Writing Log: Introducing The Old Woman By the Sea

[abracanabra]

"The Old Woman By The Sea" Writing Log

1,027 / 4,000 (25.7%)

New words: 1,027
Total words: 1,027
Overused word: tilting
Gratuitous word: haunches
Type of scene: The Old Woman By The Sea finds something unexpected.
Challenge(s): Keeping track of the unreeling plot threads in my mind. Writing for me is a lot like dropping several balls of yarn on a constantly teetering surface--they roll all over the place and wrap around each other and most of my job is keeping track and catching the ones going way off-kilter.
Which exchange is it anyways?

"I need your tire," she told him.

He shifted his weight forward to peer up at her, eyebrows raised. No plans to get away now; his curiosity had the better of his caution. She suppressed a curse.

"For boring reasons," she tried.

His eyes swept her from head to toe, taking in her tangled gray hair, her sun-worn face, the ropey scar along the side of her throat, the necklace of soda pop bottle lid talismans--pop was safety, sunny afternoons in the park, a warm hand holding hers--she wore, her mismatched and ill-sized ragged clothes, and her calloused bare feet.

She held perfectly still, trying to look boring.

Researched: Less researched, more wrote lots of notes in big block letters for things to look up later.
Notes: This is not the story I'd planned on writing first for the not-so-seCret projeCt, but it is the one that insists on being written nownownow.
Other writingy stuff:
* penthius freewriting, a low-potential sketch brought on with my frustration with my credit card company.

Comments

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

This sounds very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[prof-vencire.livejournal.com]

I'm a huge fuckin' fan of Modern Mythology type symbolic magic. Using an obscure herb from hundreds of years ago that once was the symbol of a protective diety to make some kind of shielding talisman? Whatever. Using bottle-caps because of the reasons above? Right on. Sometimes, it's a theme taken a little TOO zoom-in, up-close and uses such specific personal mythology that the "magic" of it doesn't resonate, or only resonates with a much smaller section of the populace. But everyone drinks soda. Everyone is subject to the endorphin release of sugar. Basically.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too.

I wasn't actually thinking of this as being a talisman in anybody's mind but her own--but the world it's in does have some sort of magic, so it's possible that this would really work.

Hmm.

[joeboo-k.livejournal.com]

That's a scene I'd like to know more about. I'd keep reading. :)

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Thank you! You should get a chance to--this is part of a project that will be available online for free, assuming the story passes muster, which I hope it will.

[joeboo-k.livejournal.com]

Just let me know when it shows up and I'll definitely read it.