Skip to main content

Snippets from 100for100: Week Fourteen

 
     I have really good news...
     ...I think.
     It will depend on how it works out.
     I am rewriting Broken Clouds.
     So, if you have been following my blog, you know that I have been writing Broken Clouds in a nonchronological fashion, jumping around to write the scene that strikes my fancy.  You also know that I chopped my scenes up and spread them out on a table to sort them out recently (a great idea, by the way).  And you further know that I had a big, important backstory that I didn't know how to fit into the story.
     I pulled it apart and took a look at it and now I am putting it back together.  With the richness of the scenes I already wrote under my belt, I am starting at the beginning.  For me, there is so much to weave and so much to build upon from one scene to the next, and so much of it appears as I write and not before; I lose some of that when I don't write from front to back. 
     I wrote an outline that was a little richer than the ones I used to use for a research paper, and I made it all the way to the end.  And then I started writing from the beginning.
     As a result, I have more snippets to share.  Here they are:
 
 
     He was asleep.  His eyelashes were still wet from his tears.  But his face was peaceful.  In his dreams, he found rest…at least, when he was in my arms.  
 
**
     The bleak walls of the orphanage glided by me as I walked down the hall and up the stairs toward my own room.  I passed by a window and the sunlight hit my face, reminding me that this was not a midnight nightmare but as real and tangible as the little boy in my arms.  I shuddered.
**

ā€œIt’s a bad breach.  We should have moved her before she made a scene.ā€


**

Tory and I locked eyes for a moment. When she spoke, all of the bitterness and accusation was gone from her tone. ā€œThere’s nothing you can do, Kelsey,ā€ she said.

**
 
It’s only for a little while,ā€ she said.  ā€œWe are working on a really nice place for you, Kelsey.ā€ 
 
**


     The problem with the system is that the real enemy is always something you can’t see.  It’s rules, regulations, red tape, protocol, the people at headquarters, secret powers that throw obstacles in your way.  And as hard as I kicked against it, I never felt that my blows connected with anything solid.  It was too far out of my reach.
 
**

He pulled me down until I was kneeling in front of him.  His sympathetic little face felt like a balm to my frustration.  Then he reached out and touched my dry cheeks.  ā€œIt’s okay to cry sometimes,ā€ he said softly.

**

...Maybe they weren’t as dead as I thought. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye and God Be With You

It's rather fitting that some things come to a close on this day -- the last day of the year. I submitted my last entry into the Rooglewood contest this morning.  I can hardly believe it took me until the day of the deadline to send it in because I'm usually earlier than that.  And, even with the extra time I took, I still felt a little bit like maybe I could have done better if I had more time. But there was no feeling of regret when I hit "send."  Mostly it was just a prayer that Rooglewood would hear the heart of the message when they read it and that maybe, if I win, they could help me bring the full potential out of my little story.  And there was also a feeling, after working on these stories for more than six months, that it felt good to close that chapter and move on to the next one. I did it.  I wrote them.  And I'm really proud of them. Last year, the act of hitting "send" on my contest entry catapulted me into an anticipatory state....

The Countdown: Eight Days

Eight days.  Do you know what that means?  Barely over a week.  Tomorrow will be one week from the announcement date. Are you excited? I am. So, today, I want to talk to those who wrote something for the contest, whether or not you entered it in the end. What made you start writing your story?  What was the first inkling of an idea that tickled your brain?  What was it that you liked about your premise?  As you wrote, did you have a favorite character or a favorite scene?  And are you glad you wrote it down?  Do you feel like you learned and grew in your ability as a writer as you tried out things for this contest? And, if your story isn't included in this year's Rooglewood anthology (either because you didn't submit it or because it didn't fit with the other four stories selected), what will you do with it?  Will you market it elsewhere?  Or will you lock it away in a drawer?

Rooglewood Countdown: 12 days

     For the next 12 1/2 days, as we do our final countdown until March 31st, I'm going to do 4 posts asking about something you would like to see in the Snow White collection.      There are so many ways all of us, writers and readers alike, can win in this contest.  Maybe a familiar name makes it into the final five -- hurray!  Maybe a story in your favorite genre ended up in the collection this year -- woohoo!  Maybe you finally get to read a winning story about an evil king and his Snow White son -- how awesome!      So, in celebration of all the many things we can root for, I want to know some of the things that you think would be cool to find in this year's set of winners.      Without further ado, here is my question for the day: What is a point of view you would like to see in this collection?  Would you like a story written from the prince's perspective?  A story from Snow White's p...