“I really want to write something.”
“So…”
“I know; I know. ‘So, write something.’ If only it were that easy.”
“It is. You just-”
“Just WRITE something. If it’s so easy, you do it.”
“I have.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.”
….
“What?”
“Where is it?”
“Where is what?”
“Whatever it is that you wrote. Supposedly. I mean, you said that-”
“Oh, that. Yes, well, it’s …thing is…”
“Well?”
“Computer crash last week.”
“Computer crash.”
“Yes. Tragic. I’d just finished up the 53rd chapter, too.”
“Fifty-three chapters?! Now I know you’re making this up.”
“Hmph. You’re just jealous because you can’t think of something to write.”
“Neither can you!”
“Of course I can. Didn’t you just hear that I wrote fifty-three chapters?”
“Says you.”
“And J.K. Rowling’s agent. He said they wanted me to send off what I had.”
“What?!”
“Unfortunately, that e-mail also was lost in the crash.”
“Obviously….So, what were the fifty-plus chapters about? Hmmm?”
“Oh! Erm.. ah.. it was a fantasy novel.”
“Go on.”
“Well, I can’t give everything away.”
“Sure, sure. Just tell me the synopsis you sent to Rowling’s agent, then.”
“I’m sure you’re not really interes-”
“I am.”
“Well.. it was a sort of ..hmm… a mashup of classic story lines. …You know: a bit of boy-coming-of-age meets a girl-who-discovers-she’s-magic story…”
…..
“It’s true! Julieng –yes– Julieng is nearing adulthood and discovers a dragon egg buried beneath a red wall that …erm… Eil-ent -um- Eilent’s uncle built near her family’s cauldron on a pig farm and they must join forces to stop the ..evil …overlord who came back to life because of a ring.”
“A ring.”
“Uh-huh. And the ring was lost behind a false wall ..erm.. in an upstairs room about a hundred years ago that ..uh… Jules’-
“Julieng?”
“Yes -Juleng.. Julieng’s stepbrother’s half-sister’s cousin made with magic powder that takes them between worlds. …I had a bit about a lion -or maybe a witch. -Hmmm, maybe it was a wardrobe-”
“A wardrobe?”
“Or, maybe it was a vanishing cabinet. I can’t exactly remember because that was back at the start of the book, see, and I was to the part where they …ah found Queen Guinevere with one of the knights..”
“That’s it.”
“That’s what? Hey -where ya going?”
“To write.”
“I thought you didn’t have anything to write …”
“I didn’t, but a recent conversation inspired me.”
“Oh?”
“Yep. I just hope the publisher doesn’t think it’s too tame of an idea…”
“Well… you know what Abraham Lincoln said.”
“No, what?”
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope…”
“Smart man, that Lincoln.”
“Yup. Like me.”
This sounds like a real page turner. Get typing Mrs Owens 👍🏻
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Litigation aside, it just might work.
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Sounds like you and your muse are on to something!
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😀 My muse needs to improve her/his originality.
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I think I have conversations like this in my head, too. I love that Lincoln quote.
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(It was really Mark Twain).
I’m glad I’m not the only one conversing thus.
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Good to know.
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There’s a bit of a joke that people say, “Abraham Lincoln said,” then put whatever they want after it…
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Haha I’ve never heard that
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🙂
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Excellent. I have been stuck on dialogue this week myself, and this was a pleasure to read.
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Thank you!
Now, don’t steal any ideas from it…. 🙂
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I seem to have had this conversation once or twice myself — save for Abe — I general get my quotes from the Raven.
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I can relate. 🙂 Good Ol’ Abe was handy to mis-quote as a running joke.
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Yes. I recall when he said the Internet ‘would never be a thing.’
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