The Magic of Stories | ONC 2024 shortlist

25 - Night shifts

That same Saturday afternoon, I snuggled up with my laptop and a steaming cup of coffee in my favourite armchair to set my plan in motion. If Conny wouldn't finish Luca's story, I could. But it turned out it wasn't as easy as I had hoped to find a start.

For about twenty minutes, I stared at my blank screen, waiting for inspiration. My mind remained as empty as the document I had titled 'Luca's Dream—The End.' Was this how the infamous writer's block felt? I'd never experienced something similar while working on my thesis. But that had been before my recent dip in self confidence and being abandoned by the man I loved—and who had sworn he loved me back.

With an exhausted sigh, I went to the kitchen to fetch a refill for my cup, pushed my self pity away and mulled about my writing project while I waited for the water to boil. Where to begin? At the point Conny stopped, of course, but rereading her last paragraph didn't trigger the word flow.

Back in my chair, I stared at my screen, took a deep breath, and typed four words.

'Luca,' and beneath it 'happily ever after.'

That was as much as I could squeeze out of my mushy brain. Not a promising start, since for the story to have a happy ending, the protagonist would have to meet a love interest first. Someone he cared for and was looking forward to spend time with—like Conny and Paco. I sighed and ran my hands through my tangled curls.

What kind of protagonist would I be able to relate to? It had to be someone I felt Luca deserved, some person I could trust to not hurt his feelings, not like Oliver had done to me. After all, it was my Luca I was writing about here, and I wanted for him to experience a happy ending.

What if I made her or him a librarian? This would allow me to bring in a few of my own recent adventures. Perhaps it would be easier if I wrote about a place I was familiar with. Besides, I always had the option to rely on Cat as an inspiration for the snark in the story.

I typed a few more words, a first sentence, hesitated, then added a second. My coffee grew cold while I outlined a scene. This wasn't a full chapter yet, but my attempt picked up where Conny had abandoned the manuscript and introduced a female as a potential love interest for Luca—hooray, I had made a start.

While I slurped my cold coffee, I reread my words, cringing at the typos and fixing some on the go. And then I realised out of the blue there was a way to tie in the scene with a chance encounter Luca had at the beginning of the story. Was it possible Conny had planned for the shy girl he'd met in a coffee shop becoming his girlfriend all along? I couldn't know and didn't want to ask her, but once I made the connection, it became easy to let Luca meet the girl again at the bus stop in front of the library where she worked. Of course, I had to bring kitty along, since this was the narrator. Why would Luca wait at the bus stop with his kitten? Okay, he was on the way to the vet.

From there, the words formed a whirlwind in my head and let my fingers dance over the keys while ideas popped up like mesmerising soap bubbles. I kept typing away, afraid to interrupt the flow and not bothering with details as long as I was in the right mood. Virtual page after page filled with my writing while I lost track of the time and the world around me.

To my surprise, it was already dark outside when a pang of hunger urged me to stop. I saved my work, exhausted but enthusiastic, to fix dinner. While I wolfed down a generous portion of the vegetable curry I'd bought on my way home, I reread what I had written. The style didn't fit Conny's as well as I wished, and the text needed a lot of work until it would flow with the desired ease, but for my first go, I was happy with the outcome. Fiction writing proved to be more fun than I had expected.

I continued my work after dinner and didn't stop until my eyes burned and I made more errors than progress. Before I interrupted my writing spree close to one o'clock in the morning, I noted down a few ideas, hoping this would help me back into the right mindset the next day. There was no reason to worry, though. I slept like a baby and woke late, eager to continue. Towards noon, I had three chapters down and an outline for the rest of the novel.