Girl in a blanket

She was waiting for me outside Accident and Emergency. A cold night and she had a hospital blanket draped over her shoulders. I cranked up the heat as she got in, but she said, “No, I’m warm as toast. These things are great!”

I had Chet Baker blowing a golden trumpet on the CD. Mournful he wailed into the early morning. He’d been matching my mood, but my passenger grimaced and asked if we could change the station.

I looked at her. Female. My age. There was only one choice. I reached over to the iPhone, turning on the ABBA golden hits video.

That brightened her up. In fact, after a bit it was a battle to keep her from getting up and dancing. The Fairlane’s a big car, but not that big!

It was a long fare out to a far western suburb and in between songs, her story emerged.

A week back, she had driven home drunk and crashed her car. Some minor injuries, but only to herself. “Rooted me car, but.”

She’d been looked after in hospital, come home and some days later had had a bad day with the depression and concern over upcoming court appearance, the expense of fixing her car and repairing relationships. She’d said a few things she probably shouldn’t have, gone for an afternoon nap and woken to find a couple of policemen, who escorted her to hospital, where she was locked away in a room bare but for a bed and a bucket and placed on suicide watch.

She’d gotten loud and cranky to begin with, but after several hours managed to convince a doctor that she wasn’t going to harm herself and they’d let her go, giving her a blanket and a Cabcharge card good for a ride home.

She and I and ABBA had a party on the drive home and she was anything but depressed when I dropped her off. Outside, her car was indeed rooted, crumpled bonnet and half the front end missing.

But she was alive. Alive and vibrant, and as I smiled goodnight to her at two in the morning, I hoped she’d stay that way.

There’s no future in driving drunk. Let a stranger drive you home in a silver cab.

Writing a serial novel

I'm actually having a lot of fun with this.

A thousand words a day is doable. A thousand good words is harder, but I'm finding that if I write the chapter and massage it to get to exactly a thousand words, it seems to improve with the process.

Rereading the first post invariably reveals some weak points, typoes, missed or duplicated words, which I can fix.

And I'm always checking back to keep things consistent. Names of characters and whether Harley actually lives on Monash Drive (he doesn't, as Quint indirectly noted on the first page).

Now, this sort of massaging is okay when I've only got a few readers, but if I grow my audience to hundreds or thousands, I'd better be sure it's right before I post it up. Which probably means that I should write myself a "buffer" so that I can keep the quality up.

That's easy enough. What I (and every other writer, I suppose) worries about most is the quality of the writing itself. And the plot and characters.

My own rather quirky writing style shines out, I think. I like to think it's gently humorous, distinctive, easy to read. Characters have their own worries and desires, and really all I need do is write a thousand words a day, just by watching what they do off their own bat. Easy.

The overall plot is more or less straight in my head. I know where the story is supposed to go, and I'll see if it goes that way. I may not have enough space for everything, even in the 120 000 words I'm planning.

Kerri suggested that I just keep on writing a soap opera, but I think I'll aim for some sort of novelistic tying the loose ends up. Maybe a thread or two hanging to start the next book. Besides, after four months of writing every day (or six days a week, rather) I might want a break. Let the characters have a holiday too.

One thing i'm finding is that keeping time going in anything like real time is going to be imposible. I've barely gotten into the first day and already a week has passted with one, maybe two, chapters to go.

I might go for something like a day in Monash Drive equals a week of chapters. That gives most of the characters something to do, and makes for a narrative flow.

Anyway. I'm always looking for comments and criticism. Main message is to read the chapters as I post them, click on anything that looks like it could be clicked, keep returning each day, and tell your friends.

http://www.skyring.com.au/Skyring/Monash_Drive/Monash_Drive.html