Today was gray and not especially mild, so it was a good time to be cooped up inside and writing.
I arrived at Waves Coffee early, to find the private room empty. I seized the opportunity to get in early and was already writing away when the next person arrived. In all we ended up with seven once again, though Dave, suffering the ill effects of being ill, came in around 1:15 p.m. Sans laptop, he cracked open a package of new pens, cracked open a new notebook, then proceeded to write faster than I’ve ever seen someone write before. I have no idea what he was writing but it seemed he had pages within seconds. He was handwriting faster than I can type. It was kind of weird.
For today my loose plan was to write the second house party scene of Road Closed, which was only covered in a few brief paragraphs in the original draft. I tweaked it to be the same house as before, with the plan being the party would be a bust (as originally written) but that Christian would seek out and explore the “spooky-ass” basement, which he neglected to do on his first visit, due to his impressive drunkenness.
And indeed I wrote most of the scene, culminating in Kevin and Christian going into the basement. Then nothing much happened. I hinted vaguely at a few things–an old hammer covered with rust–or was it blood? But in the end, it all felt perfunctory and now I question the need for the expanded scene. This isn’t a bad thing, as it provides some clarity to the story, even if I end up chucking thousands of words as a result.
I had time to re-read most of the first house party scene I’d written a few weeks back and I’m pleased with how it holds up. I think there is something definitely in that house, I just haven’t quite figured it out yet.
Except that it’s not in the basement.
