Day 1

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Here's today's prompt for you to post your updates and any excerpts and thoughts etc in comments.

I also thought I'd provide a link to a simple word counter, the Picometer at Writertopia.com. To make it easy, just copy the following HTML, changing 1340 to the number of words you've written, and 5000 to whatever your target is:

<img src="http://picometer.writertopia.com/words=1340&target=5000" />

The result for this example is:

Comments

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Pico is once again working its magic! I've started a new scene in Music II and it's flwoing along quite nicely. Our hero, Mr Rosen, disguised as an American millionaire, is pretending to the Director of the Belvedere that he's the heir to a Klimt painting forcibly confiscated by the Nazis:

Mr Rosen nodded amicably. "Well, sure," he said. "My lawyers'll be in touch in the next few days about that. But I wanted to talk to you first, Mr Director, because I wanted to know what kind of a man I'd be dealing with. There's a whole lot of immoral folks in this world, and when it comes down to doing what's right by a dead Jew, or hanging on to a valuable art collection, well, let's just say the Jew hasn't got a whole lot going for him. But I saw you were touched by my uncle's story, Mr Director, I saw that with my own eyes, and that gives me hope that we can sort out this situation like gentlemen."
It gave the Director hope, too. I could tell by the gleam in his eyes, and by the friendliness of the smile that appeared on his face.

-

I managed 200 words on The Blue Peter Elephant as well, although that's definitely not flowing yet. Jim Todd is the PA to Tommy Masters, the host of Tell It Like It Is. Dildo LaRouche is a transsexual they are trying to persuade to appear on the show.

JIM: Like I said, we got off to a bad start. The Jim Todd you've seen so far isn't the real me, you know. I'd like to show you that I'm not just an insensitive, foul-mouthed, career-driven, sexist exploiter of the underprivileged.

DILDO: You forgot moron.

JIM: That, too. There's more to me than you think Dildo. And I'm sure there's more to you than I think.

DILDO: That's possibly the first intelligent thing you've said all day.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Interesting; they both intrigue me in different ways. Who is the narrator in the first one, and do you plan to direct the second? :-)

[azdak.livejournal.com]

The narrator in the first is a fifteen year old called Alison, who has been bribed by Mr Rosen to help him escape from his nursing home to go back to Vienna for a few days (he fled Austria in 1939 and has never returned). In this particular scene she's pretending to be the millionaire's granddaughter.

I would hate to direct something I'd written! And I very much doubt if The Blue Peter Elephant will ever be performed :-) I just want to finish it for the sake of not giving up halfway through.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

She sounds like an interesting narrator, and I hope Mr Rosen gets what he wants.

You could maybe use scenes with your students?

[azdak.livejournal.com]

No one ever gets what they want :-) But sometimes they get what they need...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, good!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

That first one is definitely intriguing...

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Let's hope it stays that way...

[akane42me.livejournal.com]

Mr Rosen is sounding pretty sneaky. I'm glad to hear things are flowing on Music II. As for BPE - it's bizarre and it's funny, so good luck with it!

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Mr Rosen is VERY sneaky. Even I'm not quite sure exactly how sneaky he is!

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

I really love the dialogue you created for the sensationalist talk show host and his guest!

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I had a blast writing the dialogue for the expostion and the denouement, but this part has been in stasis for well over a year, and it's like pulling teeth, so if you like it even a little bit, I'm hugely relieved!

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Dildo LaRouche is a name for the ages! I like their dialogu; they're both distinct voices.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Dildo LaRouche is an incredibly silly name, I know :-) It does get raised elsewhere in the script, when she's talking to Tommy, the host:

TOMMY: Well, you know, dildo. It means, well, it's like calling yourself Sex Toy. Is that what you were trying to say?

DILDO: I wasn't trying to say anything. I just like the sound. Dildo. It doesn't have to mean anything. There's loads of Americans called Randy. Doesn't mean they wanted to call themselves Sex Mad.

TOMMY: Yeah, but Americans don't know what randy means. You can't give yourself a name that everyone knows means something sexual and expect people to ignore it.

DILDO: Try telling that to my parents. They named me Dick.

[elmey.livejournal.com]

You can do funny. I admire that.

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Go you on hitting both your targets and writing in two such different universes! I have a soft spot for Robin-Hood-type art heists, so I look forward to seeing more of Mr Rosen.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I'm so grateful to Pico for giving me the impetus to make myself write, because normally I would "I can't possibly write in two such different universes at the same time!"

The heist is going to go horribly wrong, of course ;-)