NOW it’s a challenge

NaNoWriMo is upon us. I blogged briefly about how I desired to take on the challenge of writing a short novel (50,000 words) in a month.

And I do. I will.

However, I have barely started. I knew I was going to be a week behind, though. I had my last week of University to contend with. And you know what “last week” means…

Major Assessments!

I handed one in today (Thursday) and have JUST completed the other due tomorrow. Once I hand that in, I am officially free!

And I’ll need to be.

If I thought 50,000 words in 30 days was a challenge, what does that make 48,000 in 23 days?

Impossible? Let’s find out.

I think I could… maybe… do it. I will have a lot of free time all of a sudden. If I write just over 2,000 words a day, every day, I’ll hit the target. That’s doable, right?

Absolutely.

I think the hardest thing for me is having a good idea I can write that freely on. I often wrestle with my ideas for aaaaaaages. I’ll write a bunch, and then stop and contemplate absolutely everything. For some time. And then write a bunch more. And continue that cycle. I can’t afford to do that here. I need to be on autopilot. I’m not sure I can do that with my current idea. Maybe I’ll have to re-invent my story. Hmmm… tricky one.

I’ll keep you all posted. And I will be continuing, or restarting, tomorrow night.

Talk to you then, lovely bloggers!

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A Brief Conversation

I am going to have a quick crack at the Weekly Writing Challenge. I love ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ challenges, so this is my procrastination exercise in between studying. I have written a short story based on the below image. And I mean short. After all, I’m meant to be working on my assessment task.

A Brief Conversation

Tamara had always felt like an outcast. For that reason she tended to find solace and comfort in the presence of other outcasts. She had spotted the green guy in his top hat and waist coat from inside the restaurant. She wanted to talk to him. He would understand. He knew what it was like to be different. To be singled out. To be surrounded by dimwits constantly moving but going nowhere. Just going in circles.

She sat down beside the green giant and leaned against his hind leg. “I know how you feel,” she said aloud, as if the thing had the ability to listen. “I’m stuck, too. My parents are inside with their friends. They’re all talking and laughing, and I’m just bored. You look bored, too. It’s okay, I’ll keep you company. We can keep each other company.” She gazed up at his stoic green face. “I like your hat. It’s fancy. You’re far too fancy for this place. We deserve to be somewhere better.”

She smiled and leaned closer against her inanimate friend. She liked the dapper object. She felt comfortable there. More comfortable than inside the restaurant. So comfortable, that she slowly but surely drifted asleep.

Fin

The Sunshiny Pholidota Subking

The new Daily Prompt is incredibly random. So, I love it! It asks us to scribble down the first 10 words that come to mind, then pick 3 of them. Those 3 are to make up our post title. I decided to go completely random and use an online random word generator. That was ballsy. I ended up with the title ‘Sunshiny Pholidota Subking’.

No joke, they were words 7, 8 and 9, in exact order. And they were the only three words that made any of much sense. I think it was meant to work out like this.

Since that is not a particularly usual phrase, I’ll break it down…

‘Sunshiny’ can refer to possessing the quality of cheerfulness or happiness, which is the definition I am running with here.

‘Pholidota’ is the zoological order comprising of the pangolins.

A ‘subking’ is basically what it sounds like. A leader that rules over part of an empire.

So, below is my (decidedly children’s) story of The Sunshiny Pholidota Subking.

Photo credit: utaot.com

Percy was a very happy pangolin. He had everything a pangolin could want.

He ruled over a great Pangolin Kingdom. He had a beautiful pangolin family. He had access to all the insects a pangolin could ever want to eat.

But there was one problem in Percy’s Pangolin Kingdom. That problem was Lara, the leopard.

Lara was a meat-eater. And pangolins are meat!

Percy was the friendliest pangolin. Everybody who ever met Percy thought he was just wonderful. So all the pangolins decided that lovable Percy should try asking Lara very nicely not to eat them.

So one day, Percy Pangolin went to visit Lara Leopard at her favourite tree.

But Lara was not in her tree this day. She was on the ground, looking sadly up at the last bunch of leaves. Her tree was dying.

Percy put on his friendliest voice and asked the leopard, “Lara, why is your tree dying?”

Lara was very surprised that the pangolin would speak to her. Usually pangolins hid from leopards. But she was too sad to chase Percy today. Lara pointed a big paw at her tree and said to Percy, “Termites are eating my tree. Termites eat wood, and my tree is wood!”

Percy thought about this and had an idea. He was a pangolin after all, and pangolins eat termites! In his nicest pangolin voice, Percy said, “Lara, we pangolins eat termites. If I eat all the termites, your tree will be saved.”

Lara thought this was very nice of the pangolin. She thought it was so nice, that she wanted to do something nice for him, too. Lara said, “Mr. Pangolin, if you eat all the termites and save my favourite tree, I will promise not to eat any of your pangolin friends anymore.”

Percy thought this was a fantastic idea. So he agreed. That night, Percy ate all the termites living in Lara’s tree. He was so full he could not eat anymore.

Lara was very grateful to her new pangolin friend. Now the termites were gone, her favourite tree would live for a very long time. She was so grateful that she would never eat another pangolin ever again.

Percy returned back to his pangolin kingdom and told the other pangolins all about how he saved Lara’s tree. All the pangolins were very grateful that Percy had saved them from the leopard. He had brought happiness to all the Pangolin Kingdom.

And Percy would always be known as the friendliest Pangolin King ever.

The End

Daily Prompt: A to Z

Today’s Daily Prompt challenge… http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/daily-prompt-orderly/

Create a short story, piece of memoir, or epic poem that is 26 sentences long, in which the first sentence begins with “A” and each sentence thereafter begins with the next letter of the alphabet.

Admittedly, Rachael could think of elsewhere she’d rather spend today. Birthdays had never felt like a special occasion to her. Celebrating seemed overly self-indulgent and she hated ever making a fuss. Despite her protests however, her boyfriend Xavier had dragged her along to the Zoo. Even though it was just the two of them, it still felt to Rachael like there was a fuss being made.

Friday, and there was almost nobody around. Giant crowds would be here the next two days, so she was thankful to at least avoid those. Hundreds of visitors to share the day with was much better than thousands. In Rachael’s mind, this day should not be like any other. Just because it was her Birthday didn’t mean she had to endure people. Kids were the worst too, so the Zoo seemed like one of the dumbest places to visit.

Lounging about would have suited her much better. Moreso than walking all day. Not that she wasn’t grateful. Only Xavier was truly worth spending time with. Problem was, he felt she should converse with others, too. ‘Quit expecting me to act like normal people’, she would tell him. Rarely did he really try to force it on her though. Special occasions mostly. Today, for example. Unrelenting, Xavier had invited others to join them. Vehemently, Rachael had persisted those people stay at home.

Walking all day must have taken the fight out of her now though. Xavier led her to one last enclosure and she smiled. ‘You saved the best for last on purpose’, she said as she gave him a knowing look. Zebras approached her and now she couldn’t stop grinning, finally glad that she gave in to Xavier’s plans.