Day 5

For the first time in a long time I woke up early today without an alarm clock. I got up at around 7am and took a nice scalding shower. I started off with a delicious bowl of Cocoa Puffs and a healthy banana. Then I went down stairs and got to work on my computer. I think of myself as a bit of a writer. The problem is, I don't get much time to actually devote to creative writing. Sunday mornings are the one exception. Church doesn't start until 10, so I have two uninterrupted hours before everyone else starts getting ready to be alone with my computer and imagination. Today was very productive.

I started out by working on a story I've been mulling over for the better part of the past five years. It's about a family that lives in a city where everyone seems to be reincarnated. The issue is that no one realizes the reincarnations are happening. The story is told mostly through flashbacks occurring throughout a massive disaster. I talk about how two younger people become friends while one is searching for the other through the rubble left over from a chemical plant explosion.

The story came to me the way much of my ideas do, as a dream. I had it the beginning of my freshman year in college and have been struggling to put it to paper since then. It seems that the more I care about a story, the more trouble I have actually writing it. I'm about halfway done with it now, though, and hope to have it finalized sometime before the end of 2007.

The second hour of my morning was spent brainstorming ideas for a new fantasy story I want to write. I've been inspired by all the recent stories of dragons, wizards, and elves and want to try my hand at that kind of story. I don't want anything I write to seem too derivative, though. Too many books and stories borrow from those that have come before and I don't want to steal ideas from other writers.

So I sat, closed my eyes, and stretched my fingers over my keyboard (Yes, I can type quite accurately with my eyes closed). Then I let my mind wander. I walked amongst the typical elves, dragons, warlocks, dwarfs, and knights of Tolkien-esque legends. My mind's eye drifted past angels and demons. For a second I passed through the worlds of space-faring science fiction, but then settled on a world where magic consisted not of fancy sounding words and bright lights but control over time.

It was a different sort of fantasy where wizards didn't wave their hands, chant, or brew potions, but merely moved through time to bring different elements together. Rather than moving a boulder, they would make time drift so the boulder was in a different location - had always been in that different location - and went about their business. The nonexistence of magic or magical creatures made my fantasy unique. The only things that kept it from merging with the world of science fiction were the setting and the main characters.

The story took place in the past and present, rather than the future. Science fiction too often takes place on far away planets with unimaginable technology. My story took place here, and with no technology. The characters are also a tribe of normal people, rather than some weird alien race with special powers. Like the elves and wizards that use magic, these people use time with skills garnered from years of training.

After an hour of explaining the places, people, and activities that happened in my fictitious universe I returned to normalcy and opened my eyes. Apparently, after explaining the basic principle that you see above, my fingers drifted to different parts of the keyboard and the last four pages I wrote (I only wrote 4.5 pages in the first place) were completely illegible and nonsensical.

I swore to myself and threw an empty soda can at the floor in frustration. Then I grabbed my coat and headed out to the car to go to church. The rest of my day consisted of church, lunch, watching football with my brother, and cursing my bad luck with my typing skills.

At around 8 o'clock I finally reopened my document and crossed my fingers hoping I could fix it. Unfortunately, I could see no way to translate the mistyped text to real words, so I just deleted everything that didn't make sense. At least I knew what the story would involve, I just needed to rewrite the story.

But this time without the errors.

Day 5 of 100 - Summary: Creativity is great whether you can read the results or not.