Work In Progress--Kinky Dragon

Another writer asked me how many self-edits I do on a work in progress. It depends on how the writing is going. If it's rolling along, then I maybe do two or three. If it's stalled, I might edit what I have until there's nothing left. I'm primarily an "ad lib" kind of writer. The more I plan a scene, the more I lose my internal voice. So for me, editing generally consists of grammar/punctuation type things until I finish the story. Then I set it aside for a week or two before I read through it with a fresh eye.

Below is the first two pages of a current Work in Progress I'm calling the Kinky Dragon. I've changed nothing except the second paragraph since I started typing. That's for later. For now, the idea is to get the dialogue and action down while the characters are still chatting with me. So have a look-see.


“What do you think you’re doing?” Margo demanded as she tried to prevent the strange young woman from entering her apartment.

Rainbow Miller shamelessly took advantage of the fact that Margo was desperately wrestling with an armful of terrified dog. Every since the night a tall dark stranger bit her on the arm she seemed to have that effect on animals. Now whenever she encountered one, they howled and ran.

“Thank you for opening the door. It probably would have gotten messy otherwise,” Rainbow said she calmly moved to the sofa and plopped down.

With daze disbelief, Margo starred at the strange woman sitting on her sofa. “Who are you and why are you in my apartment?”

Rainbow sighed. It was always the same. When the stranger bit her, her physical appearance changed. No one recognized her. No one believed her when she tried to tell them about her last two weeks. Frustration was her new name.

“It’s me—Rainbow,” she said hopefully.

“And I’m the King of China.” When Margo placed Killer, the dog on the floor, he scuttled off into the bedroom and dived under the bed. “What did you do to my dog? I bet he pees under the bed!”

“I did nothing to your dog. I can’t help it if he’s a scaredy cat.” Rainbow set a tiny box on the coffee table. “Here. I brought you something from Mexico for your box collection.”

“Mexico! Never mind,” Margo said, waving her hand. “Tell me who you really are and why you pushed your way into my apartment.” She surreptitiously moved closer to the corner where she kept her pink baseball bat.

“The bat won’t do you any good you know.”

“What?”

“That bat. I could take it away from you without working up a sweat. Put it down and come sit with me.”

Goosebumps covered Margo’s arms and her hair stood on end. The longer the woman was in her apartment, the weirder she seemed. “I think you should leave now.”

“If you make me leave now, I’ll be forced to tell your sister Agnes that you gave Harvey a blowjob when y’all were in high school.” Rainbow studied her nails for a moment before polishing them on her pants leg. “Agnes is a jealous bitch and she’ll make your life miserable.”

“Who told you about that?” Margo demanded in outrage.

“You did. One night we had too many pina coladas and you spilled the gory details.”

“Rainbow?” Margo peered at the beautiful young woman seated on the sofa through squinty eyes. She looked nothing at all like her friend Rainbow who was nearly as wide as she was tall and showed every one of her fifty years. “What the hell happened?”

“I told you. Some guy bit me. A vampire kind of guy.” Rainbow shrugged. “It wasn’t a very nice thing to do.”

Margo stomped over to her china cabinet, found her bottle of whiskey and poured a generous helping in a water glass. After tossing down a healthy swallow she asked, “Okaaaay. Then what happened?”

“Oh, I killed him.”

“Riiiight. Just like that. According to the vampire romances I’ve read, you can’t just kill one. It’s not that easy.”

“It is if you’re a dragon.” Rainbow’s matter of fact statement hung in the air.

Margo took another gulp of her whiskey, barely noticing the fiery drink. “Okay. So now you think you’re a dragon?”

“No, I know I’m a dragon,” Rainbow said patiently. “When the vampire guy bit me I turned into a dragon. Believe me, it was not fun.”

Margo jerked a dining room chair out and sat down with a thump. She massaged her head. “Let me get this straight. A man bit you.”

“A vampire.”

“A vampire.” Margo nodded as she repeated Rainbow’s amendment. “Then you turned into a dragon. And killed the vampire. Right?”

“Right.”

“Uh, according to all the literature, that’s not the way it works, Rainbow. Vampires make other vampires. They don’t make dragons.”

“I was already a dragon.”

“Riiiight. Since when?”

Rainbow hopped up and went into the kitchen. She reappeared with a bottle of water. “I’ve always been a dragon. I just didn’t know it until the vampire bit me.”

“And then, suddenly just like magic, you were a dragon.”

“Yep. My body changed into a dragon and before I even thought about it, I incinerated that vampire guy.” She shuddered. “It was gross. Vampires smell when you burn them.”

“So do people,” Margo pointed out dryly. “Then what?”

“Then the tiger showed up with the alien.”

“A tiger. And an alien?” Margo grabbed the whiskey bottle and poured more into her glass. “Okay, this ought to be good. What happened when the tiger and the alien showed up?”

“They both bit me.”

“While you were still a dragon?”

“Yep. Then the tiger turned into a man.” Rainbow twisted the cap from the bottle of water and took a swallow. “He’s hunkalicious as a man—and he’s not bad as a tiger, either. The alien, on the other hand…”

“Yes? What about the alien? What does he look like?” Margo asked with eager fascination.

“Well, he’s different.”

Ummm... and then more stuff happened.

Don't forget that today at midnight is the deadline for the Eternally Yours contest! Collect the phrases from all ten authors and e-mail them to me at anny@annycook.com

Drop by Kelly's blog and check out what she's up to at www.kkirch.blogspot.com and then hop on over to Amarinda's blog and see what new disaster has befallen her at www.amarindajones.blogspot.com Blessings on your day!

Anny