Jun 6, 2021
Today I wrote 500 words of fiction
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Today I wrote 500 words of fiction
WIP TKBabyBonus 22.11.18 945 Words
Today is both Thanksgiving in the ‘States and Loi Krathong, here in Chiang Mai. An auspicious day.
This story is doing what most of my stories do and growing in the telling. The basic spark now has muscles on the skeleton, embellished with organs and a CNS that is neatly carrying the whole to the first appearance of The Terror, as I am codenaming it. The place in this story, as in several of the others, is a character in itself — each tale is shaped by its location, adding background detail and depth to the novels that shall follow. I am enjoying this aspect — what I am doing with these novellas and supposed-short-stories-but-actual-novelettes is writing things I want to read. They are quite different to the work I shall be finishing next year.
This evening we shall head down to the Ping River, watch the lanterns and Krathongs over and in the river, celebrate light in our lives and be thankful for water. The lanterns were only introduced recently and I would guess they may well soon be banned completely (as it already the case in Bangkok). They are beautiful, yes, but they can cause a large amount of damage if they fall in the wrong place. I dread to think what might happen to some of the beautiful old temples if a lantern fell on their wooden roofs. Likewise, it is likely that modern material for the Krathong themselves will be banned — people should stick to the traditional and decomposable banana leaves and trunks, or bread-based floats.
Last year we celebrated Loi Krathong in a small village upriver of Chiang Mai, something quite different to the event here in the city, more intimate, more Thai, I suppose. It is a happy memory.
Today I wrote 500 words of fiction. This involved erasing and rewriting 400 of the words I wrote last week.
200 words of fiction. Ugh.
(Posting about it means that I remember it, that I don’t just think, “Ugh, I didn’t do anything, I never write at all.”)
WIP TKPepper 23.10.18
Another 30 minutes, another 1k+ words. I crafted an unexpected action sequence today, with an unexpected ending. I loved it.
It is raining here, as it has on and off since Saturday night — it feels fresh and cool and wonderful. The darkness the clouds bring is also a blessing, so used to the bright tropical light overhead am I, that to remember conditions vary is rather delicious.
I am missing the sea, however, but soon, soon I shall be back by the beach.
WIP TKBabyBonus 28.11.18 928 Words
Today was a day where the action really kicks off. Let’s just say that one moment Flin is doing what she does best, telling stories about legends and monsters, then the next she finds herself running towards exactly this, unsure as to why she isn’t running the other way. I like this — there’s a reason for it too, but you’ll just have to wait to read the story to find out…
And, don’t forget, this story will be free if you buy my other tale of Flin and sign up for my newsletter. Small price to pay really.
In other news, today it is cooooold here in the north of Thailand — it went down to 16°c last night and still feels chilly out of the sun. Winter is here.
Other, other news. I finally got my website, notatravelwriter.com, to a state where it could be softly released into the world. Have a peek if you want, there will be a lot more to come in the future but, for now, I’m just happy it’s out there. I also ported all my old website posts, and I will do likewise with some of the tumblr posts — at some point.
Other, other, other news. There’s a rat outside, decaying in a corner of the soi. It smells.
WIP TKBabyBonus 27.11.18 978 Words
This is the scene where the story takes a less-than-happy turn for Flin. I like that. There’s a lot of speech, a lot of talking and telling. I also like that. So often we hear “show! Don’t tell!” which can work, I suppose, but there are times that the best way to get to the pointy end of the tale is to do what humans do, tell the fucking story. If you have a dialogue and something you need the reader to know, this is a good way to do it. As you are using speech, you can make this past thing, this exposition only as reliable as the narrator, as the character telling the story. This means nothing is set in stone, nothing is 100% believable.
It also gives the writer the chance to explore the character, their mannerisms, their speech patterns, what is important to them, what they leave out. As this is a two-way dialogue, it also adds the chance for the other character in the conversation to place their own importance on certain things, ask questions here, not pick up on this or that.
Add in the mushrooms Flin has eaten and suddenly the reader is left wondering what is real, what is simply her tripping…
WIP 26.11.18 TKBabyBonus 868 Words
No words on Friday — we had a 16-month-old visit for the morning, followed by trying to locate cheap international flights for most of the afternoon. By dinner we were both surprisingly exhausted (playing is tiring!), so watched Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur and crashed. A wise choice — sometimes downtime, resting, pausing, recentering, whatever you call it, is necessary. On Saturday I felt invigorated, ready to go again.
I had two days mostly to myself this weekend, and I knew I needed to fill them with finishing my new website (or, more correctly, finishing it to a standard where I can release it into the world, with several bits “still to come…”), writing new words, exercise, and some concentrated paid work. In the former, I nearly succeeded, needing to finish only a small handful of tasks this morning to publish the site, in the others, I mostly failed, exercise excepted. I did manage to publish a post on drafting I’ve meant to edit for a while, so at least there was something here.
Yesterday (Sunday) I did some serious kettlebell and band work but, surprisingly, I do not feel too bad today.
This story has laid fallow for three days, which is frustrating in one sense, but I also knew I HAD to finish the website, it has been far too long since it should have been released. Today I returned to Flin and found her having one of the best nights of her life, only for that to begin to waver, ahead of The Terror… Also, a new character appeared, one who may play an important role in her own development. I do love it when such happens, when people walk out of my subconscious and say hello. It happens but, because I have a very good idea of the direction of my stories already, it happens less than it used to, when I would merely write with no idea of direction.
On Friday, the last day of Loi Krathong, some new neighbours moved into our Soi which, this being Thailand, meant monks blessing the home, which has had substantial alterations and renovations. It also meant the family going from house to house, bringing food to share, something that I love — we may be Farang, may be different, but we are welcomed, accepted as a part of the Soi community, nonetheless. There’s an important lesson here.