Thursday, November 13, 2008

1. My new plan

Well, I have been procrastinating for a few weeks. I want to/need to practice a creative writing story structure. You know, the old first do it by the rules before you break them thing. The problem is I am fairly rubbish at writing without a reason. The reason doesn't have to be great but I am VERY goal orientated so even it if it doesn't pan out, at least I am happy if I made the goal. Since I am just starting out in creative writing I am going through the rejection phase of my career. So far it is going very well - getting rejected all over the place. Admittedly I don't aim low and my rejections are the non surprising result. In fact I think if I wasn't rejected that might freak me out a bit at this point.
Anyway that long waffling paragraph is because I have decided to make myself do this, I will use my blog for it so I am going to attempt to write a longer story following my planned structure over the next wee while in this blog. I had planned to plan out the story to the structure a bit but I can see I will never start if I wait until I do that so I am just going to jump straight in. It maybe naff. It may only last a month or may develop into a groovey story who can tell. I tend to be a shorter story writer, despite my longer aspirations, so we will see what happens.
Cath couldn't believe how easily she could be envious. Right now sitting on the plane as it circled above Sydney, she was still envious of the guy beside her. Jack had only just made the flight. He had managed to convince the check-in staff to get him on even though he had been late. Cath had never managed to do that in her life. She was envious of his confidence, his charm and his complete lack of concern that he might have missed his flight. How could she be envious over such a trivial thing? She knew it was crazy. She never told anyone anymore about things like this. It just sounded so self pitying.
"What about your porsche in the garage? What about your gorgeous apartment. What about your great career?" She could hear their rebukes in her head but it didn't help. She had worked really hard to get those things and this was different. She could not control how she felt. It was just a fact, her envy, nothing more.
She sighed and looked out over the brown roofs dotted between the shaggy green tree tops. Soon she would be down there amongst the concrete and cars. It never felt as green on the ground as it looked from air.
Cath arrived at the office in time for morning tea. The smokers were out on the deck, the others were grabbing coffees and heading back to their desks but not without a bit gossip and back chat. There seemed to be something going on. People were looking at her in a weird way. They seemed happy to see her but almost too cheerful. It made her uneasy. It always seemed so mysterious over here. Back in New Zealand there was only four of them. They were like a family really.
Jim, the General Manager, and Cath's boss lent on the door.
"Cath, glad you made it. Come into my office. I have some news for you."
Cath followed him down the hall. She had thought from the emails organising this trip, that it would be good news, now she was not so sure.

1 comment:

Summerfields said...

Great stuff - looking forward to the next installment! M x

5 Favourite Sights Seen

  • 1996 Watching tropical lightning turn night to day, outside a little wooden church in a small village in Sabah.
  • 2004 Flying down the Rainbow Valley at 8000ft in a cessna on a clear blue day.
  • 2003 Seeing and hearing Michael Schmacher rolling out of the pit garage in his Ferrari in Hungary.
  • 2009 Chancing upon 100 or more dolphins just off the Kaikoura Coast swimming around, jumping out of the water, doing somersaults and generally having fun.
  • 2006 Finding a pool at the bottom of a waterfall in the bush at Kaikoura that was full of playing baby seals.