The Platinum Ticket by David Beynon

The Platinum Ticket by David Beynon
Shortlisted for The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now First Novel Prize

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Back to School




Wow. The house is quiet. Beyond the tapping of the keyboard keys all I can hear is the dog lapping water from her bowl. There's no "Hey! Giveitback! That's mine!" or "I get the back room computer! Called it!"...not even a whispered "Hey, you know what'll drive dad nuts this morning?"

Today is the first day of school. We saw my daughter off at the bus stop this morning for her new adventures in enrichment and then I walked the wee lad up the hill for his first day of Grade 2. Maybe it has to do with the crummy weather we had this summer, but each and every kid I saw today was excited about back to school. There was not a single long face in the crowd, not a teary eye in sight.

What's on my plate for this first, glorious day of the school year? First of all a coffee as I bask in the silence of an empty house. Then I'm going to make a list of what needs to be done, personally and professionally. One of those list items will be this:



I have signed up for the 3 Day Novel contest which commences Friday at mid-night. I have a clear idea of my story, a few main events to push the plot along and some of the characters. I have the setting all mapped out in my head, right down to the creaky plank on the deck of a cabin in the woods. There are some details that I won't snatch out of the air until Friday night, of course. Like the main character's name. I haven't given that any thought at all. With the 3 Day Novel I find that it flows much better if I make it up on the fly. That's worked for me on my previous 2 attempts. I'll be able to let you know on Monday if it holds true this time.

Last time I did this I threw a few blog posts up over the course weekend and I imagine I'll do it again this time, but any time I spend writing blog posts is time I don't spend on the story. For the most part on Labour Day weekend it'll be:

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