Weekend Update

Not really a weekend, it being Monday and all. But I have no creativity at the moment.

I haven't been up to anything too terribly exciting. Mom and I had plans to grocery shop and run some other errands today, but all of that was put on hold when Grandma went into the hospital yesterday. I think that how a person eats is a good measure of how they're doing, so I'll say this about Grandma--she had salmon for lunch today.

I had a fairly laidback day. The only strenuous things I did were cleaning up the kitchen and spending forty minutes on the treadmill (walking, not running, mind you--and not walking very fast, either, but at least I am moving). I just got Doctor Who season 2 from the library. I only have it for two weeks, so I'm trying to watch several episodes at a time. Today I watched Tooth and Claw, about a werewolf, which Gina brought over to watch on Thanksgiving, and School Reunion, where the Doctor was reunited with Sarah Jane, a woman he had traveled with a long time ago, and The Girl in the Fireplace, which was lovely and sad, but not as sad as I thought it would be.

I did a lot of cross-stitch. When I get started on a new project (any project, really), I get obsessive. I can't keep my hands off it. That's why I put together puzzles so fast. I just can't stay away until it's finished. So I've been plugging away at a pretty good-sized cross-stitch project that will look lovely framed on my bedroom wall, if I ever get around to putting stuff on my walls.

I have been practically living on CleanPlace, the forum where I mentor teen writers. We are in the midst of a new project called Picture a Fantasy Quest. Every Sunday until March 30, a new picture will be posted as inspiration for a scene. I think there will be 12 scenes in all, of a continuing story, and it has to be a complete story--you have to be able to say "The End" once Scene 12 is over. Every scene has to be 700-1000 words, which is trickier than it sounds. I'm taking part myself, and my first scene came out to almost 2100 words. I cut it all the way down to just under 1000. I think it lost a little coherence, but not too bad. And now I have no mercy when it comes to the word count--if I can cut my scene in half and not destroy it, the teens can absolutely find 80 words to trim from their own scenes.

The catch, obviously, is that it must be a fantasy, and it must be a quest. I write a little fantasy, but Lord of the Rings-type quests are not my thing. I like to read them but not write them. So I didn't really know what to do. The first picture posted was of a medieval-type village at night. I don't know how it happened, but I just flipped through my notebook and started coming up with characters. I named them. I figured out what they looked like and what their relationships were to each other, and then I just ask myself what they would be seeking.

The upshot is that one of my characters, Catalina, vanishes into thin air. It's more complicated than that, obviously, but the quest is that the rest of the characters are seeking Catalina. For now. When they find her, the quest will change, something to do with the bad guy, who hasn't shown up yet. I'm pushing the boundaries a little bit because there is a teensy bit of sci-fi going on, a shameless rip-off of Doctor Who. Remember the story I put up here about the girl who had a portable toilet appear in her bedroom? Well, it's back. It appears in the house, a man steps out (the same man from that story), and whisks Catalina away.

The second picture, posted yesterday, is amazing. A cave with all these drippy stalactites and stalagmites, with a glowing pool at the center, and there is a figure in white walking down some steps toward the pool. It's pretty evenly divided among the writers whether they liked or whether it totally screwed up their plot. The latter are just thinking too far ahead, I think. You can't do that with a challenge like this. You have to write the scene and then try not to think about the story again until you see the next picture. It's writing by the seat of your pants, and it's LOADS of fun. I love to see all the different things people come up with, inspired by the same image.