15,531 / 50,000 (31.1%)

First word: She

Last word: parents

Random sentence: “I’m not going to be a fucking politician,” he growled.

So I was a little concerned that I’d made to Day 9 without having a theme song for this story. My stories, the long ones anyway, always seem to have theme songs, a song that plays over and over while I write, either for real or in my head (because I’m psycho like that).But you can’t force a theme song, it just has to happen.

We’ve been having this absolutely gorgeous fall, long and colorful. Tonight I’m driving to school, down skinny streets strewn with orange leaves. Fog is swirling in off the ocean. I’m listening to the radio. This song comes on with the absolutely haunting refrain, “I walk alone, I walk alone.” I’m like, “that’s it! that’s it!” Mind you, I’ve been writing for a good two hours just prior to this, so I’m still pretty wrapped up in my story. But it was definitely it.

Theme song: Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” Check.

Onward.