"Join our group and you will find / harmony and peace of mind / make you better..."
Roman Rabbit
Chapter 1
1928
Roman was late. The bearded lady had already found a table at the Tick Tock Longue.
The waiter asked if she wanted coffee. She refused.
“When will your friend be here, sir?” said the waiter.
The bearded lady’s smile was pinched. “Whenever he wants to be,” she said in as soft a voice as she could manage.
The waiter left quickly.
Roman showed up soon afterward. He wore a tweed jacket and a peeked cap. He lay the cap on the table and sat down. “Alexandria, you’re the loveliest dame in the joint.”
The bearded lady sipped from her glass of water. “Did you run here?”
He was out of breath. “Perhaps.”
“Strange. You live only a few blocks away, don’t you?”
“There was a crowd coming out of the post office on Eighth.”
“Roman?”
“Yes?”
“There’s confetti on your ear.”
Roman reached up to feel one of his ears. His ears were long and tall. He had the face of a rabbit,
of course, with great pink-red eyes and a twitching nose.
Sure enough, there was an orange string clinging to the velvet of his white ear. It stuck to his
fingers when he pulled it off. He had to flick it onto the table. It landed there and stuck.
Alexandria and Roman gazed at it.
“Out late last night?” she said.
“Very late, but I only went to Broadway.”
“Yes, I see. Only Broadway.”
“Sure, just Broadway! I took in a show. Then we all went to Greenwich Village. By ‘we,’ I’m not sure who, I didn’t catch anyone’s name.”
“How lovely,” said Alexandria. Water dampened her beard and she attempted to dry it with her napkin.
“I suppose you disapprove?” Roman waggled his rabbity eyebrows at her.
“I would never openly disapprove of you, my dear,” said the bearded lady.
“Openly,” said the rabbit man.
“Yes. Openly.” She took another sip of water. Her lips were a pair of rouge cushions hiding in her
orange beard. All the other women had their hair bobbed. Alexandria had stayed long. “It is Thursday, after
all.”
“The middle of the week is fine when it’s Halloween.”
“Was it?”
“It was last night. I fit right in. Everyone asked me where I had bought my mask.” He touched his
face.
Alexandria smiled. “Did you go to a party while you were in Greenwich?”
Roman hesitated. “There was a place on Christopher Street and in the place was a door. A woman let me in. She held a ladybug mask on a stick. Everyone inside was an animal.”
“What kind?”
“There were giraffes, penguins in penguin suits, monkeys in monkey suits, and women wearing jeweled cat faces. At midnight, everyone took them off and kissed.”
“And what did you do?” Alexandria leaned forward.
“Nothing.” Roman smiled but he looked at the table. “I went home. They would have thought I was a poor sport for not taking off my disguise, too.”
“It would be hard to remove.”
“Not as hard as your beard.”
“The problem with my beard is that when I try to shave it, my face ends up rough and scratchy,” said
Alexandria.
Quiet filled the table.
The waiter came by. “Can I get you anything?” he said to the rabbit man.
Roman turned to him with a smile. “How about a cup of seltzer?”
“Seltzer?”
“Upset stomach.”
Alexandria cupped her mouth and said in a faux whisper, “The man had a late night.” She winked.
The waiter frowned. “Right away, sir.” He left.
Roman said, “Thank you.”
The bearded lady laughed. “You have a flask on your leg. I’m sure you’re awfully thirsty.”
“Well, it’s been a whole six hours since I was inside a speakeasy, you know.”
My word count for this year is 31,508, which is more than a hair shy of the usual goal of 50,000 words.
Why is the word count so low? When I was able to reach the usual goal for the past two years?
There are many reasons. The most prominent one is this: I didn't have enough story.
This year's NaNo idea, "Roman Rabbit," is based on a comic strip I have been drawing in my free time for the past few months. I really enjoy drawing it and I feel the characters grow stronger and more developed with each finished episode.
While the transfer from comic book character to prose piece has been made before, in both mainstream AND independent markets, I had a lot of trouble creating a long plot for Roman. Up until the beginning of November, I've written him as a gag-a-strip character with only a smidgen of continuity. He has a past, future, and present, though, and I figured the novelette form would allow me to explore that.
I picked a main plot that I figured would involve all the characters, re-cast and meeting each other for the first time. Roman's life would be re-told in flashbacks, which is what I've been doing with the comic. By the time I realized starting from the very beginning of Roman's life would have been a better idea, the month was almost half over.
There was another story I had in mind for this month. I brain-stormed it as long as Roman's novel. Not only was it set in the present, it also had a more fantasy-flavor to it. It involved a New Yorker on an odyssey through the after life looking for her dead mother, a witch. I shelved it for the time being when I realized I had done genre fantasy for the past couple years. Now I've realized two things: 1) fantasy lends itself well to NaNoWriMo and 2) I like writing urban fantasy.
Roman Rabbit, the main character, may have the head of a rabbit, but his story quickly became a detective noir. Looking at the text now, I realize how much of this would be much stronger in comic form. Hmmm.
Though I hate to admit it, time was also a factor in this year's NaNoWriMo. November is always a busy month; I've been able to make time to write, before. Being in New York, however, has meant I've had more opportunities to go to concerts, museums, galleries, exhibitions, and restaurants. Some of the things that came up these past few weeks were things I doubt I'll have the ability to take advantage of again. Oh - and wasn't there, you know, an election this month? That warranted an entire night of celebration. It would have been easier if I was just working around the internships.
Excuses aside, I'm pleasantly surprised how well the NaNo turned out with the restraints it had. It has a beginning, a build-up, and an ending, and some interesting things I've learned about the characters along the way. I've also learned a few more things about writing - flat characters vs. fully-realized characters, planning out plots - and I feel like I'm closer to the day when I can put NaNo aside for November and work on a full-length novel.
So. I didn't make the word count, but I feel I've finished a draft of something important. I think that's really the most important thing one can get from NaNoWriMo, anyway.
December's here? Already? Wow.