Eeep. Yes, eep. That’s the monosyllable sound I make when starting something late. It’s day four of National Young Writers’ Month and I still haven’t started my goal: to work on a short story everyday for a month. Akin to this short story I will write a screenplay adaptation of it (also on a daily basis). This means a new blog post everyday: starting now.
My goal may well be overambitious. I am interested in seeing how the same story and characters can start at the same point and run parallel to each other but in different mediums of writing. I’m ready for it to be possibly contrived and brummagem/nonsensical and pretentious/slack and dilatory/just plain crap. However, I’m not writing for the purpose of an end product but more to become a better writer and learn something about writing. Often tortured by my own laziness, I want to develop a writing habit that leaves little time for procrastination.
To break up the monotony of this progressive project I will post multiple entries as often as possible; “comic relief” as they say. I encourage feedback, comments, abuse, swearing, slander, haiku, abusive haiku and hyperlinks to images and videos of baby sloths in response to my short story posts.
Happy National Young Writers’ Month! Check out the NYWM website, blog and forum for inspiration and the word on some sweet happenings throughout the month. Rosanna Stevens’ post on the Voiceworks blog about writing habits ought to get your writing cogs into gear. There’s tonnes happening in Melbourne this month including the Emerging Writers’ Festival. I’ll be at Page Parlour tomorrow at Federation Square. Come say hello to me at the Voiceworks stall!
Alas, here is the first installment of the short story I promise to work on everyday for the next month. Forgive me for the poor working title.
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GORDON LUCK (Short Story/Day One)
Gordon unlocks the store the same way an open parentheses starts the hug on a hushed (after) thought. Gordon turns the key, the seedy green keychain-tag with “NV Trophies” scrawled on its square, dangling across his palm.
Inside, dawn light is coming in in sheets through mostly-open Venetian blinds. There’s two huge tables covered in trophies, dawn light flicking off them. Gordon rubs his left eye, thinking it is his lazy eye and sometimes, just before lunch when his stomach turns to (hurt)hungry, it crosses his mind that he might be going blind or at best be deeply infected behind the eye.
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GORDON LUCK (Screenplay/Day One)
EXT. NV TROPHIES AND DOORS - MORNING
DEADPAN WS OF “NV TROPHIES” AND “DOORS” SHOPFRONTS.
GORDON unlocks front door of NV TROPHIES and enters.
INT. NV TROPHIES - MORNING
DUST CAUGHT IN A SHEET OF MORNING LIGHT ENTERING THROUGH VENETIAN BLINDS.
FACELESS GOLDEN HEADS OF TROPHY STATUETTES.
GORDON sits at the counter, bored, tired, rubbing his left eye.
