Sunday, October 31, 2010

On the Brink of Who Knows What?

As I write, I'll keep stoked up with cups of coffee...

My fiction-mode mind came out of hibernation a few days ago.  It rubbed its eyes and took a few wobbly steps before it went to work and provided me with this beginning to my novel for the 2010 NaNoWriMo challenge:

...and some in this mug as well.
 Shaddy hit the road early Monday morning, November 1st, 2010.  She gave two weeks’ notice to her employer mid-October and wrapped up things at work the previous Friday.  Her future for the next few weeks and months was no more than a huge question mark.  Driving in her Chevy Avalanche truck with no specific destination in mind promised to be a far cry from her married life since 1969 and sitting safely at her desk in the dental office where she'd worked since 1992.
Shaddy marveled at how easy it was to get up this morning.  For the past twenty years, when she awakened, she usually scowled and dared the hands of the clock to creep forward.  She stayed glued in bed until her sense of responsibility grudgingly separated her from the bedsheets at precisely 7:00 on good days and as late as 7:10 on not-so-good mornings. 
"I've never been on my own.  I feel like I've missed an important part of life."  Shaddy spoke those words to her husband several months ago in the first of many conversations that led up to her departure from home on this particular morning.
We aren't supposed to begin our novels until after midnight tonight.  We are allowed to make an outline and have notes to help us write through the next thirty days.  Since I have no outline or notes, I feel justified to have written a few words to spring me off the starting blocks.  

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Terrific beginning. And just so you know I am paying attention, your post encouraging readers to do NANOWRIMO got to me. Don't know if I will finish, but I signed up. The working title is "The Perfect Getaway." (Actually, that sounds like it could be YOUR title!)

Anonymous said...

Pure fiction,WE love it.Now get a plot and run with it.
Increase it as the story develops.
Like I know anything about writing, but I know what I like in a story.
I think you are very ambitious to start on this writing assignment again. You do have lots of ambition. LOVE Auntie & Uncle

Annie said...

Great beginning!!!!! I hope you will be able to share more of your writing!!!

Linda McMann said...

Great start! Reminds me a bit of Elizabeth Berg's "The Pull of the Moon" Can't wait to see where your journey will take you and what wonderful adventures you will have along the way.

Cheryl Peters said...

ELIZABETH: I'm pleased that you signed up for NaNoWriMo. Why not give it a try is my battle cry. We've nothing to lose and perhaps something to gain. Isn't that worth the effort?

I like your title.

AUNTIE & UNCLE: A plot? Oh dear, what's that? I remember hearing the word mentioned somewhere. Do you have one I could borrow?

ANNIE: Thanks for cheering me on.

PARROT: I'm taking it one day at a time. I'll do the best I can and have as much fun as I can.

Kathan said...

Terrific! Here's to a month literary abandon!! May we all meet our goals (50k and whatever other goals we have). :-)

Natasha said...

This is GREAT, Shaddy! (what does Lon think?)

Uh -- time for me to play catch up now. Gonna be some fun!

Anonymous said...

And she's off....Good luck, Shaddy! Looks like you have a heck of a story to tell.

Cheryl Peters said...

KATHAN: Yes let's all let loose!

NATASHA: Oops...I told Lon my plan but I didn't ask him what he thinks.

D.S.: We'll see.

Anonymous said...

Oh I like this a lot! This is a fantasy of mine actually.

Can you write 100K words instead of 50k? Just kiddin'....

I hope you're having a wonderful time writing my dear!