skygrazer.com

It was a dark and stormy night is one of the most famous, cliches of an opening line around. (Although, I admit I had to Google the original source - check out the wikipedia article if you’re interested)

But I thought I’d have some fun with it and do a few variations on the theme as a writing exercise.

It was a dark and stormy night–well ok, it wasn’t all that dark, just twilight really, and it was more of a drizzle than a storm–but still it was pretty scary when my Great Aunt Matilda showed up at the door. The drizzle had collected in little droplets which highlighted the three hairs protruding from the mole on her cheek.

It was a dark and stormy night, as dark as his enemy’s heart and as stormy as his thoughts, when he loaded the pistol and tucked it into his coat pocket.

It was a dark and stormy night, just perfect for puddle jumping with a flashlight. Of course, mother wasn’t too happy when we all trooped in to the kitchen and the mud ran down our slickers and smeared the prints already made by our galoshes.

It was a dark and stormy night when the aliens showed up the first time. They’d been reading our books and watching our movies, you see, and they knowed exactly how to do it. They even mocked up a no-kidding, gen-you-wine flying saucer just to impress us yokels. Didn’t work though. You see, Jed was out coon hunting that night and he come across them before they could stage the whole scene. You should just hear him tell the story…

As always when I start something new, I do a ton of learning and research (sounds boring but it’s not). I found some really great articles on writing at Holly Lisle’s site. I bought a couple of her e-book courses and found them really helpful and she has a blog and free newsletter as well. Well worth checking out if you’re interested in writing.

For one thing, it confirmed something I’d finally realized. Don’t edit until you get to the end. The first 16,000 words of my story took me five years or so to write, off and on as I got discouraged and re-enthused.

The problem was, every time I had a good idea or realized I needed to change something, I’d start at the beginning and edit through again until I got back to where I thought of the new idea. And of course by that time, I’d have thought of something else. So, I’d start all over…

Obviously, I didn’t make much progress.

So as I figured out, and Holly reiterated, I made much better progress by simply making a note of that new idea or change, and simply writing on as though I’d already made the change in the earlier pages. After all, I’ve done the last 30,000 words in the last few months. Still not prolific by most writers standards but quite a bit better than I had been doing.

So what have I been up to?

I’ve been writing. I have 45,000+ words and about 10 chapters done on a YA fantasy story. I have the story complete to the end actually but after chapter 10 it goes from rough draft to notations like **add more conflict with the dragon here**. I’m getting there though and I’m really enjoying it. It’s lighthearted and fun and I have two more books that I have in mind after it.

The working title is The Middle Princess, but I’m dithering between that and The Practical Princess, or just Hyacinth, or anything else that comes along that sounds like a better idea. (Opinions welcome) After all, it has to fit in with the other two stories I’m planning to write about her older and younger sister - Forsythia and Chrysanthemum.

Here’s a portion of the first chapter: (critiques welcome - this is a draft)

CHAPTER 1

“Drat!” said Hyacinth. “She’s brought home another one.”

She stood in the castle doorway and frowned at her younger sister. Princess Chrysanthemum’s noble white steed tossed his head and her golden armor flashed in the midday sun, sending motes of light around the courtyard–and into Hyacinth’s eyes.

But it was Chrysanthemum’s prize that caused the most fuss.

Chrysanthemum struck a pose with her sword held high. “I have conquered the Scourge of Edinrood!”

The noise of her approach had brought everyone–the kitchen staff, the King and Queen, the stable boys, even the King’s chief advisor in a half buttoned waistcoat–out to see what was going on. They all clapped and the kitchen boy cheered as he waved his soup ladle in the air.

“Yes,” Hyacinth snapped. She stepped outside and scowled at the conquered Scourge, “That’s all very well. Now what are you going to do with it?”

The large green dragon stomped heavily at the end of a chain attached to Chrysanthemum’s saddle. A muffled roar and clouds of smoke emerged from the dragon’s tightly muzzled jaws. He shifted back and forth, claws ticking on the cobbles.

Hyacinth put her hands on her hips. “You already have three dragons eating their heads off in the stables. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find flame resistant straw? I have to send clear off to RumpelStiltska for it!”

Chrysanthemum dismounted with a flourish and waved airily at the dragon. “Don’t worry so much, sister dear. He’ll be no trouble at all.” She strode past her sister into the castle, her armor clinking with every step. A babble of admiring voices followed her, they pushed past Hyacinth and begged to hear the latest adventure.

“No trouble for you.” Hyacinth muttered. A muffled “HHHRRMMPPHH!” and rattling chains brought her attention back to the dragon. The beast balanced on haunches and tail, and clawed with his front feet at his leather muzzle. The noble steed’s eyes rolled, flashing white around the edges, and he backed away, pulling the chain taut.

Hyacinth looked around–nobody to be seen. “There’s never a stable hand around when you need one.” She sighed and stepped up to the white charger’s head. “Oh, come on then.” She led the horse towards the stables; the dragon dropped to all fours as the chain on his head drew taut, and he trudged along behind.

She stopped in front of the stable, unfastened the dragon’s chain from the saddle, and wrapped it loosely around one of the hitching posts. “You, SIT. Stay.”

The dragon gave a startled snort and to his own surprise sat down with a “WHUMP”.

“That’s a good dragon.”

First of all, I am still alive. I’ve just been busy and I’m still conflicted over exactly what this blog should be. Most of my posts so far have been polymer clay, or kaleidoscope, or at least art related. I haven’t been doing much, if any art in the past few months so I haven’t really had anything to post.

Bead and Button did have the Bead Dreams finalists (including my flying squirrel) included in their latest issue so make sure you check it out if you have it. I think the colors were a little off in the photos but there were some cool pieces.

We had the Connecticut guild’s Clay ConneCTion in July. It was a lot of fun but I have to admit I haven’t even unpacked my pasta machine since then. Terrible, isn’t it? I still want to try hitting Tyvek with a heat gun like I saw in one of the demos. It has some interesting possibilities and it’s so light weight. And someone conveniently has an online lesson to the tyvek technique.

So what have I been doing and what am I going to post about? Well, I think I’m going to widen the blog to anything creative. When there’s nothing else going on, that may include talking about my cat-who would be able to open the door if he only had that pesky opposable thumb, but I’ll play it by ear.