Multi-tasking

The experts say that it's impossible to think about more than one thing at a time. To the contrary, I often have checked my email while watching TV. The difficult thing is learning more than one thing at a time. I'm confident that learning requires intense focus on one task.Since the previous exercises all have done exactly that, the skill for today is to take the first step down the tightrope of thinking about more than one aspect of the story at a time. Does the main character have a unique manner of speaking that still matches the unique theme of the story and that pushes the narrative into an unpredicted area? Are the descriptions alive and full of action that is believable given the character's backstory and current state? The mantra from creative writing sessions is to never include a detail that isn't achieving at least two objectives for you. Are you keeping up your narrative style and matching your theme? Is the character interesting and believable? Two objectives is the easy threshold. The authors of great stories match their details to character, theme, plot, setting, diction, paragraph length, and even comma usage. Holden Caulfield wouldn't be Holden Caulfield if he didn't stop so much in the middle of his sentences, and to stop time from moving forward was Holden's deepest desire.***"We're gonna live forever."He said it to her as a toast, and raised his glass of whiskey toward her,  and she blinked at him. He couldn't know, she thought, and she lifted her cherry red drink to him and showed a gleam of teeth. Outside the wide flat plains grew purple as night fell. She had let down her hood, which she wore despite the summer heat, and showed him her porcelain skin, and she had heard his pulse increase at the sight of her. That pulse scared her, but she liked his brash words and the curly mess of his hair so she'd let him buy her a drink."I stole that from a friend uh mine," he said. He moved closer. She could hear his heart now and, worse, smell his cologne and whiskey."One time I got so drunk, Steve - in the doorway right yonder - had to take my ass outsiide."She didn't bother to look at who Steve was. She was a vampire, and a loner, and most importantly had never kissed a boy without eating him. She desperately wanted to kiss a boy without eating him."We're gonna live forever," she said, and raised her glass to him once more.Ten minutes later they walked alone in the alley behind the bar. The scent of piss wafted from a dumpster where a homeless man cuddled around a threadbare winter coat. The boy touched her wrist. He smiled. He had had quite a bit to drink."Do you want to kiss me?" he asked.She froze, and watched with horror as he brought his face close to hers and she saw the marbling of brown in his green eyes. He kissed her. She almost cringed, but brushed her lips across his mouth and waited, and waited, and waited, and no overwhelming desire tore her lips from his and fastened her teeth to his throat. She kissed him back.Afterward, she popped his eyes from their sockets, took out her own and popped her eyes into his face. He looked at her."Help me, idiot," she said."This sure is odd..." he said, but took his eyeballs. He examined them. He put them in her face.The night sky was blacker and more beautiful with his eyes in her head. She could see the corner of the alley where he had thrown up in the middle of helping his blacked-out friend into a cab. She revalued the blue-green leaves of the trees and the wind and the fresh smell of the creek that carried from down the road. When she turned to look at him, his eyes showed a man who feared to be alone, and she took his hand in hers, and watched her eyes in his face."We're the same, almost," he said, looking at his eyes with hers. "But you're a vampire."He stated it as a fact. He pulled her close. She breathed in his whiskey scent, and wondered to herself why she hadn't eaten him. He laughed because the eyes in his head understood the puzzlement in her face.They kept one another's eyes, and she grew fond of sights she used to despise: she watched the sunrise on a video he made for her every morning, and she smiled at the violent football players he loved, and she hoped for dirty dishes in the sink because it meant she was not dreaming. He liked the look of rare steak. And black clothes. And collars.One day he said, "Make me like you."She grew afraid that he was unhappy and that he would leave like the other vampire she had loved. She could not understand why he would want to change if he was content. But she loved him, and could not resist his desire, and gave him what he wanted.She bit him at midnight under the ground and his dirty-blond hair became entwined with layers of black, and his green and brown eyes changed in her face to pale silver-blue, and his massive forearms grew thin and sleek and porcelain. Her eyes in his face flew around the room in surprise to feel his heart stop mid-beat. His body stretched from just bigger than hers to a height taller by the length of his long thin fingers. She saw her eyes in his face find his eyes in hers, and he held her and kissed her."We're gonna live forever," he said.His voice was the same.***Start with a Line: We're gonna live forever.Love the Sinner: She's a vampire. She eats but is shy and upset that she might be found intimidating.  He's a southern man with a drawl who parties too much.Music and Rhythm: The sentences are very long for her, but short for him, until she turns him into a vampire.Where the Truth Lies: He's a Texan with big forearms who meets a vampire and falls in love. I know about love, and Texans, but not much about vampires. She steals his eyes and replaces them with her own, and pops hers in his head.Street Dialogue: The Texan has an accent modeled after a few people I know.Destroying What You Love: She changes him, and only as she changes him do I describe his features.***Tomorrow I'll work on revising this story. Hope you enjoy!Getting Started: 1Character: 1Point of View and Tone: 1Plot and Narrative: 1Dialogue and Voice: 1Descriptive Language and Setting: 1Revision: 0Overall: 1