I have been taking a short break from anything that required a lot of attention or effort. A well-deserved break, I hope, after a whole month of 3,4,5 hours writing a day. I finished my novel (now called ‘Kaleidoscope’) at 141 229 words, written within 30 days of November. Within the last seven days I wrote 50k words, which kind of beats my record of ~50k in 10 days. And sets 10k as the most I managed to write within one day. Now it’s time for editing, the least pleasurable of all parts of the process, but I hope to enjoy myself this time. There wasn’t enough time to read and re-read the story while writing it, so I am quite sure there are some mysteries I wrote without realizing them much waiting to be discovered.
As my protagonist says:
‘I used to sit in front of my computer and type, let my hands hoover over the keyboard for a few moments before they fell, like a moment of silence and anticipation before a symphony starts, rapidly and loudly and heart-wrenchingly; and it is me playing all the instruments, it is me being the conductor and the audience and the musicians all at the same time.’
So after I finished writing, a few moments before midnight, I saved the files and made backup copies just in case, and laughed and laughed and laughed - it was such an amazing feeling, to show yourself that you are able of something so incredible, that everyone is despite what some people like to claim. Then there was a celebratory pizza at 2 a.m. and reading stories that I had waiting in line for several days, until 4, and then falling asleep with a smile. The next two weekend days were lazy and busy at the same time: I baked a few dozen of huge gingerbread cookies in addition to the 300 baked on Tuesday, for a decorating class I prepared for kids us volunteers take care of; it took place on Sunday morning, and turned out to be a successful but exhausting fun. So the rest of time I spent reading, reading, reading, and making art. Perfect.
‘You have thanked me too many times. Stop. It’s okay. I’m fine, you are fine. Everything is fine. Besides, it’s a museum. When people stare at you, you can assume that is because you are as much of a fine example of human beauty as any of the ancient sculptures.’
‘… you are completely crazy’ she commented drily, though Silver could hear the laughter in her voice.
‘Sure thing, buttercup – we moving?’
‘Yes’ she replied with a deep sigh. ‘Let’s rule.’
This time stepping into the elevator was easier and well-executed with quick movements and easy stances as the machine brought them down, to level zero, and it was downhill from there: Tiana loved the museum and giggled like a teenage fangirl in front of Dali’s works, not to mention the biggest renaissance and romanticism names; he took her to his favourite spots and they talked all the time, successfully managing to ignore everyone around. They emerged from the museum just a few minutes before closing time with a bag filled with souvenirs with reproductions of famous paintings and clever modern art prints.
It was seven when they left, so they were pretty hungry, not having eaten anything since breakfast. So there was fried pizza from Silver’s favorite street vendor in one of the big squares and then cotton candy that he kept in his left hand; they both tried to eat without getting too messy and almost managed.
Done with the food and hands cleaned with Tiana’s carry-on pack of wet wipes, they were sitting by a fountain in at the edge of a park, observing the city as it lit up as the sun was setting, one light changing into another fluently and deceptively easy. They ended up talking about Silver moving out since it was a hot topic at the moment, when suddenly an elderly man appeared out of nowhere. He was wearing a worn out suit of exactly the same color as his mouse grey reclining hair; he had big plastic glasses that made him look like hipster, and pair of shiny black shoes.
‘Forgive me the interruption’ he said in a low voice, his nasals long and r vibrating ‘but I overheard what you were talking about.’
no bake mini layer torte
(makes 1)
10 tea biscuits (I used rectangular)
100 ml whipped cream
swiss meringue buttercream amount: made with 1 egg white
spread a bit of whipped cream on each biscuits and put them on the top of each other
decorate with the buttercream to your wish (i used vanilla flavour for the blue decoration and a drop of rose water for the white lace)
let it stay in room temperature for at least 3-4 hours so that the biscuits turn moist and soft from
refrigerate before serving
congratulations on completing your novel!!!!
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading excerpts of your writing on here. And a little cake is a perfect way to celebrate such a accomplishment! :-)
thank you very much : ) it's so nice to hear that some enjoys my little pieces of prose, makes me motivated to work on my writing!
DeleteWONDERFUL IDEA. I made this last night and hubby and I ate it today. DELISH!!!
ReplyDeleteI wrote 50k words, which kind of beats my record of ~50k in 10 days. And sets 10k as the most I managed to write within one day.
ReplyDeleteGreaat blog post
ReplyDelete