Creaking Knees

It was a tiny detail for which I had no plans. I simply noted that the man in my bit of scene tonight had knees that creaked when he walked.

I’ve heard knees creak, heard the sound bone makes on bone when weighed down by muscle, skin, sinew, and fluid. It’s a distinctive sound—nothing else compares.

So that detail slipped in as I was writing, and then the question followed:

What if the sound Aleksa hears from his knees isn’t that sound?

Tiny detail, tiny question…but the man escorting her to the train station came alive for me when I suddenly got the answer, and understood what it meant.

I stopped at 300 words exactly.

How did you do?

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22 responses to “Creaking Knees”

  1. Gabby Avatar
    Gabby

    1142 today. I had heart failure earlier today when I dropped my laptop. It made a very loud crash noise. It booted up, seems okay. Phew. I am now just using it for my lunch break anyway but I still love it. (It’s so portable and precious). lol

    Actually had mini breakthrough today. But don’t know whether it works or is just too much of the same. It is hard to tell right now whether I am throwing too much at the reader. I can already tell I’ve thrown way too much at my main character. Err… rather, she’s handling it way too well, making all the right decisions, etc, etc. But it feels like it would be better to fix that in the rewrite. Cause right now it feels better to focus on the events of what’s happened instead of getting caught up in reactions. Sort of like this draft is just a really, really in-depth outline.

  2. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    561 words last night, the first time I’ve done any writing in a while. I’ve been reading a friend’s story, and dutifully making notes. It’s only a first draft, so things are very rough, but I can’t help grinning. It think her story has far more potential than she realises. If only I could write my notes faster! It’s insanely hard to write articulate notes instead of just, “Well, I don’t like that…”

  3. June Avatar
    June

    about 550 words over the last two days. These are all words slipped around old words to make the pivotal and troublesome scene that’s been my bane actually work. It is working this time. Almost done with it.

  4. Kait Nolan Avatar

    I can’t remember the last time I reported in. I’ve been busting my chops trying to take advantage of 1st week NaNo momentum to get lectures written for next semester (yeah, I know, lectures are not a novel, but I’ll take whatever inspiration I can get to finish them before the current semester is over), so the progress on the novella has been slow. I had 648 very hard won words last night and overhauled a scene. I’ve been doing a lot of that since my hero and heroine have crystallized more into real people–needing to take the original scene that I fleshed out and redesigning it to fit them in particular. One more of those to go before I can move into newer material.

    In other news, I’m having a contest over at my blog to name my novella. There’s a free book up for grabs! http://kaitnolan.com/2009/11/03/help-me-title-my-novella/

    1. Jessica Avatar

      lol, it’s funny that you posted here now because I just went back several days to find your last post so I could get to your blog!
      *blushes maddly* Yes, I’m one of /those/ who quietly pokes around on various other people’s WABWM blog links. Which, I guess it’s time I put mine up there too, crummy though it is next to most of yours! 😉

  5. Rabia Avatar

    K, that sent shivers down my spine!

    I got 600+ words last night. Still chugging along. This story does not want to give up its secrets.

  6. Cat Avatar
    Cat

    Hello, I’m new here!
    It’s getting very hard for me to write with finals looming, but I try.
    I really enjoy this, thank you Holly!
    It’s good to know I’m not the only one struggling with a million different things AND trying to get some wordcount in.

    So here is my wordcount as of yesterday:
    Revision for DMS: ~ 2000
    RK: 1938

    1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
      The Pencil Neck

      Welcome to the group!

  7. Lisa R Avatar
    Lisa R

    519 words. The words flowed very well. There was one sentence that I didn’t like, but I reminded myself that first drafts don’t have to be perfect.

    I also worked on Lesson 5 of HtTS. I am sure that once I am done with this course, I am going to work the lesson just for the happiness of my muse. She loves working ideas that aren’t related to my work in project. It is almost like it is allowing her to get some excercise.

  8. Larkk Avatar
    Larkk

    977 words. I’m happy with my progress.
    Even though there are some very fast writers in my region kicking my butt!

  9. hannaBelle Avatar
    hannaBelle

    A new job is eating my time. But, scheduling daily writing time is on my list of priorities, pretty high on my list.

  10. Eve Avatar
    Eve

    561

    Randy has woken before dawn to find that he has moved from his bed to the pile of dirty laundry on the floor where he had his brother had placed the so called dragon’s egg (which absolutely, positively could NOT contain an actual baby dragon) the night before.

  11. Peggy Avatar
    Peggy

    264 Tuesday on the busman’s holiday project. Cleaned up the mess in the middle of the scene, but didn’t finish it.

    Instead, I started looking at everything I set up in DG (the main MIP), and looking for connections and conflicts between goals and next steps to see exactly how my MC can get from, “Damn Victor and what he did,” to “Oh, crap! It’s worse than we thought.”

    I got through most of the minor characters, and have one very intriguing question — what if the doctor who’s skipping the country doesn’t?

    Today, it’s the major characters’ turn.

  12. Khena Avatar
    Khena

    I did pretty well yesterday. I reached the NaNo goal for the day, by forcing myself, for the most part. I did like where I was going, but first person is hard for me to write. Then things were looking up and flowing rather well (finally) , so I finished the scene. I was about to save and put my laptop away when inspiration hit for the next scene, coming before what I had planned. So I started the new scene. My poor MC had to hoist herself up on a horse, grumbling all the while, knowing nothing of how to get on or how to control the beast. It was rather funny, because once the stable boy had talked her on, the lord she was serving just took off, leaving her unable to control it, just clinging to it as best she could as her horse followed. But, it will give the two a good chance to get to know each other, and for me to figure out their relationship a little better. I am however, resolutely determined to squelsh any romantic interest they might have in each other. I have plans for the lord later, and I refuse to fall back on the maid and the lord fall in love and live happily ever after. I’m going for the minor lordling saves the princess and they get together, though it will be a minor little part of the overall story.

    So, time to stop rambling along. I’m just over 6k for my nano, and ~2k of that was just yesterday! And thank you for your encouragement Holly, for once, I only stop here once a day so didn’t want to reply on an old post =)

  13. Teri Avatar
    Teri

    An amazing 1,455 words today.

    Crown Princess Laena and her ladies are gossiping about the scandalous rumours regarding Baron Zhaer, who is newly arrived in court. Given his foreign name, he is either adopted, or a bastard. And he’s rumoured to be young and handsome.

  14. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    D&D:502
    OFL:1066
    RFW:1056
    Taking last week off for paid employment (boo!) has actually helped maintain interest this week. Hoping to have a clear run until Xmas now, which will see D&D done and OFL about 10000 words short – to be polished off early in the new year…

  15. The Pencil Neck Avatar
    The Pencil Neck

    511 words.

    The Bodyguard, thrown to the ground by the explosion, looks at the woman he was just flirting with and shoots her between the eyes. Sliding down the hall on his back, he shoots two men in light armor as they appear from the smoke of the explosion. He jumps to his feet and runs. He contacts the other bodyguards in his detail to tell them there’s an attack and finds out that the Princess is in danger. He runs to the foyer of the hospital and finds the remains of his battered detail. He pulls the Princess out from beneath his wounded commander who promptly places him in charges and orders him to get her out. The last word of the scene is an expletive.

  16. Patricia Avatar
    Patricia

    Plodding along with 548 words tonight and taking a back seat as my characters speed on ahead of me. Ryan is feeling rather talkative and rambling about all sorts of things in his journal, frustrated with escape being foiled- again…I’ll let him talk for now. I can always cut his ramblings short during revision if they turn out to be just that- pointless, narrative rambling… 🙂

  17. Tori Avatar
    Tori

    I met my goal again for Nano. I now have 5,029 words. I am pretty happy with myself. I am starting to believe maybe I can do this!

    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      You CAN do this. Some every day, and you’ll have it. 😀

  18. Jessica Avatar
    Jessica

    1481 started slow but quickly lifted off into high speed as I could barely keep up with the words in my head.

    There is nothing worse than being burried alive, I think. Except maybe knowing that you’re being burried alive, while your magic powers have been made void and null, you can’t warn the people you love about a pending invasion, the girl you came to rescue is now in certain peril, and her friend – who is the only one who knows where you are and can do anything about it – is probably unconscious sitting in a police cruiser.

    This is James’ dilemma.

    And it was oh so much fun to write! I quietly threw in some big “ah has” for the careful reader. Things are still building, at an increasing pace now. My concern is to keep this pace going to 75K -ish without cutting too much… and looming nervousness over the section where Cait crosses worlds. Still, I’m extremely pleased with myself. 🙂

    1. Cat (from HtTS) Avatar

      Funny, I just saw a sequel of “Myth Busters” the other day when folding my laundry where they proved that it is impossible to break out of a grave once you’re buried (Kill Bill style). You can’t break the coffin lid (not even with muscles like Schwarzenegger) and even if you could, the wight of the earth tumbling in would smash your chest and suffocate you. So he really depends on his friends help, doesn’t he? 😉

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