One third through NaNoWriMo and I have only added to my word count by 200 today.
But they are 200 special little words in two 100 words bursts with inspiration from my favourite writing prompt setters Angela Goff and Lillie McFerrin.
For Angela Goff's Visual Dare this week the challenge was a triple one with not one but three pictures to wordmonger with, bonus points for it being part of your NaNoWriMo story and extra bonus points for using all three prompts!
Couldn't quite fit all three into the 100 word limit but I chose to use the image of the spiral staircase as it best fitted my NaNo story.
This excerpt takes place a little further on than I have reached in my actual writing and I am excited now at the prospect of fleshing this scene out.
Eunice led the way to an uneven twisted staircase.
“Entertainment Tower maintenance is not a high priority. The
fifth step is loose.”
The older woman extended her reach in a surprisingly agile
manner, fully expecting her younger companion to do the same but Esther
misjudged her footing and fell.
“Are you alright?” Eunice helped her companion to sit down. “You’ve gone white child.”
It was true the blood had visibly drained from her face as a
long forgotten childhood memory had been plucked from depths Esther hadn’t
realised existed.
It wasn’t just the cold stone floor that made her shiver.
And then Lillie McFerrin's Five Sentence Fiction this week was to write about one of our main characters in NaNo. So here are 5 sentences about a character called Cai and his relationship with my main character Esther.
Cai had dreams, vivid night time visions, of a
meteoric rise within the Citadel walls; by the age of twenty he had already
been promoted to the next level of Information Access and it appeared his path
was set.
Until the day Esther was brought to his door.
A timid seven year old orphan and he was her only living
relative.
Thoughts of where she might be sent if he didn’t step up to
this new challenge of responsibility made him physically ill.
So a new way of life emerged for the two of them while Cai’s
fanciful dreams slept.
Once again I look forward to adding to these 100 words.
Both prompts havehelped me think more about my story, plot and character and given me a whole range of exciting posibilities to explore.
Many thanks to my NaNo cheerleading, pom pom waving, prompt setting, writing buddies!
If you understand the title of today’s post you are probably
a Dr Who fan!
I don’t intend to get into a huge debate about which long
running SciFi saga is the best but Dr Who is my personal favourite, always
reinventing itself with new incarnations and regenerations of the Time Lord
reaching out through time and space to a new generation.
I vividly remember hiding behind a cushion as a child while
watching the Doctor on his adventures in the seventies and eighties. Tom Baker
regenerating into Peter Davidson was my classic era. And when Christopher
Ecclestone appeared on our screens as Doctor Who for the new millennium I was
so excited to be able to share the Dr Who experience with my own children.
At half term I took
youngest son on a week away to Scargill House, where I had been on my own
earlier in the year. Read about it here and here.
Scargill House is a Christian community and this particular
week away was entitled Travels in the Tardis, we explored what it would be like
to travel with the Lord of Time and what it is really like to follow the Lord
of all.
So what does Jesus have in common with the Doctor?
Well here are a few thoughts on the subject that emerged
last week, comparisons, questions and quotes…
The Doctor hates to travel
alone. He is so much better when in community with others and he picks his
companions well.
God is three in one, the trinity,
never alone and yet He too holds out his hand to us and invites us on an
adventure that He longs to share with us.
“I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would-be gods;
out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing...
just one thing... I believe in her.” This is what The Doctor says
of Rose in The Satan Pit.
Do we dare to think the God believes in us? He’s there always cheering us
on, fully knowing what we are capable of.Sometimes we wonder if we are fit for the tasks before us but God is
there whispering, like most of us parents do – I know you can do this – I
believe in YOU!
“I have a thing. It's like a plan, but with more greatness.” The
Doctor tells Vincent Van Gogh.
God has a thing or a plan, it says so in the often quoted Jeremiah 29
“For I know the plans I have for you.”
The Doctor makes up the plan as he goes along, certain points in time are
fixed and others moveable.
The book of Revelation at the end of the Bible tells us how the Bible story
ultimately ends – God wins! We know the Doctor will save the world by the end
of each episode or at the very least the series. What happens in the middle is
always a bit of a “thing” that develops through the actions of the characters!
Another great quote from Vincent and the Doctor “The way I see it,
life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always
soften the bad things, but vice versa the bad things don’t always spoil
the good things and make them unimportant.”
God never tells us things will be easy just that He will always be with
us.
“Don’t wander off” is the Doctor’s rule number 1. Do his companions ever listen?
Do we always listen and follow God?
Yet God and the Doctor are always around when we do get lost, already
ready to answer our distress call, our phone call, our prayers in unexpected and
marvellous ways.
Martha says of the Doctor “He has saved your lives so many times and
you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never
asks to be thanked. But I've seen him, I know him... I love him... And I
know what he can do.”
Thinking about how the doctor saves us more often than we imagine
remained me so much of one of my favourite Bible quotes from Ephesians.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within
us,to him be
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever
and ever! Amen.
That verse also
hints at the fact we have a part to play in this adventure. His power at work
in us. Just at the Doctor’s companions realise their worth and abilities while
travelling with the Doctor as we draw closer to God our stories become more
entwined and our eyes are opened to the workings of an all-powerful God behind
the scenes.
There are more
things happening in heaven and earth than we can think of or imagine and yet
God’s imagination is limitless, he saves us and NEVER stops.
But the
Doctor isn’t an infallible and perfect God figure.
He promises in
Voyage of the Damned, the Christmas special starring Kylie, that he was going to
save everyone. Like all the old disaster movies popular in the seventies, all
the good people died saving others while the seemingly undeserving survived.
Despite his best efforts the Doctor can’t save Astrid and that tears him apart,
it is the beginning of the end of David Tennant’s reign as The Doctor.
God never makes
such rash promises but he says “I will be
with you until the very end of the age.” At the end of Matthew’s gospel, another of my
favourite passages.
“I’ve
lived too long.” The Doctor woefully tells Wilf as he eventually gives his
life for his friend when he knocks four times.
Jesus gives his
life for us, just for us, each and every ordinary one of us. Yet he believes we
are worth dying for to set creation right.
Our week away was great;
we had fun, laughed, watched lots of Doctor Who, wrote a radio play, did some
screen printing, visited a cave and ate lots of cake, including fishfinger cake
and custard, remembering to sing the Doctor Who grace before eating!
Best of all I have
made even more friends, who love life, Dr Who and Jesus – sounds like a
fantastic combination to me. (The perfect centre to my Venn Diagram - if you follow the blog you will know what that means! Or check out my post here.)
Here’s a video that
featured a lot during our week too…
Please feel free to add your own comments and thoughts on
the area of Dr Who, Science fiction and faith, I’m genuinely interested.
Everyone seems to be flashing a little bit of their NaNo works in progress. You know me, I can't resist joining in the fun and it is only fair as I have read some great pieces by other writers I follow - my admiration for their work constantly grows along with their word counts!
This was written on one of my more productive days when the words just flowed out of nowhere, it's the voices in my head finally released - hahahehe
Just remember this is Nano, unedited words, pre first draft if you like. I seriously want to get in there and play around with my sentence structure, tweaking words for the next hour of so but I will resist in order to write more...
This morsel of 150 words is from chapter 3ish just before things in the fractured world I have created start to explode and new and powerful characters arise from the devastation.
“How is your daughter Victoria? She is the same age as my cousin Esther, it’s a difficult age with them growing into young women and as
you know I am her sole guardian.”
“Don’t waste too much of the Minister’s precious time Cai. I
shall be watching, as the minister says this report needs to go out as soon as
possible.” And with that Mealin sloped off satisfied that Cai was being polite
asking about the future queen.
There wasn’t much newsworthy to report there, he had handed
those stories over to Entertainment Production. Information on Victoria’s
favourite colour and flower was not important enough for him to be involved in.
As for Cai’s niece until she was formally graded and assigned she was a nobody
in his eyes. Worth is only determined by grading the extent of your productive
capabilities, Mealin was a firm believer in this fundamental principle.
I should be writing for #NaNoWriMo - I have written precisely zero words today - I am such a rebel and it could be yet another really late night...
I have been distracted well and truely by this week's #SatSunTails comp. Well I figured that Jeffrey Hollar needs some competition, he's always the first to enter and his writing is superb - check out his blog The Latinum Vault for his wonderful flash fictions.
The following may be used as a sentence in your story OR provide a basis for it:-
“bludgeoned cochineal”
And here is your picture prompt:
Taking a deep breath at the front door, listening to her
yelling I remembered our hard fought past battles. Today’s outburst hadn’t been
ignited by teenage PMT or an overdose of E numbers at a birthday party.
In rage she had bludgeoned the old bottle of cochineal food
colouring; the glass bottle that had once belonged to my mother. These days you
can only buy artificial Barbie pink; more than just beetles were crushed and
harmed in adorning every surface with crimson stains.
Fortunately still holding the umbrella I deflected the bag
of flour by a quick thinking flick of the switch. I had never been its intended
victim; another innocent bystander.
As I lowered my shield she collapsed sobbing in my arms.
Surveying the disaster zone of a kitchen one thing I knew for
sure, cleaning this mess would be far easier than piecing together my daughter’s
broken heart.
150 words precisely, I am so proud of my extensive edited and perfect word count.
After the Strictly results show and all the other Sunday evening jobs are done I am going to write more ... oh so much more...
...unless I fall asleep!
If I have an keyboard inprint on my face tomorrow you know why!
“Entertainment Tower maintenance is not a high priority. The
fifth step is loose.”
