I actually think I’ve cracked the first chapter. I’m up to about four pages and I don’t loathe it. I got the first part out of the way, and it’s rough but serviceable.
Now I just have to sell the absolute hell out of my protagonist seeing someone he loves for the first time in a decade. Going to take a breather before I do that part, but I might actually have a first draft up in the next few days.
In the meantime, a fub fact from a discussion I had online today. The word “nimrod” meaning “idiot” is down to a misunderstanding involving Looney Tunes cartoons. In an old episode from the 1940s, Daffy Duck refers to Elmer Fudd as Nimrod. Now, kids at the time would be much more familiar with the Bible, and understand that Nimrod is a legendary hunter. So Daffy’s making fun of Elmer much in the same way you might call a dimwit “Einstein.”
But when these cartoons kept being shown to subsequent generations, that familiarity just wasn’t there. Much like kids of my generation were initially mystified by the episodes referencing Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, we heard “Nimrod” and didn’t know what it meant. The context, of course, was simply Daffy insulting Elmer, so we took it to be a term that meant “buffoon.” And that’s the modern definition of the word.
Language and its evolution entertain me to no end. (I also love getting in arguments over the pronunciation of GIF, having actually been alive when the goddamn format was invented.)