Day 12. 23,046 words. At a crucial point.
I have no idea what is going on in my novel. Wrote about 1300 words today, which was my goal. I'm just aiming to hit 25,000 by end of day Thursday, the two-week mark. I really need some time to figure this thing out! I wrote myself into a corner, what with Seth gone and Roux somehow an accomplice. I have to figure out if Roux is a good guy or a bad guy but either way, Ruby probably won't know for a while. Right now, Ruby is just trying to figure out a way to get some information on where Seth might be. I'm just as confused as Ruby is... maybe even more so.
My excerpt today is nothing special... just an example of the developing partnership between Ruby and Gordon, and some potential yacht mayhem that probably won't get written into my novel because why on earth would Ruby leave Vegas when Seth has disappeared?
ANY PLOT IDEAS WELCOME.
“Gordon, that’s exactly what you said yesterday. And I’m not buying it,” Darcy said scornfully.
“Anyway, it’s just a television show!” Christopher announced. “You’re reading too much into it.”
“There is no such thing-“ Gordon began, before being cut off by Darcy.
“My dad called today. He’s organizing a four-day cruise on his yacht with all the partners at his firm. He wanted to know if any of us wanted to go. I said maybe. We’d have to hang out with all those boring old people, but they’d at least have lots of alcohol and they’d all be so blitzed, they’d never even know how much we took.”
“A cruise! Oh, Darcy, that would be fantastic! I miss the water… where will it be? I want to see dolphins!” Harmony had just dyed her hair a vivid aqua with pale green highlights and was looking particularly mermaid-like.
“The Gulf, of course. It’s the only reasonable place at this time of year,” Darcy muttered in an angry voice, while managing to look ecstatic at Harmony’s response.
“Hey, I’ll go too!” Christopher piped up, standing and putting his arm possessively around Darcy. “You need a designated driver, right?” Darcy smiled proudly, and nodded. He couldn’t very well uninvite Topher just because Harmony was going. It looked like the pendulum was swinging back to the Harmony side, at least temporarily.
“Slade? Gordon?” Darcy looked at each of them in a manner that exuded master of the house. His glance then fell on Ruby and he added, not over-hastily, “And of course, Ruby, you would be welcome to join us.” This only slightly more effusive invitation only served to mark off the distinction between Ruby and the rest of the group even more. Ze was still the sidekick, nothing more. But this time, ze wasn’t upset at the slight; Darcy probably couldn’t help himself, and anyway, it gave hir a chance to introduce Roux into the discussion.
“Thanks, Darcy, but uh, I’d have to check with Roux. Check with my mom, I mean, but Roux’s the only one who’s in contact with her these days. Out of cell range,” ze shrugged elaborately. Ze hurried on, noticing that Darcy had already turned towards Christopher before ze had even finished declining the invitation. “Roux’s great, isn’t she?” Ze poured enthusiasm into hir voice. “How long has she worked here?”
Just Fiddlin’ Around all stared at her. It was, admittedly, a strange question and one that they probably found profoundly uninteresting. Gordon’s stare, however, was slightly different. He stepped forward, and began to declaim in his lecturing tone of voice:
“Advancing technology has given us a distorted view of time and space. Postmodern media texts are playful with the way they represent time and space. Certain of these characteristics stand out as particularly relevant to the time structures of music and music perception: we should expect postmodern musical time to be created at least as much by listeners as by composers, to differ from one listener to another, and to be fragmented, discontinuous, nonlinear, and multiple. The notion of the multiplicity of musical time-that music can enable listeners to experience different senses of directionality, different temporal narratives, andlor different rates of motion, all simultaneously- is indeed postmodern.”
“Gordon.” Darcy put his hand up in a stopping gesture. “Roux? She’s been here ever since we’ve started coming here. And that’s been… six months or so?”
“Just six months?” Ruby again hurried into the discussion, unsure of how much the group would allow her to say. “I thought you’d been here forever!” Oops. This was a grave miscalculation. The group of friends was off in a set of reminiscences of the many Vegas hotels they’d frequented, as well as their meetings in various U.S., Canadian and European cities.
My excerpt today is nothing special... just an example of the developing partnership between Ruby and Gordon, and some potential yacht mayhem that probably won't get written into my novel because why on earth would Ruby leave Vegas when Seth has disappeared?
ANY PLOT IDEAS WELCOME.
“Gordon, that’s exactly what you said yesterday. And I’m not buying it,” Darcy said scornfully.
“Anyway, it’s just a television show!” Christopher announced. “You’re reading too much into it.”
“There is no such thing-“ Gordon began, before being cut off by Darcy.
“My dad called today. He’s organizing a four-day cruise on his yacht with all the partners at his firm. He wanted to know if any of us wanted to go. I said maybe. We’d have to hang out with all those boring old people, but they’d at least have lots of alcohol and they’d all be so blitzed, they’d never even know how much we took.”
“A cruise! Oh, Darcy, that would be fantastic! I miss the water… where will it be? I want to see dolphins!” Harmony had just dyed her hair a vivid aqua with pale green highlights and was looking particularly mermaid-like.
“The Gulf, of course. It’s the only reasonable place at this time of year,” Darcy muttered in an angry voice, while managing to look ecstatic at Harmony’s response.
“Hey, I’ll go too!” Christopher piped up, standing and putting his arm possessively around Darcy. “You need a designated driver, right?” Darcy smiled proudly, and nodded. He couldn’t very well uninvite Topher just because Harmony was going. It looked like the pendulum was swinging back to the Harmony side, at least temporarily.
“Slade? Gordon?” Darcy looked at each of them in a manner that exuded master of the house. His glance then fell on Ruby and he added, not over-hastily, “And of course, Ruby, you would be welcome to join us.” This only slightly more effusive invitation only served to mark off the distinction between Ruby and the rest of the group even more. Ze was still the sidekick, nothing more. But this time, ze wasn’t upset at the slight; Darcy probably couldn’t help himself, and anyway, it gave hir a chance to introduce Roux into the discussion.
“Thanks, Darcy, but uh, I’d have to check with Roux. Check with my mom, I mean, but Roux’s the only one who’s in contact with her these days. Out of cell range,” ze shrugged elaborately. Ze hurried on, noticing that Darcy had already turned towards Christopher before ze had even finished declining the invitation. “Roux’s great, isn’t she?” Ze poured enthusiasm into hir voice. “How long has she worked here?”
Just Fiddlin’ Around all stared at her. It was, admittedly, a strange question and one that they probably found profoundly uninteresting. Gordon’s stare, however, was slightly different. He stepped forward, and began to declaim in his lecturing tone of voice:
“Advancing technology has given us a distorted view of time and space. Postmodern media texts are playful with the way they represent time and space. Certain of these characteristics stand out as particularly relevant to the time structures of music and music perception: we should expect postmodern musical time to be created at least as much by listeners as by composers, to differ from one listener to another, and to be fragmented, discontinuous, nonlinear, and multiple. The notion of the multiplicity of musical time-that music can enable listeners to experience different senses of directionality, different temporal narratives, andlor different rates of motion, all simultaneously- is indeed postmodern.”
“Gordon.” Darcy put his hand up in a stopping gesture. “Roux? She’s been here ever since we’ve started coming here. And that’s been… six months or so?”
“Just six months?” Ruby again hurried into the discussion, unsure of how much the group would allow her to say. “I thought you’d been here forever!” Oops. This was a grave miscalculation. The group of friends was off in a set of reminiscences of the many Vegas hotels they’d frequented, as well as their meetings in various U.S., Canadian and European cities.
Why would Ruby leave Vegas if Seth has disappeared? That is the question that will lead you to your next plot development. Only you know Seth well enough to answer... if ze received communication from Seth and ze believed that Seth was okay? If ze believed that Seth was in Vegas and that the yacht trip would lead to getting Seth back?
ReplyDeleteI love the interaction between Gordon and Darcy in this piece, incidentally... Jane Austen missed out on the greatest literary character of all time, Gordon "the Vampyre" Toody.
Perhaps Roux will trick Ruby into thinking that Seth will be on the yacht, in order to get Ruby out of the hotel? Still can't get over that you are calling them the "Just Fiddlin' Around" kids. It is truly a gift that keeps on giving. And it also allows you to increase your word count because it takes 3-4 words each time you reference them. Brilliant.
ReplyDelete