The exercise:
Five days in and I'm still feeling good. I've got my first full weekend coming up and a holiday next Wednesday, so things are looking positive. Writing more than 10,000 words in five days still sounds pretty crazy though.
Anyway. Today's exercise is one of my favorite ones: take the first line (or two) of any song and then carry on from there, either in poetry or prose. I almost always like what comes out of this exercise for me and today is no different.
NaNo Word Count: 11,746
NaNo Target: 8,335
Mine:
Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch
Last night I had a dream I
Stood beneath an orange sky
On a hilltop so far from
Your warmth that my heart was numb.
I gave the wind your name and
Hoped you would come take my hand.
But as that sky faded to
A heavy, unhappy blue,
I still stood alone up there
With no ears to hear my cares.
And as the stars blinked on I
Stood beneath a watching sky.
When this morning I woke I
Turned to see your smiling eyes;
And I said Thank You and you
Wondered where I'd been off to.
And I just laughed and said I
Slept beneath an orange sky.
2 comments:
Ten thousand words in five days is very definitely good going! Soon you'll be churning out a novel every three months and changing your name to Robert Ludlum... ;-)
I like your orange sky, there's a sweet melancholy in the first two verses that really appeals to me. The third verse finishes it off neatly, and makes me wonder where I can find an orange sky of my own.
Heavy Fuel by Dire Straits
Last time I was sober, man I felt bad,
Worst hangover that I ever had.
Still I had to get up,
Though I felt kicked by a mule,
I had to get to work
And deliver me some heavy fuel.
Riding that rig for a very long day,
Getting lost twice, and then finding the way,
Meeting other riggers, setting up for a duel,
We all gotta deliver us some heavy fuel.
There in the distance, where the mountains rise,
Past the gates and the guard with dead eyes,
Into that place where men of no honour go,
Into that place where even the rocks glow,
Driving this rig like a pure, holy fool,
Delivering us all some heavy, heavy fuel.
----
I've always liked the Heavy Fuel song for the lyrics :) The "men of no honour" is a reference to a nuclear waste dump and the problem of trying to write signs that will be meaningful to people a thousand years from now and warn them why going there would be a really bad idea.
Ha, that's an excellent opening line to use and I love what you did with it.
It had, and I don't know how you managed it, a real trucker flow to it.
And I think Mr. Ludlum can rest easy - I'm pretty sure by the end of the month I'm going to be ready for a nice long break :)
Also - thanks for the lovely comments on my poem.
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