He didn’t realise that the road less travelled would turn out to be quite this empty. He really wished he’d brought a machete to deal with the brambles.
Here’s a fun idea on the 4thewords forums: Badly describe what happened in your story today.
The main character (there are a couple, but she is the most important one, right?) of my story, of the WIP, the novel, has to accompany the colony Envoy. She doesn’t really have to do anything, of course, but if she doesn’t do this then there is no point in going on with the story, really, because this coming scene is really important and sets everything in motion. Also, ‘accompany’ because no-one wants to even hint at anything other than friendliness and magnanimity. I mean, the other Envoy, the one they’re going to meet… Wait, let’s back up a bit. Okay, so there is this Envoy from the galactic community. No, I can definitely clear this up. The galactic community has sent an Envoy to discuss diplomatic matters with the fledgeling colony. There are certain protocols for diplomatic relations and so the colony has to send their own envoy to meet the other one. This all happens on a shuttle in the jungle. The meeting. So, the main character has to accompany the colony envoy to this meeting. Only, the other envoy, the one from the GC, right? isn’t real. Or rather isn’t really there. I mean, the shuttle is there, and the envoy is waiting for them in the shuttle, but it turns out that the one in the shuttle is, like, a hologram only. The real envoy is still on the ship orbiting the planet. I’m not sure yet if the ship is actually orbiting the planet or perhaps hiding somewhere in the system. It’s tricky, but I’ll figure that out later. Regardless of the fact that the envoy (I won’t add ‘from the GC’ because you probably get that by now – it’s mostly for myself because I get confused. See, originally I had only the Envoy, from the GC, and the colony didn’t have its own envoy, because why wouldn’t it just send the colony leader, right? But then I needed this other character in this scene and she isn’t the leader, so I had to create the colony envoy. Confusing, I know) isn’t real, the meeting does occur (they only figure out towards the end of the meeting that the Envoy isn’t real), and for a while everything seems to go quite well. The GC is nothing if not magnanimous (it’s not like they have anything to lose, and they are far more technologically advanced than the colony anyway). In fact, the whole idea is to incorporate the colony into the GC and ensure that they have everything they need to be successful. The problem, and of course this is the whole thing – I read that this kind of thing should happen at about the 25% mark, so this is totally that exact point in the story where the main character has to make some serious decisions – the problem is that the GC Envoy has their own plans for the colony. Plans, I might add, that the colony will not be completely happy with. It’s all pretty cool really and I’ve thought about it a lot. So, anyway, that’s what was happening in my story today.
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Right, so I posted that.
Should I have? Was that what they meant? I guess I’ll find out and then I won’t post anything in the forums again for another couple of years.
None of it is true, of course, because I’m a writer of fiction. And fiction, by definition…ah, I see, you get it.
It is actually a bit of a pivotal scene and most of it is totally true, but I haven’t written it yet. I have thought about it this morning though, so that has to count for something, right?
Envoys, I mean, what do they do? Especially intergalactic envoys. Take me to your leader, I guess. Or at least to your diplomatic department. We have things to discuss, I think you’ll find. Like, for instance, only the takeover of your planet. For the good of your people, naturally. Also, we need some rare earths your planet has an abundance of, but we’ll be creating jobs, so there’s that. What’s that? Pay? Well, we can discuss that but keep in mind we’re a communist hive mind…Yes, you can see the problem. Don’t worry though, we’re very advanced and we know exactly what’s good for you lot.
I really should be writing science fiction.
So we’ve been watching Good Omens. It’s very funny, isn’t it? Almost like the book. I’m being facetious. We’re enjoying the series thoroughly. But I may have had too much whisky last night. I’m feeling it. I saw a headline somewhere about how the pandemic is causing…brain fog? I suspect I know exactly what is causing brain fog, but, you know, blame the pandemic.
We had a long discussion before watching Good Omens, and we talked about how our minds work in mysterious ways. Let me explain. Someone said that when they are not doing anything their mind is dead quiet. They don’t think or daydream. It would be unbearably boring if they were to take like half an hour off to do absolutely nothing. I, on the other hand, have a full on daydreaming brain. I can easily spend an hour sitting and thinking about things. Okay, if I lie down and think then I fall asleep, but that’s a different thing, right? My understanding is that by thinking I mean that one starts off with one thing, idea, thought, and it leads to others, and you can kind of trace from the first thought to the last if you are still awake at that point. The brain works like that, I think. So, when I’m daydreaming it involves following these connections, sometimes in a fairly orderly manner, and at other times quite random. I therefore find it difficult to understand that a mind can be completely quiet. The discussion then required some whisky for everyone to just dial back a bit because…fraying at the edges. Families, am I right? Anyway, so then it was decided that what happens is that they cannot follow their thought connections from first to last thought. It’s as if the in between thoughts occur in the subconscious, and only the end result is really available.
We also were talking about the voice in one’s head, and I said I don’t really recognise a voice in my head. I have thoughts, not a narrator so much. But then later, when I was about to fall asleep I realised I definitely have a voice. If one should even call it a voice, because it is clearly not heard. Inner voice, I guess. It is mine, even though I don’t hear it. It’s not like my voice heard on a recording, or my voice heard through my ears and skull. But it is definitely mine, and it has always been there. Or as long as I can remember.
I’ll stop here, because this is getting ridiculous. Remember, people, alcohol is bad for your health, but also, your health is not necessarily the most important thing you have. I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
Henry J. Holland's Blog 