#364 - Success!

I slept in until about ten AM and then watched some YouTube videos.

Keenly aware of the ticking clock, I headed downstairs by eleven and made everyone bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. Robyn had been up before me, and it was the perfect time for her to take a break from her extra work.

I even made a plate for kiddo #2. And let me tell you, I don’t give up the bacon for just anyone.

We had plans to visit our friends Paul and Laura who are in the process of downsizing their home so they can sell it and move into something smaller. It will be an apartment, so they offered us up some of their plants and patio items. I wasn’t expecting to take home four full propane tanks, but I did.

While we were standing in their double wide garage with the doors open, their neighbor backed out and smashed into my car that was parked across the street. It was the noise that caught my attention and we all ran out into the street as he peeled away in his blue BMW coupe, shot through a stop sign and peeled around the corner to get away. I’m not sure what he was thinking, we had his plate number, and he lived next door.

In the end we had to report the incident as a hit and run. We stayed at our friend’s longer than we had anticipated to see if an officer might arrive to inspect the damage and get a report. We also didn’t have the other driver’s full details, although his landlord was happy to cough up his name. Sounded like they weren’t getting along.

I had to call the police department a second time to let them know I was leaving to go home and set up a time they might want to meet up. Because the accident happened in Burlington, I’ll have to go meet them there.

We headed home and unpacked the car with all the loot from our friend’s house, and I was then able to sit down and implement some of the ideas I had for the story.

I wrote from five thirty to six thirty and was able to add seven hundred words. Not entirely up to speed but getting there. Kiddo #1 returned from a stay at her grandmother’s and brought back some chicken thighs and the recipe.

I was able to snag a piece and made some microwaved basmati to go with it for my dinner. I needed something quick and easy tonight with the story deadline looming.

Robyn headed out to her service work and the kids left to go see a movie.

I did all my writing on the back deck today, but the mosquitoes are out and my laptop needs to be charged back up. Time to move inside for the evening.

I stopped working for a bit to take a hot bubble spa and get myself relaxed for the next marathon session.

The writing is going well, but the amount of time I have left is running out. It’s ten PM and I need to find a way to make this story a little shorter. It could easily be a book or a novella the way things are going. And I don’t have time to write a book tonight.

After some thought, I realized that I needed to do a little plotting today or the story would turn into a novel. I am giving myself until 6 AM to finish the story and it is now midnight. Six hours to write the whole thing. So, I spent a little time with a pen and paper and thought about the directions this story could take. If I broke it down to try and fail sequences, I needed to have no more than five if I was to get it done. The sixth and final part is always the validation where you wrap up all the loose ends and tell the reader the story is finished.

So, I had to take that into account as well.

I eventually came up with a scenario that I felt good about and felt in keeping with the main character’s choices. Now I just have to get it all done before six!

Okay back to the grind.

So far, my strategy seems to be working. The story is unfolding and I have a decent idea where things are going. But once again, the writing itself takes much too long from a word per hour point of view.

It’s three AM and still had at least three more big scenes to write and then the validation.

I really hunkered down and enjoyed the writing over the last three and a half hours.

By six thirty I sent out the final assignment and headed upstairs. The sun was coming up, and Robyn was just getting out of bed as I was trying to get into it.

It was seven AM by the time my head hit the pillow.

Time to get two hours of sleep before work starts at nine.

Zzzzzzzz.