15th - 21st July 2019 + Short Story At End
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| The tree house in the forest, up the mountain. |
Writing on my WIP picked up again. I got about another chapter and a half completed, with some concepts added in that change how this whole story unfolds.
Even with some very late nights, I’ve still kept up my morning walks. I even extended them to walk an extra five minutes each way to sit in a tree house instead of on my usual rock.
I’ve had extra little chats with my new friend from the mountain (see week one, if confused). With my limited Korean, it’s a little difficult for me to understand everything she says, but we try.
The prompts I’ve been using for my short stories come from a competition email blast I receive every Friday. This week I managed to actually send in a completed story before the Friday deadline, plus another to add to this post.
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| The fine dust rose to high levels this week, causing foggy skies. |
Frustrations:
Editing is getting difficult. I’m very critical of my old work and too tired to fully concentrate. Sometimes this makes me doubt my writing and people’s possible interest, but then I get to sections that are pretty funny or even clever. Plus, my edits have improved the writing a lot.
I hate going to bed, so this week I didn’t. Even though I’ve been walking and working a lot, I didn’t get tired until 2AM most days. And yes, The Sims was involved in this. I haven’t played it this much in years!
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| Finally caught sight of some wildlife in the forest. |
Hilarities:
What I cut from my First Novel in shame this week:
I get a show of shoulder, mouth and eyebrow twitches.
He finishes off his potato with a quick look around the green and then a shrug.
Not a terribly exciting change, but much clearer.
The tiredness I felt this week meant that I couldn’t edit much and I had some odd moments.
On Friday morning I forgot there is a CCTV camera along my walk. In the middle of an imaginary conversation about a new story idea, I walked past it mouthing the words, matching emotions on my face and gesticulating for emphasis. At least I paused while passing people.
On Saturday, I fell into our car door and ended up with a lump on my head and scrape on my knee. My head still feels a bit funny, but that’s probably just the humidity. I’ll try to get more sleep in week 4.
Merriment:
Friends visited our home for game night on Saturday. We didn’t save the world from viruses in Pandemic, but had good fun trying. Unfortunately, due to exhaustion and a little sickness, we were unable to join friends at the Brazilian buffet on Sunday. We have been packing too much into every weekend and it caught up with us.
I was able to write a second short story from a different prompt this week: Write a flash fiction story about a day where "TGIF" took on a whole meaning.
Kit flusters into the restaurant; her hair flowing with the breeze, handbag and sunglasses seeming to jump from hand to hand. She always makes me believe somehow that a curious little shiatsu or chihuahua is pulling her along, zipping from one direction to the other.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how many people are on the road at this time.” Well, it is 5:30PM on a Friday. “TGIF, right?” Um, I guess. “Love your new top, Tina! Good for this sunny weather.” It wasn’t even new when I wore it last month to Davey’s party. Having hair over my forehead is something I’m trying to get used to, though. Maybe she’ll comment on it in the winter. “What’s good here?”
There’s not much point in even looking at the menu. Kit only ever orders one thing: chicken strips and chips. I’ve had ten minutes to choose my own meal while waiting for her. Since I haven’t quite figured out how to tell her about Davey’s situation, I use this waste of time to try to get the words in order.
“OMG, that pizza looks nice.” It’s just a margarita, nothing fancy. “I think I’ll get chicken strips, though.”
With our dinner cooking, I decide to get into it. “Kit, something happened this week.”
“Oh, I know!” Did Davey call her for bail money, too? “I mean FML, but this week there were too many moments.” I begin to think it might be too stressful for her to hear about Dave’s arrest, but then she laughs. “I mean, I have never seen something YouTube worthy in real life before, but my videos would be going viral if I had recorded all of Kenny’s slip ups in the office.”
Kenny? The clumsy guy who’s got a crush on Kit? What has he got to do with anything? “I was reading that new inspirational book everyone’s talking about during lunch on Tuesday, TMI.” While I don’t really need to know Kit’s reading habits, it’s not exactly inappropriate. “Along comes Kenny with two coffees and trips over the chair opposite me! Totally soaked the rest of the day! He was TGIF.” I wait to learn why Kenny was so excited about the end of the working week, but Kit’s sipping her water with her eyes wandering the room.
Asking about Kenny’s weekend could lead Kit anywhere, only further delaying the reason I asked to meet, so I start into the Davey issue again. “You remember that investment Davey wanted us to buy into?”
“Oh, the penguin companions for South African elderly? Yeah, has it started up now? I wonder if we could go visit.”
“No, that was the charity he represents.” Which first got me wondering about how much I should trust the ‘exciting opportunities’ he’s always harping on about. “I’m talking about the AI project to give voices to plants.”
“Even better. I’ve been talking regularly to my ficus, just to prepare it for when I install its chip.” But will she be prepared for the little tree to scream at her for silence? Not that it can ever do that.
“Well, Davey’s financial activities were flagged by the tax office and it turns out that none of his projects were quite what they seemed.” Kit sips at her drink again, as if this isn’t life changing for any of us. “Police took him in yesterday for questioning and pressed charges this morning.”
She takes a second to process my words. I should have chosen simpler phrases. “His projects weren’t real?” I nod. “Can I get a refund?” Now I shake my head. “But that was my housing deposit.” Kit starts to breathe a little quicker. “Oh my gosh, TGIF again!” This calms her down somehow. “Huh, funny how that’s often so true on a Friday.”
“What has your deposit got to do with that?”
Kit’s head turns up to me like she’s mimicking the little dog I imagined earlier. “Well, I’m totally getting in a fluster, obviously. I mean my parents are going to be so angry that I lost that money. Friday must be a day for big shocks.”
So Kenny wasn’t happy about Friday, he was embarrassed about falling. Suddenly our conversation makes so much more sense. “Kit, what do you think TMI means?”
“Teach myself intelligent.” That does connect to reading.
Was the pizza really that impressive to her? “OMG?”
“Open to many goods. It’s from a Chinese proverb, you know.” Um, I’ve only heard people use the French version.
“And FML is…”
“Finding many laughs. You have to see the funny side of things. Although, it might take me a while to find them in this.”
“Kit, how did you work out all of these?”
“Davey told me.” It’s a good thing Davey never told her to jump off a cliff with him.
“Should we go visit him? I’m sure it’d be nice to see a friendly face.”
“No, Kit. I don’t think we should. You wouldn’t see one looking back at you.”
“Oh, look at that sign, isn’t that strange?” Coming out of the plant pot beside the fake cactus behind me is a pole with a speech bubble stuck to it. The cactus is telling us to try out the new enchiladas. “Maybe I should try them next time. FML, am I right?”
More than she knows.
On Friday morning I forgot there is a CCTV camera along my walk. In the middle of an imaginary conversation about a new story idea, I walked past it mouthing the words, matching emotions on my face and gesticulating for emphasis. At least I paused while passing people.
On Saturday, I fell into our car door and ended up with a lump on my head and scrape on my knee. My head still feels a bit funny, but that’s probably just the humidity. I’ll try to get more sleep in week 4.
 |
| Enjoying reading more: finished She Lies in Wait this week. |
Merriment:
Friends visited our home for game night on Saturday. We didn’t save the world from viruses in Pandemic, but had good fun trying. Unfortunately, due to exhaustion and a little sickness, we were unable to join friends at the Brazilian buffet on Sunday. We have been packing too much into every weekend and it caught up with us.
I was able to write a second short story from a different prompt this week: Write a flash fiction story about a day where "TGIF" took on a whole meaning.
Am I Right?
Kit flusters into the restaurant; her hair flowing with the breeze, handbag and sunglasses seeming to jump from hand to hand. She always makes me believe somehow that a curious little shiatsu or chihuahua is pulling her along, zipping from one direction to the other.
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how many people are on the road at this time.” Well, it is 5:30PM on a Friday. “TGIF, right?” Um, I guess. “Love your new top, Tina! Good for this sunny weather.” It wasn’t even new when I wore it last month to Davey’s party. Having hair over my forehead is something I’m trying to get used to, though. Maybe she’ll comment on it in the winter. “What’s good here?”
There’s not much point in even looking at the menu. Kit only ever orders one thing: chicken strips and chips. I’ve had ten minutes to choose my own meal while waiting for her. Since I haven’t quite figured out how to tell her about Davey’s situation, I use this waste of time to try to get the words in order.
“OMG, that pizza looks nice.” It’s just a margarita, nothing fancy. “I think I’ll get chicken strips, though.”
With our dinner cooking, I decide to get into it. “Kit, something happened this week.”
“Oh, I know!” Did Davey call her for bail money, too? “I mean FML, but this week there were too many moments.” I begin to think it might be too stressful for her to hear about Dave’s arrest, but then she laughs. “I mean, I have never seen something YouTube worthy in real life before, but my videos would be going viral if I had recorded all of Kenny’s slip ups in the office.”
Kenny? The clumsy guy who’s got a crush on Kit? What has he got to do with anything? “I was reading that new inspirational book everyone’s talking about during lunch on Tuesday, TMI.” While I don’t really need to know Kit’s reading habits, it’s not exactly inappropriate. “Along comes Kenny with two coffees and trips over the chair opposite me! Totally soaked the rest of the day! He was TGIF.” I wait to learn why Kenny was so excited about the end of the working week, but Kit’s sipping her water with her eyes wandering the room.
Asking about Kenny’s weekend could lead Kit anywhere, only further delaying the reason I asked to meet, so I start into the Davey issue again. “You remember that investment Davey wanted us to buy into?”
“Oh, the penguin companions for South African elderly? Yeah, has it started up now? I wonder if we could go visit.”
“No, that was the charity he represents.” Which first got me wondering about how much I should trust the ‘exciting opportunities’ he’s always harping on about. “I’m talking about the AI project to give voices to plants.”
“Even better. I’ve been talking regularly to my ficus, just to prepare it for when I install its chip.” But will she be prepared for the little tree to scream at her for silence? Not that it can ever do that.
“Well, Davey’s financial activities were flagged by the tax office and it turns out that none of his projects were quite what they seemed.” Kit sips at her drink again, as if this isn’t life changing for any of us. “Police took him in yesterday for questioning and pressed charges this morning.”
She takes a second to process my words. I should have chosen simpler phrases. “His projects weren’t real?” I nod. “Can I get a refund?” Now I shake my head. “But that was my housing deposit.” Kit starts to breathe a little quicker. “Oh my gosh, TGIF again!” This calms her down somehow. “Huh, funny how that’s often so true on a Friday.”
“What has your deposit got to do with that?”
Kit’s head turns up to me like she’s mimicking the little dog I imagined earlier. “Well, I’m totally getting in a fluster, obviously. I mean my parents are going to be so angry that I lost that money. Friday must be a day for big shocks.”
So Kenny wasn’t happy about Friday, he was embarrassed about falling. Suddenly our conversation makes so much more sense. “Kit, what do you think TMI means?”
“Teach myself intelligent.” That does connect to reading.
Was the pizza really that impressive to her? “OMG?”
“Open to many goods. It’s from a Chinese proverb, you know.” Um, I’ve only heard people use the French version.
“And FML is…”
“Finding many laughs. You have to see the funny side of things. Although, it might take me a while to find them in this.”
“Kit, how did you work out all of these?”
“Davey told me.” It’s a good thing Davey never told her to jump off a cliff with him.
“Should we go visit him? I’m sure it’d be nice to see a friendly face.”
“No, Kit. I don’t think we should. You wouldn’t see one looking back at you.”
“Oh, look at that sign, isn’t that strange?” Coming out of the plant pot beside the fake cactus behind me is a pole with a speech bubble stuck to it. The cactus is telling us to try out the new enchiladas. “Maybe I should try them next time. FML, am I right?”
More than she knows.
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