Day 5

She rode her bike down the familiar road, until she saw the figure of a sleek car come into her view. As she approached the car, she realized they were parked in front of the entrance to her grandfather’s home. She hadn’t seen anyone near the place ever---he had died when she was too small to remember him. He had left the lot to her family when he passed away, but her father refused to move his family into the house. He had once told her mother that there was something not right with the house, the way the spaces behind the windows seemed to watch you. But her mother refused to sell the home.

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This isn’t making sense trying to get down on paper. Why is it strange to see someone parked by her grandfather’s house? Why do they still own it? Who keeps it up? I know all these answers actually, but how do I tell the reader in a way that’s interesting? Her gradual exploration of her late grandfather’s house and what she discovers there is the pivotal point in starting the story, going from normal to the beginning of the adventure of her life. So why is the progression of this story so far literally putting me to sleep? I’ve been told the best way to grab the reader’s attention is to jump right into some action, and so far, everything’s too slow to be interesting. This slow progression would only work if I was Tolkien.

Day 4

     Alice kept to her thoughts, musing even as they returned to gather their things from the library and unlock their bikes to ride home. Heather continued to bad mouth the Billy and his gang until Alice nearly ran into a mailbox. “Whoa, hey, Alice! Your head caught in the clouds?” Heather laughed. “Off to Wonderland again, huh?” Alice grinned sheepishly. “Sorry Heather, I just remembered that boy just joined our class. Nobody seems to like him much, what with his nickname and all?”

    “Ah, yes,” Heather nodded sagely. “ Witch-boy, am I right? I heard it was some girls giggling about his looks and next thing you know, all their lockers slam and nearly rip their hair out. Or the guy who tried to trip him and then fell down a flight of stairs for absolutely no reason? I’ve also heard he talks to himself all the time, I mean, actually has arguments with himself. Yeah, I’d say the kid’s weird.” Alice snorted. “ Are you sure they’re not just using him as a scapegoat for their own stupidity?” They stopped at a house on the outskirts of town, where Heather’s family lived. Alice could hear Heather’s grandmother clanging together dinner as Heather’s younger siblings crashed around where the grandfather was supposed to be watching them. Alice knew he was probably on the back porch, rocking in his chair and reading the town newspaper, as usual. Heather’s mother wouldn’t be home until she locked up the family’s bakery. How one family moved about like that, Alice would never know. She watched her friend disappear into the garage, and then set on her way home, the shaky pavement of the old town giving way to familiar, dusty red road as the sun began to set over the green blanket of crops that draped across the landscape.

   

   

Day 3

    “Don’t worry about it Alice,” Heather sighed. “You just can’t help some people.”

     Alice stared down the street where the boy had disappeared. It took her a moment to realize she had recognized him. She faintly remembered him being introduced in her class at school, standing by the teacher.  His mop of black hair had looked oily under the lights, and his hands shaking noticeably. He had looked up once, and she had noticed his eyes were a startling green, like the glowsticks her mother used to buy her for summer nights. His name was Matthias, and apparently from the start there was something odd about him, enough for the kids at school to start calling him the witch-boy. She wasn’t quite sure why, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

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I can never seem to get character description right, so I'll definitely go back and edit his introduction. Should I probably give some instances on why he is now known as a witch-boy, or leave it at that and bring it up later?

Day 2

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to write a passage , so I’m going to use today’s entry to explore some characters that have been introduced.

Alice: Main character, only child, mother is dead and father is an out-of-touch stay at home writer. This leaves her grandfather on her mom’s side to be the closest family member she turns to. However, *spoiler alert* her adventure begins when she finds out her grandfather has gone missing, with some strange people asking about his whereabouts.

Heather: Alice’s closest friend, although they couldn’t be more opposite. Her mother owns the town bakery, where she and Alice have part time jobs.

Billy: Local notorious bully. Comes from old family of the town, so he’s rich and influential. Has actually known Alice for quite a while since their mothers were high school friends. That doesn’t stop him from treating her horribly though, or ridiculing her absent-minded father.

Mysterious dark-haired boy: Slowly becoming a very important part of the story, but he’s my least developed character. Ideas involve him being rumored to being a witch’s son, being cursed, etc. None of this is actually true, but his trouble lies with seeing things around him connected to Rorrim that people normally shouldn’t be able to see. His power is connected to people such as Edgar Allen Poe or Lewis Carroll, those thought to be mad when in fact their work is tied in some way to seeing the land of Rorrim. Alice is the only character thought to be connected to what lies beyond the mirrors, but I’m starting to think this character has more potential than I thought.

It has come to my attention that in order for Alice to have an adventure in Rorrim, there needs to be some way for my audience to know what’s happening back in our own world. I first thought I would do this through the character of Heather, but I think it would be more interesting to explore the character of the dark-haired boy.

Day 1

     If there was one thing Alice couldn’t stand, it was watching someone getting beaten to a pulp by bullies. If she could, she would rush into the group of gangly, well dressed tyrants and pummel them with their own expensive and incredibly stylish book bags. Unfortunately, she was also someone who was more comfortable curled up in the safety of a library than in the midst of an intimidating bunch of bullies. She winced as the group’s ringleader, Billy Flynn, punched the boy in the face. Even from where she was sitting Alice could see his playful smirk as Billy grabbed his victim by the collar of his shirt and dragged him back before he could escape. The crowd around him was laughing and nudging each other, shouting encouragement to their superior. Alice glanced around the quiet library to see if anyone was watching the scene unfold outside, but she only saw people absorbed in their own piles of books, plus one librarian who was too busy scolding the younger children on the proper management of books to notice. The high-schooler fidgeted in her chair and looked over to her friend, Heather, who instead of diligently writing her part of the project, was currently occupied with filing her colorful nails and studying the male population of the room.

“Heather!” Alice hissed and tossed her pencil across the table. It bounced off her friend’s shoulder, and Heather sighed as she leaned on her elbow.

“What?”

Alice looked back at the group still huddled outside and fidgeted in her seat. “Billy’s showing off to his posse again.”

Heather followed her friend’s gaze with interest. “Who’s he beating up this time? Oh, I haven’t seen that kid before, he’s kind of cute.”

Alice glared at her and continued to watch the scene anxiously.

“Nobody ever stops him,” she said. “Why doesn’t anyone ever stand up to that…that…” She ended her sentence with a huff and pushed back in her chair. It made a screeching noise that echoed throughout the library as she stood up and made her way to the exit with a look of determination. Someone grabbed her arm, and she turned around to see Heather’s concerned face.

“You can’t just go out there, you’ll be walking right into the warzone! They’ll finish that guy off and snap you like a twig!”

“Someone’s got to do something!” she said, exasperated. Yanking her arm from Heather’s grasp she marched to the exit and slammed the door open, causing several people to glance up and the librarian to stare disapprovingly.   

     “Wait, Alice, hold up! I’m coming!” Heather cried, leaping out of her seat with a loud screech of the legs across the floor. Much to the horror of the librarian, the dark skinned girl shoved her way through the rows of tables, not bothering to notice any of patrons occupying seats in her path. By the time Heather caught up with her friend, Alice had reached the circle of school boys.

     As Alice approached, the fight was already dying down, with the somewhat scrawny, dark-haired kid whimpering on the ground,  and Billy giving final kicks as his friends laughed. Her blood boiled at the sight and before she knew it, she shoved her way into the inner circle. The snickering died down as the group slowly registered her appearance. Billy turned his gaze from his prey to her small frame with an arrogant smile. The anger she experienced seconds before died in a rush, like ice being poured down her back. She was such an idiot! How did she think for a second that she could go up against the most influential bully in school? She wet her lips, her mouth suddenly feeling as dry as a desert.

     “Leave him alone Billy,” she said, trying to sound stern but her voice trembled audibly, squeaking at the mention of his name. She winced. Leave it to her amazing public speaking skills to ruin her ambitious interruption of the fight. She was totally dead. Billy stared at her, then broke into loud, obnoxious laughing, nearly doubling over. It took him a more than a few seconds to compose himself, and by the time he stopped snickering the rest of his gang had joined in, with Alice standing in the center uncomfortably.

     “Who do you think you are, a “champion of the people”, or something?" Billy finally answered, mocking her with the phrase. Alice glared at him, but said nothing. He snorted,” Whatever, this was getting boring anyway. Come on guys.” He starting walking away, but not before giving the boy on the ground one last kick. 

     As they walked away, Alice kneeled by the injured boy. “Hey, are you ok?” She asked, reaching out to help him up. Suddenly, he slapped her hand away and stumbled to his feet.

    “What’s your deal?” Heather asked, walking over to the two. “My friend just saved your sorry butt.” He spat out some blood and glared at Alice with a look full of hatred, then spun around and began to run. “Wait a minute, you’ll hurt yourself even more!” She yelled at his back, but he didn’t seem to notice. Heather grimaced, “Ungrateful jerk, that’s what you get for helping a dumb boy.” Alice sighed, and continued to watch the scrawny figure disappear down the street. Unknown to her, a figure was watching her in the forest beyond the school fence. It smiled, and blended back into the shadows of the trees.