So I’m off on another adventure in wordcrafting with Nanowrimo 2017 — you know, that intermittently sane online community that helps (goads) you to draft 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of November. I’ve attempted it several times before. Twice I’ve completed drafts I’m still revising that show promise.
The wisdom on the street is we all have a store of crap we need to write through in order to get to the good stuff, so I’m shoveling away. You know — the “there’s a pony in here somewhere” school of writing. Some days it’s “Neigh, pony — I can’t find you!”
Here’s a mostly self-contained excerpt touching on the relationship between two of the three main characters, Jack, a photojournalist, and Andie, his friend-with-benefits, that I’m reasonably pleased with. (This is a subplot in the larger story of a former U.S. protectorate in the Pacific now opening to eco-tourism, where Jack’s sent to do a write-up and photo-shoot for the travel magazine he works for. Main plot concerns a shamanistic encounter he experiences there. The fight with Andie mentioned below takes place shortly before Jack departs on his assignment):
In a burst of anger after their last fight, Jack deleted his pictures of Andie. All except one. That was a professional image she’d texted him, asking if it belonged in her portfolio. It showed her outdoors, a forest scene, in profile, modeling party wear, showing off her lovely proportions, along with a good percentage of thigh. Yes, he could easily concede, the way his gaze kept returning to her shape, that it wasn’t love, despite his protests to her, but simple physical attraction. But what he also kept returning to again and again was the repose in her face, a calm he’d rarely witnessed in person. What had centered her so deeply in herself? This was an Andie he liked very much. Why did he see it so rarely? Only once had he surprised her that way, when they lay cuddling, unmoving, barely breathing even. She’d been facing away from him, but then he happened to look across the room and caught her expression, mirrored on the dark TV screen. The same.
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A Druid Way 