a writing meme i can actually do!
apparently a wrinkle in time is FIFTY this year. yowza. i remember playing the happy medium in a little group skit in school in, i dunno, fifth grade? sixth? for those who remember the ot4, daniel's brother-in-law, the nice boy who eventually marries his sister amy, is named cal partly as a tribute to calvin o'keefe.
Post the first sentence (or three) a random chunk from three WIPs you're currently working on. Then invite people to ask questions about your WIPs. With any luck, you'll get talking about writing, and the motivation to take that WIP one step closer to completion will appear as if by magic!
the circus fic (j2):
Jared is on his way to the stables tent to see if Alona is there and if she wants anything for Joanna - his next stop after that is the kitchen tent - when he's accosted by one of the aerialists, a slight English guy named Jamie.
"I need your help," Jamie says, grabbing Jared's arm and starting to lead him away before he can even say anything. Jamie doesn't look like much, and he's a good ten inches shorter, but he's determined enough to drag Jared along. "Come with me."
He takes Jared around the back, behind all the tents to the railroad tracks, where the train cars and flatbeds are sitting empty and quiet except for a couple of security guys patrolling up and down, on the lookout for mischief-makers more than anything. Jared waves as one of them passes by.
Another fifteen minutes and Jamie stops next to a train car with the side door still open. He climbs up into the car and gestures for Jared to follow. Inside are a touring car, a convertible, which Jared has never seen before - he wonders whose it is - several bicycles tied together, and, pushed in back behind a couple of crates, a motorcycle.
"I can't move the crates myself," Jamie explains, "and the bike's too heavy to lift over them. I need you to help me get it out."
"It's not part of your act," Jared says, feeling stupid. As far as he knows, a motorcycle isn't part of anyone's act.
"No, but it's mine. Help me get it out and I'll give you a ride."
the bigbang (j2):
Alona's roommate Kat had brown hair, bright red lipstick, and an impressive rack. Jared could see why Chad was so interested in her help. She looked kind of familiar, too, but he couldn't place her face.
Kat had brought her own little video camera. Alona volunteered to walk the dogs while she and Chad and Jared talked in the living room, which was five minutes of Chad explaining the kind of video he wanted and how important it was for Kickstarter projects to have good visual aids if they wanted to make their funding goal, and one minute of Kat interrupting him to ask if he and Jared knew what they wanted to say, and if so, they should probably get to it.
"You look like the girl who played Darcy in Thor," Jared told her, having finally figured out why she looked familiar.
"Yeah, I get that a lot," she said. She pointed to the couch. "Sit." The boys sat. Kat giggled at the height difference. Jared tried to slouch. Kat grinned. "You're cute."
the actor and the mechanic (original):
"You look kind of familiar. You live around here?"
"I'm staying in your building."
The guy tilted his head and squinted at Alex. "Oh yeah, you're downstairs from me. I remember. I never introduced myself. I'm Mal." He held out his hand, presumably for Alex to shake. Alex took it.
"As in Reynolds?" he asked, unable to stop himself from making a geeky reference.
Mal laughed. "'I aim to misbehave.' No, I'm not that lucky. It's short for Malory. My mom was working on her PhD when I was born. She was doing Arthurian legends. My dad couldn't come up with a good counter-argument, so I'm named after Thomas Malory." He shrugged. "I guess it could be worse."
"I'm Scott," Alex said, using his favorite alias. "Nice but boring."
and as a bonus, the only part of the bootleggers story that isn't wildly historically inaccurate (original):
Cotter didn't trust the bank, so they kept the money in empty coffee cans and under floorboards and - the boys suspected - buried in the vegetable garden. But it seemed stupid to hide it when they could spend it, even though the first new thing that appeared in the house were kitchen curtains. Robard and Rabbit went into town and had themselves fitted for good suits and stylish hats and new shoes, and then got their picture taken. They bought a nice frame so their momma could put it on the mantel - her two oldest boys in their new suits and shiny leather shoes and patterned ties, their arms around each other's shoulders, grinning big enough to split their faces.
After that, Naomi 2 and Kittredge wanted their pictures on the mantel too, and Cotter said they may as well get one of the whole family. Naomi had her hair done. They went out for dinner afterwards and ate steak.
(i don't expect anyone to actually ask me anything, but i wanna share. chances are the bigbang's the only one that will ever be finished, anyway.)
Post the first sentence (or three) a random chunk from three WIPs you're currently working on. Then invite people to ask questions about your WIPs. With any luck, you'll get talking about writing, and the motivation to take that WIP one step closer to completion will appear as if by magic!
the circus fic (j2):
Jared is on his way to the stables tent to see if Alona is there and if she wants anything for Joanna - his next stop after that is the kitchen tent - when he's accosted by one of the aerialists, a slight English guy named Jamie.
"I need your help," Jamie says, grabbing Jared's arm and starting to lead him away before he can even say anything. Jamie doesn't look like much, and he's a good ten inches shorter, but he's determined enough to drag Jared along. "Come with me."
He takes Jared around the back, behind all the tents to the railroad tracks, where the train cars and flatbeds are sitting empty and quiet except for a couple of security guys patrolling up and down, on the lookout for mischief-makers more than anything. Jared waves as one of them passes by.
Another fifteen minutes and Jamie stops next to a train car with the side door still open. He climbs up into the car and gestures for Jared to follow. Inside are a touring car, a convertible, which Jared has never seen before - he wonders whose it is - several bicycles tied together, and, pushed in back behind a couple of crates, a motorcycle.
"I can't move the crates myself," Jamie explains, "and the bike's too heavy to lift over them. I need you to help me get it out."
"It's not part of your act," Jared says, feeling stupid. As far as he knows, a motorcycle isn't part of anyone's act.
"No, but it's mine. Help me get it out and I'll give you a ride."
the bigbang (j2):
Alona's roommate Kat had brown hair, bright red lipstick, and an impressive rack. Jared could see why Chad was so interested in her help. She looked kind of familiar, too, but he couldn't place her face.
Kat had brought her own little video camera. Alona volunteered to walk the dogs while she and Chad and Jared talked in the living room, which was five minutes of Chad explaining the kind of video he wanted and how important it was for Kickstarter projects to have good visual aids if they wanted to make their funding goal, and one minute of Kat interrupting him to ask if he and Jared knew what they wanted to say, and if so, they should probably get to it.
"You look like the girl who played Darcy in Thor," Jared told her, having finally figured out why she looked familiar.
"Yeah, I get that a lot," she said. She pointed to the couch. "Sit." The boys sat. Kat giggled at the height difference. Jared tried to slouch. Kat grinned. "You're cute."
the actor and the mechanic (original):
"You look kind of familiar. You live around here?"
"I'm staying in your building."
The guy tilted his head and squinted at Alex. "Oh yeah, you're downstairs from me. I remember. I never introduced myself. I'm Mal." He held out his hand, presumably for Alex to shake. Alex took it.
"As in Reynolds?" he asked, unable to stop himself from making a geeky reference.
Mal laughed. "'I aim to misbehave.' No, I'm not that lucky. It's short for Malory. My mom was working on her PhD when I was born. She was doing Arthurian legends. My dad couldn't come up with a good counter-argument, so I'm named after Thomas Malory." He shrugged. "I guess it could be worse."
"I'm Scott," Alex said, using his favorite alias. "Nice but boring."
and as a bonus, the only part of the bootleggers story that isn't wildly historically inaccurate (original):
Cotter didn't trust the bank, so they kept the money in empty coffee cans and under floorboards and - the boys suspected - buried in the vegetable garden. But it seemed stupid to hide it when they could spend it, even though the first new thing that appeared in the house were kitchen curtains. Robard and Rabbit went into town and had themselves fitted for good suits and stylish hats and new shoes, and then got their picture taken. They bought a nice frame so their momma could put it on the mantel - her two oldest boys in their new suits and shiny leather shoes and patterned ties, their arms around each other's shoulders, grinning big enough to split their faces.
After that, Naomi 2 and Kittredge wanted their pictures on the mantel too, and Cotter said they may as well get one of the whole family. Naomi had her hair done. They went out for dinner afterwards and ate steak.
(i don't expect anyone to actually ask me anything, but i wanna share. chances are the bigbang's the only one that will ever be finished, anyway.)