Under 20 days now...

I'm so frustrated. I'm trying not to be and maybe that's making it worse. I'm just going to let myself be frustrated.

This time last year I was writing out profiles. I just read them. I love them! Why I've allowed that story to sit on the shelf for a year with no attention is...stupid. But now is not the time. That can be my next revision project.

The revision on Cousins is going great! It's tedious but moving forward daily, and that is amazing for me. I have 19 days till it hits the shelf to sit for a month. Then December I'll comb through one more time and then send it off to a contest.

But what about NaNo? Can I go into 50,000 words with nothing prepared? I might have to. It scares the bejeebees out of me. I keep telling myself there's plenty of opportunity out there--good starts that I have, interesting characters that might work--but nothing that's just taken over like it has for the past couple years. So maybe it's just a matter of working it a little. If I'd settle on one and start doing what I've been preaching in workshop, maybe it would take hold and take off. But so far, even the four I've put out seem to fizzle before I even hit "middle" ideas, much less enough conflict to keep going for 50,000 words.

So what did the last two stories grow out of? Cousins grew out of a scene that came to mind as I was driving country roads home. The two characters were working together in a scene that never appeared in the book. But the entire situation was encapsulated in that scene and grew from it. Storm Front was born from the aftermath of Katrina as I wondered how easy it would be to "vanish" in the quagmire that resulted, especially if a young person found himself caught in a situation not entirely of his own making that would make being someone else both appealing and preserving. Sort of like the scene in Titanic when Rose decides to embark on a new life as a different person.

Part of me wants to do something light for a change. Both Cousins and Storm Front have little or no humor. They dig for a core, and while that's the type of story I enjoy best, I also enjoy the kind where the kids are smart, or funny, and turn the chore of growing up into an adventure. Maybe that's the problem. Perhaps I should stick with what I know. But what's the fun of that? I like a stretch.

So stretch then, stupid. DO something! ~sigh~

I'm going to go clean house. That's how bad this is! LOL! Lots of water. There's something magical about water. :)