So I guess I'm out of the National Novel Writing Month - unless we're talking about the Moby Book version - because seriously folks I've written about 250 words and by the time I rewrite those - it's unlikely I'll get around to the other 49,750.
I had hoped for some help from my loyal readers but ALAS, we're up to about 33 sentences and, frankly, I could probably have gotten there myself - okay, maybe if I had two months!
Still, I like the story so far and I'm interested to see where it could go. Here's the story below and if you're interested, feel free to add more. We have until the 30th!
She had worked late - too late - she thought, driving home on an empty highway.
The headlights of her car played off the center lines, and she counted them as they fell away into the darkness behind her.
She was thinking that it was a nice change of pace to have the road to herself.
The centerline strobed by, the tires hummed soothingly against the pavement, and her eyes fluttered involuntarily closed before the loud 'thump' startled her immediately back to pulse pumping awareness.
She wearily rubbed her temples and glanced at the passenger seat, where the day's newspaper sat open to that ridiculous article.
Why did they have to write such horrible things about her? She immediately felt stupid for reading the article in the first place.
Another thump....WTF!?
"Perfect!" she mumbled to herself. This is exactly what I needed to make this day a complete disaster. She slowly edged the 2010 BMW to the shoulder of the deserted road.
Undoing her seatbelt, she thought about how horribly this entire week had gone.
"Shit"! ...no bars on the cell phone.
"Julie, Julie...Julie" She thought to herself as she laid her head back against the seat rest. She closed her eyes and thought about what she should do next...
Light filtered through the trees lining the road. "Well at least I'm not the only car on the road." she thought. Immediately her mind flashed to countless news tips and her mother's own words, "Stay in your car!"
The light was moving closer. A flashlight? I don't think there are any houses in this area so who is it?
The light stopped moving and then suddenly turned off.
A chill caught her as she slid down in her seat. "It couldn't be him..." she thought. "No, I was way too careful" she whispered to herself as she prayed it was the fear playing mind games with her.
Julie trembled as the familiar sound of his footsteps came closer. There was no escaping now. She knew it was morally wrong, but was fate bringing them together again?
Her mind flashed back to the events of their last encounter, and she immediately reached for her purse. She knew she needed to reach her gun before he reached her car!!
Where is my purse? She searched feverishly throughout the car but it was nowhere to be found.
"Damn" she thought, "I left it at work". "I'm not putting up with him again" she thought as she slammed the car into gear and screeched forward. Thump.
"Everything alright ma'am" drawled the cop, as she sighed in relief. Thank god I didn't find the gun, she thought.
Suddenly, another car zoomed past, it's headlights briefly illuminating the area around her; nothing there, was it her imagination?
No cell phone, no gun, no car. Maybe the article about her was right: she was the most clumsy murderer in the world.
Well, this tire is not going to fix itself. She got out, opened the trunk, and stopped. She would have to be wearing her best high heels and pencil skirt.
Her heart was racing. She felt the chill of fear gush through her veins. Her teeth were chattering as her eyes filled with tears.
Fumbling through her trunk, she found the spare and the jack, but the tire iron was nowhere to be found.
What now? There was nothing for it but to try and walk to help. There no houses in sight but surely one couldn't be far away? Ditching the heels she began plodding up the dark and lonely highway.
She stopped. Her heart pounding, What was that sound?
It must be some small creature scurrying through the woods, at least that's what she kept telling herself.
She started walking again but heard the rustle again - she stopped and it stopped - something was keeping pace with her.
Perhaps it was the cop looking after her. After all, she hadn't seen him leave.
However, she knew better... The officer she had spoken with was a friend of her ex. If he had realized the dire situation, he would have stayed with her. Or would he?
She paused, trying to decide whether she should continue down the dark road or retreat to the relative safety of her car.
Frozen in her tracks, her mind replayed the surreal turn of events from earlier that day...
I love the story so far. Keep going! So what if you don't finish in November. I like it.
Posted by: carol anne | November 15, 2011 at 11:08 AM
I really love it too...I think you should keep going
Posted by: DHARZA | November 15, 2011 at 01:27 PM
Yeah, I've written about 2 days worth. Still more writing than I could have done alone, but I feel like a fat failure.
I think you should just keep going! Then next year, copy and paste during November and you can finish next year's challenge :0
Posted by: Mrs. Wonder | November 15, 2011 at 05:54 PM
Keep going...it can only get better! Use lots of short words.
Posted by: Shirley | November 15, 2011 at 09:01 PM
I also really like my capcha letters: rhapyf (Are you happy? Fuck!)
Posted by: Shirley | November 15, 2011 at 09:02 PM
Ever thought about writing in the first person? Personally, I feel like I connect better with books written from the character's POV. Just my two cents! Keep going, I would love to write a book someday too. I have about 5 pages written so far -- it's definitely harder then it seems!
Posted by: Courtney | November 16, 2011 at 12:46 AM
You're not supposed to rewrite during Nano! LOL
But seriously, I've only written a little over 1,000 words, too. Sometimes I long for the days before I discovered Twitter - and started using "I'll just check Twitter and then I'll write..." as an excuse.
Posted by: 8thCyn | November 16, 2011 at 07:47 AM
So, I'm reading this, getting into the scene, the mystery and the suspense when suddenly: BAM, BAM, BAM! My landlord pounded on my door for the rent. I'm still shaking! Great job, keep it going. You don't need NaNoWriMo to write a book, it's just a spring board.
Posted by: Katy (@mamapoodle) | November 16, 2011 at 12:20 PM
All I can say is "keep going," but, um, I'm afraid I've kind of dropped out as well...stupid life, getting in the way of novel writing.
Posted by: John | November 16, 2011 at 09:06 PM