Pause on the 30-day writing challenge

 I am doing a speed run on the Coursera / Microsoft Cyber Analyst Professional Certificate at the moment. There are 9 modules, and I've completed 2 on the first day, will start on a third today. So writing is going on a hiatus... To be resumed in a week (hopefully less). 

30-Day Writing Challenge Day 6: Found Poem

 Take text from something you don't usually read, turn it into a poem, by taking the words, but rearrange them, use their alternate meaning, and so on. 

I typed in "random article to read" into Google, and the first link was "For a More Creative Brain Follow These 5 Steps" from James Clear, the guy who wrote "Atomic Habits". 

Well, here's my attempt

Problems don't solve themselves

Solutions are often from combining stuff

There is nothing new under the sun

Just new combinations and mixes

Solutions are never correct

But require iterative changes

Don't despair when nothing's right

Sleep on it and be challenged    

----

Yes, I fully realized I skipped 2 days, I'm making up for it... soon. 

30-Day Writing Challenge Day 5: Photographs

 Get a random picture, look at it, take 5 minutes to think about it, then write something based on that.  

I found a random picture, this one, which probably came from Pexels or Pixabay. 

A swing on a beach, a young girl with red hair. What you don't see is her parent, who was probably there as the POV, pushing the girl. How proud is s/he feeling now, with the daughter relaxing in the seabreeze, looking at the waves rolling in and out? Or is s/he pondering about other subjects? 

She seems to be a quiet child, not going "wheeee!" with legs splayed out, trying to swing higher and higher. 

The weather seems calm, though the sea seems to be a bit rougher than the weather suggests... Storm soon? 

30-Day Writing Challenge Day 4: Leave it to Chance

The challenge on Day 4 is basically deal with random prompts. Basically, will randomly draw 1 out of 10 characters, 1 out of 10 locations, and 1 out of 10 conflicts, and come up with a reasonable plot. 

Instead of actually writing them on small pieces of paper and draw them from a cup, I will just use dice throwing via Google. I need 3 random numbers from 1-10, or roll 3 D10's. https://rolladie.net/roll-3-d10-dice gave me a good start. The numbers are: 5, 4, and 10. They correspond to the prompts:

* A depressed meteorologist

* A large European city

* Two people who hate each other have to cook a meal

I am a bit short on time today, but I can think of a quick plot: a depressed meteorologist meets his rival at a city charity event, where they must cook meals to be auctioned to celebrities to feed the homeless. The two must cooperate to create an edible meal or both of their stations will look bad. It'll be a pretty short story, but I need to plot this out a bit further...  It's better than, IMHO, have them on vacation and run into each other? 

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about meteorologists in Europe. I'll have to make the American meteorologists visiting Europe on a conference, perhaps. However, research of conferences for meteorologists are not really for your average TV guy, but for climatologists and such. We may have to do coincidental meeting as tourists after all. And it's probably easiest to pick London, where they speak English. 

MC = Danny  FMC = Elena

Danny Rollins strolled through the London Heathrow airport after claiming his baggage, and looking for the transportation to head into London for his hotel. The typically dour weather in London did not bother him, as he's a meteorologist by trade. He knew he needs to find the Piccadilly line on the Tube. He was looking for the signs when someone startled him...

"Danny? Wow! It is you! What are you doing in London?"

He turned and found himself looking at Elena Sanchez... his rival meteorologist at Channel 7.  For a few moments, his mind ran in multiple directions. She is beautiful. What is she doing here? What are the chances she'd be here? He finally replied:

"Oh, hi, Elena. I'm just taking some time off. Robbie's taking over for two weeks." 

Elena nodded, "You taking the Tube?" 

"Trying to find it." 

"Hey, Mark! Over here!" Elena waved behind Danny. Danny turned around, and spotted someone who could be playing rugby here in London, a big burly blond guy walking toward them, easily handling Elena's luggage. 

After the introductions are out of the way (Mark's Elena's cousin), they made their way to the Tube, and as it turns out, they actually booked the same executive aparthotel, because they used the same travel agent. 

Danny felt a bit drained, and wanted to rest, and maybe make himself some food, but that means he need to go shop for some ingredients first...  His doctor warned him that the more he stay still, the more likely the depression will get to him, so he needs to keep moving, interacting with the world... So he went for a bit of a walk and with help of Google, located the nearest market with some ingredients that he can cook with, and navigated back to the aparthotel. 

He started the food prep, and was half way cooking some garlic pasta, when he heard a knock on his door. 

He opened the door, and was very surprised to find Elena standing there... and no Mark. 

"Hi Danny... wow, that smells good!"

"Please come in, I have something on the stove..." Danny ran back to the hob. He needs to toast the garlic, not burn them. 

Elena followed, and was quite surprised at Danny's kitchen skills, as Danny quickly created the topping for the noodles, the paused the process. Noodles doesn't take long to cook. 

"I'm sorry. What can I do for you, Elena?"

"I... need a date for tonight, and I can definitely use your cooking skills." 

"I thought Mark..."

"Oh, Mark doesn't swing that way." Elena chuckled.  "He really is my cousin, on my mom's side."

Danny realized he was feeling jealousy over... nothing. But... He and Elena are rivals, right? They don't exactly hate each other, but go on a date? 

"What do you have in mind?"

"I got an invitation to a charity event tonight, where some of us will be invited to cook some meals to be auctioned off to celebrity judges of SORTED FOODS team.  It's all for fun, and looks like you're better in the kitchen than I am." 

Danny paused for a few seconds, collecting his thoughts. He has heard of the SORTED FOODS team, who hasn't on Youtube. But he didn't know they were having an event tonight. And his psychiatrist told him to embrace new experiences...

Elena started to look really uncomfortable, "I am sorry to bother you. I'll go stag then..."

"Wait! I'll go with you, but you probably should try my noodles first." 

Elena's relief was instant, but also a bit... awkward. 

Danny finished cooking and plating his noodles, having double the portions and made two plates, then handed one to Elena with a fork in only a few minutes. Then sat across from her with his own plate. 

"Danny, this is great! And it only took you this long to make it?"

"I had a little head start on the garlic." 

Elena just chuckled, "Oh, so humble, Danny. This is so delicious, I'm going to slurp it." 

Danny didn't know what to think about his professional rival now... But he's definitely going to find out more about Elena... 

----to be continued----

30-Day Writing Challenge Day 3: What do you want to write about?

Day 3 Assignment: Write a 1 – 2 page list of things you believe in and things about which you would love to write. Include what kind of messages (if any) you want to convey in your writing, what the purpose of your writing is, what you hope to accomplish with your work. You may want to include a list of influences or other writers you aspire to write like.

I have... two projects I want to write about... One is finish my Star Trek novel, and two is write a romance novel. 

Star Trek Novel

Yes, I really do have one planned. This is a pretty obscure Star Trek reference, and non-canon, so it's basically fan fiction, sorta. There was some debate on class was Enterprise-C. The initial data was "Alaska-class" as given by FASA, then it was canonically revealed to be Ambassador-class in TNG:"Yesterday's Enterprise". 

What if both were right, and there was a classified story behind the change? And Captain Picard (then on the Stargazer) was involved? 

One of these days I'll have to finish the outline. 

Romance Novel

I have some ideas, but before now, I've written only short scenes on writing prompts, esp. the dirty versions, nothing long. I had some ideas about writing longer versions, but never got the full story developed as they sounded a bit lame. But generally I want to write about stuff that makes people go "awwww". 

Influences

Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, for their technothriller stuff

Ruth Cardello for romance novel stuff

30-Day Writing Challenge Day 2: Break the Rules

(Day2: Write as if no rules matter, THEN analyze what's wrong with it)

"Wait! Driver! Please stop the bus!"

The Muni 22 bus pulled over and came to a stop with hazards on. Everybody remain seated, as I strode forward toward the panicking men with his two dogs, one of which is having a very bad reaction... 

Possibly of fentanyl overdose. 

The driver turned around, "What's going on?"

The dog parent was trying to feed water to the stricken dog in his arms. I can already see that the dog's breathing was extremely slow, and is not really responding to his parent.

I kneeled down and spoke to him directly, "Sir, sir! Listen to me. Your dog is having an overdose, probably opioid. I know it sounds crazy, but you need to get off the bus now, there's an emergency vet hospital that way, about 2.5 blocks." I pointed. 

"You can't miss it. In fact, let's go. Driver, door please?"

The doors hissed open. 

The dog parent leaped off, holding one dog and started jogging. The other dog followed, and I quickly followed as well, waving goodbye to the bus, as many of the passengers had offered water to the man and his dogs. The day was unusually warm in San Francisco. 

As I started to jog after them, I can hear the driver ordered everybody to sit back down so he can get back on the route. I wonder if they will order a cleaning of the bus... but I don't have time, as my shoes aren't really for running, and the dog parent had a good head start, I need to pay attention... 

We arrived at the pet hospital in only minutes, and the staff must have seen the panicked look in his eyes, and they were immediately directed to a room. I stayed only long enough to make sure the vet made the proper diagnosis, then I left. 

Sadly, I had a similar experience, except I lost something... someone... far more important to me... Who knew you can find fentanyl in a children's playground?  

I don't carry Narcan around because you still have to go to hospital afterwards. A lot of people thought Narcan will save you. It just buy you time to reach the hospital and higher level of care. But I guess I can. 

I am not sure what to feel the rest of the day... In a way it brought back some dark memories, but in another way there was a bit of redemption, or is it paying it forward? Or just building up karma? But saving someone else from potential trauma is... good right? 

Is that my purpose here? I'll have to think about that some more... 

Elsewhere. 

Starting 30-day Writing Challenge by Sara Crawford: Day 1 of 30

As in previous years, I probably will NOT be doing Nanowrimo, but I do want to start writing some more, so I decided to do something a little different: I'll do the 30-day Writing Challenge by Sara Crawford instead. 

Day 1: Write stream of consciousness for about 10 minutes

I had been thinking about the situation in Israel / Gaza, and this can only get worse before it gets better. This is 9/11 for Israel, and they will go to the ends of the Earth to find those responsible. No country will stand for this sort of atrocities committed against its citizens. 

You *could* argue that Palestinians are suffering, but is attacking Israeli civilians, a MUSIC FESTIVAL, really the answer? This is a TERRORIST attack, and instead of Hamas leadership, it's the Gaza civilians that are now paying the price, just because some Hamas higher-ups got bloodlust. 

Looks like even Trump had joined the condemnation of Hamas. But nothing I can do for them from here. 

Strangely, I am feeling VERY emotional over this, which is rather strange for me. I am usually stoic, and most events don't affect me, yet somehow, reading the news (I'm not watching the videos) has driven me to tears a couple times already. 

Probably because the area was a mess far longer than I've been alive, and shows no sign of being resolved...  

The solution is quite simple, but nobody wants to do it: both sides needs to stop talking about sole possession, and instead, start talking about sharing. It's the only way to resolve this: be neighbors and not kill each other. 

How can that happen? I don't know. I'd imagine some sort of demilitarized zone, where both sides live intermingled, no more this side vs that side. The question is who will even participate, with so many factions in the area wanting war instead of peace. Already heard that Hezbollah and Iran are kinda itching to go to war, and I don't know if that's just rhetoric (we have to "support" our allies) or are they being serious. 

It is a mess, and it can only get worse from here before it gets better. 

Your character seems one dimensional? Fill out the character diamond and make them conflict

Character diamond is a screenwriting technique that people use to "round out" their characters. It will help you create better characters. 

Give the character a primary trait, and secondary trait, and they sort of conflict. Then give the guy a unshakable truth (aka permanent quality), and a quirk/flaw, and the two are also sort of... conflicting, and they conflict with each other. 

For Sherlock Holmes, possibly one of the most famous fictional characters ever, primary trait is crime solver, and his secondary trait is... addict. The classic one had him on 7 percent solution, while the modern BBC one just gave him nicotine patches.

As for the unshakable truth vs quirk... Sherlock is antisocial. He solves crimes for the challenge, not because he wanted justice. But he's also extremely loyal to people he knows, like Watson. You can see they sort of oppose each other, right?

And you can see how his truth and quirk conflict/interfere with his traits. Sherlock needs to talk to people (and detect their lies) to figure out the truth.

So if you can pick the four "traits/quirks" that play into each other, that makes a great characters.

(thanks to https://wizardofads.org/use-a-screenwriters-trick-to-make-memorable-ads/ )

NOTE: Did you notice that House M.D. has basically the same character diamond as Sherlock Holmes? 

This is not the only way to make a character diamond though. 

Another diamond would be "persuasion strategy, true self, upbringing, facade" 

For example: Indiana Jones

Persuasion strategy: hard negotiator, gets what they want

True self: how they present to close family and friends, passionate dreamer

Facade: how they present to the public, cool  professional

Upbringing: scholarly family

Another diamond could be how character relates to Self / Other / Activity / Time. 

* how does character relates to self? 

* how does character relates to others? 

* how does character relates to activity? 

* How does character relates to time? 

Another one would be, if dealing with fantasy: 

* Racial characteristics (what race are you? what are the characteristics of that race)

* Personal/unique characteristics (what makes you unique? how are you different from others?)

* Professional characteristics (what lead you to the job you hold now?)

* Quirk (what makes you memorable? Unusual hobby or likes?)