Daniel - A Friend in Spirit

I’m not sure what the problem was, but last week I only wrote a little. I think I might have been sickly. Sickly, as opposed to sick, are different conditions in my book. Sickly is a meandering, unexplainable malaise. Sick is sick: throwing up, crashing into walls (low blood sugar), and all the other crappy things that happen when you are sick. I honestly couldn’t put my finger on what it was that cut my writing from an average of 15k words written in the week. Also, the number of articles I wrote was telling. I wrote six articles instead of my normal 15.

So, what was wrong?

Well, the energy was displaced. My brother-in-law passed away, and talking to family was heart-wrenching. I tried to help, but grieving takes its own time. It takes as long as it takes.

November is approaching, and I was missing the old NaNoWriMo November 50k writing challenge. I just miss the good old days when I’d pound out a book in a month’s time. NaNoWriMo is gone, but I did find out that ProWritingAid was sponsoring a 50k writing challenge, so I spent some time reading about that. I signed up and figured I’d use Plottr to get the outline going and write the book in Scrivener. It’s been some time since I’ve used either program, so I was refreshing my memory about what I’d be doing. I am an expert in neither program, as I tend not to read a whole lot of the fine print, but I read enough so that I feel more confident. Today, the plan is to get Scrivener set up with some empty chapters.

I still don’t know what I’m going to be writing, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. I could take a slice of life and write about a psychic writer who has a whole lot of FIS (Folk in Spirit) in her head and allow them to join in with the story. Actually, that sounds like fun.

Over time, I have met quite a few of them. Daniel was my first one. I tried hard to get his story started. He’s actually quite handsome. His story was set in the 1860s in South Dakota, where he was a farmer. I don’t know a whole lot about farming, but I watch a lot of YouTube videos about it. I especially like how interesting chickens can be. I believe he had one.

{Note: Daniel showed up. I’ve put his part of the conversation in a bold italic font so you don’t get confused.}

Daniel: I had three of them. Chickens prefer their own company. Otherwise, if you only have one, it will want to sleep in the house.

Me: That sounds messy.

Yes, it could be. Chickens tend to poop where they roost at night.

Chickens don’t poop during the day? Like poop on the move?

No.

Oh. Should I look that up? I think I will….Okay, I did look it up. CoPilot said the mess is more noticeable from where they roost at night, but that they poop on the move during the day. It’s just that it’s so scattered around that you don’t notice it.

You could have asked me that.

I did. You said they don’t poop on the move.

Oh, I did say that, didn’t I?

So, how reliable a character would you be?

You’d have to check your facts. That’s your responsibility as a writer.

You’re right. You’re right.

Also, I had specially trained chickens.

Oh, come on. Have you been drinking?

No. Sober as a judge.

Daniel?

Yes?

I think you’re pulling my leg.

Yes.

I get too serious, right?

Well, you worry a lot. Everybody thinks so.

Really?

Yes. How are you going to present this article to Vocal Media?

I don’t know. I figure I’ll wait until I get that far.

You know, they don’t cotton to a lot of BS.

You said BS.

Yes, and there can be a lot of it scattered around. Big piles of it too. You can use it for fuel in the wintertime when wood is scarce.

I didn’t realize this article was going to be about poo.

Neither did I. What else do you want to talk about?

Okay. I’m not going to worry about it. Fresh starts and all that. You’re available if I decide to write some more about you?

Certainly, though there are many others who would also love to be a part of such a project.

Well, I’ve got seven more days to figure it out.

Yes, you have time.

If you haven’t read what I usually write, I should explain that I am a psychic channel. I talk to invisible and sometimes dead people. It’s no big deal. I’ve been a channel since 1993, so I’ve had time to get used to it. What was surprising was to discover fictional characters would come to talk to me too. Daniel was one of those characters. I even went so far as to create a cover for his book, which never really got off the ground. I’m not used to writing fiction, but I figure I should keep trying.

Thanks for reading,

Pauline Evanosky