Guns and books and third acts

I took a walk down Rue Sainte-Catherine in Montreal over my lunch break today. I passed by the coin arcade, shot some bad guys with a light gun in Time Crisis 2 and felt like it was 1997 for a few minutes; truth be told, it was only around fifteen minutes because I died pretty quickly in the middle of stage two.

Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!

After satisfying my need for shooting polygonal terrorists, I made my way to Indigo where I browsed the popular book displays at the front before walking upstairs to the fantasy section and soaking in the covers of new and familiar titles. There were books like Red Sister by Mark Lawrence, Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan, and pretty much the entirety of Robin Hobb's catalog. Just enticing book after enticing book.

I wanted to read all of them. I wished I could. (I hope I will one day)

The walk was refreshing and rejuvenating. Despite my skin feeling like rice paper and my eyelids like anvils as a result of jet lag from my vacation, I felt inspired to write and to explore. Unfortunately, today was a lost day in terms of writing anything fiction-based. I opted to listen to podcasts on the bus home instead. It was just easier and less energy-intensive. A bullshit excuse, but I'm owning up to it and sticking to it.

The latest NeoGAF Writing Challenge deadline is coming up this Friday and I've got most of a first draft done for it, but I'm kind of stuck on my third act. It's about a female warrior who slices through some guys in skull masks to get to their leader and challenge him to fight to get back the kingdom's apothecary. Sounds rad, right? Going for Xena meets Indiana Jones or something along those lines. I'm just sticking to very basic plots right now to work on the craft part of writing. I hope it's working. I'll let others be the judge.

"..."

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Tommy Lee Jones.

Oh, and I'm reading The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and it's quite captivating. Definitely unique to say the least. I don't think there are many writers who experiment as much with POV and structure as Jemisin does, and there are probably fewer who can get away with it. I'll probably post more about it once I'm done.

'K, time to get some sweet shuteye and get back to proper writing tomorrow. Need to finish that first draft and get started on revisions before Friday night. Just have to make it happen. Writing the third act of a 2,500-word short story has to be easier than trying to get to the third stage of Time Crisis 2, right?