Images that match characters.

I'm taking a brain break and this is what I found.

Marie Clair (daughter of Marie Olberight):









Marie Olberight:



Richard Dawson:











Janine Davis:



All pictures belong to the owners which the images come from.

Updated Word count.

Word Count: 5,634.
Page Count: 16

Other details:

Some of the characters have started to reveal themselves. There's a female character named Marie Claire. Divorced with at least one child, a daughter. She's got some tension (an understatement) towards the other female character that's revealed herself. They met in the office of the psychiatrist with the red leather chair referred to at the opening of the story. Marie is described by the as of yet unnamed character as 'creepy' and as a precognitive individual. Unclear what the relationship between Marie and the psychiatrist was.

Second female character named Janine. Janine slept with Marie's husband. Janine has hostile feelings towards Marie and Marie's daughter. Janine's relationship with the psychiatrist was a combination of a mentoring and something more. Janine comes from an abusive household, there was at least physical abuse by her father. She's an artist. Marie was a writer at the time they interacted. It's unclear if either still are. Janine's artwork in the past was photography. It's yet to be revealed if there's still a career in the arts for Janine. Gender identification with Janine is unclear. We'll see how *that* develops as well. Janine's past is fleshed out much more in the writing I just got done.

There's a few other characters and I think a few other points in time that I'm writing here. I'm not sure. But it's beginning to turn somewhat cohesive. I'm a tenth of the way to where I want to be. Perhaps I'll get lucky and write the rest of it this easily. I kinda doubt it, but who knows. The muse is fickle and will grant as she wills.

:)

The Red Chair: Excerpt (1)

I remember that chair. He had a red leather wingback chair in his office. You know the scent

of old leather, that slightly sweet, half musky smell of it? It permeated the entire room in a

subtle perfume that lingered on my clothes after our sessions. I remember that chair all too

clearly. Somehow, I managed to forget the discussions but the chair… The chair was just burned

into my mind in every detail, right down to the way the padding beneath would feel like a coiled

animal with the springs as bones.

Three years ago, the sessions ended and I did my best to forget everything. I bared my soul

and told the company every possible thing about my past. And yet, here I am, seemingly

stepping back into that routine of walking into his office and sitting in that chair every Thursday.

Last week, I got a tape in the mail. At first, I didn’t know what it was. There was no return

address on the label and no manifest in with the package. But once I put that tape into the

player, I knew. I just don’t know why they sent it to me. Perhaps somebody is concerned about

me or concerned about him. I think I just want to forget, though. I’m sure I said too much.

He said his mother hated him when he was a boy. He said she wanted a daughter but she had

him, so she tried to make do with what she had. As a kid, he said that he had fantasies of

self-castration, where his mother came in and suddenly loved him as he lay dying. She’d cry and

plead that god doesn’t take her baby and then somehow, everything was right with the world.

Usually, however, he said that she just ignored him or treated him like crap. After all, what

mother could do anything with a son who didn’t love opera or want to have tea on Sunday

afternoon, right?

Details of the Manuscript!!!

Ok, I suppose I should say something about what I've got going so far. :)

The title is The Red Chair. It comes from the opening of the manuscript. I believe the chair in question is going to become a theme, it just has that feeling to it. It'd be kinda nice to have a way to tie all of this stuff together. But, we'll see as it develops!

The style of this is turning out to be a Modern/Post-modern kind of thing. I don't particularly like it but that's how the manuscript is turning out. Perhaps this will change my feelings on the style. That said, I suppose I could talk about the characters but they're still remaining elusive. I'm around 10 pages into this, but I hope to see things begin to show some cohesion soon. It's like I'm reading a book and I can't skip ahead to find out what's coming up!

:P

So, I'm going to do it...

I've decided to take the plunge and I'm giving NaNoWriMo a shot this year. I've been working this evening on a piece for it and I'm already just confused by it. I tend to let my work write itself, especially if it's fiction. If I haven't mentioned it before now, I can't stand the Modernist or the Post-modernist style of writing. It just irritates me to no end and I feel that it is nothing but a major headache for readers.

That said, I'm utterly baffled by why I've got a manuscript coming together in that type of style. I've been writing tonight for about an hour and a half. I'm taking a bit of a brain break. I've decided to write for two hours a day until this thing is finished. The goal is to have 50,000 words in a fiction manuscript by the end of this month (Nov. 30th, at midnight to be precise!).

I've been writing for an hour and a half, as I said just a moment ago. Right now, I've about 10 pages and I'm at 3,049 words. I made myself a few rules for this thing. It's nothing to do with NaNoWriMo's rules. These are supposed to keep me from tearing this thing apart before it is done.

MY RULES FOR NaNoWriMo:

1.) Pages written in a given day don't matter.
2.) Write for 2 hours a day until word count requirement is reached.
3.) Don't re-read pages written until manuscript is complete.
4.) Don't edit for content until manuscript is complete.
5.) Do write what comes to mind, no matter how dopey it sounds.
6.) Let the novel write itself, don't force it!

So, here's hoping it goes well! :) I've told my family and a few friends. Now I've got others who are aware I'm doing it. So I suppose I'm now 'officially' committed to this project. I think if I can prove to myself that I can write a novel in a month then I can get the nerve to go out and publish! :)