Archive for November, 2008

How the credit crunch will affect Britain.

Will one be wanting fries with that?

The 8.15 Woking to London Waterloo service.  No change there then!

The new Apple Iphone

Windows 2010

Barack Obama	US President Robert Steele Little Britain USA

*All in the spirit of fun and games, I might add.  Please take no offence, I have few enough readers as it is.

For this week’s search engine story our main prompt was candle in the mist.  Seeing as the desert doesn’t seem to be a particularly misty place, I’m not sure if I can pull that one in anywhere.  Maybe if I get back to the crystal towers before the end of the week. 

The ‘Just One’ prompt (previously perfect paragraphs) was fragile, which seemed highly appropriate for a story with rather a few vampires.  Saturday I was buzzing; into the history section and the ideas were running away with me.  I made a deal with Y that if we ordered out for dinner, I would stop when the food arrived.  Probably a good thing otherwise I may have continued to write until exhaustion overtook me. 

This afternoon, when I opened up the laptop to write, I had no idea where I should start.  I’d come to a really good stopping point the night before, a point where all the past was tied up and the only way forward was to move the story on.  I just didn’t know how.  So I went straight over to Search Engine Stories for a prompt.  Once again, SES saves the day.  The only reason I’ve stopped to write this is to ask my twitter friends how much deeper I should take a particular point in the story. 

          Larius sat, beckoning Alia to join him on the daybed.  Slowly she moved towards him, and lowering herself on to the seat she curled in to the crook of his arm as the tears flowed from her eyes.  “Shhh…” he murmured, pulling her in closer.  “I’m so sorry.  You shouldn’t have had to see that.”  Her sobbing did not cease, but she raised her head to him, her eyes begging him to continue.  
          ”I was never leaving you” he went on.  “I run to think.  It’s impossible to make sense of anything here.  All the noise…”  At that moment, Alia realised that as a vampire his senses must be heightened, for she heard little noise around the compound.  Even her breathing, she wondered, must sounds as loud as a crowd to him.  
          She turned to face him, and he cradled her face in his cool hands.  “I know” she whispered, her voice singing out to him.  “I understand now.”  She gazed at him, her eyes full of expectant longing.  As she drew closer, he pulled her into him, his cold lips barely touching her warm mouth, he kissed her slowly and gently.  Alia felt the breath draining out of her, but she could not pull away.  He was too beautiful and his kiss felt too right, like she was made for this moment.  
          As she puled him closer to her with an urgent need Larius pulled away, hanging his head.   He could not bear her fragility, so afraid of hurting her with his colossal strength.  She was so flawless, unblemished.  So perfect.  He could not risk changing that.  Alia reached out to him, “please” she begged of him, “don’t stop.  Don’t go,” her eyes welling up with tears.  “I couldn’t bear to lose you.”
          He held her to him once again, his fingers trailing along her arms, soothing her.  “I can’t” his voice faltered.  “You don’t understand.  You’re so gentle, so fragile, and I would crush you in an instant if you let me near you.  I can’t lose you like that” he trailed off, his voice full of sorrow and longing.  
          Alia disentangled herself from Larius’ arms and placing her hands around his neck pulled him in closer.  “No” she murmured as her lips found his once again and she kissed him with a passion she had never know to be within her. 
          Larius wound his arms back around her, and pulling her into him squeezed Alia tightly as he kissed her back, his need evident in his strength.  Fearing that he would break her fragile body, crack her porcelain skin, he pulled away, staring into her eyes with wonder as he realised she was barely touched.  As she sat back from him he noticed that her eyes had changed from the sea green he was familiar with, to a cobalt blue, swirled with violet.  Her whole body was surrounded with a protective sparkle of gold, at it’s most strong where he touched her.  
          Larius realised, that no matter what he did, he could never hurt her.  Her magic was so strongly intertwined with her being that it protected her without her knowing.  It was instinctual.  Alia saw the change in his eyes as he came to terms with her power and stepped off the day bed, giving him time to change his mind.  
          He followed her, rising and moving to her side instantly.  Now that he knew she needed him, he could not bear to be torn from her side.  He spun her around and yanking her towards him in a swift and graceful movement he kissed her with a force he never imagined possible, pulling her into him with a strength that, if not for her magic, would have killed her.  

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Don’t forget, if you’re curious enough you can read the whole story (as it unfolds) at 50k or bust.  Just ask me (or any of the others who are hooked) for the password and we’ll hook you up.

This week’s prompt on Search Engine Stories was ‘because of you‘.  Well in fact, this week we were lucky enough to get two prompts.  Because of you was the main one, but we were also provided with the idea of a prompt to write a perfect paragraph, that one being ‘road’. 

I struggled to incorporate road into my WriMo story, mainly because I haven’t come accross any roads yet, and can’t imagine doing so.  I also thought about because of you, but couldn’t really see how it would integrate into the story. 

Yesterday morning I wrote.  It’s one of the advantages of having a deadly quiet job, stuck at a computer all day long.  Nobody can tell when you’re not typing for work and are typing something else entirely.  I wrote the best part of 700 words, and I was really struggling.  I’m sure if you were reading my caramel waffles yesterday you may have guessed that one.  I’d come to the point where a major bomb-shell had just been dropped on the main character, at a time when she is battling with quite a mix of emotions anyway, and I was having great difficulty putting everything into words.  Of course, none of that is helped when I spend my few spare moments (they seem only to occur on the train now) reading about the beauty of Bella and Edward’s love. 

Then I screwed up.  Big time.  In a crap I’ve forgotten to save my novel and shut the window down moment I lost all those words.  Everything except the first sentence of the day.  I stared at the screen hoping that I would remember what I’d written, but I couldn’t even find the outline of what I’d laid down.  I just couldn’t get it back.  And that was how I stayed for most of the afternoon, desperately trying to remember.

Then I saw Selma‘s because of you and I figured I had nothing left to lose. I used the prompt to get the story moving again, and Search Engine Stories saved the day.

Tears rolled down Alia’s cheeks as she reflected on the sacrifice her mother had made for her.  Because of the sacrifice her mother had made, she had spent her life so far in the crystal towers, safely away from the war that had ravaged the land, cultivating the magic that she had always thought would one day lead her people.  As Larius wiped the tears with his sleeve he pulled Alia in closer, his strength enveloping her sobbing form. 
          ”You said that you were waiting for me?” she questioned him.  ”All this time you knew that I would be here, that I would be brought here against both my and my father’s wishes and that I would fall in love with you, because a spell would give me no choice.”  Ahe pushed him away and crawled backwards over the ground.  “I was falling in love with you, and I thought it was because of you, but all this time it wasn’t me.  It wasn’t even you.  It was because of a spell” she spat, her voice suddenly filled with bitterness and rage.
          ”No” he whispered, hurt by her angry accusations.  “When I held you as a baby…”
          ”You never!” she cried, cutting him off.  “My mother would never have let a monster like you near me.”
          ”Tell me you truly don’t believe that.  I am no monster, only moments ago you said you were falling in love.  Surely you couldn’t fall in love with a monster?”
          Alia grew silent with what she knew was the truth.  “You knew me.  As a child?” she whispered, unsure of both Larius and herself.
          ”I was in the court when your mother arrived.  She was beautiful, but merely a shadow of the beauty you are now.  It was the first time that Marcius had dared to show me off.  He had turned me, only years earlier, and I was finally growing from my childhood rage..” he trailed off, not wanting to broach that subject with her. 
          She looked at him expectantly.  “Tell me” she enquired.
          ”Marcius approached her, showing great interest in you.  As he got close you waved your hands in the air, as if you wanted to chase him away.  He laughed at you, and you started to cry.  Great wailing cries as if you thought you were in grave danger.  Your mother could not calm you, but when she walked near to me, you stopped, curious, as if a new toy had been given to you.  Your mother passed you to me as she talked with Marcius.  You were beautiful then, even as a baby.
          ”In that moment I knew that I would do all it took to be with you in the future.  I would wait for you to grow and then I would find you and love you.  I couldn’t imagine, despite all our differences, that you would not want to be with me.  I didn’t care about the war, about the history of our races.  All I wanted was you.
          ”When Marcius told me of the deal and what he had done to your mother I was enraged.  Only the strength that had come from his age stopped me from killing him.  All that time I loved you.  Never because of a spell, even before your mother cast the enchantment I loved you.  When I heard of her death all I could think about was revenge in your name.”
          Larius stopped, unsure if he should reveal more, but as he looked into Alia’s eyes, and saw the way she looked back at him, he knew whatever else he may say would have no bearing on her feelings.  “I am not a violent man Alia, after the trauma of my vampiric childhood I vowed never to take another life.  Even as young as I was then, I knew that I could not live with myself if I continued in the manner which Marcius expected of me.  But your mother’s death was enough to bring out the basest nature of a vampire, and even now, if you asked it of me, I would do my greatest to kill Marcius to avenge your mother’s death.”
          Alia  could not take her eyes off Larius, she knew that in his talk of death and revenge he was professing a deep love for her.  But, as much as she wished it, she could not bring herself to return that affection.  Withoutt her needing the words to express this, Larius understood.  ”You need time,” he said, “I know.  I’ve had years to come to understand my love for you and you have had no time at all.”  He fell silent, looking out over the river.  
          Alia, knowing that he could not give her more than this, took his hand, and together they looked out at the crystal towers.

So that’s it then, I’ve finally hit that mythical writing stage: procrastination.

You see, I’ve come to the point where although I can see the end of the story, can reach out and touch it, I just can’t arrive at that magical ending.  There are points along the way, and they will all make amazing installments in this story, but I just can’t seem to pull them together into a story.  I think I’m ill.

I have, like, writers block or something.

So now I’m finding any and every excuse to avoid going back to that write post page, where the draft of today’s work sits.  Yesterday it was calling, waiting to be moulded and shaped into beautiful prose.  Now it’s just saying stay away, drink coffee, check out the WriMo message boards, blog, read blogs, even work.  Anything, just don’t come here.

So, although I have nothing of any importance or real interest to say, I may just spend my day waffling here, waiting for inspiration to strike, in the way that I know a lightening bolt could find me in a thunderstorm (because you know I’m unlucky enough!).

If anyone wants to write the next page, feel free.

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Edited to add: You are effing kidding me.  I wrote nearly 700 words before lunch and only one line has saved.  It killed me to drag out those words and now they’re effing gone!  Crap!