BAM! 30k with 20 days to go! 6k today alone! Now enjoy some inspirational quotes, tidbits and fun facts about writing and 50k words! Thanks for reading!
Tag: Must Sleep But I’m Still Writing
Week One, Done & Dusted!
Week one has passed and my mind is a veritable wasteland of characters and story ideas swimming in a deep sea of sleep deprivation. What's another day of four hours sleep? Support is the most important thing to me at the moment!
Fragments of Stories: Past, Present and Future.
Writing being the crazy whimsical pastime that it is, inspiration can suddenly flood in at any moment, drowning you with scenes, lines and concepts which are of the utmost importance. For me, these moments occur regularly and randomly. Sometimes they are about the same story. Other times they are mere flashes that string together as if my brain were assembling a movie trailer (complete with soundtrack). Some of you out there may understand… many of you most likely are phoning the people with the lovely white jackets on my behalf. Whatever the case may be, tonight I am going to take you on another journey, but this time into my flashes of inspiration.
So sometimes, I talk to myself. I’ve mentioned this before, so this should come as no surprise (depending on when you’ve joined… if you’re new, Hi! I’m TJ, and I talk to myself! Now you’re up to speed…). These conversations can lead to insanely inspiring scenes of awesome moments. Sometimes just a line itself begs to be written down and never forgotten. Tonight’s post is brought to you by a journey for water, in the middle of the night. Everything is completely unrelated to that… now, enjoy the fragments of my ideas and wonder how I piece together stories from these.
***
“I’ll never forget you.”
“Try.”
A knight clad in demonic armour forces a two storey pair of doors closed and drops the security bar into place. With a single bloodied hand, he leans against the door. I won’t forget you. A clattering of footsteps enter the room behind him and snap him from his daydream.
“Well. If it isn’t the fallen paladin… God abandoned you to the depths of hell did he?” A man sneers with a laugh. The other men chuckle as they enter the room.
“I wouldn’t know anything about God.” The demon knight narrows his eyes as he glances over his shoulder. Fifteen. He thinks to himself. Fifteen I can handle.
***
A ball of flame descended from the heavens and rained fire and ash down upon the kingdom of the Magi. Being the last of the fire Magi, Lorell ran desperately through the streets as he screamed, “Petra! Petra!” Finally he spotted her as she ran from a burning building.
Without a second thought, Lorell embraced her and patted out the flames with his bare hands. “Petra… oh thank the gods you’re alright.” As he held her tight, he could feel his body tingle. “We have to get out of here!” He yelled as the roaring inferno in the sky rumbled toward the kingdom. “It’s going to-” Suddenly, Petra went limp in his arms. “Petra?! Petra!!!” Lorell watched as her skin began to blister and burn. “No! There’s no time!” He clutched her close and pulled his cape around her. The sky grew bright and the earth shook ferociously. Then in an instant, all was seemingly over.
Lorell opened his eyes and stared into the pile of ash in his hands. He couldn’t recognise her any more, but he knew who and what it was he was holding. Standing straight up, the ashes drifted away into the breeze… Lorell looked lifelessly at the scorched earth around him. Organics turned to ash, bricks melted, metals ran tiny streams in the road. His immunity to fire had paid off. But it certainly didn’t feel like it.
***
As the police arrived, the train driver was sitting on the side of the road, still visibly shaken.
“Is that him?” Asked a broad shouldered detective, staring down a small man in a blue police uniform.
The smaller man leapt to attention as he realised who he was talking to. “Yes, Detective. That’s him.”
Walking up to the driver, the Detective sat down next to him. “Coffee?” He asked politely. The driver replied by shaking his head. The Detective smiled. “Good thing too, I only brought one of these. Want to tell me about it?”
“He-he fell, no jumped! He jumped from the overpass!” The driver exclaimed. People had been waiting for this moment, and the area went silent.
“Whoa slow down bud…” The Detective’s silver tongue calming the man a tiny bit. “He jumped in front of you?”
“Yes! I couldn’t have stopped, or missed!” The driver was nearly shouting, the attention of all around were beginning to stare.
The detective scratched his chin. “Well then, where’s the body?”
“Uhh detective?” A small bald police officer asked in hushed tones, in hopes that he wouldn’t be too much of an interruption. “You may want to see this.”
As the pair stared at the front of the train, the detective shook his head. “Call it in.” He said calmly.
The young officer peered up at his mentor. “Are you-“
“Yes,” The detective interrupted. “It’s not every day you see something like this.”
The detective watched as the younger officer walked away and then turned back to the front of the train. He stared at the perfect outline of a human like figure, dented into the front of the train. “Incredible… just incredible.”
***
As the small army of rebels began to retreat, the king pushed his men into pursuing them and killing them all to the last man. “Leave none alive! Not even the children and livestock!” He yelled, cackling in his glory. “But bring me their heads on pikes, so that I may revel in their agony and defeat every morning before dawn, and each night after dusk!”
As the king rose to inspect his newly acquired lands, his right hand knight Zero, removed his helmet. With astonishment, the king recognised him as the rebel leader. “You, how long have you…”
“Long enough to understand war. Understand people. Understand you.” The rebel said as the others also removed their helms. “You lead your men into the valley where my archers will kill them to the last man. Your people deserve better. They deserve a real king.”
“A real king? There have been no heirs in a thousand years!” The king scoffed. “You’d have more chance finding unicorn horns!”
“Yet here I stand… a testament to the love between the elves and humans, once. I come to unite the races and lead them into battle. A war is brewing…” The rebel sighed. “I am the final son of Balthazaar, prince of elves and Merida, queen of men. I am a man with the gift of eternal life.”
***
“Why, hello my boy! What’s your name?”
The boy shocked from his wonder, turned to see a round man in an ill fitting black suit twirling the tip of his fiery red moustache.
“Jefferson, Sir.” Instinctively the boy hung his head as he was taught to, out of respect for his betters.
“Chin up, Jefferson, you won’t see a thing staring at the ground!” The man tipped the boy’s chin up with his finger. “Only ten dollars to see the greatest show in the world!”
Sadness washes over Jefferson as he turned his pockets inside out. A small smooth pebble falls to the ground and both watch it roll to the man’s foot.
“A fine specimen! May I?” Looking to Jefferson’s innocent face for permission, the man smiles warmly. Jefferson shrugs with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. The man stoops to pick up the tiny pebble and polishes it on his shirt. “Thank you very much! A bit of spit and polish…” With a quick spit and some more rubbing from his shirt, the man produces a gemstone. “Perfect! This is worth roughly thirty dollars my boy!” He produces a twenty dollar bill from the breast of his jacket. “I assume you’d still love to see the show, so this should suffice as payment.” With a bow and a smile, the man vanished into the crowd.
***
His brother’s lifeless eyes stared deep into his soul, judging him through and through. I’ve done the right thing… haven’t I? As he met his empty gaze, the swordsman withdrew the blade from the stomach of his victim. After all the searching, after all the hunting… he had finally managed to kill the last of the Templars.
***
Those are just a few images and moments from my mind tonight. Now I am tired, and I’m pretty sure I open at work tomorrow… so I must be off! I have so many more fragments so I’ll keep you posted to also see what piques your interest! Hope you’ve enjoyed and I’ve got a question! How do you manage your ideas? Write them all down separately? Convert them into the current story idea? Or leave them alone until you’re ready? Let me know and I’ll talk to you soon!
The Waiting Game
Within the dimly lit confines of a small office/storage area, I sit begging the last person who was assigned a review of my story to complete it. It has been three days now since I made the decision to try publishing my short story. It sounds great, and I am beyond excited at this point. Why wouldn’t I be? I’ll just make a dollar eBook, and see if I can get noticed while I work on my novel. The goal was twenty individual reviews and critiques of my story before I begin the process of cleaning up the formatting for an eBook. This entire experience will be invaluable for when I eventually complete my novel. However, one thing is holding me back. It’s not me, nor anything overly technical… but it is out of my control.
This one jerk, most likely sitting in their mom’s basement, is apparently too busy to give my story a look. In a sense, it almost feels as if fate itself is telling me something: I’m not ready. I feel ready though, I mean the short story has come a long way. I’ve managed an average rating of just over eight out of ten, which for my first foray into the public domain, feels incredible! But as my beard grows thick while I wait, my patience grows thin. Who is this mystery person who is keeping me waiting? I’ll bet when they do eventually get around to it, they’ll toss out a generic score of six and give me all one line responses and no constructive criticism. It will make my day.
Then, I will destroy them.
For now though, I wait patiently. Like the hen on her eggs, I will wait until the time is right. I made this deal with the universe, the least I can do is abide by it. Damn universe… grumble, grumble… In the meantime I’ve been writing thousands of words! Last night the only thing that made me stop was exhaustion! Which doesn’t exactly sound good, but my muse had grabbed me by the hand and lead me into the seedy underbelly of Cope Dia City. I found a character I had briefly written about in another story, in the middle of a new one. So now he needs to raise $100K before the man he dealt with decides to take his house and life from him. Guess that’s what happens when an assassin needs a loan.
The novel has been going well too. I’ve pretty much got four stories on the go at the moment, plus I try and write in one blog or another at least once a week. The only problem is one of my on going story ideas is rising up with more scenes popping into my head on a regular basis. If you’re a writer, you know what I mean. If you’re not… well, thanks for coming by and supporting me first of all! Secondly, a scene flash could be anything from a piece of dialogue which drives a whole scene or a simple pose that ignites a creative fire. The latest idea has grown from a simple idea, into a raging inferno.
It may consume me.
I may let it.
The idea centered around the Lord of the Heavens deciding it was time for his resurrection. Every time the Lord returns to the world as a spirit, the world showcases the issues through whatever way is most effective. This isn’t the first time, in fact the Lord has fallen to the world quite a few times. The time line is a bit hazy now, but as of right now I am dealing with different factions and how their leaders interact. Each leader is only trying to make everything better for everyone involved. The world is plunging into chaos as people are roaming, killing, conquering and pillaging. The Lord does not understand why his creations have fallen so far from their intended existence, and decides to return. Unlike his last appearance as Jesus, The Lord appears in the body of a twelve year old girl. The world thrusts The Lord into the eyes of a child and forces her to endure many hardships by resurrecting her alone and orphaned.
The other factions begin their planning. Gabriel is left in charge of the Kingdom of Heaven once again, and he feels strongly that it is now or never. If the Dragons, Celestials and Infernals were all granted immortality, why shouldn’t the humans? After all, The Lord granted immortality to his protectors among men, The Templar. He decides to visit Lucifer at the gates of Hell, and they discuss their plan to find The Lord while he is in his weakened state, and kill him.
The Templar Immortals catch word of a star appearing in the sky for only one night, and they begin their hunt for The Lord. They were granted immortality for their efforts in spreading his words throughout history and for staying true to themselves. They would be the first to find the girl, and Mary takes her into protection until she learns what she needs to for her return to the heavens. Mary’s interactions with Gabriel are most unpleasant as Gabriel considers them weak and feeble, despite The Lord’s favor upon them.
The Infernals are a neutral force, mostly in favor of their own lord Satariel and his brothers. They are the embodiment of Chaos and are brought into an alliance with the celestials to help hunt The Lord. After their eternal imprisonment, they make a pact with Gabriel for their freedom to walk the world but Gabriel and Lucifer force Satariel to agree never to march on the Kingdom of Heaven. They bind the agreement with their souls and the hunt begins.
The dragons are the most ancient of beings. The Lord was a dragon originally, and shaped the world in memory of his own birth from an egg. He populated it with dragons of all sorts, and upon the realisation of his duties as a creator, he left Bahamut and his family, Tiamat, Yahweh and Vrtra, to rule the world. The dragons became violent and began fighting over petty things such as land, scenery and eventually food. As dragons began killing each other, The Lord returned to them and realised they were lonely and unchallenged. Thus, he created humans.
Eventually humans began to evolve and survive alongside the dragons, and a new harmony was achieved. The humans however, were expanding at an alarming rate, and began to cut into the other food sources. Finally, dragons descended upon them as prey and humans began to hunt them in return. As The Lord returned to the earth, he came in the form of an angel to aid the men against their fearsome foes. As The Lord realised the humans were small and fragile compared to the larger and wiser dragons, he created the celestials to aid in the battles against them. Together humans and celestials drove the dragons from earth and they descended into an eternal slumber on a planet away from the reach of humans.
Until now.
The dragons in their ancient wisdom realise the malicious intent of the celestials descending upon earth. Bahamut with his all seeing eyes, rallies the dragons to return to their home for the first time in many millennia. As angels and demons hunt The Lord who is protected by the Templars and dragons descend upon the world from the stars, will The Lord learn the next lesson in time to save himself and his most treasured creations?
Who knows?
It’s late/early and I should sleep/collapse. Let me know what you think of that idea!
Final Note: I still await the next review…