Creative Writing Attempt

Back in November of last year I attempted to participate in a thing called Nanowrimo. Nanowrimo stands for National Writing Month. It is an attempt for aspiring writers to put to paper 50,000 words over the span of 30 days. At the time I was involved in coaching debate, working another job at the mall (in addition to my regular 40 hour job) and playing in the Warmachine league. I just didn't have the time. I was however able to write over 13,000 words of my novel. To me that was quite an accomplishment. When printed out it was 32 pages long printed out. I had never written anything of that length.

Well, I've decided to give it another go. I want to not only complete 50,000 words, but double that by writing a total of 100,000 words. I'm not going to try and do this over the span of a month however. That is much too short a time. Instead, I am going to attempt to write a mere 500 words a day. That would equate to 200 days worth of writing. I think I can do it. In an attempt to get support (and to share my story) I am going to be posting it here. I want to be able to feed this blog and this gives me an opportunity to post something everyday. I will also add a counter to the right side of the page to track where I am at as far as word count. That should add even more encouragement.

I hope each of you read and enjoy my story. With that said, here is my first installment:

Charles picked up his books as he crouched at the feet of Steven “Gunner” Blanton.

“Aren’t you going to saying anything, Chucky?” the bully asked, nudging a book Charles had reached for.

“I don’t really think there is anything for me to say,” the freshman responded, looking up over the top of his glasses which had once again slid down his face. “Just leave me alone, please.”

Evidently that wasn’t what Gunner wanted to hear. In response he placed his hand on Charles’ forehead and gave a little push. Having been crouched down in the middle of the hall, the smaller boy simply tumbled backwards. In an attempt to catch his fall, all the books and papers he had just picked up, once again scattered across the hallway. Laughs erupted around them.

“You’re pathetic, loser,” said the bigger boy, as he turned to walk away.

Charles despised the sophomore who had made it a habit to find and torture the scrawny lower classman. He had only been at Cragsville High School for a month, and already he had been subjected to all the normal torturous activities typically wrought upon the immediately recognizable freshman targets. These activities included the old standbys (like the “knock the books out of his hands” laugher that the student body was currently enjoying) but also had incorporated a few new ones, like when Gunner had emptied a snack-pack of chocolate pudding into Charles’ book bag.

This wasn’t the first another student had preyed on Charles. He had been harassed by a seventh grader named Evan Davidson the previous year. That was a rough time, as Charles had went into the school year thinking that his time was right to be one of the big dogs in school. He had made it to the top rung in his middle school, yet Evan had found him and tortured all year round. The worst of the events occurred when Charles had had enough and actually broke down in tears after an encounter with the bully. That had been the worst, as all the kids that were there watched and laughed as Charles stood in the hallway, his clothes soaked from the dousing he had received from a well placed water balloon delivered by Evan. He couldn’t help himself and without helping himself, burst into tears, stamping his feet and howling like an injured dog.

This of course elicited even more laughs and it wasn’t until a teacher came rushing up to see what was going on did the crowd quickly disperse under muted chuckles.

Evan had been suspended for three days for that little event, and while he wasn’t allowed anywhere near Charles at school, that didn’t mean he couldn’t find the smaller boy away from the school grounds. It took exactly three days, the same amount of time that he had been suspended, for Evan to find Charles the following weekend at the park (while Charles was flying his box kite) and give him a good old beating. In the end Charles was pretty scuffed up, but the fact that Evan had destroyed his kite was the part that bothered Charles the most.

After that Charles’ parents got involved and threatened to press charges (Charles dad was a lawyer) for willful destruction of property, Evan left him alone. The worst he had gotten was a nasty stare whenever he saw the other boy. Rumor had it that Evan had taken a beating from his dad that had rivaled anything Charles had experienced and received a promise from his parents that he was a goner if he ever even spoke to the other boy again.