Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Day 1--2,622 words

I meant to post this last night so that I'd post Day 1's output on Day 1, but after supper I went to Mom's to find all the parts and sew on the American Girl doll cheerleader outfit and lost track of time. It took me over an hour of searching and then struggling to make an unfamiliar sewing machine do what I wanted it to do to realize that I could take the whole kit and kaboodle to my house where there's a sewing machine that I do know how to make do what I want it to. D'oh. Tonight I'm baking bread for my retreat this weekend and can sew or write (if I don't get far at work today) while it's in the oven. Good thinking, Barbara. My brain's still off somewhere trying to process the fact that I'm now an orphan.

November 1--(working title) Underwater Gold. Manning had arrived on the island eight years earlier with fifty bucks in his pocket and a sinking boat under him. The old Tina Marie, he thought with a smile. He had won her in a poker game in Tortola a month before from a guy, whose ownership of the boat was, let us be generous and say... doubtful. The papers the old pirate handed over after the game looked suspiciously well aged and soiled, almost as if someone had scuffed them across the deck after cleaning fish and then drove over them a few times in a gravel lot. But Manning was nothing if not an opportunist so he tipped the old pirate a salute, slung his duffel aboard, siphoned a bit of gas out of the dingy of the dark yacht tied up alongside, and sailed away before the harbor awoke. He spent the next month working his way south along the string of pearls that was the Caribbean. He would stop in at small islands for food because everyone knows that poor people will always feed you and at big islands for fuel because it is easy to get lost in the confusion of a busy marina and score a tank of gas even if you have to work a day for it. Manning tried never to have to work for his gas.

This week I'm doing character sketches and setting worksheets. I decided to follow First Draft in 30 Days to see if that helps me get to a finished manuscript faster or with fewer hiccups. If it'll only help me add conflict, big conflict, I'll be grateful. I'm too wussy with my characters, guess I have to stop thinking of them as me.
--Barbara

1 comment:

Aunt B said...

Thinking about you today setting off for your wonderful runaway to The Clearing. Hope you have a great time with your girlfriends. I'll be checking up on your postings every day. I feel kinda like an orphan myself!! Love you.