I’m really enjoying this new short story I’m working on. I’m coming at it from all angles and writing it in a non-linear fashion. I don’t feel like I’m spinning it out from beginning to end. Instead, it feels like I have a ball of modeling clay and I’m shaping it.
This morning, I rolled the tale back a little further in time and wrote about a thousand words that met up with where I originally started the story, borrowing pieces from later on and then smoothing into the transition. I thought I was done for the day. I had breakfast, watched Castle, took a shower and then had an extra half hour during which I thought I would read. However, my mind had been rolling the story around, squeezing here and pushing there, so I went back to my office (this is something I never do during the week) and jumped down to the end, tossed out everything I’d written there and wrote another four hundred words or so to set up a kind of parallel conclusion for the two main characters.
I have about 3500 words at present, and there’s still one small section that remains to be written, about 2/3 of the way through the tale. I also have a fairly large chunk, perhaps 400 words, that is backstory for one of the characters. I don’t think that will endure, but it was necessary for me to write it out to get it into the proper shape in my mind so I could use it to inform the character. I might steal bits and pieces of it, but I suspect most of it will go.
I figure it will end up being about 3500 words once I’ve finished the first draft and gone through one solid edit to smooth it over. And I still have 10 days to work on it before it’s due, so things are looking up. I know I’m not going to get stuck, since I know how it’s going to end already, so that’s encouraging.
I’ve never written a short story in this manner before, or have it take over my waking thoughts to the extent this one has. I really understand these two characters, and have a sense of the era, too. I hope that’s a good sign.
I watched The Ipcress File, based on the Len Deighton novel, starring Michael Caine. I have to say that I wasn’t as impressed overall as I hoped to be. The origin of the word “Ipcress” was in particular a rather rough stretch. A quasi-acronym that used random letters from a book’s title, with the book itself ending up something of a red herring since Harry never got to read it. Also, since Ross was in Funeral in Berlin, it was pretty obvious he wasn’t the double agent. It was all rather muddled, I thought. A nifty cold opening, but one that was more elaborate than necessary. Why brainwash instead of murder? Why the “substitute” for the kidnapping victim on the train? Why the rather low-key reaction when Harry accidentally kills a CIA agent? And the campy brainwashing didn’t wash with me, either. The best parts were Harry going about his business in his own particular way. And I liked the cynical ending: that’s what you’re paid for, Harry.
Are Castle and Beckett still dating? You’d never know it from this week’s episode. They were behaving like they used to, back in the old days. It felt like a filler episode while they wait for February sweeps, where they revisit the murder of Kate’s mother. It feels like an idle week in general for TV. Anyone check out the new Kevin Bacon show? American Horror Story finale tomorrow, so that’s good.
