Research SUCKS! (Devil We Know)

Okay, not all the time. For instance, I've learned a lot about Packards and something called an "Ultramatic" transmissions (though for personal preference I've decided on a manual transmission for this story).

But broken noses--gah! Not something I really care to Google, ya know? Black eyes, too.

Anyway, now that I've vented the extent of my traumatization (not sure if I've made this word up or if I just can't spell it), I'll let you know that I'm working on a short story for a contest ending this weekend (at the moment I'm going with "Devil We Know" and I think it works well). 1500 words to do...something. Not sure how I'm going to wrap it up yet, but I'll figure out shortly :-). I'll post it once I've submitted it ('cuz I'll be editing until the last minute pretty much). I definitely want to expand it at some point, but I don't know if it'll be novel-length. 17,000 words isn't quite enough room for the story I'd like to tell.

Well...gonna expand this one faster than I'd planned. Just found a novella contest (25,000 to 40,000 words). BUT, I've got to somehow find a song that fits it. I know, I know--I'm cheating. The novella is supposed to be inspired by a song, not the story happens to fit with a song. But I don't have time to write an entire story in a little under two weeks--I'd need at least that amount of time to procrastinate, haha. Sigh. I don't know much about music lyrics, so this may be very tedious. Ah well, gotta have the song before I can expand, though hopefully the song will lend itself naturally to the expansion. Wish me luck.

Hehehe...less than five minutes of thinking and I think I have it: Kryptonite by Three Doors Down. I already loved this song and as I read the lyrics I can see a lot of allegories (is that the proper term?--I don't think so).

I took a walk around the world
To ease my troubled mind

But I watched the world float
To the dark side of the moon

I feel there is nothing I can do

If not for me then you'd be dead

As long as you’ll be my friend at the end

AND WE HAVE EXPANSION!!!

You took for granted all the times
I never let you down

BUT: Does the title Kryptonite really work?!? Gonna need to work on that.

Sigh...I've gotten pretty comfortable using curse words freely when writing mean characters (or very stressful situations), but right now I really don't feel comfortable using the word I know I need to use. But I shouldn't compromise the character just because it's not a word I find palatable.

But on a good note, I seem to have figured out the Kryptonite...and will probably end up changing more of what's currently written than I ever expected. Two months later I realize that the ending really is awful!