The Green-Walled Tower

November 14, 2012

From Inside the Dark Vault of Dreams

(This is fiction. It’s not about me. Enjoy~)

Not existing, that’s what scares me the most. Have you ever been lying on your bed, looking at the ceiling, thinking about the day and suddenly, like a flash of lightning, you wake up? You had fallen asleep at some point, as quickly and painlessly as someone pressing pause on a DVD player. That’s what I fear the most, that instant when existence ends. What scares me the most is that I won’t even know when it happens.

I live in the present. Obviously, you say, but most people—I suspect—have a sense of where they come from and where they are going. Not me. For me, all of life is a precarious balancing on the crest of a wave—a breathless, headlong rush with an abyss of nothing before and behind. That’s why I worry about my existence. At any moment, the wave could collapse and then, well . . .

I live in an apartment building, on the third floor. I don’t know who lives above me. Below me is Miss Second. She mostly stays in her apartment, moaning loudly enough for me to hear as I walk past her. I can’t tell if it’s from ecstasy or from pain, but I’m too embarrassed to knock and ask. And so, I tiptoe past her apartment, vaguely aroused, vaguely repelled, unsure of myself on her floor.

Below her is Mr. First, the drummer. He is constantly making rhythm with everything in his apartment. The sounds filter up through the pipes, sometimes grating, sometimes hypnotic, sometimes so beautiful I want cry for something I have never seen or felt, but which is hinted at in the music.

Then, there is Mr. Under, who lives in the basement. I never go down to see him and he never comes up, but from the crack in the basement door, I hear and smell things that hint at the horrors that go on down there, down under the building.

I feel bored, I wander the halls, afraid to knock on doors, too lonely to go sit in my apartment. I am drawn to the door of Mr. Under. Who does he have down there? I know them, don’t I? It sickens me, but still, I want to know.

The shrieks and screams rise as I approach. I peer through the crack in the door and in one mind-searing instant, I see what he is doing. I am repulsed and I flee up to my room. But I only live in the present and even as I do, I am still peering through that crack, into the heart of evil; still tiptoeing awkwardly past the door of Miss Second; still standing mesmerized by the beauty of Mr. First’s drumming, with tears streaming down my face.

The sun is rising. The first rays stab into my apartment and I look out, out of my small corner of the universe into something so much vaster, where all the answers are revealed. I take a step—

14 Comments | tags: apartment, dreams, fantasy, fiction, mid-week flash | posted in Dusk

November 12, 2012

It was a dark and stormy night…?

By David Stewart

I love working on the first line of a story, especially a novel. The first sentence sets the tone for the whole book. It’s the first impression and if it’s off, it can sour the rest of the book for the reader. The first sentence will always be more memorable than the 100th sentence, so it has to be better.

So, what’s important to say in the first sentence? Many writers introduce their characters, since they are central to the story. Some introduce the landscape. A commonly held no-no is to start with the weather because usually the weather is trivial. One of my novel’s first lines is: “The air in the room felt close, like a cave, and the darkness smelled like baby powder and diaper rash cream.” There, I was trying to introduce the setting, but also set the mood and also give foreshadowing for the story to come, since it’s about babies and darkness. Another, where I introduce the character right away is: “Jonah liked being a hunter.” That also is trying to give a setting for the whole story, since the whole story in one way or another, is about hunting.

Here are some books that I have in my house and their first lines:

“The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring cleaning his little home.” (The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame). This introduces the character and gives a tone for the rest of the book. It’s a domestic story about domestic problems, and also about animals.

“A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind’s forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and sent wheeling away by the turbulent air.” (Wicked, by Gregory Maguire). Another character introduction. This is actually in the prologue of the story, I think. It introduces the Witch as solitary and disconnected with the rest of the world, a problem she has through the whole story.

“Marley was dead: to begin with.” (A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens). Dickens was wonderful at first lines. This just grabs you and throws you into the story.

“Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.” (Coraline, by Neil Gaiman). This first sentence introduces the character and also shows right away what is important in the story by saying “the door” instead of “a door” as if we should already know about it.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen). I think this is another of those classic first lines that lays out the whole book in a single sentence.

And then, the first line that I read and just laughed and laughed. Good or bad is for you to decide, but it definitely grabs you: “It was a long day, the day Axis tried to kill Azhure, then married her.” (Starman, by Sara Douglass).

Do you have any favorite first lines from novels? What are some of your own? Let me know. 🙂

23 Comments | tags: first lines, literature, outside the tower, writers, writing | posted in Uncategorized

November 10, 2012

Visual Fiction – Dawn Guardtower

By David Stewart

“The sentry gripped his spear with sweaty hands, watching the shadowy figures moving in the valley below. The final assault was beginning and it was likely he would not see another day. Behind him, the sun rose, a blazing orb setting alight the funeral pyre of the world.”

I took this picture from my kitchen window, as a matter of fact.

11 Comments | tags: guardtower, mountains, sunrise, visual fiction, war | posted in Visual Fiction

November 9, 2012

Things Never to Tell Your Mother

By David Stewart

Sometimes I’m surprised I survived to see adulthood. I think that about a lot of kids actually, especially after seeing Youtube fail compilations.

The following is a true story. There was a large river near our house when I was in high school. Parts of it went through a high gorge just below the big waterfall our town was named after. I would go down and climb on the rocks by the water and have a great time. One time, I decided to climb up the cliff face right under the bridge that went across the gorge. It was over sixty feet high and I didn’t have any ropes, but I was a good climber, and if there is anything teenagers have, it’s recklessness confidence.

The actual river, just down from where I climbed up.

I got about two thirds of the way up and ran into trouble. The rock became friable, breaking off in my hand. There were no solid handholds. I couldn’t go back down and directly below me were sharp rocks and the fast, swirling water of the river. Also, no one knew where I was. I started praying hard for God to get me out of there safely.

There were obviously guardian angels clocking some overtime, because I managed to get around the hard area and get up to the top. I’d like to say I learned something from the experience and maybe I did, but what I should have known was this was not something to tell my mother. This is the sort of thing that gives mothers (and later, wives) heart attacks.

So, later that evening: “Guess what, Mom? I almost died today.”

What a bad son.

9 Comments | tags: climbing, danger, outside the tower, river, true story | posted in Uncategorized

November 7, 2012

What I learned about writing from Cambodian children

By David Stewart

If you’ve ever visited Cambodia, you know that the whole country has an entrepreneurial spirit. People offer you rides on their scooters for a price, men sell cut sugarcane, and children mob you selling postcards, handmade crafts, books, and pretty much anything and everything else.

The competition is beyond stiff and you see a whole range of tactics, from super aggressive to friendly. I was the most impressed with the children. The best ones immediately told you their name, asked your name, where you were from, told you facts about your home country, and anything they could to make an impression and develop a rapport. They did it fast too–they had about ten seconds maximum to make you want to buy their products and not the next person’s.

It worked too. I was much more likely to buy something from Jentha who had two brothers and a sister at home and called me by my name and could name the capital of my country, than I was from some random little girl offering me five postcards for a dollar when I already had all the postcards I needed.

I realized that this is a little like fiction, especially short fiction and especially blog fiction. People are more likely to give a novel a chance to develop the plot and characters, but on a blog, people who are clicking around randomly have half a million other blogs to choose from, so why do they choose mine?

The title, of course, is important to draw people in, but also the first paragraph. With blog writing, the currency is not money, but time, and I know for myself, it is often the first paragraph, that part that shows up in the summary, that determines if I’m going to read more or not.

Of course, there is another aspect. For the children this process is all about selling. They learn the names of perhaps hundreds of tourists a day and probably forget them almost instantly, but it was also easy to tell those who were only after the money and those who were also truly friendly and engaging. Blogging is not just selling our blogs, it’s also about building relationships. We should be engaging and attractive, but we also have to be honest. People are attracted to authenticity and can tell if it’s not there.

11 Comments | tags: blogging, Cambodia, children, outside the tower, writing | posted in Uncategorized

November 6, 2012

By David Stewart

This is the typical sort of thing on my blog, but I wanted to share it, since it’s about the response to the passengers on 9-11 near where I grew up in Newfoundland. It’s a great account. I’m very proud to be from there.

A Daily Thought

I got this story in an email and I just had to pass it on. It brought tears to my eyes.

Delta Flight 15

Here is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11:
“On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden the curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that “All Business” look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta’s main office in Atlanta and simply read, “All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination.”
“No one said a word about what this could…

View original post 1,643 more words

1 Comment | posted in Uncategorized

November 5, 2012

Good Idea, Bad Idea: Milk

By David Stewart

Hello friends of blog, greetings from upper chamber of the Green-Walled Tower, where I’ve been busy with Nano for the last few days. It’s been going well and I just passed 12,000 words. Hopefully I can keep that momentum going and keep the story flowing.

Now, as Monty Python said, for something completely different:
Did you ever watch Animaniacs? It was a Warner Brothers cartoon in the 90’s that had a segment called Good Idea, Bad Idea. If you’ve never seen it, or want to watch it again, here’s the complete compilation of all of them.

Here a Good Idea, Bad Idea from my own life.

Buying milk: good idea

Putting milk in the trunk: okay idea

Forgetting about milk: bad idea

Leaving milk in trunk for several months: very bad idea

Discovering milk when it finally eats through its plastic container and then eats through the metal of the trunk and drips on the ground: very very bad idea

Yes, that actually happened. Early in our marriage, my wife and I went grocery shopping at night. We got home and said, “Didn’t we buy milk? Oh well, I guess not.” Literally months later, I noticed something white dripping on the ground. I opened to trunk to find the milk jug mostly empty, a hole in the bottom of it, and a hole in the bottom of the trunk. I guess we hadn’t opened our trunk much, since I’m sure we would have noticed the smell. So there you have it: in case you were wondering, milk can eat through a trunk.

(By the way, if you’re anywhere applicable, Happy Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night. Go burn something for me.)

6 Comments | tags: car, funny, good idea bad idea, milk, nanowrimo, outside the tower, true story, writing | posted in Light

November 4, 2012

Visual Fiction – Joyous Sunrise

By David Stewart

For these Visual Fiction pictures, I try to find ones that inspire me. I took this picture about 6am as I was driving to a port to go camping on a small island in Korea. This makes me think of a young sun, leaping over the horizon and bursting through the clouds with a shout. There are mornings of brooding and foreboding, but this one, even with the clouds, was a morning of joy and anticipation.

If this picture was on the cover of a book, what sort of story would it be? Let me know what you think in the comments.

click to enlarge

13 Comments | tags: inspiration, joy, Korea, morning, sun, sunrise, visual fiction | posted in Visual Fiction

November 2, 2012

Money or Food: A Thought Exercise

By David Stewart

Here is a thought exercise. Imagine you had no possible source of income but had food, basic shelter and basic clothes provided for you as you needed them. Nothing else is given to you though.

Now, imagine that you could refuse to eat a meal and you would get five dollars (or equivalent currency). You could do this anytime you liked, up to $15 a day if you didn’t eat at all.

Would you just take the food and live comfortably or would you sacrifice to save up money? If so, how much would you try to save and what would you buy with it?

23 Comments | tags: choice, dilemma, food, money, thought exercise | posted in Uncategorized

November 1, 2012

Nanowrimo: And so it begins again…

By David Stewart

It occurred to me that this will probably be one of thousands of posts about Nanowrimo on WordPress today, but oh well.

Well, it’s that time of the year again: November, which for many means National Novel Writing Month. I have done it for the last six years but was debating not doing this year because of other writing and busyness. However, I’ve decided to do it anyway.

Thus, the amount of fiction I will be putting up here will be much less for the next month. I will still post three times a week with either true anecdotes from my life, reflections on writing, or whatever.

I’ve decided to write a full novel version of my story, The Girl Who Could Snee. That story was 1600 words and the novel will be at least 50,000 words, so the characters are going to be more developed and the plot will be quite different. I’ve got a rough sketch in my head and I’m excited.

Back when I was a young thing, I used to stay up until midnight every November 1st to get a jump on the writing. I told myself to be sensible this year, but “sensible” and “bedtime” are not two words that go together in my brain. I started writing at the stroke of midnight and…wrote 109 words before bailing and going to bed.

So, are you doing Nano? Are you tempted to? If you are doing it, let me know and we can be writing buddies on the Nanowrimo site.