prompt

A Monday Moment: Chess

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Today’s Monday Moment was written on Sept. 24 of last year. I know I said if I hadn’t written any for the week, I’d just have to force myself to write something on Sunday or Monday, but I’m making an exception (yes, already). Between the little break my husband insisted I take from writing, my sister’s wedding prep over the weekend, and doing extra end-of-year work for my job, I feel like it’s not just laziness that left me with nothing to post this week. And in fact, I did write something in the last 7 days that I could use, but it was handwritten, and I don’t have time to type it right now. So for today, enjoy this odd chess game:

I stare down at the board and determine my first move. Moving a piece forward, I look up at Amy.

She smiles sweetly at me. “Is it my turn?”

“It is.”

She looks down at the board and thinks for a moment. “I think you don’t want to make that opening move.”

“Why not?” I ask with amusement.

“It’s obvious. It’s the same move everyone makes. And it will start you off at a disadvantage.”

I muse over my only move so far, but only for a few seconds. “I took my finger off the piece. My move is over, but thanks for trying to help.”

She shrugs. “Okay then.” She moves her own piece, far away from mine. There is no danger here.

I think a little longer about my next move. What will she say if I move this one there? Or if I move this other one? Is it too early to take one of her pieces? I’m pretty sure she’s safe for now. I move a piece and gesture for her to take her turn.

She gives me a small smile, but says nothing this time. Instead, she moves another one of her pieces.

I wonder why she’s acting this way. The game is meant to be won, isn’t it? If she thinks I’m playing badly, why doesn’t she just let me continue so that she can win sooner?

I look down and see that she has moved her piece right in the path of one of mine. I could take her piece. I would be foolish not to, right? I think through the next possible moves, if I were to take her piece. Could she take mine right after? I don’t see how, so I take her piece.

“Well, that’s unfortunate,” she says. She seems genuine in her disappointment, but still cheerful.

After a while, the game has drawn on longer than I would have expected. It’s not that we’re taking an awful long time on our turns. But somehow, she’s no longer moving her pieces in my path very often. And she’s not taking advantage of most of the times when she could take my pieces.

I decide to take a break and stand up to stretch my legs. She’s oblivious to my action, as she is so deeply contemplating her next move. When I step over to sit back down, I notice something odd on the floor. It looks like sawdust.

I stoop over to see what it is, and suddenly she snaps her head up.

“What are you doing?”

“What’s that on the floor by your foot?” I ask her, moving closer.

“Don’t do that! Why would you come snooping around my personal space? Get back to your side.”

My eyes widen in shock over her sudden outburst, but I return to my seat.

“That should be against the rules,” she says in a huff. “In fact, maybe it is. I think you should really forfeit this game, because you’ve broken the rules.”

“I didn’t break any rules! Investigating an odd substance on the floor isn’t against any chess rules!”

“Not chess rules. Rules of life.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “You’re probably going to go to jail.”

Prompt used: You have a chess match that means much more with the antagonist of your story. (Name of antagonist changed to avoid spoilers.)

Daily Writing Check-in: January 24, 2016

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Words/Time:  665 words of writing practice just to make sure I didn’t go two days in a row without posting. Just sitting down at 11:30 pm, I asked my husband for a quick prompt to get me going. He came up with, “Two men walk into a bar and one pulls out a gun.” Not exactly the most inspirational, but I made it work. Not one of my favorite pieces of writing, but they can’t all be.

Daily Writing Check-in: January 21, 2016

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Words/Time:  308 words of writing practice followed by half an hour of working on “Pursuit of Power.” Sort of. I got it into my head that the prologue I wrote for the novel wasn’t going to work for it anymore, because it focuses on the greater mystery that won’t be solved in this book. So the prologue is unrelated enough to not be worth including. And then I had a sudden idea for a different prologue. Not that there has to be a prologue, I know, and therein lies the problem. One of the problems. First, the idea I have for a prologue, which is actually directly related to the main villain in “Pursuit of Power” would be a rather long prologue. And second, in doing some research for how long is too long for a prologue (I know there’s no set length, but I went looking for opinions), I found out that prologues are actually strongly disliked in general. I didn’t realize so many people just skip the prologue. I’ve never been that kind of person, but apparently many are.

Is the story of how the villain (who you won’t even meet in the book for a while) became who or what he/she is, which isn’t integral to the story, of interest? I suppose that’s too vague a question, because that could be anything from a kid who wasn’t loved enough and vowed to never be in a position to need anyone again to a guy whose entire DNA was rewritten and he became a literal monster.

So some questions for anyone who comes across this post:
Do you generally read or skip prologues in books? What kind of information do you hate or love to see in a prologue?

Daily Writing Check-in: January 20, 2016

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Words/Time:  282 words of writing practice. Also 1.5 hours working on the rest of the timeline for “Pursuit of Power.” There are a lot of places in the story where I wrote vague amounts of time. Something lasted for “several months” or happened “after a few weeks.” Of course it’s much easier to do this while writing than to bother to come up with a specific amount of time. Creating a timeline off that is a little annoying though. I muddled through, and some entries can always be shortened or extended later as I fit other stories during or after this one. I use Aeon Timeline for my timelines, and it’s the most helpful writing software I’ve ever used.

I think my next step will be to plan out a sketchy idea of the events that will take place for Alexander, the main character in this story, after this book ends. From what I can tell from my timeline, the next story involving Alexander has to take place 4 years after this one ends. I think I can make that work

A Monday Moment: The Play

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At the beginning of this year, I made a new goal for myself to do a little writing practice every day. I already try to do some form of writing work each day, hence my daily check-ins. But most of that is revision, and I want to write a little too.

Every Monday, I’m going to choose one bit of writing practice from the previous week and post it here. If I haven’t done any writing practice all week, I’ll have to make sure I do some on Sunday or Monday to have something to post. So there’s an extra little push there too.

I won’t revise any of this, except for a spell-check. They’ll probably rarely be longer than 500 words. The prompt, if I used one and if I choose to include it, will be at the bottom. And I can’t even call them all stories, because there’s not always a beginning and end. Sometimes it’s just writing.

Judy tried not to look at her daughter too often during the play, but she couldn’t help herself. She’d seen the play before and remembered all too well the emotions she’d experienced throughout. Natalie was old enough to understand what was going on—the overt and subtle themes, consequences to actions, and feelings that went along with it all.

She worried that glancing over as often as she did would disrupt Natalie’s concentration on the story, but every time she looked, the girl was so entranced that she didn’t notice Judy’s eyes on her.

As the story ramped up to the climax, tears sprang to Judy’s eyes. She knew what was coming, and she was already reacting to what hadn’t happened yet. Natalie was yet unaffected, but Judy couldn’t wait for that one moment.

As the climax unfolded, Judy felt Natalie’s hand grip her arm. She looked over and saw Natalie sitting forward in her seat. She was still staring straight ahead, but had reached out to her mom for some comfort. Judy placed her other hand over her daughter’s and turned her face back to the stage. Her eyes darted between the actors on the stage and Natalie’s face.

Her own heart nearly broke when she saw tears reflecting the stage lights. Natalie was barely breathing, she was so caught up. When Natalie shook her head slowly and then closed her eyes, Judy wondered if she’d done the right thing. Maybe Natalie was too young after all. The girl seemed to realize even before Judy had that it was over. It was too late. The hero’s life done—there was no way around his necessary sacrifice. And it was painful to watch.

Though she’d planned to keep an eye on Natalie’s reaction out of the corner of her eye, that moment that Judy had been waiting for—THE moment, the triumph, the hero saved—had all of her attention. She was swept away like it was her first time. At least until she felt Natalie’s grip tighten even more. Blinking past her own tears, Judy looked at her daughter. Natalie’s cheeks glistened in the dim light, and mother joined her daughter in weeping for the hero.

As the final moments of the story played out, Judy knew she’d made the right choice. She wouldn’t point out later that she’d been right when she insisted Natalie come with her, even though it wasn’t as exciting as a movie or television show. She wouldn’t explain to Natalie what a deus ex machina was, or the history behind it. She wouldn’t ask her to identify themes and symbolism in the play. She would just ask for Natalie’s thoughts and then ask if she’d like to go to another play with her mom someday.

“Like a hero who takes the stage when we’re on the edge of our seats saying it’s too late…”
-MercyMe, “Flawless”

Daily Writing Check-in: January 17, 2016

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Words/Time:  519 words of writing practice using my Writer Emergency Pack again. I brainstormed possibilities of what could happen after “Pursuit of Power” with questions about where there hero might travel to be out of his/her comfort zone.

“Pursuit of Power” is still something of an enigma to me. I started with the main character, Alexander’s, father dying under mysterious circumstances. When Alexander finds a small clue that suggests it might not have been an accident, he starts down a path from which there is no return.

After 100,000 words, though, the story doesn’t end. His searching leads him down a path only peripherally related to his dad. He draws attention from some very powerful people, including one particular woman who is basically the leader of a crime syndicate. So then the book becomes about him and her sort of squaring off.

The book ends with no answers to his father’s mysterious death, or to some of the other questions that have come up in his searching. So there would have to be another book. I’m thinking it might behoove me to at least have a good idea of what’s going to happen in the follow-up, before I could complete final revisions on the first book, so lately I’ve been brainstorming that. To be honest, I’ve never thought this far in this story arc before, so it’s all new planning.

063

Daily Writing Check-in: January 16, 2016

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Words/Time:  620 words of writing practice with an idea inspired by a song I heard a few times on the radio today while my husband and I were on our way to and from the theater to watch the new Star Wars movie. The song was “Flawless” by MercyMe, and there’s one line in it that has struck me since I first heard the song. Today was not the first day that it influenced my writing.

Daily Writing Check-in: January 15, 2016

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Words/Time:  620 words of writing practice using my Writer Emergency Pack for the first time. With The Triangle published and “Pithea” as far as I can take it for now, my attention turns to “Pursuit of Power.” I’m going to wait at least until Monday to start into revision, partly because my brain could use a rest and partly because I’m not even sure where/how to start. But I didn’t want to let the day go by without writing. I wrote a little bit about the MCs in “Pursuit of Power,” though it was about what would come after that book. It was more enlightening than I thought it would be.

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Daily Writing Check-in: January 7, 2016

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Words/Time:  483 words. Some of it was unrelated writing practice, and some of it was writing the following synopsis:

The Triangle
Tyler Bradley has a good life. He’s been married for seventeen years, has two daughters, makes a comfortable living, goes to church on Sunday, and really has no complaints. But one small, innocuous change reveals a tiny crack in his happy life. That crack widens and widens until one day Tyler looks around and can’t understand how he got where he is. And worse yet, the crack threatens to devour his entire family.

Hoping to repair the damage, Tyler begins to study the Bible he’s heard so much about, but never bothered delving into. During his searching, he meets someone who captures his attention, and then his heart. She manages to brighten his life, while also muddling his mind. While this new relationship deepens, his home life only gets worse; how will Tyler recapture the good life he once thought he had?