Word Count And Excerpt
November 9th 2009 14:12
So as I'm writing this I'm sitting at 80, 222.
If your goal is 50K, you should be sitting at around 13K.
If your goal is 100K you should be sitting at around 25K.
If you're behind, don't sweat it. There's always time to catch up, even if you don't think there is. You'd be surprised how fast you can type under pressure.
Here's an excerpt from Phoenix Falling, my favourite passage so far:
BirthAt the time of my birth, everything around me was green. I woke up on an endless plain, with nothing but endless grass stretched out behind me, in front of me, to every side of me, as far as the eye could see. I looked at all of this green, and then I realized that over that, there was blue. It wasn't directly above it, it was far away, higher up, but there was blue. And there was white, there were white shapes in the blue, and in the distance I could see something bright and round. I couldn't decide what colour it was.
I had been warm, the warmth seeming to come from the blueness, or perhaps the round thing in the sky that glowed so brightly. I stood up and for a minute I was dizzy, but I steadied myself and managed to stand perfectly fine after the first couple of seconds. I looked down at myself and saw a strange body.
I was short, with two short little legs coming down from a short little part of me that was all one piece, and there were two little arms sticking out of that piece, with things on them that my instincts told me were called hands, that had five more little things sticking out of them, all different lengths.
There was something hanging from my head, the place where my eyes were, and it was stringy but really soft, and long, and it was red and orange and yellow. And then suddenly the things that my mind told me were arms turned into what my mind told me were wings, wings made of feathers the colours of fire. I closed my eyes and I pictured fire, and it was beautiful.
And then when I opened my eyes again, the body I had seen before was a body made up of feathers, more feathers the colour of fire. And when I opened my mouth to sing, the song that came out was beautiful, and a bunch of little birds started flying in circles over where I stood on the ground, and they were singing with me, in their own beautiful voices. I revelled in the music for a few moments, and then suddenly I felt like I really was the fire, and all I could see around me was flame. There was no pain, just cleansing, taking away all that was extra, and leaving me with nothing that I did not need.
In this form, the form of sacred ash, I could not move, and I could not really see. I was simply aware, outside of myself and watching, seeing but not really seeing, outside and inside of myself at the same time in a way that I feel is impossible to explain; I have tried hundreds of times, and each time I write this tale it falls flat.
The birds were still flying overhead, and the bright round thing seemed to be moving downwards, towards the horizon, towards the edge of what had been my vision. Now I could see much more than I had before, and at the same time I saw nothing. I could see that the sun was sinking only to rise in another place, and I could see it giving its light to the moon, and I could see her growing stronger. One day, I thought, she would be strong enough to produce her own light.
The sun faded, the pinks and purples and oranges all fading away as I watched, and the birds slowly stopped singing. One by one they stopped circling, until only one was left. This bird came down and it stood beside me, and there it stood for the whole night, protecting my ashes, because in this form, I could not truly protect myself. I looked at him in silence, and he spoke to me. I knew that the bird was a he because he spoke of fathering other birds.
He talked to me all through the night, as if knowing exactly what I needed, and with the dawn, I was engulfed in fire yet again. This time I watched from outside of myself, and as the sky turned a brilliant colour of pinkish purple and the bright thing that the bird had told me was the sun began to climb back up into the sky, the ashes that were me burst into flame, and slowly, out of the flame, came the most beautiful thing I had ever seen: myself, the Phoenix.
In that moment I was so in awe of what I was that when the bird asked me my name, I could only tell him that I was Phoenix. It was the word that came to me when I saw myself in my bird form, saw my beauty. The bird chirped his approval and told me his name before flying off into the distance, and it was then that I decided I must fly for the first time.
So I flew. I flapped my wings four times and then I was up into the air, flapping and flying, soaring through the blue that I had seen, able to see far and wide. Beyond my grassy plains there were forests, and mountains, and oceans, and then more land with more forests and mountains on it, though on this piece of land there were no plains at the time.
I flew until I could fly no more, and then I began to glide down, aiming for the ground, but landing in the water and struggling until a whale came, and the whale beached itself to save me, telling me in its own language that I understood though I should not have that I was a beautiful creature, a creature meant to live.
----------------------------- ----------------------
That's not all of it because it's an entire chapter, but I hope you enjoy.
If your goal is 50K, you should be sitting at around 13K.
If your goal is 100K you should be sitting at around 25K.
If you're behind, don't sweat it. There's always time to catch up, even if you don't think there is. You'd be surprised how fast you can type under pressure.
Here's an excerpt from Phoenix Falling, my favourite passage so far:
BirthAt the time of my birth, everything around me was green. I woke up on an endless plain, with nothing but endless grass stretched out behind me, in front of me, to every side of me, as far as the eye could see. I looked at all of this green, and then I realized that over that, there was blue. It wasn't directly above it, it was far away, higher up, but there was blue. And there was white, there were white shapes in the blue, and in the distance I could see something bright and round. I couldn't decide what colour it was.
I had been warm, the warmth seeming to come from the blueness, or perhaps the round thing in the sky that glowed so brightly. I stood up and for a minute I was dizzy, but I steadied myself and managed to stand perfectly fine after the first couple of seconds. I looked down at myself and saw a strange body.
I was short, with two short little legs coming down from a short little part of me that was all one piece, and there were two little arms sticking out of that piece, with things on them that my instincts told me were called hands, that had five more little things sticking out of them, all different lengths.
There was something hanging from my head, the place where my eyes were, and it was stringy but really soft, and long, and it was red and orange and yellow. And then suddenly the things that my mind told me were arms turned into what my mind told me were wings, wings made of feathers the colours of fire. I closed my eyes and I pictured fire, and it was beautiful.
And then when I opened my eyes again, the body I had seen before was a body made up of feathers, more feathers the colour of fire. And when I opened my mouth to sing, the song that came out was beautiful, and a bunch of little birds started flying in circles over where I stood on the ground, and they were singing with me, in their own beautiful voices. I revelled in the music for a few moments, and then suddenly I felt like I really was the fire, and all I could see around me was flame. There was no pain, just cleansing, taking away all that was extra, and leaving me with nothing that I did not need.
In this form, the form of sacred ash, I could not move, and I could not really see. I was simply aware, outside of myself and watching, seeing but not really seeing, outside and inside of myself at the same time in a way that I feel is impossible to explain; I have tried hundreds of times, and each time I write this tale it falls flat.
The birds were still flying overhead, and the bright round thing seemed to be moving downwards, towards the horizon, towards the edge of what had been my vision. Now I could see much more than I had before, and at the same time I saw nothing. I could see that the sun was sinking only to rise in another place, and I could see it giving its light to the moon, and I could see her growing stronger. One day, I thought, she would be strong enough to produce her own light.
The sun faded, the pinks and purples and oranges all fading away as I watched, and the birds slowly stopped singing. One by one they stopped circling, until only one was left. This bird came down and it stood beside me, and there it stood for the whole night, protecting my ashes, because in this form, I could not truly protect myself. I looked at him in silence, and he spoke to me. I knew that the bird was a he because he spoke of fathering other birds.
He talked to me all through the night, as if knowing exactly what I needed, and with the dawn, I was engulfed in fire yet again. This time I watched from outside of myself, and as the sky turned a brilliant colour of pinkish purple and the bright thing that the bird had told me was the sun began to climb back up into the sky, the ashes that were me burst into flame, and slowly, out of the flame, came the most beautiful thing I had ever seen: myself, the Phoenix.
In that moment I was so in awe of what I was that when the bird asked me my name, I could only tell him that I was Phoenix. It was the word that came to me when I saw myself in my bird form, saw my beauty. The bird chirped his approval and told me his name before flying off into the distance, and it was then that I decided I must fly for the first time.
So I flew. I flapped my wings four times and then I was up into the air, flapping and flying, soaring through the blue that I had seen, able to see far and wide. Beyond my grassy plains there were forests, and mountains, and oceans, and then more land with more forests and mountains on it, though on this piece of land there were no plains at the time.
I flew until I could fly no more, and then I began to glide down, aiming for the ground, but landing in the water and struggling until a whale came, and the whale beached itself to save me, telling me in its own language that I understood though I should not have that I was a beautiful creature, a creature meant to live.
----------------------------- ----------------------
That's not all of it because it's an entire chapter, but I hope you enjoy.
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