade Two arithmetic.

You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can't get me out of the story. I'm the plot, babe, and don't ever forget it.

Margaret Atwood, 'Unpopular Gals', from her collection, Good Bones.


I first heard Margaret Atwood read this on the radio in her laconic voice.  It's a short piece, told in the voices of three stalwarts of fairy tales: the ugly sister, the wicked witch, and the evil stepmother.

'I'm the plot, babe, and don't ever forget it.'

Good advice for writers. I think I must have this in mind when I created Maggie Tulliver, in My Candlelight Novel. She wasn't the entire plot, but it never hurts a story to have a someone who's Not Very Nice.