I don’t actually know what a writing sprint is, or what it means to do one, they just told us to do sprints, and I didn’t actually ask what they were. So I’m just typing randomly, banging away on my keyboard, trying to get my brain working again, trying to get back into the rhythm of just writing my thoughts as they come. But I hate that word, it’s one of the random handful that I can’t recall how to spell. People continue to type in the channel, and from the context clues, I’m guessing maybe we are supposed to be working on our novels, but damn it, I have nothing pulled together for my novel yet. I have a few random fragments here on the site that could be considered, but none that have my current flavour. But at least writing this nonesense is a good way to get a feel for writing again, hammering away at the keyboard. Angry typing as my wife calls it, the machine gun pace of the keys clacking. I need some more soda. I didn’t make myself one after the quiplash game before the sprints started.

Of the fragments I reviewed, the one with the letter from the Society of Cassandra has some interesting potential. A secret society of seers that send out envelopes with prophecies to various folks, with other envelopes sealed inside, with opening instructions cryptically written on the back. It’s got potential for something. Maybe the MC finds one of the envelopes. Given that they’re seers, it would in theory be addressed to him, but it could perhaps be that he has the same initials or mildly uncommon name as someone else, and he intercepts the letter and thus is pulled into the war between the various factions, looking to manipulate the strings of fate to ensure that the future they want is the one that comes to pass.

It’s not a bad basic plot, but the question would be where does it go. What is the society warning people against in this case? Have some members of the society decided to rebel against their common future, or is it more a case of factions playing each other?

There’s also the fragment about the chains of time that I need to review, the one about the time travel related anti-bodies, and perhaps one or two others. And of course there’s everyone’s favourite, the drunken wormhole story. And I’d previously mentioned wanting to work on wormwood also.

Wormwood, as a concept, is function. There is a parasite that lives inside the log that the dummy was carved out of, and something wakes it up, allowing it to start to burrow into the ventriloquist, both into his mind and into his body. The parasite needs a goal, which was probably to feed, though what a parasite that lives in wood and puppets people feeds on is perhaps something that requires further thought. The ventriloquist’s goals are probably just to stop it, to get free of it. Maybe he had a goal to become successful, maybe to get some payback, but that quickly gets pushed aside by whatever the parasite does to him.

I need to review my notes on it, see what I’ve already written and if I’ve forgotten anything I’d previously considered.

Descriptions continue to be a weak point in my writing. I think I’ve improved the dialogue, but I do a terrible job at filling in a scene, ever since I started focusing on improving the dialogue, getting the flow of the conversation to feel right.

There was a break here.
We did a round of madlibs. Never really been a fan of those.
Another 15 minute sprint. I’m still not sure what sprints are.
Stuff elsewhere on discord distracted me from the start of this sprint.

Nope, nothing coming out this time. I suppose I should take the time to go get my soda and see if that does anything.

and then Kona needed to go outside, so I did that.