Retrenchment Challenge Update

Shooting for "Leopold".

So… yesterday I threw down the gauntlet and told people I was going to write at least ONE THOUSAND WORDS in TWO DAYS.

And it took me about an hour once I got started. (Embarrassing, really, that something I thought would be so daunting would take so little time… once I got started.)

Which is the whole point of the exercise. TO GET STARTED. I picked an image in my head and started writing – a man driving a big motorcycle down the highway. 200 words in, I realized that I was writing something that I'd had as an idea for last year's NaNoWriMo, and suddenly I realized that I had an idea of who this character was, what was going on in the world, why he was riding down the road, what would happen in the town where he stopped… the whole nine yards. Which is why I'm doubling down on the initial challenge to myself, and by midnight Friday local time I will have written AT LEAST 2000 words.

It doesn't matter that elements of what I wrote last night are cliché. It doesn't matter that the idea is borrowed from different pieces of popular entertainment. Martial arts movies. Big Trouble in Little China. Aliens. Maybe a little Ghost Rider. First, it doesn't matter because… I mean… who mixes Big Trouble in Little China with Aliens? Second, it doesn't matter because the elements that I pull out of this won't be the elements that anyone else will. And lastly, it doesn't matter because no one gets it right on the first draft. You, me, anyone is going to need edits before that work is ready to go out.

So. 1000 words. Done. Heck, I even threw in rye bread (bonus points). Now the next step is to do it again. And then do it again. And do it again. Until you're done. And when you're done, polish it as much as you can. Send it out.

And start again. That's where I blew it last time. Don't make that mistake. Start Again.