Bloons can write?!?!

Pogchamp

Starting to Put it all Together – Pt 2

Welcome back!  I apologize for being late on this post, but real life has a way of sneaking up on me from time to time. More specifically, real life worries and insecurities about my writing. Yes, I do deal with this on a regular basis, which is part of the reason for this blog. It’s hard to stay down if I’m exposing my biggest faults and weaknesses for everyone to see.

I hope everyone's staying warm in this winter weather.   Last time I decided to do a demonstration of the various topics I've gone over to date, seeing as I'm a visual learning. The first step was brainstorming, that messy let's write it all down and see what happens mess. My inspiration came from the game, Bloons TD 5, which I play on and off on my Kindle.  Don't ask why, it was the first thing that came to mind and so I let it flow. My best idea ever? Hardly. But it's fun.

Today I continue by doing some free writing. The next step in writing for me is to take an idea and start writing. I'll admit, this isn't as easy as it sounds. I'm a perfectionist and some days are better than others.  I have to fight the urge to rewrite a sentence 15 times because it doesn't sound right to me. I'm working on it. 

So, below is the free writing I did based on the previous brainstorming. As you can see, it doesn't look exactly like what I'd brainstormed yesterday. It doesn't have to - this is simply throwing ideas out there to see what works in the story. Not even close to actually writing anything yet.

((Oh, and if it looks a lot cleaner than the previous brainstorming, that's because I wrote this from my phone on the way home from work. Auto-correct does wonders for me sometimes.))

Boom, a young monkey in banana village, goes out in the forest to explore and comes across a strange object. It's a balloon! Bright red, shiny, floating caught on a branch. Thinking it's dangerous, he pops it with his blow dart and returns back to the village. He tells his best friend about what happened but isn't believed. A few days later he goes back to the spot to resume his exploration and because he's a curious little monkey. To his shock there are more of the strange balloons in different colors! He kills the all with his blow gun and races back to the village to tell the elders what he found. However, Boom tends to be a practical joker so no one believes him and he gets chastised for wasting the adults' time and for going into the forest by himself. He tells his best friend again who scoffs and tells Boom to prove it. They agree to meet the next day and sneak into the forest. But the next day there are no balloons so his friend tells him to quit playing around until Boom shows him a shred of one of the balloons he killed the day before. This almost convinces his friend, but they agree to patrol the forest for the next few days to see if any more appear. Each day they sneak out of the village to hunt the strange creatures, but their misbehavior doesn't go unnoticed and the third day they're caught and punished by being made to peel bananas in the kitchen. Boom's friend tells him to give it up- it was only his imagination because they've not seen any more of them. Boom is convinced though and after some persuading, his friend agrees to go one more time even though doing so means they will both get grounded for weeks. As they're sneaking out of the village they run into another friend- a girl monkey named Tambo who is a goodie two shoes. She threatens to tell the elders and Boom is tempted to call it off since he likes her. Something happens that convinces him and the others that they have to go. Boom brings his darts, Rang brings his boomerang, Tambo brings her something which I still don't know, and they head out into the forest. They get to the spot and there's no balloons and it seems like it really was Boom's imagination after all. They start back to the village, Boom feeling dejected and secretly relieved. On the way back, Tambo spots what she thinks is a colorful bird in the trees above. It's not. It's a balloon! And another. And another. And they young monkeys realize they hadn't found any because they were all high up in the trees. They couldn't go back without proof or the elders would punish all of them so they set about trying to capture one and bring it back as proof. 

Now, I'd say I almost have enough here to start planning a story. The only missing ingredient so far is where are the balloons coming from and why? A puzzle that I can hopefully solve in the next step - mind mapping.

Until next time,

Love, Bella