On the morning of the 25th, I re-read the invitation email, and I noticed that readings were supposed to incorporate a theme of “Nature”.
My stomach dropped.
Somehow I’d managed to miss that instruction. *facepalm*
Nature is not something I write about. I am a soft pale animal who prefers the indoors. The sun is my mortal enemy *shakes chubby fist at the sky*. I dislike insects and would rather have dental work than go camping.
So needless to say, I do not generally wax poetic on themes of nature. There was nothing in my published or unpublished work that was even remotely suitable.
So I decided to “just write” and see what happened.
What happened was the first 1200-ish words of a dystopian YA novelette. For your reference, Wikkipedia’s entry on “word count” defines it thus:
| Classification | Word count |
|---|---|
| Novel | 40,000 words or over |
| Novella | 17,500 to 39,999 words |
| Novelette | 7,500 to 17,499 words |
| Short story | under 7,500 words |
I would love to be the kind of writer (and kind of person) who can focus on one thing from start to finish. Alas, I am not.
I try not to complain about it too much because having too many ideas is preferable to having too few. Furthermore, complaining about imaginative riches is a species of ‘humble-brag’ that annoys other writers. Typically, I try not to be an asshole. So mostly I try to keep that complaint to myself (current blog entry notwithstanding).
Right now I have multiple projects in various stages of development. I’m sure it will be that way until I die (or am made vampire, or find some other route to immortality).
Anyway, here is a video of me reading my first draft of “Earth Day” at Lit Cafe. The video was created by the multi-talented Malcolm van Delst.
Featured photo at the top of this post created by Mikish Kaos, used under a CC licence.
Chloe Cocking 