Wednesday 8 July 2015

(vol 2) Chapter 26: “CampNaNo 2015 – Day 8”


2015 Flash Fiction Word Count =         38159

2015 CampNaNo Word Count =           5932

2015 TOTAL WORD COUNT =           44091


So, I’m a week into this year’s CampNaNo, and things are going well. Chris and Mike’s first adventure, CHRIS AND MIKE vs THE RISING DEAD, is coming along nicely. Here’s how:



Day Two – 799 words

Another lunch time session saw me start work on the first chapter to contain one of our heroes. Entitled “What’s On Your Mind”, we get a look at a Chris who is still a resident of the mental institute. Here he undergoes a session with his psychiatrist, Dr Gellibrand.

The chapter shows a playful side to Chris, one that comes across through the original Flash Fiction stories that have inspired this project. My only fear is that I have a feeling it’s a chapter that won’t make the final draft.



Day Three – 1016 words

Following Chris’ intro the day before, it was time for Mike to step up. The chapter delves straight into painting Mikes life the colour of miserable; setting the scene in his office, meeting his annoying boss, and getting his point of view on the wife. Once the sad state of Mike’s life is out of the way, we move onto the phone call that will lead him to the reunion with his old pal.



Day Four – 0 words

There was a tiny screw up today that led to no words being written. Due to the fact that my most regular writing time comes with my one hour work lunch, I kind of got carried away through the day and completely forgot about CampNaNo and ‘Chris And Mike vs’. It wasn’t until my wife asked around 8pm if I was going to do any writing that day that I remembered, and by then we were settling down for Formula One quali. So that’s one day, so far, with zero word count. I don’t plan on doing it again.



Day Five – 835 words

Sunday afternoon had me wasting time for a Flash contest story that went nowhere. Frustrated, I scrapped it and turned to Chris And Mike instead. This chapter has Mike arriving at the Institute and eventually finding out that his responsibilities have grown. I had an ending for the chapter in mind, that final realisation by Mike, and I wanted it to be the punchline to the chapter. The rest of it was building to the line from nurse Foy saying, “He’s your problem now.”



Day Six – 716 words

Although not much had happened in the way of action and monsters, I wanted a slowdown scene with the two characters before the rest of the world set in. I took the pair to a dinner where Mike tries to get his head around the new situation he’s found himself in and Chris is oblivious to the disruption he is causing.

I have had a thought about changing the setting from a diner to the car, on the ride home but, we’ll have to see.



Day Seven – 1068

This was the first day I crossed chapters. The bulk of the writing went on a scene at Mike’s house as his wife reacts to Chris’ sudden appearance by leaving. There is also the first real sympathy from Mike regarding his old school friend before the pair finally call it a night and go to sleep.

I still had fifteen minutes of my lunch break left and an idea popped into my head about the next chapter, so I opened the scene and set it up ready for my next writing session.



Day Eight – 681 words

A day off work ill meant I probably didn’t get as much done as I’d have liked. And with the regular blog posts to write, Wednesday will always be light on NaNo word count. However, I did finish the scene I started yesterday.

I’d been worried that there wasn’t much going on action wise for the first week of writing, but I didn’t want to throw the main big bad at them just yet; Mike is still unaware of the world Chris is part of and I didn’t want to rush the discovery. So I decided to bring a little bit of that world to Mike’s doorstep; literally. This is where he’ll start to wonder if his friend really is crazy or if he is crazy himself.


And that’s it so far. Obviously not a lot of that would make sense, even if you do read the weekly Flash Fiction adventures of the pair. And, going forward a little (or a lot) of it could change through the rewrites, once July is over. But for now that’s how it’s going and I’m enjoying the way the story is unfolding.

Hopefully the fans will like the finished product.

See you in seven.



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