Tick tock, tick tock

Ahh the joys of October, that last month of sanity before the delightful madness of NaNoWriMo!

Today I shall report on one particular joy of October: realizing that you have no coherent plot to expand, that what you actually have is a collage of mental images and proto-characters floating around in a virtual cauldron, and that November is getting closer much faster than the rules of physics should allow.

This particular joy results in a high pitched, in concert, keening from the winged taloned ferrets who kicked the penguins out of your creativity center at the end of September. This keening makes it difficult to remember 1) how to tie your shoes and 2) what exact actions allow a banana to be eaten sans peel. Happily, banana peels are supposed to be good for you.

H'mmm... on reflection, perhaps that isn't quite what you thought of when you first read the word "joy." But consider the other option: a perfect plot appears in your head, complete with beginning, middle, and end. You have the main characters fully fleshed out; the rising action, the black moment, the revelation, the redemptive moment, the climax and the denouement. You even have sub-characters and sub-plots galore. And you CAN'T write until November begins. Now that really doesn't sound like joy, does it?

That's what I thought too.

Enjoy the keening. Let it form the backdrop of relaxing with in front of the fire over which the cauldron is hung. Stir your plot soup a bit more, take a sample out every couple of days, add a pinch of desperation and a smidgen of world destruction/ninjas/unrequited love/insert your choice here. You have 14 or so days left, and something is bound to coalesce by then.

I promise.