Opening Line 3

It was a dark and stormy night when Madeline pulled in the parking lot of the Rogers Forge Apartments. 'Was moving here a mistake?' she asked herself.

Opening Line 2

"Excuse me, I think someone has just pooped over there, behind the computers."

She went over and confirmed the existence of the feces and called for facilities. Another fun filled day at the library was beginning.

(Based on real life)

Opening Line 1

Sometimes she wondered if this was all life was going to be.

(Lame!)

Opening Line

Inspired by one of the forums on Nanowrimo, I am trying to think up a good opening line. Let's see how many I can come up with while I am on desk until 3:30 today. That gives me two hours....starting now.

Our Heroine

I kind of like the name Madeline. Because then you can call her Maddy for short (or Maddie) and it's not as lame as Madison. I'm not a fan of Madison -- mostly because it is a CITY in Wisconsin and because the lame-o baby-sitter on Everwood was named Madison. That and it's just too trendy. Madeline is kind of pseudo-French. It's also the name of some delicious cookies.

Novella Titles

I remembered reading a list of library-related terms on That Rabbit Girl. It's from McSweeney's and I would like to use it for a jumping off point for title-ing my novella. Something with Closed Stacks. Or even Open Stacks. Any suggestions?

Characters!

I found this random character name generator online and it rocks.

So far, for the men:

• Chester Shotwell


• Gene Liller


• Ben Gorden


• Nathaniel Heidelberg


• Brent Simoneau


• Charlie Hornbuckle

And the ladies:

• Kirsten Negrin


• Leanne Elsey


• Meagan Frampton


• Audra Monnin


• Natalie Sisneros


• Madeline Lindeman

I really like Chester Shotwell for some reason, but I am not sure about having a romantic interest named Chester. Perhaps he'll be the main guy's best friend.

Outline

I think I believe in that whole maxim that you should write about what you know. So I'm going to start the novella with the character moving from the Midwest to Baltimore. Then I can use fun slang like "hon" and "Balmer" etc. She'll work here at the library, or a psuedo-my library-esque place. I think it'll be the Baltimore Free Library instead. It's schnazzy and East Coast.

Plus then I can use my old apartment in Milwaukee as the starting point -- the phone interview at the card table while sitting in my lawn chair. It should be cool. And my character can live in Rodgers Forge, which just sounds awesome. Maybe she'll run into Michael Phelps? Or maybe not...

I can't imagine ever publishing the novel, but maybe after I get going, I'll put some of it online. Heck, it's just the first draft!

So far the plot goes like this: girl finishes library school in Midwest (prob. Madison just to be different) and moves to Baltimore where fellow library grad is living. Moves into neighborhood with several other librarians. Wacky hijinks. Workplace romance. Romance fail, go to plan B. Include scenes at bars and perhaps some wacky hijinks in the closed stacks. Eventually, book ends with 50,000 words with happy and empowering ending.

Yeah, that's real clear, isn't it? I'll have to work on the wacky hijinks aspect. Flesh it out a bit.

A Plot?

Well, I've decided to try to write a novel (or perhaps more accurately, a novella) in November as a part of the National Novel Writing Month. I'm not going to be starting the novel until November 1 -- that's Monday -- but I should probably come up with some plot ideas. This weekend my roommate is going to be out of town, so I should be able to update my other blog (Watching in the Dark) with some of the Van Johnson movies I've recently watched. (Let's just say that Brigadoon isn't very good.)

But! I need some kind of plot. Jenny suggested:

"write a novel about whatever you want, but there has to be a character named bean and there has to be an incident involving a squirrel falling *that's right, falling* out of a tree, cause it was too fat for the branch it was on, next to a park bench that someone is sitting on. the falling causes the person to have a heart attack and get sent to the hospital where they don't believe that a squirrel caused the heart attack therefore sending the person to a mental hospital where they are stuck for the rest of time. i personally think it would be funny if this character was beans mother and he knew the actual story but with all the red tape couldn't get his mom out of the hospital instead could only send her one letter a year and monthly batches of cookies. it would also be good if bean believed that squirrels were evil and trying to take over the world. perhaps beans mother really did belong in the mental hospital, with a son like bean.

it would also be good if there was a character who broke their finger from getting an over exuberant high five from their friend. (mine isn't broken)but it would make a good story, cause no one would believe it.

oh yeah and it would be good if you had a dog. dogs are always good in stories, just don't make it talk, just have it be around, as a prop to discuss."

So...yeah...I have a feeling that it might end up being a very autobiographical story. Because libraries are awesome and moving to a different town is cool. And I love how my roommate and I can talk about movies together. Old movies. We're all like, who would the average person know: Howard Keel or Van Johnson? And the answer is probably neither. And I can actually talk like that with some people here and they know what I mean. It's awesome.

Maybe I can come up with some weird character names or something.

Oooh! I could make it a psuedo-chick-lit novel. I mean, chick-lit is kind of lame, but it's enjoyable at the same time. Romantic complications in the library. Hmmm....drama, drama, drama. And of course, there has to be a wrong man. I'll have to think about this when I'm at lunch -- perhaps outline more of the plot. But I think chick-lit set at a library would be fun. And maybe there can be some disagreements over who gets what guy -- there aren't too many youngish men who work at libraries. I mean, there aren't many here at all! Hmmmm....