November 27th
Total Words: 44,982
Ambience: The Chains of Your Mind
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before…”
-The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
You're not sure exactly how the days have melted into weeks. All you know is that it seems like every second hand of every clock is constantly ticking, and that when it's dark you have the gas lamps ready to be turned on, and when you wake up it's normally about midday already by your estimation of where the sun is hiding behind the clouds. All you do is write.
It must have been some days by now since you've joined other writers for a meal downstairs. Every now and then, one of the other guests stops by with a snack or something to drink for you. You are unconscious of how many others receive that treatment. You mindlessly eat what they bring you, and you write until you can't keep your eyes open anymore. Ever the dutiful author, you pass many early mornings slumped over your desk, dead to the world, head full of vivid dreams.
Prompt: Reveal something to a character in a dream.
This evening is like many others. Filling in another parchment with scrawls of black ink, the light of the gas lamp grows hazy as your eyes get heavier and heavier. In an instant, you are lost to slumber and dreams. Your dream is strange tonight, like many others. Tonight, you see yourself locking a door not unlike the front door at Inkhouse, but with more locks than you had ever seen upon it.
The dream warps and shifts, and your hands hold fine silver shackles. You perceive a slumbering author, one who you sense has designs to flee. In a motion more smooth than any true man could make, you place the shackle on the author's ankle, and lock its chain to the heavy floor vent. Standing again, the dream warps once more, and you are standing in another chamber altogether, lifting your hand to do something. You feel a cold, hard grip about your wrist, so real you jolt awake. And there you are, standing in the wrong chamber, held by the wrist by a very displeased guest.
Challenge: Use a random word generator to create a list of 10 words. Take 5 minutes to incorporate all 10 words into what you're writing.
Question: What is a part of your conflict that your characters have not considered the consequences of?
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