Good Enough to Eat

Felicia Jones sat at her desk counting down the minutes to midnight as she took inventory of her noveling needs.

--Pen and paper – check. She had several three subject notebooks and had spent an hour at a local stationary store trying out every pen they had until she found one that felt right in her hand.

--Chocolaty goodies as rewards for reaching her daily word count – check. Hershey bars in every shape and size plus a few of her favorite, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

--Appropriate level of madness to believe she can write a fifty thousand word novel in thirty days – check.

Yes, it was absolutely absurd thinking one could write a novel with a thirty day deadline, but her best friend Matt Johnson had conned her into it. He’d approached her about a month ago with the idea and an offer she just couldn’t refuse. Their conversation went something like this:

Matt: Hey, Fellicia, how would you like to join me in writing a novel next month?
Felicia: Why would I want to do that? I can barely put together more than a few lines most of the time.
Matt: Because it’ll be a lot of fun and you’ll be able to say you did it.
Felicia: That’s not really a good reason, Matt.
Matt, getting desperate: Okay, so how about this: if you do this with me, I’ll not only buy you the largest box of chocolate known to man but I’ll also get you a date with Brett Jennings.

Her mouth watered at that point and she’d given in to his crazy proposal. The idea of Brett Jennings, the Wildcats’ quarterback and object of Felicia’s secret desires for ten years running, and a box of chocolates was a dream come true. Of course, she’d harbored a secret desire to write a novel for quite a few years. She wrote short stories and poetry but always thought she lacked the discipline to write a novel. This month would allow her to see if she could do it.

Felicia glanced at the clock in the corner of her computer screen and saw she had five minutes until midnight. She resumed her checklist.

--Caffeinated beverage in quantities large enough to sustain several all nighters – check. She had coffee, tea, hot chocolate and cola.

--Daily word count calendar visible enough to see but not to distract her – check.

--List of newly found writing buddies to verbally give her a kick in the butt at the first sign of surrender – check.

--Smaller chocolaty goodies to use when tough paragraphs or scenes are finished – check. Three bags of Hershey Kisses: milk chocolate, dark chocolate and cherry cordial.

--Thirty day calendar and big black marker to cross off each passing twenty-four hour period as it flies by – check.

--List of dares to use when story line is sinking or as shameless word padding when needed – check. She’d enjoyed looking through the pages of dares on the NaNoWriMo website. Some that she’d chosen, she knew she’d have a challenge putting into her story, but she figured she’d find a way to use them all eventually.

--Appropriate number of characters and plot sketches to get her through to fifty thousand words – check.

--Ample subplot ideas incase main characters die or disappear – check.

She sighed. It looked like she had everything she needed to start her thirty day journey. She even had a kick ass first line – first paragraph – to get her on her way. Her eyes strayed to the stacks of chocolate bars sitting nearby and her mouth watered. She loved chocolate. She was sure half her stash would be gone by the end of the first week of the four week competition. Chocolate was an obsession that ran in her family and she felt that she could eat by the truck load without ever wanting to give it up.

Felicia jumped when the alarm on her cell phone sounded, signaling the beginning of her frenzied month of madness. She brought up her word processing program and typed her first few lines.

“It was a dark and stormy night. Or at least it would have been if it wasn’t morning, the sun wasn’t shining and if there’d been at least one cloud in the sky. Amber Ann sighed as she heaved the heavy basket of laundry onto her hip and headed for the washroom. At least clouds would have suited her mood.”

Felicia stopped to reward herself a Hershey kiss for completing her first paragraph. She checked her word count: sixty. What a great start to her novel! She took a full minute to congratulate herself and savor her small bit of chocolate, desperately trying to keep her hands away from grabbing a second sweet morsel. She’d gotten passed one of the toughest hurdles – the opening scene. The rest would be smooth sailing from here.

She stifled a yawn as she turned back to her novel. Her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth to suppress a scream when she saw that her computer had restarted itself – her killer first line was gone! She wanted to cry; this was not the time for her computer to rebel by rebooting, which it usually liked to do at least once a session. She knew her program saved files when it suddenly rebooted so she tried not to panic as she waited for the computer to finish. Finally, it was done and she brought up her program. What she found when she opened the document dissolved her to tears. Instead of her opening paragraph, only one line remained:

“Good enough to eat.”

word count: 952