Word count: 8,391 (as of 5th Nov)
The story so far:
Well, as it stands I have 8,000 words of epic stalling. My character (who so far doesn't have a a name but is addressed by the narroator as 'Dear Reader') is sitting down to read a new 50,000 word novel called Croquembouche but discovers she is out of biscuits to go with her tea. She heads out to get some from the corner store but accosts a crab-apple tree along the way and decides to make an apple crumble instead. Remembering she is out of oatmeal and raisins, she continues to the grocery store.
Here, our 'Dear Reader' encounters an eerie, almost vacant supermarket where zombified customers shuffle aimlessly from aisle to aisle blocking her way and being generally rude and creepy towards her. This reminds her of a dream she once had in which she was Justin Bieber shopping for white bread in a 'supermarket of the future' where the trolley shuttles you around the store and mechanical arms on the shelves fill your basket as you type your shopping list into the onboard keypad. Except in the dream, Bieber's trolley was malfunctioning and kept directing him to the baked beans instead of white bread. In her haste to leave she accidentally buys cinnamon instead of oatmeal, but manages to snag 4 packages of digestive biscuits on a buy-one-get-one-free promotion.
Once back at the house, realising her mistake and abandoning plans for an apple crumble she finally sits down with a cup of tea and some biscuits to start reading Croquembouche. Upon reading the first page, she decides the story is just boring old rubbish and resolves to return it to the bookshop for a refund.
What next?
Yes, yes, go on and say it - the plot stinks. It's hardly scintilating literature. But there have been a few interesting insights about the character's personal life: 'Dear Reader' is currently in a relationship with a man she doesn't love as much as her ex-boyfriend (neither of whom have names at this point). So, there is room for a real plot to develop. Or not. I really don't care. As long as my fingers keep tapping on the keyboard and increasing my word count, I'm happy.
I've been thinking about the structure of a Croquembouche and I've decided that the individual profiteroles could help solve my plot dilema. Instead of writing one long story, what if I wrote a series of short stories, or 'episodes'. From this point on, if I write three short 500-600 word episodes per day involving the characters above (and whoever else decides to show up) that would give me roughly 75 episodes by the end of the month (which, I think you'll agree, is more than enough to make a decent sized Croquembouche). And, to make my life even easier, each episode will be based on a Word of the Day from the archives of dictionary.com. Wish me luck!
