Feeling Snarky

After a year of writing semi-objective reviews over at Amazon, it's taken me a while to relax my narrative technique for the novel. I think it's getting better; my storytelling, at least, is starting to sound a bit more like me.

I think getting into the discussion boards at faith*in*fiction has helped, too (in your opinion, maybe it's hurt).

Anyhoo, this sounds like something I'd write.

[Graham] pulled out his notebook. “Thanks for taking the time to meet with me. I think your perspective as an educator will be invaluable to my article.”

“Thank you, although I haven’t taught regularly in a classroom setting for years. I like to think I know what’s happening at my school, but as this is only my second year here, I’m muddling through the best I can with the rest of the sophomores.”

She played idly with a rubber band on her left wrist, confirming for Graham his suspicion that she was a REFORMED SMOKER. (if there’s a SMOKEBUSTERS or SMOKE-ENDERS group that uses the rubberband method, use that instead)

“Well, let’s talk about what’s going on....”

And so they talked about test scores (improving), drop out rates (declining), truancy, vandalism, teen pregnancy (all remaining steady, but with students increasingly accepting responsibility for their actions), cafeteria food (avoid the meatloaf), athletics (Go Cougars!), and so on.

“Let me ask you this,” Graham asked about fifteen minutes into the interview, “What’s the single best thing about living in Graphite?”

“Well, I think that would be that people really seem to care about each other. No, not just ‘seem to care,’ they do. If you get a flat tire on MAIN St., it seems like three cars won’t go past before someone stops to offer help.”

Graham smiled and nodded and thought to himself, “With legs like yours, you bet they stop to help.” He had to fight hard to maintain his focus on writing his notes in his NOTEBOOK.

(daily word count: 4,482 words; total word count: 35,315 words; words remaining: 14,685)