Sophie Li

Happy Hump Day!

And to those who are going back to school / have loved ones who are going back to school: HAPPY BACK-TO-SCHOOL WEEK!

I am working now, so this hardly affects my day-to-day life. But the smell of autumn and that first prickle of cold air will always bring back memories 🙂

My snippet for this week has nothing to do with the start of school, or anything new or exciting, but it does talk about beginnings. This takes place later on in my novel, when Olivia confronts Matt after an incident:

“Matt, about last night,” She says. Her eyes are downcast.

He stills, his heart pounding, his eyes dropping to the bandages on his left arm. He leans against the counter, touching the wound with the other hand.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Olivia asks.

Matt opens his mouth, then closes it. He wouldn’t know where to begin. There is the purple haze that sinks into your mind, it begins as a harmless whisper, telling you that you’re not so smart, that so-and-so could do better, it begins as a gentle weight on your chest, that reminds you to get your act together, or it will squeeze the air out of your lungs, it begins as a veil over your thoughts, and you feel your mind turning just a bit slower, having to retrace its steps just one more time, and it takes a bit longer to make decisions, because you want to make sure you do the right thing, even if it is as simple as choosing what to buy for groceries and what to make for dinner, it makes you dread every action, every thought, every inch of your being.

She is looking at him again, her mouth pressed into a frown. He knows he has to say something. Now that he’s made her do all this, he owes her an explanation.

He opens his mouth again, but the words catch in his throat.

The thing with words is, the longer you keep them in your heart, the more they hurt you, the more they fill you with shame, the more you want to keep them in your heart.

WIPPet Math: 7 paragraphs = 6 for the sixth of September + 1 for the first WIPPet of this month 🙂

WIPpet Wednesdays is a blog hop where writers can share a snippet from their WIP. The only stipulation is that the excerpt is somehow related to the date. Be sure to check out some of the other lovely WIPpet snippets here. Thank you Emily Wrayburn for hosting.