Here's the idea for a short story that I woke up with this morning:
A man (i think he will be known as 'the man' throughout the story) has a dog. Its breed, appearance, temperament, personality and other attirbutes will be described in great detail. The man sees another dog in a park one day, a dog of a different breed, appearance, temperament etc. He goes home and starts thinking about and wondering about the other dog. His dog responds to its owner's change by alternately moping, begging and acting out for attention. The man starts to wonder what having this other dog would be like. He watches his own dog become sick from the lack of love and attention, and wonders how much suffering it can take. He has bad dreams about being a bad dog owner and feels guilty, but he wakes up and keeps on neglecting his dog and thinking about the other dog. Eventually he breaks the dog's paw to see what it will do, then goes out and acquires the other dog somehow. (That dog? A dog of its type?) I'm not sure what will happen to the original dog or the man in the end.
The level of detail about the dog comes from DFW; the tone will come from Herman Hesse and James Joyce, and the structure will come from how much I want to play about with the short story form. Not sure yet.
