Hilary Moon Murphy

Happy Happy Joy Joy

The January Web Rat Name Your Own Dare! (700 Words a Day on Fire of Genius) Pre-Dare Dare Total Today 14,498 703 703 Other Dare Participants: Anne | Jennifer | Jim | Karina | Marti | Rob | Sam | Trey

I began this Dare with an obnoxious case of writing block. I just could not figure out where to start. Fortunately, my spouse would not let me get away with this: "Have you written your 700 words yet?" Andy asked.

"I'm still trying to figure out what to write about."

"Okay. Let me try this again. Have you written your 700 words yet?"

So I decided to just turn on the computer and write something, anything to get me to today's total. I know, I thought, I'll write an info-dump! Nothing like an indigestible lump of bad prose to get the creative juices flowing.

So I wrote about 400 words of the complete back history of how the Patent Office came to be a sort of family business for Sarah and her relatives. And then I realized that I could get some of that information to come out in a much more interesting action scene, so I began a new scene (about 300 words or so) of Sarah and her brother arguing in the middle of a muddy street when something else happens.

It's a cool scene, full of lots of neat sensory and historical details. For the first time, I'm actually taking the time to have my narrator walk around the city and show what it was like. Washington D.C. in 1836 would seem really strange to modern visitors: unpaved roads, livestock in the street, and the pervasive smell of decaying refuse. It was a city where even the rich walked most of the time, and homes and businesses blended seamlessly into one another.

So many of the little details will seem odd: they had gas-powered kitchener stoves, but no dish washing soap. They knew of electricity, but lamps and candles were still the best lighting source. The fastest way to get news from one part of the city to another was on pony back -- the telegraph would not be invented for several years yet.

Since I'm probably only going to keep the last 300 words of the writing session, I'm wondering if it would be more honest to reset my Dare totals, above. But then again, I did not pledge to do 700 perfect words, now did I?

The important thing is that I have started the process. Hey, isn't that what dares are all about?

Andy and I began the New Year by finishing off a number of small annoying remodeling projects that had been in a half-finished state for months. My office in the basement is now insulated, had pictures on the walls, and is starting to feel homey.

And I have one other piece of news that made me ecstatic. In the process of fixing up my office, we found all the back-up disks to my other novel, Hindu Gods Don't Speak to Tourists. They had been lost for over a year, and I was beginning to worry that they were gone for good. This means that I can go back to my Indian novel after I finish Fire of Genius. Hooray!

Andy asked me if I have any resolutions this year. Mine are simple: Write. Finish what I write. Submit what I write to publishers.

That's it. Wouldn't Heinlein be proud?

Hmm