I went to the writing cabin at 5:00 AM today. I reviewed the last chapter of Will ‘O the Wisp, and it was off to the races. It involved sending Patty on a bus ride, and a lot of internal thought.
Patty has been through some bad things and went on a road trip to get some answers. It’s a good way to imply some stress. A stranger in a strange town; she winds up alone in a group of more strangers.
Lisa* moved quietly around my new writing room. She wore a green corset dress, and high heeled button up boots. She was totally into the whole witchcraft theme. Her strawberry blonde hair was brushed down over her shoulders. She filled my cup and left me alone.
Doubt** made a Kruk Kruk noise at a couple places, but I ignored him. I know I could amp up the stress, but I wanted to forge ahead. I could revisit it all later.
Just when I got the key information in front of Patty, Lorelei*** showed up. She wore a Greek Olympic warmup suit. She tossed Lisa a bag of USA warmups, and me a USA hockey shirt.
“What’s the deal?” I asked. “I thought you wanted me to write.”
“You wrote,” Lorelei said. “The games are on, and they’re important too.”
I stopped at 38,060 words, so I made a little progress.
I shut down and carried my iPad to the main writing room. Lisa hacked the television broadcast into my Mac, and we watched the men’s skeleton. What a great sport! It was nice to see an American on the podium, even if it wasn’t gold.
An emotional interview followed the race, and I wound up with a tear in my eye. I caught Lorelei watching and knew what this was about. She never does anything without a reason. Emotions are important, and expressing them in writing would help me along my journey.
I edited my way through a chapter of Lisa’s story, and it wasn’t good. There was more telling than I can sell. I wrote this four or five years ago, and I’ve improved since then. It’s going to take some work to whip this into shape, but it’ll be worth it.
I folded up my iPad and told Lisa, “Be ready tomorrow. We need to work on your story. Scenes I described years ago need to be lived through your eyes. It needs more feelings and thought.”
Lisa put both hands to her heart and bent her knees. She smiled from ear to ear. “Do you mean it? Really?”
“Of course. We know it’s a good story, but we want readers to feel it more. Maybe we can weave in some of that emotion we saw in the Olympics.” I glanced toward Lorelei; she cast her eyes down and smiled.
I left the cabin shortly after. I promised my wife, old what’s her face****, we could go out. We skipped Valentines day because of the crowd, and it was our turn. We had a nice Italian dinner at Asiago, then went to Old Chicago to work on my beer tour… Well, I worked on my World Beer Tour, old what’s her face went into the mall. We decided what to get my mother for her birthday, and she picked it up. I wound up drinking enough beer to deserve a nice heavy bottle opener. Mom will be so proud.
Tomorrow is all about editing and rewriting Lisa’s story, Wild Concept.
* Lisa is a character from the story Wild Concept. She’s a robot, and helps me at the cabin.
** Doubt is a raven. He was a gift from Lorelei, and is supposed to be helpful.
*** Lorelei is my Muse.
**** Not my wife’s actual name.
Entertaining Stories 