I’m going to do something a little different today. We’re nearing the halfway mark for NaNo, and for most of us it means that we’re running out of steam. Our creative juices are drying up, we’re tapping into our reserve of rum and chocolate and we’re fantasizing about a bed made of clouds and cabana boys clothed in not much at all. Nothing wrong with any of that. In fact, in order to know that you’re doing NaNo, you have to have a moment (or two) like this to give your experience writing in the NaNo flava. It’s the spice of life (or something like it), the ultimate experience for an inexperienced writer.
So to give you a boost in piracy, I’m going to give you some booty. Let’s play a game. I’m going to give you a starter, and you write a fun paragraph. Just a little something, nothing fancy, don’t get carried away, just write the first thing that comes to mind and see if that boosts your word output for the day. I mean, I wanna see those fingers flying like the wind (or Hellion's favorite, the bionic hand.)
Here we go. You ready?
“The look in his eyes”
Alright, come straight with it. What have you found to be the most difficult about the writing process so far? Even if you’re just getting started, you should have realized that it’s not as easy as it originally seemed. For me it tends to be finding the time to get the words down on the paper. Not for lack of conversations going on in my head…
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The look in his eyes told me everything. Everything I ever wanted to know. This proud man on his knees before me took away my fear, my will to run. I'd been running long enough and now I had a reason to stay. A reason to believe. A man of my own.
Cheesy but that's the best I can do this early in the morning. LOL!
Kudos again to those of you putting your heart, time and energy into NaNo. I'm cheering you all on from the sidelines!
He skimmed his hands lightly over my neck as he settled between my thighs. I looked into his eyes as he lowered his lips to mine. Another face flashed before my eyes, another memory, in another place and time heated my blood. His lips molded to mine, his tongue delved inside my mouth probing my tongue to dance against his. The kiss was passionate and any other night it would have been perfect, but tonight all I could think about was another mouth moving across mine, pulling the breath from me. His hands moved from my neck to my breasts capturing my nipples between his fingers, his mouth tore away from my lips moving to my nipple as if he was hungry for it's taste. I fisted my hands in his hair, and it almost fit. If I didn't look at his face, if I just concentrated on the feel of his hair, and the dark color of his skin. But the the planes of his body weren't hard enough, his frame not large enough. I closed my eyes tight as he entered me biting my bottom lip as the pleasure drugged me, making me momentarily forget that it wasn't the way it should be. That the raw connection when our bodies coupled was just that- a joining of two bodies. My body moved against his of its own accord, out of habit not of lust. I let my mind escape the moment, I pictured another body braced above mine pounding inside of me, my legs around his waist, my eyes looking into his, as the look in his, told me a story without words. That was how it was with us, what was between us was unspoken, and that was what made it simple and justified in our minds.
I slipped back into the present, as my body deceived me, coming apart beneath him. He groaned with his release, falling forward on my chest, his heart beating against mine. A sheen of sweat covered our bodies and his skin stuck to mine. I pushed away from him and he rolled off me. He lay on his back as I slipped out of bed.
"Where you going, ?"
"To the bathroom, I'll be right back."
I could have swore I heard him snoring as I stepped into the hallway.
I walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I regulated the water to blistering hot and stepped under the flow. I stuck my head under the water as I leaned against the wall of the shower.
And then, only then, did I let the tears fall.
I cheated and altered something I was toying with for my original.
I'm with Terrio I admire all of you involved in NaNo. I am your biggest cheerleader.
Great challenge Sin, loved it:)
The look in his eyes expressed clearly his desire to kill me. If not kill, then certainly cause me serious bodily injury. Honestly, some people just weren't agreeable to being run over by a car.
I'm having some issues with Nano, honestly. I've only written about 7000 words, even a far cry from my original goal just to get 25k this month.
I have excuses (my teether cut three of his top four teeth this past week, yay! and his birthday party is this weekend). But, excuses don't get my book written.
I saw that you guys were doing great though!
The most difficult thing I've found with writing though, is my tendency to go back and edit when I should just be moving forward. I can't seem to silence that internal editor, despite massive consumption of coffee and chocolate.
Great Blog, Sin!
Wow, Lissa! Very hot. :)
Good job both of you with your paragraphs!
Don't worry, Marnee, I'm cheating at Nano. I've had the first 4 chapters written...and though I've had to "edit" the second two chapters to fit the current cast, most of my word count was prior to Nov 2007. All in all though, it's all new words this year though. Last night I was playing with my characters and stuff. I need to make a list of "SCENES" so I have ideas to work off of for my story.
~~~
Across the room, he stood; and across the room, he beckoned, with nothing but the look in his eyes. Oscar and I suffered from the same malady: we could resist anything but temptation.
Lissa--I'm with them! HOT!! (And sad...I'm curious why she's crying.)
Terrio--angsty as you do best! :)
Marnee--*LOL* Nice twist! Very Stephanie Plum. And I have a solution to your little internal editor problem: Stop Thinking.
i never think at all when i write
nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well
~Don Marquis, Archy's Life of
Mehitabel, 1933
Other than my most bemoaned and whined about time restraints, the problem I'm having now is turning the creative crap off. Again last night, while trying to fall asleep, a new story popped up.
Technically, the story hit me out of nowhere on my drive home from work but it really pestered the hell out of me after 11pm. How do you turn this thing off?!
And I love everyone's take on this. Seeing how everyone goes in different directions is so fun. I love the whole "resist anything but temptation" thing. LOL!
And Marnee - perfect illustration of understatement!
Lissa - uh, wow.
So I had a fabulous response, and Blogger decided I couldn't comment at this time. *sigh*
Great job everyone. Great response to an early morning challenge.
Thank you Marnee and MsHellion. It feels good to receive compliments from writers:)
I loved all of your paragraphs, I feel silly that I posted such a big scene.I tried to condense it but it made more sense as a whole.
Hellion she's crying over the guy she was envisioning in her mind. A love she can't have at the moment.
Yeah, Blogger is evil today.
The look in his eyes told me he wasn't buying it, even at a discount. I inched backward but his hand shot out, gripping my shoulder hard enough to leave bruises. I knew I should be eating more fruits and vegetables, but now was not the time to worry about my diet. I might not be making it to lunch.
"Try again," he growled. "The truth this time."
Maggie
Lissa said:
Hellion she's crying over the guy she was envisioning in her mind. A love she can't have at the moment.
A love like the Titanic....LOL!
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Maggie - "even at a discount". Love it!!!
Maggie! That was great!
Maggie that was priceless:)
And I get your meaning Terrio...instead of crying in the ocean, she opted for the shower:)
Lissa - actually that was a tiny poke at the Cap'n. It just sounded very much like something she once told me. *g*
Are you going to let us in on the secret and tell us if she eventually gets the guy she can't have right now?
Terrio~ I'm undecided, if I say yes, then my muse will decide something different...she's very fickle that way.
Maggie, I love it! *LOL* Worrying about her diet...leaving bruises! You wrote three lines, each funnier than the last...you rock!
Lissa, there is an unfortunate story in my past about this guy I went on three dates with. Three. He was a sweet enough fellow, with possible aspirations of being a knight in shining armor to some waifish damsel in distress. So on our third date, we watched Titanic--and at the end of it, as it rewound (I'm so glad I got the DVD of this now--that's a long time to listen to something rewind), he said he had to break up with me. He was sorry, but he was looking for a love like the Titanic...and I wasn't it. Then he burst into tears and I had to calm him down. I have this affect on men. It's very annoying.
I think he secretly writes romance novels...and in each of them, fireworks go off when the couples kiss. Me, fireworks usually don't happen in kisses for me unless I've had a bunch of rum first. Bar Norfolk--fireworks aplenty.
Hellion OMGOD...LMAO. He did you a favor, a big one:)
Hellion - That's hilarious about the Titanic guy. I love these break up stories.
Here's mine.... I was dating this guy, just casually. He lived about an hour from me so we usually only saw each other on weekends. One weekday, he sends me this email, urgently saying he needs to see me. It was my turn to drive, but he insisted on coming to me. I thought, how sweet. (ha) He gets in the door and immediately tells me he can't see me anymore. He says, "Being in a relationship with you makes me not want to be in a relationship."
LOL!! I was like, "oh. um, thanks for coming, but you have to go now."
ha ha ha!!!
Oh and Captain, Stop Thinking. I got it. I KNOW it really is that simple but I swear, I think I enjoy the torture.
Like Finding Nemo, where the blue fish is all, "just keep swimming." I think I need to keep repeating, "just keep writing!" (um, you all have seen Finding Nemo, right? LOL!!)
Marnee - What the hell does that mean?! ROFLMAO!
Lissa - now it makes more sense, doesn't it? LOL! I love the way you had her cry in the shower. Haven't we all been there...
And Maggie, that was wonderful! I meant to say that in my last post, but I prefer piecing them together, I guess. LOL!!
Marnee - you need to be Dory! LOL! I love that movie. When she started speaking whale I cracked up.
Ter - I *think* he meant that it wasn't until he was in a relationship that he realized he shouldn't be in a relationship. (??)
But, boy, talk about a blow to a girl's ego. LOL!!
Yay a fellow Finding Nemo watcher. I was afraid that reference would fall flat in cyberspace. (whew)
But he didn't say being in the relationship made him not want a relationship. He threw in the words "with you" which changes things entirely. I guess he gets points for making this odd announcement in person. LOL!
We have all the movies. But at least since my parents bought her a tv for her room (which I'm against in some way) I don't have to watch them all with her. LOL!
*snortal* That is bad, Marnee! Geez! At least he drove. I know if I'd been the heroine of that story, I would have been asked to drive the hour and then he'd say that. *LOL* Did he start crying? God I hate it when men cry and it has nothing to do with baseball or their grandfather dying...
I got the Nemo reference. I went and saw that movie opening weekend. I remember I had to come to work on a Saturday, I had PMS, and I was so tired...and I sat down to Nemo at the theater, and promptly the first thing happens is the mother dies--and I just started sobbing. I was totally missing my mother--not that she'd ever been a fish. So despite all the happy, victorious, funny things about that movie (and I own it), the thing that sticks out with me is that the mother dies. Which incidentally is all I remember about Bambi too.
That's the one thing I hate about Disney movies. Either a parent dies (Nemo, Bambi, Lion King) or one parent is dead before it starts (snowwhite, cinderella, alladin). It's just so depressing.
It is depressing, but heroes are created from "loss"--you have to have experienced loss to be worthy of greatness and happiness. It's the storyteller's code.
Yeah, that was a bit unnecessary, huh? I think he didn't mean it to sound so bad.... He'd just been accepted to UNC for his PhD and I think he was just freaking out.
Oh well, he wasn't as cool as DH is anyway. :)
How sad. They should warn you about possible trauma before Disney movies, I say. :(
I remember seeing Lion King in the theater with all these little kids around and when Mustafa dies, the little girl in front of us turned to her dad and said, "is he dead daddy?" I sobbed like a baby.
That moment in the Lion King is a KILLER. I'm such a Daddy's girl...and the expression on the Daddy Lion's face when he realizes what Scar is about to do...OMG. I would have been with you, Marnee. POTC is great at eliciting emotions.
POTC3--the BLACK MOMENT, holy cow, I did not see that coming and I was like, NOTHING GOOD CAN COME OUT OF THIS, WTF... Masterful storytelling. Same plot themes. Same archetypes...and yet, if you tell it right, it seems fresh and unpredictable.
The look in his eyes said clearly, get down on your knees...
sorry I need short and sweet today. I'm sick...wahhhhhh and I am having problems getting over 25K...hopefully that remedies itself tonight. BUT I ordered North and South AND amazing grace... I might have to watch one of them.
Tiff wrote: The look in his eyes said clearly, get down on your knees...
And the look that clearly came out of mine said, You first.
God, Amazing Grace was SO good. I was going to wait and buy it used, but I might give in and buy it new. I loved it.
We had to go there....The Lion King. I'm a daddy's girl from way back. If my dad was still alive he would be 70 today. I can't imagine my dad at 70! I miss him so much, but I know he's here in spirit:)
I actually got really pissed when Mustafa died. I kept saying "they didn't have to do that!" but for that story, of course they did.
Love the "you first" line. We are women pirates, hear us huzzah!
I saw Amazing Grace the weekend it hit theaters and I'm going to break down and buy it. I was going to put it on my Xmas wish list but my family never listens so I'll get it for me! LOL! I NEVER buy movies so that should tell you how good it is.
I really need to watch this North & South...
I never buy movies either. But I couldn't resist... And There are a few more BBC austen adaptations I want to get my hands on.
I haven't seen any movies in a long time. I really need to get caught up.
I watched the preview for Amazing Grace. I want to see it but if everyone is talking about how great it is, I will buy it for myself. LOL
North and South is awesome.
I want to see August Rush. And this new movie coming out that I saw this morning on Today, but now I can't remember the name of it. It started with Love and had something to do with Cholera.
Love in the Time of Cholera. On Susan's must see list, Sin, so if you want to come with us, Susan will appreciate the Kleenex Klub.
I don't get out much either, Marnee. But I made special arrangements for Amazing Grace. My friend took the Wee One to see Bridge to Terabithea and I got to see AG all by my lonesome. It was so nice and quiet. *g*
August Rush looks really good too. And it's nice to see Rhys-Meyers play something other than a jerk.
That Cholera one looks very good but I don't think I could find anyone to go with me. May be another I have to do alone.
I did see Dan in Real Life not long ago and that was a sweet story. It's nice to see grown up movies every now and then. LOL! This week I've been seeing Barbie the Island Princess on a continual loop.
Okay, I'm late to the game but I'm gonna play...
The look in his eyes said he was sorry, but the words coming out of his mouth still said he was leaving. She watched him put on the leather coat she had bought him for Christmas two years ago and pick up the briefcase she had bought him for his birthday last month. As she watched him walking down the front steps she couldn’t help but tally up all that being involved with him had cost her, and not only in dollars and cents.
And ITA about Disney. I think the man had parental issues big time! I got so much flak for not letting my kids watch Disney movies when they were younger it was unbelievable. They've seen them all now, but when they were toddlers they scared the crap out of them!!
Irish! Great paragraph! Better late than never I say! Love the last line.
I loved it, Irish! Definitely worth the wait! :)
I remember going on a date with a guy who had a toddler (see, this is the crop I have to choose from--and I was in high school at the time!)--and we were seeing Aladdin. The big nasty villian sandstorm thing totally freaked out this kid...we didn't understand for the longest time, but he finally whispered the problem clearly enough for me to relate to his dad...poor darling. He's probably still having nightmares.
Great job, Irish. I love how we have covered smut, sarcasm, understatement, angst, joy, and soul shattering all in one day. LOL!
I wouldn't worry about that kid now, Cap'n. He's in HS by now...LOL!
LOL! Good paragraph Irish! Glad you dove in!
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