D'uh, the opening line I posted last week has grown into another surreal Urban Noir adventure. I'm scribbling additions or revising at every opportunity, I'm even dreaming dialogue...
I don't do dialogue well at the best of times. Now my six characters are alive and well in the back of my head, wise-cracking and trying to double-guess the plot's progress. D'uh...
Perhaps when I've wrangled *this* story through to a satisfactory conclusion, my mischievous muse will let me work on my 'Hard SF' Convention tales...
Well, my writing spree has temporarily halted due a *filthy* cold. The sinus-pains plus antihistamines mean I can't think straight, never mind write even semi-coherently, or make sense of what I've already written...
I was teasing out some logical consequences of my stalled plot's back-story when inspiration struck from an unexpected direction-- The room lights glitched.
I was scribbling in spiral-bound notepad so lost nothing from PC re-boot, but wondered what would happen if a 'trip' happened in my tale.
Took serendipitous Googling, some lateral thinking and a couple of Babel-fished e-mails to clarify product details but, yup, I've got the rest of my plot, a title for the tale and a most unexpected happy ending !!
Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 418 Location: Minnesota
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 5:55 pm
Are you a real person, or are you completely inside my head?
This sounds just like the imaginary people running around in my head. Scary! _________________ Douglas E. Gogerty
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Around the Campfire
"No, I'm from Iowa. I just work in outer space."
-James T. Kirk
Um, the line between Creativity and Madness may be very fuzzy, especially during a 'writing jag'...
FWIW, I've now typed up the first part's scribblings, edited them to a fair 'flow', filled in the gaps and patched the 'stupids'. I'm still yo-yoing through, picking up the occasional phrase that needs tweaking. There's ~65 kb of text-file in first tranche, ~55 kb in second. Soon, I gotta fire up the laser printer, put the hard-copy into folder pockets, catch my breath and continue the tale.
First, I must research some appropriate sing-along Carols, Clapping Songs and Nursery Rhymes. This will be problematic, as I'm partly tone-deaf. (Which may be a left/right brain thing, as I have no problem spotting variations in machinery noises.) D'uh. Google, here I come...
I've typed up my notes to date, edited them into reasonable, but weird tale...
FWIW, as each ~50 kb Notepad text-file runs to ~10,000 words, I've ~20,000.
Good news, I've found the songs I'll need for later plot-twist. Bad news, I've only written a dozen words since Monday, and the 'hold' looks set to continue. Given that level ground feels up-hill, I may be battling the '3-day flu' that laid my spouse low over the weekend...
Um, one of the cooling fans in this Browser_PC has begun making grunching noises. Gotta go.
Um, the noise was from one of the case-fans. It resumed running smoothly when thumped. Given the case was intended for a super-hot system, and this is a minimal PC, that fan is non-critical.
Got distracted by an unexpected problem. Turns out one character's given-name translates terribly into Japanese. (Don't ask.) Solution is to give him a middle name. Snag is anything I've tried that sounds okay in English is hilariously dire in translation...
( Google is my linguist ;- )
Spent two days comparing / contrasting name-lists, managed to solve for 5 of 6 characters, am hung on one...
Also still suffering from after-effects of close brush with 3-day 'flu. Cannot expect inspiration while level floors slope uphill...
D'uh, just realised a possible solution is to give character *two* middle names to remove phonetic log-jam caused by one...
Well, I've now completed the fourth tranche of my current tale and edited it into submission. This covers three days, dawn #07 up to end of #09, and is almost 70 kb textfile. Can't tell you the exact word count because of my habit of leaving one space between text and a ! or ?.
I had just enough laser paper, but the last few sheets fed together, crinkled in the printer. Fortunately, I had a pack of *good* paper tucked away on a shelf...
Now those 25 sides are stuffed into ring-binder pockets, ready for reading in context with tranches 01~~03.
I've also got an idea for a surprise in subsequent chapter. Two of the important characters are staying in a nearby B&B. The feisty lassies expect problems with a flooded road, but not a lightning strike that sends them fleeing in their 'Hello Kitty' pajamas. Cue lots (*) of dialogue when they meet rest of group...
Along the way, I had to scour baby-name lists for a very specific name to enable a pun-- I knew it when I saw it !!
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(*) I find writing ANY dialogue difficult, and small-talk nigh impossible. Giving the characters something meaningful to discuss reduces the task to hard work...
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