Wednesday 13 January 2010

WIP Wednesday - Dead Pearls Floating

With a nod to Paul Abbamondi and his progress report blog posts (which are inspirational and fascinating), I bring you my first WIP Wednesday of 2010.

Story Title: Opheliac

Draft Two - finished
First draft: 998 words; Second Draft: 1012 words
Days worked on: 6 (unbelievable)
Time spent in brewing stage: about a fortnight
Story Inspiration: Scene in TV adaptation of Dicken's 'The Old Curiosity Shop'.
Genre: Desperately seeking Horror.

First line: Perched on a rusting shopping trolley, three fathoms below the surface, the man in the top hat wound a necklace made from teeth and bone around his knuckles.
Favourite line: On closer inspection, the weapons proved to be umbrellas.

Things googled: What is a fathom? / Opheliac / Oyster Shells / Floating Pearls Dead / Single White Female

Confidence in story: 100% at inception; 59.6% now (it's not as scary as I hoped, if in fact it is scary at all).

I'm taking some time to get off the runway this year but it's only a wee thirteen days breathing, there's still time to conquer the world, or at least my office (which is looking rather chaotic).

16 comments:

Jamie Eyberg said...

Sounds like fun to me. I would read it.

Barry Napier said...

What a killer opening line!

Aaron Polson said...

Teeth and bone make wonderful necklaces.

Cate Gardner said...

Jamie, it possibly has slices of silliness.

Barry, thanking you.

Aaron, I may request one for my birthday.

Fox Lee said...

I'm sure it's scarier than you think! The longer we work with a story, the less impact the scary parts can have.

Cate Gardner said...

I live in hope, though I have a feeling even the easily scared will laugh rather than scream.

Katey said...

That line about the umbrellas is brilliant. I rather like this set-up for progress reports-- the googling thing is particularly fascinating.

Cate Gardner said...

I found myself rather found of Paul's progress reporting so I adapted it for me (his is better though).

K.C. Shaw said...

Your first story of the year sounds like a winner! Congratulations on finishing!

Corinne said...

Posts like these always get me all fired up to be productive again.

I love that favourite line of yours :D Makes me very curious about the rest of the story.

Tyhitia Green said...

i love that first line. I'm sure it's a lot scarier than you think. ;-)

BT said...

Very nice way to present WIP Wednesday's. Me likey and shall be following suit.

I shall also pop over to Paul's and have a wee gander.

COngrats on finishing the first piece for 2010.

You complain about 6 days. I work on each piece for much closer to a month each. Think yourself lucky.

Unknown said...

Doesn't have to be scary to be awesome. Sounds awesome so far.

Danielle Birch said...

I LOVE that first line.

Mary Rajotte said...

Story inspiration always intrigues me, and I've tried to include it on my own blog when my pieces are published. I hope you keep these progress reports up - anything to see more in the mind of the mysterious Miss Cate!

Cate Gardner said...

KC, I wish. :D

Cory, me too.

Thanks, Tythia.

BT, I look forward to your post.

Jeremy, intended market wants dark, dark, dark.

Thanks, Danielle.

Me too, Mary.