Thursday, April 1, 2010

Novel Frenzy

Back in November, when all my friends were signing up for NaNoWriMo, I signed up as well, largely out of peer pressure. But the only creative idea I had stewing about my brain at the time turned out to be a play, so I wrote it anyway in my own personal NaPlaWriMo. Of course the "real" NaPlaWriMo is in April and it's called Script Frenzy.

At the time, back in November, I figured I would write a novel then in April, my own personal Novel Frenzy. Well, here it is April and I need to get started. So far I don't have any clear ideas screaming to get out. I felt like I had one the other day, but I lost it. I'm not giving up, mind you. I just need to let things swirl a bit and see if I can get something to come out. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I thought I would let you all know that I did a revision to last year's Halloween story Johnny's Road and posted it. It's shorter now. (I read Stephen King's On Writing recently and now all I want to do is make everything 10% shorter.) Here's the opening paragraph, just to give you a taste:

Johnny squirmed to keep his seatbelt from pressing down on his bladder. He couldn’t pee out the window. He couldn’t pee in the backseat, but he really really had to pee. With no other choice, he said quietly “I have to go to the bathroom.”


As I was noodling around my old writing files looking for inspiration, I found this little story that I'd completely forgotten about. I wrote it back in 2002, long before I started my Halloween short story tradition, but it fits right into the milieu. It's called Sam:

Sam was a regular kid. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe that should have been my first clue: that he was so regular.


As for the play I wrote back in November, it's working title is The Reed Family Christmas Horror Spectacular. Here's a snippet from it:

MARION
Clark! It’s… It’s not what it looks like.

CLARK
Oh, it isn’t is it?

MARION
No.

CLARK
Good, because it looks like you’re having a threesome with Dracula and Santa Claus on the living room floor while our kids and our daughter’s boyfriend watch, but that’s not it?

MARION
No.

CLARK
Thank god, I can go back to bed now.

1 comment:

  1. Yay! I love reading your fiction. wheeeeeee!

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In 1789, the governor of Australia granted land and some animals to James Ruse in an experiment to see how long it would take him to support himself. Within 15 months he had become self sufficient. The area is still known as Experiment Farm. This is my Experiment Farm to see how long it will take me to support myself by writing.