National Novel Writing Month

I have made the committment to write a novel in November. 50,000 words! This is for National Novel Writing month.

I am pretty intimidated by this committment but it is only 2 pages a day and I have plenty of time to prepare. I will do my best.

Affirmation: Let it write itself

Let your story write itself, sit down in front of the typewriter, notepad, or computer, close your eyes, take a deep breath and let it out as words. Your story is written on your very bones and you can write it by breathing out those words.

The Void and the Darkness

Yesterday after analysing my resistance to writing I dialed back my committment and added Ballard to my daily list to appear every two days. My Ballard writing will be a vague committment; the item on the list is just titled Ballard with no explanation.
When reviewing the list this morning around 5:00, I came upon Ballard, hesitated for a moment, and opened a word document and started typing. Here is what the story revealed today:

I often wondered what was down there. I had been to the bridge uncountable times throughout my youth and looked down into the crevice between the two points of Macan Mount and thought to myself, “What lurks in darkness like that? What lurks in places where mist mingled with darkness creates a feeling of dread that that would cause one to hesitate, to linger on the wood and metal lattice known as Acrocia cross.

I thought about the void, the void in my mind seemed to grow bigger every day and I became aware of it more and more often. Today, while crossing, the horses grew nervous as they often did, which caused the carriage to slow. I lifted my head from my doze and peered out the window into the dark expanse and thought about the void. While the depths of the crevice were black and filled with smoky mist the void was bright and barren, while no light source existed there, it was still bright, bright as light. And the biggest difference, was the longing; while the dread pushes me farther and farther away from the darkness, the light of the void calls to me, pulling me in to the comfort; the comfort of…nothing.

My current writing status

I haven't written any of Ballard in 6 days. Is this a failure? No, I had tried to write every day but it was never a committment and never a bair mininum. Now it is time to pull back a little bit, write about some other things and keep the ball rolling, I am just in the phase where I am slowly rolling the ball down the hill from the front keeping it from going crazy down the hill and crashing something and trying not to let it roll over me at the same time.

What do you do when you are slowing down a bit? Not quite a block but more of a lull.

Just another old house

The Acrocia Estate is old, from the outside it seems like a relatively normal mansion; a lavish and well designed mansion yes but normal. On the inside…ooooh boy, on the inside it feels like it goes on forever. Don’t get me wrong it isn’t mystical or anything…well I don’t think it is anyway but the tiny looking ancient house has long lush corridors, winding staircases that feel like they can reach to the stars and ancient catacomb like tunnels that reach deep into the earth. Well, it felt that way when I was six anyway, now it was just a old house with sky rocketing bills and more work to be done then my miserable old grandfather and myself can handle.

The Bargain

Emily looked out into the darkness. They were finished here tonight but what would happen? Would it work? And more importantly would they get caught?

She looked back to the South end of the bridge which they had come from hoping that no one was out tonight, that no one had seen them.

“We are alone sweetie.” Tracy’s voice said from behind her. Emily turned around to see Tracy bent far over the edge of the bridge as if to make sure he was gone for good. “Don’t worry pet, we won’t have to worry about his type no more.”

Emily digested the words and formed a smile. “No more”. She couldn’t believe it had finally happened; were they finally rid of him? She looked to her companion; she stared as Tracy pulled herself up from the edge of the bridge and threw her nest of hair behind her. She watched intently as Tracy adjusted her clothes and brought herself up into a stance of authority.

She sometimes wondered where Tracy’s strength came from. Especially now, after what they did, she was a panicky wreck, looking around, tapping her feet; her heart was beating with the force of an elephant hitting the ground from a fall from the top of the grand canyon.

But Tracy, Tracy was calm. Calm as she straightened up. Calm as she lit her cigarette. Calm as she stood and smoked; each breath making her taller and more powerful filling her with the strength Emily sorely needed throughout her life. She even remained calm as she got ready to put out her cigarette on Emily’s arm.