LitWridoNaNoWriMo 2004 - The Support Thread

[English Lady]

*a great big hug and a kiss for Remec* You'll get there hun...and give me a shout if you need help fending off those weasels!

Well done to you liar...just write is basically what I am doing. I know it's going to take me forever to edit it all!

Pops..I'm dropping behind you love, only 31 690 words here

Quiet Cool -you'll get there

Black Tulip -real life hasn't given me much time to write lately either. Ahh well we writers write when we can eh?

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Question for the gosling

I've got a question for minsue if she pops her head in here.

Basically, for the fellow desert resident, what about the desert would be the most meaningful and most likely to be tailored onto a piece of fatherly bonding advice about finally letting your guard down and relaxing?

And I'm sorry it sounds like an essay question, but I'm writing a bonding chapter in which I've resorted to flashbacks twice and I'm not doing three of them.

 

[minsue]

Re: Question for the gosling

I've got a question for minsue if she pops her head in here.

Basically, for the fellow desert resident, what about the desert would be the most meaningful and most likely to be tailored onto a piece of fatherly bonding advice about finally letting your guard down and relaxing?

And I'm sorry it sounds like an essay question, but I'm writing a bonding chapter in which I've resorted to flashbacks twice and I'm not doing three of them.

Wow. Now that's a question!

I'm pretty much stumped, Luc. I have no problems finding meaningful things about the desert, but none of them lend themselves easily to the concept of letting your guard down much less relaxing. Everything that means anything to me about the desert usually would involve the moral of the story being the opposite.

I think the best I can do for you is to tell you what is meaningful to me and hope it might help provide a jumping off point for yourself?

To me the desert is about respect, both for how fragile it is and how deadly it can be. The dichotomy therein is fascinating to me. Even as people die in the deserts here every year, every month, crossing from Mexico, they also are killing it. Destroying acre upon acre that was so carefully balanced and plants that took decades of painfully slow growth to reach maturity and the animals that are sustained by them. And that's the least of the destruction we wreak upon the desert.

The desert is the mountains. Not those big, rounded hills that they call mountains back east. Real mountains. Dark purple, grey, and red mountains with jagged edges that look barren from a distance but are full of life. Mountains that appear simultaneously foreboding and protective. Even in the sprawling valley where we seem to be trying our damndest to pretend we live in Minnesota or Iowa, the mountains surround us and never let us forget where we really are.

The desert is the monsoon storms that seem to come out of nowhere unleashing nature's fury at our arrogance - reminding us that she will not be ignored. Wind, lightning, dust clouds taller than any buildings stretching for miles. And, if we're lucky, rain which will cause every species of plant to burst into flower for the short time they can afford to do so and blanket the desert floor with color. (and make those of us with allergies cower inside Even so, I wouldn't trade them for anything.)

Above all, the desert is the sun. The unforgiving, unremitting sun that bakes the earth so hard that what rain we get can't soak in to reach the parched roots that so desperately need it. The sun that burns the leaves black on the roses and other plants that people seem bent on growing. The sun that rises before 5 am and doesn't set until after 8 pm during the worst of the summer months. The sun that brings the most glorious colors every dawn and dusk, the likes of which I've never seen anywhere else. Well, OK. It's the dust that does that, but I hate the dust even more than I hate the sun so I'll give the sun the credit.



Sheesh! For someone who spends 9 months bitching about the desert, I guess I had a lot to say. I hope that helps, though I fear it won't. Thanks for giving me an excuse to rhapsodize, though.

 

[pop_54]

*a great big hug and a kiss for Remec* You'll get there hun...and give me a shout if you need help fending off those weasels!

Well done to you liar...just write is basically what I am doing. I know it's going to take me forever to edit it all!

Pops..I'm dropping behind you love, only 31 690 words here

Quiet Cool -you'll get there

Black Tulip -real life hasn't given me much time to write lately either. Ahh well we writers write when we can eh?

I'll have to come round and urge you on in person dear

 

[neonlyte]

Hi All

I've fallen behind.

My muse arrived last Thursday and has kept me otherwise occupied!

Will be attempting to return to the writing later in the week, meanwhile, stopped at just under 43,000 so time enough to meet the target.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

You think YOU're behind? If I write 11 more words, I'll be where I should have been 2 days ago!

Still, writing has never flown so well as it does now. It's just time that's a problem.

 

[Liar]

Still, writing has never flown so well as it does now. It's just time that's a problem.

Yeah....same here. When I have the time to sit down and write, I churn out 1000 words/hour, give or take a hundred. Now, between work and school and actually spanking the muse into activity, I don't exactly have all the time in the world.

Still, 2000 more words so far today, and nothing else planned for the evening. Disconnectiong the network plug for minimum distraction. See ya in another hour or two.

#L

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

I'm at a little over 4,000. I'm never going to make it (at least not without loss of alot of sleep.)

 

[English Lady]

Svenskaflicka - ahh just keep on going you'll make it!

Liar -I wish I could do that but i can't write without a little procrastination thrown in *L* I'd probably do so much more if I was capable of concerntrating on one thing at a time!

Crimson Maiden...better start ingesting the caffeine now then eh? you'll get there!

 

[Guest]

Come on, we can ALL do it!!!

I might not be leading by example very well, nor giving the level of support that perhaps I should, but we are only just over halfway through the month.

There is time.

Plenty of time.

We will do it!!!!



Lou

P.S. I find nanas always give me energy. Gonna go eat one now.

 

[Goldie Munro]

Hey you guys - just wanted to say GOOD LUCK!! Im not contributing but I am so in awe of all of you doing this!

 

[Guest]

Hey you guys - just wanted to say GOOD LUCK!! Im not contributing but I am so in awe of all of you doing this!

Thanks so much, Goldie. Messages of support from non-NaNoers mean a hell of a lot!

Lou

 

[Goldie Munro]

Thanks so much, Goldie. Messages of support from non-NaNoers mean a hell of a lot!

Lou

Aww your'e welcome - I can appreciate the hard work involved!

 

[cloudy]

I went several days, and just couldn't force myself to write a damn word. Must've been drifting in the doldrums, or something.

But...miracles of miracles! Last night an insane urge to commit words down for prosperity, and I managed to write a good 3,000 words in a little over an hour.

I may still make it yet.

 

[Guest]

I went several days, and just couldn't force myself to write a damn word. Must've been drifting in the doldrums, or something.

But...miracles of miracles! Last night an insane urge to commit words down for prosperity, and I managed to write a good 3,000 words in a little over an hour.

I may still make it yet.

 

[pop_54]

I went several days, and just couldn't force myself to write a damn word. Must've been drifting in the doldrums, or something.

But...miracles of miracles! Last night an insane urge to commit words down for prosperity, and I managed to write a good 3,000 words in a little over an hour.

I may still make it yet.

Just as I thought I might have to come and urge you on in person as well Cloudy Well done love

Well done to the rest of you guy's and gal's as well... keep plodding along and it'll come to you

Ta for the shout to the crew Goldie

pops plodding has now reached the dizzy heights of 37,212 I cheated and took the lap-top to work today, managed to find a few spare minutes to bash some off, did some writing as well

 

[Liar]

But...miracles of miracles! Last night an insane urge to commit words down for prosperity, and I managed to write a good 3,000 words in a little over an hour.

Wow. I can't even type that fast...

On the other hand my last 2 hours were spent well. Got me 2k more written, a total of about 4k today, leaving me with 25120 words. I'm gaining on my lost week.

Half way and half sucky. By the end of November that'll be all the way and all sucky.

#L

 

[Marsipanne]

NaNo rules! Keep up the good work everybody. Your work will be appreciated no matter what the length.

 

[English Lady]

34 001


And counting Not had much time for wring a all the last few das and today will be no different. I'm happily getting out a couple of thousand a day though so I'm happy

 

[pop_54]

NaNo rules! Keep up the good work everybody. Your work will be appreciated no matter what the length.

Really!! Hmm... length of what dear

 

[pop_54]

34 001


And counting Not had much time for wring a all the last few das and today will be no different. I'm happily getting out a couple of thousand a day though so I'm happy

Keep going sweet one, you could catch up today, I'm too busy to write at all today

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

I am back!

Woo. It took an entire day and night of catch up, but as of this moment I have typed my halfway point word ("of" for any of the curious folk).

I am at 25,000! Now to catch up to the mid-30s where I'm supposed to be.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Okay 25,837 and I finished a chapter that took up about 9,000 words. Go me.

An excerpt from the end:

Gront smiled. Part Librarian, part himself. He had not expected to find such a combination in the world. He curled up with his book and wondered if The Doc had noticed the flash of respect that had crossed his eyeball. Speaking for The Doc, we can assure Gront that no, he hadn’t. The Doc had been mostly focused on coffee, Gront’s ability to crush him like a small twig, and the likelihood of another bloody scene-cutting flashback. Too bad too as that knowledge might have given a warm fuzzy feeling to The Doc.

The Doc, in this state of obliviousness continued his stumble toward the kitchen eventually arriving at the industrial coffee machine. He pulled out his “small” cup (an industrial washbin from the 50s that had two giant handles welded to the frame and the weight surgically reduced to allow it to be carried with only a moderate amount of difficulty.

Taking a healthy gulp or two hundred, he filled up his espresso cup (a normal coffee cup that he filled to the brim with espresso shots) and began to walk the path to his lab. As he crossed the living room he began to wonder about his third guest. This probably had a lot to do with the fact that this guest was sitting right in front of him on his windowsill, eyes searching and darting over the empty landscape.

He took a sip as he watched the red-caped youth stare out. The eyes never rested for a second, constantly wary. The kid’s body was also eternally coiled as if ready for movement at any second at the slightest provocation. That combined with the tenseness that radiated off of him was forcing The Doc’s decrepit and obsolete empathy gears to spin at well above recommended levels.

He muttered out a curse and took another look at the youth. His rags betrayed far too many close calls and harsh battles and his overall appearance betrayed a far more haggard life than The Doc could imagine. He didn’t at any level want to know the extent of tragedies that led him to be as he was, but at the same time he couldn’t ignore it. It was like a healing scab that was impossible to ignore. Sighing, he walked over.

He glanced out into the desert wasteland. True, he had built the house in the desire to flee civilization rather than any true appreciation of nature’s fragile and harsh beauty, but there was still something about the desert that called to him. Barren with only the tiniest signs of life, just like the world should be. It definitely spoke to the evil genius that underlied his generally ineffectual eccentric inventor reality. Hey, we never said he was sappy and romantic about the world.

“Nice, isn’t it,” he said staring out at the one cactus that the window overlooked, or rather allowed to be seen in terms of accurate terminology.

Charon didn’t even flinch, but did allow one eye to dart over towards The Doc’s direction. The eye looked him up and down and then returned to its duties. The body meanwhile merely shrugged in ambivalent assent of The Doc’s statement.
The Doc sighed and took another sip of espresso. “You’re a bit of a mystery one aren’t you,” he asked receiving not even the shrug in reply. “I think I’ve figured out technogeek and the Barbarian, well, he’s fairly upfront about himself. But you…” He looked over at the total lack of interest in what he was saying. “Eh, what does it matter?”

He looked out at the landscape again. There was a sort of calming atmosphere about it, he noticed. This far from people in the true wilds of Mother Nature, there was a fluttering away of stress and urgency. He knew there was still danger in the form of coyotes and lawmen with thick notebooks, but it seemed so distant when there were only the rocks, sun, cacti, and lizards (okay, we’ll admit he has just a little bit of that romanticism in him).

“When was the last time you relaxed, son?”

This one got a response. The Doc turned his head to see Charon staring at him with his full concentration. He had to look away when he looked into his eyes. There was so much sadness buried in them. Literally buried, with little tombstones. It was kind of creepy.

“Relax,” Charon muttered slowly as if playing with the sounds of the word. The Doc’s eyebrows rose a bit. What kind of world had the kid come from where relaxation was a foreign word? This was actually more telling of The Doc than Charon. Perhaps, if he had paid some…any attention to history as he had grown up, he might have remembered the bloody though thoroughly sanitized and romanticized tales of the Age of Misery. Then he would still have wondered because the rulers of the Age of Misery had somehow maintained a spiffy PR front for the ravages of time and hindsight.

“Yeah, you know. Loosening up, calming down, letting down your guard. Finally letting the tensions go,” The Doc explained still looking out into the desert.

“Sounds foolish,” Charon replied and returned to his subconscious scanning of the desert landscape.

“Actually, it’s a natural human action.”

Charon nodded. “Foolish,” he repeated. The Doc sighed once again. At least this one doesn’t seem to be entering a flashback, he thought to himself as a form of inadequate comfort. He still wasn’t understanding the emotions that were driving him to, what was the word, oh yeah, care about these people in these ways. These were just people, albeit inconvenienced by a device that he himself had invented, but really had this been the first time? He had no real reason to think of them as anything other than temporary guests and possibly as an incentive for quicker progress at the most. He suspected that this inconvenient and hidden empathy would doom him if he wasn’t careful.

“It’s what people do when it’s all safe,” he tried again to another blank response. “It is all safe, you know,” he went on staring hard at the long unwashed black hair and ripped clothes. He wondered if he should have told him about the bathing facilities back on the first day.

Charon still didn’t respond. The Doc took a deep breath and awkwardly extended his arm to his left shoulder. Charon’s entire body tensed to its max point and The Doc wondered if he was about to lose his arm. Charon’s eyes grew wide and slowly turned to the hand in question. The Doc grew even more fearful for his arm. It was perhaps for that reason or a continuation of his empathy-induced idiocy that he made his next error in logical judgement.

He put his other hand on Charon’s right arm and pulled him slightly over to give him a comforting hug. The Doc noticed the petrified tension that was receiving the hug and pulled him tighter to his chest.

“It’s okay,” he whispered into Charon’s ear. “You truly can relax.”

Charon’s eyes grew wider and wider and possibly snips of flashbacks crossed across his eyes. For the interest in preserving The Doc’s hopes and any reader’s sanity, we’ll refrain from reporting any speculations on what these flashes contained. Though we will hint that burning roofs, screams, and pain would all be safe and good guesses.

Charon’s eyes widened more and more and then yielded against the warmth and comfort of another’s body. Such a feeling was utterly alien to him and he found it floating through every point on his body, destroying every fiber of rigidity within him. He felt himself go limp and loose as his fight-for-flee state died for the first time.

The Doc looked down and immediately propped him back up to the sitting position he had held before. He began to tremble as he beheld the catatonic far-off stare in Charon’s eyes and the unnatural limpness his body now contained. The eternal engineer within him was wondering if he had accidentally broken the kid and whether or not he should begin running troubleshooting checks.

“Um…son, I didn’t mean-“ he started to say while mentally wondering exactly how one revived a terminally catatonic individual besides the obvious method of wasting his delicious scalding coffee by throwing it down his throat.

“So this is relaxation,” Charon interrupted in distant but fascinated language, cutting off The Doc’s dangerous musings about reviving before they ventured into the classic methods involving large voltages in drafty basements. Charon looked down at his arm and touched it reverently. “I feel…” He couldn’t find the words to describe the experience and went back to rubbing his arm in mute fascination.

The Doc, meanwhile, watched on in a mixture of morbid fascination and a feeling of being moderately perturbed. Such feelings actually didn’t bother him much (another benefit of being a former University professor) and he merely was curious to where it all was leading or even if it was leading anywhere.

Charon shivered a little as his body tried to cope with the lack of constant tension that had driven him on. The constant flow of adrenalin that had been his hallmark of life and his energy level began to decrease as well. He looked up with drooping eyes at The Doc and twitched the corner of his mouth in another one of his pathetic attempts at a half-smile.

“Does this mean…I’m safe,” he asked softly as he felt the hours of constant fear and running close on him.

The Doc nodded. “Nothing is going to happen to you here. Here, let me help you.” He grabbed Charon as he was about to fall off the sill and walked him over to the couch. “When was the last time you really slept, anyway? Not just rested your eyes, but really gone fully unconscious?”

“Don’t remember,” Charon murmured allowing The Doc to lower him onto the comfy couch cushions that seemed to absorb him in an unfamiliar maternal embrace.

The Doc sighed out loud. “****, you’re just a kid. You shouldn’t have had that kind of life.” He looked down at the figure and grabbed the afghan off the back and draped it over the torn rags. His empathy gears gave another whining whir as his heart broke once again. “Here, take some time for yourself while you can. I don’t know where you came from, but if you don’t want to go back, I can probably wrangle something or I don’t know.” He scratched his head as he looked into the slowly closing eyes of the weathered young face. He tried to say something else, something babbling or comforting or anything, but thought against it. He gripped Charon’s hand one last time before leaving. “You’ll be okay, kid.”

As he started to walk away, a hand shot out and grabbed his arm spinning him abruptly to face Charon again. Charon’s face was screwed hard as if what he was about to say was about to be both uncharacteristic and important. The Doc had little choice, but to stand stock-still like a giant pigeon feces covered statue and wait for whatever it turned out to be.

“Doc,” Charon said intently. “Thank you.” And then drifted off to his first true slumber.

The Doc rubbed his head as Charon’s hand fell away from his arm. Perhaps if his empathy gears had at least been on par with Steampunk Revolution technology, he might have shed a tear or inwardly comment on the beauty of such a small statement. As it stood, however, he just stood there like an idiot scratching his head and murmuring out, “Uh, you’re welcome, I guess.” And worse as he walked away, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking, what a weird kid.

This thought cut off any other thoughts as he wandered back to the closet for a shovel and a mining hat and then back towards his lab. Eventually the thought disappeared into renewed strength for the task of solving the major flaw of his Time Machine. Perhaps, if his thoughts hadn’t taken that turn, perhaps he could have noticed how wisely he had passed this particular chunk of time. Or perhaps he wouldn’t have? That’s the problem with people; they always make speculation so infuriatingly difficult.

Still, there was an impact among the boredom for our three heroes and their preoccupied host. An impact that meant nothing and everything all at once.
And please don’t ask us what that means or to explain the apparent paradox without resorting to our “because logic is dead” standby. We mostly included it because it sounded pretty.

 

[Guest]

Re: I am back!

Woo. It took an entire day and night of catch up, but as of this moment I have typed my halfway point word ("of" for any of the curious folk).

I am at 25,000! Now to catch up to the mid-30s where I'm supposed to be.

Well done you!

I'm tantalisingly close to the half-way point. We'll catch up, no worries.

I'll be reading all of these excerpts as soon as I have.

Lou

 

[English Lady]

Pops...not written anything myself yet -hopefully later I'll get a few thou in before bed


LC woo hoo! 25 000 is a great milestone you've done well!