Across Oceans

Wow, nobody’s posted on here in ages! I can’t wait till you do again, I want to see what you are writing 😀 But for now, I’d like to share a snippet of a story I’m going to try to write. I just challenged myself to write 1000 words per day yesterday, and I did make it to that yesterday but I have yet to finish today. I know that it’s nowhere near NaNo speed or anything like that, but it’s what I can fit in every day.

My story is about a 16-year-old girl, a writer like me, named Olivia Williams. She’s been trying to write and publish a novel for ages, but she can’t ever get to the end, also like me. Unlike me, she has an awful home life and she spends most of her time with her best friend. Her friend tells her last minute about a trip to Portugal that she’s going on, and she jumps at the chance. While she’s there, she finally gets the inspiration she needs to write her novel, and lots of exciting stuff happens that I haven’t yet planned out. I really liked the beginning that I have so far, so I thought I’d post that. Please keep in mind that the title isn’t permanent and this hasn’t been edited yet and is by no means perfect! If I ever do get to the end, I’ll probably go through 5 edits or so just to make sure I don’t publish crud. So, without further ado, here’s my story.

 

     Rain could spoil the best days and take the happiness out of whole cities. In early July, weeks of it washed over the hopeful world in a torrent of precipitation, flooding trash out of little corners and allies and pushing the whole mass onto the street, where cars struggled absently against the water. Nobody liked rain. The world was too busy and important to get wet, and so women and men blocked it out with plastic circles. Again, the rain had sucked all of the happiness out of the city that so many called home.

     There wasn’t much happiness to be sucked out of a little diner off of 4th street. The whole place had a very defeated look to it; all of its former glory had long since been squashed out of the sticky red seat cushions. In place of the many former waitresses, there was one heavily tattooed woman who looked too old to have tattoos – in place of the former customers, there were merely flies and dirty dishes. It may have gotten more traffic at other times in the year, but that is not for us to know.

     Yellow, flickering lights shone down on a sad checkered table. A young brunette sat behind a thick milkshake with her head down. There was a notepad next to her filled with scribbled ideas, but all of them were crossed out. The rain had driven all of the hope out of her, too, even though she normally loved rain. It was the type of rain that made you think that you’d never make it out. That’s what Olivia kept thinking. The rain made her depressed, and being depressed made her unable to write.

     Ten minutes later, she paid for her milkshake and left the diner. The streets seemed dirtier than when she had come in, but it was darker now, so there weren’t any people or very many cars. The block to her apartment building felt like ten as she ran through the rain. The same old dingy shops weren’t anything to look at anymore – they only led to the dingy old staircase into another dingy old building. Olivia slowed her walk as she drew nearer to the chipped door that led into apartment number 12. She closed her eyes as the shouting from inside grew louder. So much hatred had already flowed through her ears, and she was only 16. She turned from number 12’s door to number 11’s and knocked. She couldn’t bear the fighting tonight.

 

So I know that was super short, but it’s the most interesting part of my story so far, and it sounds pretty good. I hope you guys liked it! It was fun to come up with a tinsy bit of a different beginning, starting out depressing and getting better. I promise it will! Thank goodness for Pinterest, I have no idea how I would come up with characters without it.

Anyways, have a great day!