A Poem before a story

So one of my longer brewing stories seems to be edging out the others for NaNo selection. I have the urge to begin writing it, but beginnings of stories are my least favorite. I always feel like they don't do the story enough justice. So instead I wrote a poem.

Her Choice

The blackest edge of night is nothing,
When compared with the sorrow of a heart.
One that was once bound completely to another,
One that carries unexpressed grief.

Standing alone on the desolate battle plain,
With a broken scythe in her bloodied hands;
She faces agony, defeat, death, and a choice.
A Black gate stands to her left, a Pearl Gate to her right.

The tie had been broken, though severed polietly
The darkness still looms around her
The cut is too deep, her soul bleeds out as tears
And it threatens to swallow her whole

Her choice seems unthinkable, unbearable to her
To continue forward alone without...
The whisper in her ear, the hand holding her back
Her protector had fallen away leaving her heart exposed.

Her blood boils with the injustice of it all,
And she knows her path is unfeeling.
Holding the broken blade in trembling hands
She turns tears to anger.

The love burns in her like fire,
But blocked by time and circumstance -
It fills her veins with gloom and ice
Turning maiden into warrior.


She will wield the scythe of death
Giving life to the sorrow that consumes her.
And she will become the great guardian
Of the now dying flame.

Unfolding black wings and steeling her hardened heart
She leaves the gentleness where she stood
Setting her mind and body to task
And returning a warrior to battle.


This poem is about my stories main character Chandra. It's a title-less story at the moment, and some of the details were co-authored over the years by friends of mine who dared to dabble in my crazy mind. She has been nagging at me recently, no doubt due to wanting her story shared.

My characters are like my friends, neglect them too long and they come crashing in. Chandra is no exception, and likely the noisiest of all the characters who have not had their stories put to paper. Chaos reigns when she is unhappy.

Now off to contemplate beginnings...

NaNoWriMo 2010 - The build up

So while perusing Mike's Ramblings I found his entry regarding NaNoWriMo and the fact that it is only a few short months away!!! NaNoWriMo is a yearly contest held in November where you try to write a 50k novel in the month of November.

Last year was so easy for me, I flew through my story and it was probably the easiest typed story I have ever written. I make the distinction here of typed because back in the 90s when I preferred pen and paper I would write stories in a matter of days. They sucked but they were finished :D

I haven't really edited my story from last year, although I did get the printed proof copy. I keep intending to edit it and then get distracted by shiny objects a few minutes later. So the proof copy in it's miserable glory lies under a table in the bedroom unloved and feeling unwanted. I try to reassure it that it was not a cheap November thrill but I doubt it believes me.

So this year I face an interesting choice. It will be my third NaNoWriMo and the story from the first year was never intended to be completed. It was a therapeutic exercise and now I feel no need to finish the story. Last years story has well over 50k more words in it, but the catch of NaNoWriMo where you cannot edit, only add new words means that I would be stuck writing new scenes into badly setup structure. I just don't think I can tolerate that.

Logician prefers the method of starting cold turkey on November 1st and writing what comes. His story last year was an interesting read and a large part of me is sad I a) haven't read all of what he wrote and b) it was never finished. He plans to do the same thing this year for his second NaNo.

So here I sit, July is half over and August is on the horizon. 3 months to go and no really clear direction to go in on November 1st. I have at least 15 stories in my head that are unfinished, haven't made it to computer land from old lost pen and paper versions, or haven't even been fully created yet! But I have no idea which one to pick.

Do I want to write the Vampire story? Or a scifi Firefly meets Star Wars mix up? What about these two new ideas that recently popped in my head; a Greek demigoddess/muse or a story about magic and technology.

All of these stories are insanely cliche and over done. So I suppose I will just see what falls loose in the next few weeks. After all August is 'Select a story' month, September is 'Outline your life away' and October is 'Oh god it's almost here but I can't write yet.'

Stories are strange word beasts, that they are.

A follow up before some (more) changes

So it's been a crazy amount of time since I last updated this page! Due to a financial crunch from being in school I was unable to continue Bento making through out the remainder of school. However with a new job beginning in a little over a week and the potential to increase my finances enough to get back to contributing to this household I am looking forward to picking up my Bento boxes a new.

Thankfully I will have a new Bento book in hand (soon I hope) to review and look over. I can't wait to put Ol' Red back into use!

Hope everyone is well!