DTD—289 words forward, and a small clue

Aleksa gets the first hint that what she thinks happened to her assistant is not what happened at all. Small segment tonight—I haven’t slept more than a couple of hours a night since last Friday, and I’m determined to get a full night’s sleep tonight.

So, with 21,184 words completed, I’m going to turn in.

The Air Force Kid has returned to base. I’ve been blue the better part of the day; I miss him already.

Good luck on your words, if you’re playing. I’ll check in tomorrow to see how it went for you.

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Comments

137 responses to “DTD—289 words forward, and a small clue”

  1. Tomaszewski Avatar
    Tomaszewski

    Hey Holly,

    I got 346 words during lunch at work, and a few more when I should have been working 😀 My MC’s theory that someone they know is a vampire is blow away when he bites into a cheeseburger and swallows. Don’t know where this story came from or where it’s going, I was trying to work on my current novel Project G.O.M. and my muse just crept up and dropped this in my lap and said write, write, write!
    p.s. I hate vampire stories, so this is definitely not one of them.

    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Very cool. The Cheeseburger Gambit. So what sort of supernatural nightmare would LIKE cheeseburgers?

      ‘Cause just because he ain’t a vampire don’t make him kosher.

      1. Tomaszewski Avatar
        Tomaszewski

        funny you should say that, because my muse said damn near the same thing.

        “‘Cause just because he ain’t a vampire don’t make him kosher.”

        …whole cheeseburger scene turned out to be extremely funny too, lets just say MC would make a terrible spy. Writing it kind of made me miss Joss Whedon and BTVS.
        And I really don’t hate vampire stories, when they are good strong stories. It’s just the market is flooded with a cookie cutter chicklet style of “oh he’s so cute and brooding and dead, but I can change him” teenage angst ridden vampire slosh, that I don’t WANT to write a vampire story.

  2. megan Avatar
    megan

    regarding the Sentence, are there any examples availbale, as i hve no idea how to even imagine beinging to get there…???

    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      The Sentence is one of the techniques in the How To Think Sideways course. An example would be:

      An archeologist stumbles over a man who cannot exist and his key to immortality, and in doing so makes herself a target of the immortals bent on hiding his secret.

      This is the Sentence for DTD (Dreaming the Dead), the book I’m currently writing.

      1. megan Avatar
        megan

        yeah that’s a cool sentence Holly, v cool. Maybe my story idea sucks as is, that is why I can’t come up with anything? Cause although I have 70,000 words and I try and put it in a sentcne it akes me pull a lemon face. But I’ll keep working on things and keep it in the bqck of my mind.

        1. The Pencil Neck Avatar
          The Pencil Neck

          Holly really explains how to put it all together in the How to Think Sideways course. She uses a variation in the Plot workshop.

          I didn’t take those courses until I was about 60,000 words into my novel. I couldn’t find a sentence that really worked but I went ahead and finished the first draft of the book using the techniques in the course. During the revision process, I really had to get that sentence working… and then I realized the reason I couldn’t work out a sentence was because my story was 2-3 stories crammed together in a way that didn’t make sense. I’ve backed off that story to let it sort itself out. Now, just a couple of days ago, i got two unrelated sentences for that story: so the next step in the revision process for me is deciding which one to write and then extracting the parts of the old story that still work.

          1. megan Avatar
            megan

            That sound cool too Pencil Neck(can I call you that for short?) As I read your words I had visions of continuing to write and kinda seeing what comes up. I have tried plot cards and mind maps and so far all that works for me is almost automatic writing, which I guess means i need more discipline.
            So enuf stalking the forum and off to work!!

  3. Dee Avatar
    Dee

    543 words today, despite the best efforts of my children to not let me write. 🙂 MC just realised that just because a hallway is brightly lit doesn’t mean it’s safe.

    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Intriguing. Now I want to know…not safe from what? 😀

      1. Dee Avatar
        Dee

        At the moment she’s just asking herself how ‘he’ sees when he has no eyes; admitting to herself that its probably to keep from panicking. :-0

  4. Danielle Avatar
    Danielle

    Holly

    This is a fabulous idea – thanks for including us beginners too! I’m planning on the 250 words/day – sounds manageable, significant and not too intimidating. I’ll start tonight – July 2nd!

    Danielle

  5. Rebecca H Avatar
    Rebecca H

    Today was hard for writing, because of Real Life’s intrusion, namely getting hit by a car on my bike. Only 1100 words done so far, but I hope to get a couple thousand more written before bed. Right now, word count is up to 43000.

    1. Sarah Collins Avatar

      Wow. I think you “win” the prize for best excuse and you still rocked it! I hope you’re okay!

    2. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Holy crap. Are you all right? Well done on the words…but damn!

      Expect to be sore tomorrow, and sorer the next day. Deep muscle bruises—the sort you get when you’re hit by a car—take a couple of days to release all the pain-causing crud into your system.

  6. megan Avatar
    megan

    LOL. after letting mymuse have her head last night on my martian postcard, I went to find a bit of hard info for voaracity and maybe ‘atmosphere’, and guess what i have to do many of those 120 od words again ;-p

  7. Emily Schafer Avatar
    Emily Schafer

    632 words for July 1st, and then another 677 today, bringing my word count total to 7,013. I haven’t slept at all these past few nights, Holly, so you’re not the only one not getting decent sleep. 🙂

  8. Clare K. R. Miller Avatar

    431 words last night. Fun scene–the hero and heroine have escaped and are now walking down the street filthy, their hair a mess, and their hands tied behind their backs.

    1. Holly Avatar
      Holly

      Awesome. It’s great when your MCs are having a shitty day.

  9. megan Avatar
    megan

    Ahh, I have just read all of this page and I can feel that great vibration happening, I love to read everyones comments cause you just never know which words might set off the spark. My knee-weakeng character is string and he keeps insisting he should be the MC. Does anyone else write in the book on their night stand? For me it is often the only bit I get done, often in the dark with 4 llines scrawled askew across the page (and only occasionally over written so it was all a waste) 120 words last night

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