Charlie Walks: A Novel Chapter 2

Charlie comes home to a messy desk. Sits down to write. Thinks of Sarah.

Yesterday I released my first novel, Charlie Walks, the story of a machine learning engineer who wants to be a writer. And to celebrate, I’m posting the first seven chapters day by day for the first seven days. This is chapter 2. Chapter 1 is also available.

2

Someone asked me why they were there once, the flamingos on my wall. I stared at them then down at my desk and thought, you know what? I can’t work in an untidy room. I don’t know how everything got to where it did, but it did.

I shovelled crap off the desk. Reread some notes from yesterday. A book doesn’t have to be 60,000 words Charlie. A reminder. Plenty of notes on how to write a book and not enough actual writing.

The demons crept in. I hadn’t put enough time into the paper today. Writing was the release. Video games when I was younger. As the law of conservation of energy states: addictions can’t be removed, only replaced.

Most of it is sitting here waiting for the thoughts to come. And then they get dumped on the page. Whatever comes up, comes up. If it didn’t make sense, fine, it went down anyway. I’d fix it later.