I haven't had all that much to say lately and you all didn't really chime in with a giant list of things you want to hear me writing about. I'll just ignore that, dear readers. Ahem. Instead today I'll give you a little tiny clip from what I spent November working on. I can only give you a little taste because it will otherwise interfere with future ability to publish it as mine or as a book and we don't want to waste the effort.
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Students were clapping. Some were cheering and standing. Everyone was very excited. She raised her voice over the crowd, "For now, I want you to dream. I want you to make plans and put them on paper. Nothing makes a dream more real, more concrete and more achievable, than putting it down on paper. Start planning out the steps to success in your dream. Don't let any worry or obstacle that comes to mind get in your way."
She walked back and forth on the stage. The students began to quiet down. As they sat she began speaking again, "Oh, my friend, I can not encourage you strongly enough to take my words seriously. Begin taking hold of your dreams. Begin to plot it all out. Allow yourself to dream the biggest dreams you've ever had. Taste in your mind the success you want. And be ready."
She stopped in the center of the stage. The music was suddenly gone. The screens went black. She was standing in a single spot light.
Quietly, she said, "Soon, very soon, I will be back. Right here on this very stage. I will give you the instructions, the conditions, the rules if you will, of how you will earn your chance to chase your dream with less pressure and worry than your peers."
She took a few steps to the left. The spot light stayed on her.
"Then I will be back again, to check on your progress, to offer some help, some inspiration. Then, before you can even blink, I will be back to pass out the prizes."
She walked slowly to the right, "My friends, this time will pass in the blink of an eye. This year will be over in a heart beat. Seize it. Every minute of it. Live it out with intensity, with purpose, as if your very future depended on it," she walked back to center stage and very quietly said, "Because," and looked out intently at them, "it does."
In that moment the stage went black. It was silent for a moment and then the house lights came up. The seniors sat in stunned silence. In another minute the bell rang and everyone was off to second hour and as the day passed by, the intensity of the assembly faded for most, but not all. In a matter of days, some had completely forgotten about it, but others. Others had taken it to heart. They turned it over in the minds just before they drifted off to sleep. They started to let themselves believe. Some scratched out thoughts on scraps of paper and tucked them aside without even really being aware they were doing so.
Dreams that were just whispers were birthed into real live dreams with weight.
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And there you go, a very loosely edited first draft of some of the November writing I did. This was an excerpt from the first 20 or so pages I wrote, so very early on in the novel.
