The End of Imaginary Friends :: Chapter 1

in #fiction6 years ago (edited)



This chapter is the first from my in-progress novel The End of Imaginary Friends. The novel was inspired by one of my short stories from several months ago, but even then it screamed for more words to tell Ariana's whole story. This is an entry for @thewritersblock First Chapter contest, where the first chapter of a novel is submitted as the entry.
 


 



“Git off with ye!” The fat shopkeeper shooed the girl away with a wave of his towel like he was brushing away a buzzing fly. “Not wantin’ yer kind around here.”

Ariana ducked her head in mute apology and and backed away from the market stall. Other patrons glanced at her, then gave her a wide berth to allow her a clear exit. Nobody wanted to touch her or be touched by her. Her deformity was obvious.

(story preview only)






Cover image by @negativer using image from Tina Hartung at Unsplash.
Thanks to @tanglebranch for the final read-through!



Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://negativerealm.com/the-end-of-imaginary-friends-chapter-1/

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Maybe someday I will finish this novel!

Mate, this is so awesome. Best thing I've read on steemit in a while, that's for sure.

Thanks so much for reading and saying so! It's a long thing, so I appreciate you spending the time on it :)

I had it open since yesterday so I wouldn't forget. I didn't have time yesterday. Is the next part coming soon or is it still being written?

Thanks :)

I'm a couple chapters in already, but I'll likely delay publishing them to steemit until I'm near completion with the whole thing. It's amazing how much potential there is for stuff to change at the beginning even when you near the end, and once it's locked in on steemit you don't really have the chance to fix/tweak any of those early bits (until someday when they open up editing for 7 day + posts)

Neg!

In case you hadn't heard; you can edit any post now, courtesy of @timcliff.

Details here.

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. I had not heard of this little trick. Thanks!

Off I go to edit and tweak old stuff to my heart's content!

[Bwahahahahahaha!] - (laughs maniacally)

You really drew me into this story, Neg. Your principal character Ariana is an empathy magnet.

Then you twist the knife by appealing to dark, submerged phobias... Not to mention the intrigue of imaginary friends? And what's to become of them?

Well done.

😄😇😄

@creatr

Thanks! I tried to plant a lot of little seeds that can be spun out into threads in a larger story. We'll see how my angle plays out...someday!

Thanks for reading!

Ah... the "someday" of the part time author!

Best wishes for future development! ;)

An awesome start to a fascinating story! I can't wait to read the next chapter. You have me hooked on Ariana's story.

Thanks much for reading! I think she has a lot of potential as a character and as a person.

Wow, great story! Ariana might feel a little sad reading about the injustice and cruelty, but then again she may really appreciate her blessings a little more. Tell me it's not a devastatingly sad ending though!

Thanks! The novel itself is still being worked on...but there are going to be some parts that are indeed devastating. The short story that this novel is based on will be a chapter in the novel, and is a major turning point in the story and ties into this first chapter pretty well. If you want to read that, let me know, and I can send you the url on the side :)

This is wonderful, @negativer. What a great idea to expand your short story into a novel. You’ve set this up for a much more in depth story about Ariana and her intriguing world. I really look forward to reading subsequent chapters. Will you plan to publish it in serialized form on your blog? I am trying to decide my own approach as well.

Thanks for reading! I definitely intend to find something mainstream for this if/when it gets to that point. Once I have enough rejections on it I can always fall back to pubbing it on my blog. :)

Good plan! And good luck!!

This is great :D The main trio are all really cute and it definitely left me wanting to read more! A little concerned it's going to make me sad though considering the implication in the title

Thanks for reading! I admit, the title may imply disaster, but consider that even if something might end there is always the potential for new beginnings.

That's really good.

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to read it!

This post has been selected for curation by @msp-curation by @sunravelme. It has been upvoted and will be featured in this week's Working Title post. It will also be considered for the official @minnowsupport curation post and if selected will be resteemed from the main account. Feel free to join us on Discord!


This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.

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