My favourite portion I hammered out today:
“I am sorry to have given you alarm, dear lady,” he said courteously, “but to be truthful, I did not think we had anything to talk about.”
“Nothing to talk about? Nothing to talk about!” Thorberta cried. She threw the journal aside and leapt eagerly to her feet. “My dear Sir Hildifons, we have stories to discuss! Characters! Plots! We must get started on another book! I am already a week behind!”
“A book about what?” Hildifons inquired calmly. He didn’t seem the least affected by the excitable state Thorberta was working herself into, despite the way she kept giggling and clapping her hands. A billowing mushroom worked its way out of the end of his pipe and floated lazily upwards.
“Water! Love! Adventure!” she squeaked. “Something exciting!”
“Like what?” he prompted. A bushy-tailed fox darted up to chase the mushroom around the ceiling before finally colliding with it.
“Like... like... oh, I don’t know. That is why I need you! I have been pacing this very room trying to come up with a new pairing for days and I cannot think of one! Gnomes, fae, humans, mermaids, trolls, elves, dwarves, giants, ghosts, they’ve all been done and with great success I might add.”
“My point exactly,” Sir Hildifons interrupted as soon as she drew breath. “It has all been done. You have exhausted your resources. What else is there to write? What other possible angle could you find to write about? What new characters? And you have specifically stated you will never write a sequel.”
Thorberta made a face. “No! Certainly not. Sequels are for those with no imagination and have somehow forgotten the very essences of their characters. It is lazy writing! Once you have managed to wrap up a story nicely, why undo the packaging? No, no, no, I shall certainly never write a sequel!”
No comments:
Post a Comment