Fighting Sleep More Than Writing Fighting

Not too much exciting to report today. I wish I was writing a workplace novel because my most interesting anecdotes seem to come from there. Today a co-worker and I got in a conversation about a spy in our office who watches everything we do. Now, that could make a good storyline in itself because the changes in my work's organizational culture over the past few years has been something to write about.

But I'm trying to write in satire, humor, and parody and there's already an abundance of way better material in that respect. I'd feel like I was stealing from "The Office" and "Office Space." Plus, some people are having a hard time keeping a sense of humor about the whole situation.

So instead of changing gears (though I could have the Little Green Envelope be taken to the workplace of the two main human characters if I really wanted to) I went ahead and wrote the scene that I've had churning in my head for about the last 24 hours.

The two main characters were given last night. The "male human" is named Andy and the "female human" is name Kate (short for Catherine). I shouldn't say who is the main part of the conglomeration for these characters as it may get me in a severe amount of trouble.

So far all we know about Andy is that he's a workaholic (and no, he's not based on Andy from "The Office" though that thought did cross my mind when I named him) and at home he's a total mess. Kate hates her job because she feels unappreciated and is constantly cleaning the apartment. It's a bit of "The Odd Couple" meets "The Break Up" so far if I'm using the movie comparison that much of my novel is based on.

So, yes, back to the fight scene. It's a very short fight so far (about 1400 words) over the messes that the cat leaves on the floor of the couple's apartments. But, really, the undertone to Andy is more about the fact that Kate uses vacuuming with her iPod on as a way to really avoid the situation (so I guess I also have to add to the personality traits that she avoids confrontation through ecapism). On Kate's end, the fight is about how Andy doesn't think the crisis she's going through at work matters.

I'm going to have the fight revive tomorrow (a few hours later in the story) since I know it has to get way more heated than I can get it to be in my exhausted state right now.

The fight's subject was actually the first bit of post-modernism to sneak into my novel this year. The way I figured out what the fight was going to be about was that my roommate was vacuuming for about an hour tonight - while I was trying to watch "The Next Great American Band." I thought to myself, "how long does it take to vacuum half of a friggin' two bedroom apartment in Chicago?"

I actually had Andy say something similar to Kate (I didn't say it to my roommate) except they live in a one bedroom so I adjusted accordingly. I really have to get my writer's notebook tomorrow and map out Andy and Kate's apartment. Yeah, I wasted my time watching television.

The person that Kate is loosely based on would be deeply disappointed. Though I have to say none of Kate's mannerisms thusfar are based on this person, just the situation she finds herself in.

Well it appears as though my talk about the office did have some bearing on tonight's writing after all though.

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The goal tonight is to get some sleep because tomorrow I want to have the full energy to finish off the fight scene. It's got to get way rougher than it did. It's not the gran mal fight in the relationship, but it's pretty close.

And I can't build up enough anger to translate it into the characters if I can barely keep my eyes open.