It is time to prepare another New Year's resolution. I have successfully completed one such resolution: to say "I'm doing well" instead of "I'm doing good" when asked how I'm doing. But it's disheartening to fail to meet a resolution that's difficult but achievable. My resolution for 2025 is to be six inches taller. |
Just 0.016 inches a day, just take it one day at a time. |
Last month I wrote a story and gave it that "hero walks away after getting the last laugh" kind of ending. I love when stories end like that. It pleases me to watch a character I spent so much time rooting for finally get the upper hand. This month, I'm looking forward to slashing that stupid epilogue I farted onto the page because I needed to come up with 2,000 extra words. |
After reaching 50,000 words with only four hours to spare, I am happy to announce that I received a participation badge that states I failed to make it to 50,000 words. Truly a monumental achievement. Like the time in college where I got straight A's during a semester with a full course load and got kicked off the dean's list. |
So in this scene, a raiding party comes to burn down the protagonist's village. The leader of the village's army spent the entire story bullying the protagonist, but when the raiders show up, the leader ran away, the army stood there helpless, and the protagonist was the only one willing to fight to defend his village. Before he went into battle, the army joined him, and all of the soldiers pledged their allegiance to him. This scene loses some of its luster when I use placeholder names, though: "[Leader] abandoned us," said [Soldier]. "[Leader] does not exist." "That is beautiful," said [Nerd]. "So you are telling me you are an army without a leader." "We have a leader, Hersir [Nerd]," said [Solder]. With his right hand over his heart, he nodded. [Nerd] took a step back and swept his eyes across the formation of men in front of him. Every single one of them followed [Soldier]'s lead. [Nerd] turned to [Wife] and [WomanA]. Without hesitation, they likewise saluted him. |
Writing a story with a character based on my father is a surreal experience. No matter how I write the dialogue, it simply does not feel authentic to how my father would actually speak. It might have something to do with my insistence on giving all of my characters the ability to speak two consecutive sentences without dropping an f bomb. |
It's always a challenge when I decide to write a story that takes place in the distant past. I often find it hard to explain ancient technology using language the characters of that time period would use, but that the reader will also be able to understand. I can't simply throw in an exposition dump to have one of my characters explain what a VCR is, because that would break the immersion, so I need to hope my readers can piece together what it is from the context clues I put into the story. |