NaNoExerpt

Here’s an exerpt of the beginning. I’ve cut out the scene that I was working on when I quit last night. I guess I kind of want feedback and kind of don’t. If you do give it, please be honest.

Losing Nora: The Fall and Misadventures of a Computer DivaChapter OneSome days Nora felt that life would be so much better if she could just take a drill to her forehead and release the demons screaming and pushing and shoving to get out. Some days she couldn’t remember what life was like before the pulsating throb that swelled and ebbed. Her brain felt as if it here swollen like some mutant alien and her head was so tender that barrettes tended to focus the pain like fingers on one of those lightening balls sold in Spencer’s. Some times it felt as if her brains were draining out of her ears and some times she wished it would. Some days it was all she could do to drag herself out of bed and face a world that was clearly going on despite her daily trials and in spite of whatever tribulations she might have had.
An endless supply of doctors and specialists had brought no answers and certainly she’d found little relief from the endless supply of medications they dished out to her. Pain medications were practically nothing but sugar-free candy to her without the enjoyment of the NutraSweet aftertaste.None of this was a secret. Her friends, her family, her co-workers and her evil boss and her minion supervisor had all be informed of the daily hell Nora went through – well, they were informed; whether or not they believed in the migraine demons was their business. Certainly the only person who needed to believe was Nora as she was the one who had tried everything from aromatherapy to massage to chiropractic treatment. She’d drawn the line at acupuncture but she’d tried eliminating caffeine, nuts, chocolate and avocados – each of which were great sacrifices in their own right. She’d tried heat therapy and cold therapy and temperature change shock therapy. She’d tried a variety of herbs and teas and herbal teas and incense. She had an unrivaled collection of books on living migraine free. She’d tried meditation which had just stressed her out and she’d tried subliminal taps and psychological help. She exercised and lost one third of her body weight. She brought down her blood pressure. She tried keeping a headache journal but it was difficult to determine her triggers when there never seemed to be a break in the pain.Finally, it just became part of the routine – the continuous migraine, the endless doctor appointments, the fact that she was on the pharmacist’s Christmas card list. It was just another thing to survive every day like the temptation to have a burger and cheese fries from the cafeteria or having to attend a meeting run by the minion supervisor or just dealing with the drama of working with insane people.

And to be honest, Nora honestly thought that was all there was to life and all there was ever going to be.

And even more honestly, Nora was afraid that was true and also that it wasn’t. How many times had she told those around her that nothing good ever came from change?

But life is change and not even Nora, as determined as she was to wrap herself in the comfort of a miserable routine life, can stop change.

And so it began one sunny morning in the minion supervisor’s office…

Bob looked a bit like a shiny, slimy Muppet. His mouth seemed to wide for his large, balding head and beady eyes peered out at the world behind black-rimmed glasses. He always wore a greasy smile that made Nora feel as if he were merely pretending to be inept all the while plotting the destruction of anyone who dared to challenge him with something so trivial as the truth. Oh, yes, he seemed to bop around the office and the company with the naïve exuberance of a first-time manager but hiding beneath the surface was a true brownnoser who would tell anyone anything to make them happy.

And quite frankly, not only did Nora not care for him but she also felt that he underestimated her and everyone beneath him – but mostly her. She also felt that he didn’t have a clue what the people on his team actually did even when he hovered over them like an annoying gnat with nothing better to do in life but flit from here to there.

She’d caught him more than once asking other people questions about the software that only she knew the answers to and worse, brownnosers that they were, they’d answer and wrongly at that! In fact, if it weren’t for her, the whole place would collapse. It was a lot of pressure for a young woman to shoulder which was perhaps why she suffered from those chronic migraines so horribly.

But there she was in Bob’s office and the migraine was throbbing to a rhythm matching the anxious beat of her pounding heart. Though she knew deep down that she was irreplaceable, that the systems analysts didn’t call her the Programmer Queen for nothing, that she was the Scotty of the department, she still hated being called into the minion supervisor’s office or, worse, the evil director’s. It was too much like being called into the principal’s office back in elementary school – nothing good ever came of it. Certainly no one ever called you into their office to secretly tell you what a great job you were doing. As it was, annual review time was pure agony for her despite never having received a bad review. She would not be able to concentrate on anything until her own review was over and she was sure that she’d received excellent marks as well as the usual recommendation that she get sent to training that They never actually got around to sending her on year after year.

To be called in a month before the annual review was enough to send Nora into a full scale panic attack with blood draining from her face, stomach aching, and pounding heart and head.

[…]

tags: NaNoWriMo, writing

3 comments

1. on November 2, 2005 at 11:44 am

   Tamara said:

   I really like the characterization of the migraine as demon (believe me, I know all about the evil bastard!)!

   I know you’re focusing on the firing, but when you were describing all the treatments, I found myself feeling rushed, like I wanted scenes with each of those experiences. Do you think you’ll be including those at some point, or can you ease us through the experience of trying to deal with the migraines before getting to the firing?

   I don’t know if I’m expressing myself well. I just really want to see Nora living through the aromatherapy, etc. If you had those scenes before the firing, you could also intersperse them with scenes at work and sort of unfold how much of a cretin the “minion supervisor” is instead of packing that all into a few dense paragraphs.(I love “minion,” makes it seem like perhaps he’s in league with the demon migraines!)

   Does that help? Would you rather I shut up now?

2. on November 2, 2005 at 12:26 pm

   n. mallory said:

   Actually, I decided to start 6 months before “the firing”. I was surprised by my old journal to rediscover the things that led up to it. Plus, I want to paint Nora as not entirely the victim — you know, give her some of that attitude that I had once upon a time. I mean, I dont’ think I should have been fired, but I do think that I helped Them make the case if accidentally.

   Hmmm…maybe I can sneak in some of those weird things “she” tried into some of the scenes as they roll forward. That’s a good idea. Thanks!

   Maybe I’ll even recreate the meditation panic attack. It wasn’t funny to me then, but thinking about it now — I mean, who has a panic attack when you’re supposed to be calm and intraspective and floating in the nothingness?

3. on November 2, 2005 at 2:28 pm

   Tamara said:

   You’re welcome!

   I think those are all great ideas, the meditation panic attack (you could make that really funny), starting six months earlier, and shading Nora as not a saint (no one is).

   I like that you’re using 3rd person here (I can’t because I’m writing in journal/diary format) and I love the name Nora! Forgot to tell you that.

   I would like to have you to check in with this month, if you wouldn’t mind. Someone more “anonymous” than my newly discovered local buddy. If that sounds good to you, we can either do it here or via e-mail. I have an excerpt up at the NaNo board — I’ll send you a link.

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