The Road Ahead

I had an idea, recently, about naming chapters or sections in my NaNo novel after road features. I picture, in a print version, at the beginning of each section is an image of a road sign, and then the applicable title.  Like this:

So the bit with the diverging timeline would be called Fork Ahead. And Roundabout, pictured above, has something to do with a time loop. Those are the only ones I'm sure of at the moment. As though I'm ever sure of anything.

And yes, time loops. I was thinking about lotus-eaters, and how that's become kind of cliché these days. Everyone's all eating snacks, getting distracted, not wanting to leave. No thanks, I'm tired of it. Time loops, though, that never gets old. So for that, I think there's a town that's just been repeating some period of time for the past however many years, while the rest of the world has gone on without them. I don't know what caused the loop, or how to get out of it, but that's Later Me's problem.

I also had some thoughts about the ending, but I'm not going to get into that right now. I need to leave some element of mystery in there. And besides, I might change my mind by the time I get there. Kind of depends on whether I want to give them a happy ending or if I want to fuck them over. I guess it depends on how they behave themselves over the next month.

Now, it's just one day until NaNo begins. And I'm totally prepared to start, with a good handle on these characters, right? Well… I know a few things about them. I know something of their backgrounds. Their family life, to be specific. This all started because I had a song stuck in my head. This one, I think. That led to figuring out each character's family and how that might have influenced them.

• Andrea - happy little nuclear family, with at least one brother, probably more.
• Jesse - single mother, deceased father, possibly a younger sibling, with at least a four year gap.
• Tony - absent/distant parents, leaving him accustomed to being on his own, definitely an only child.

I think I can dig some personalities out of that. See, I don't need some damn 100-question list to figure out my characters. I just need to picture their family Christmas cards. Oh… I actually just did that, imagined how they would be in a family photo. And I made myself sad.

Perfect!

You know what? I'm totally ready for NaNo. All I want to do is manipulate people's emotions and control them. And being able to do it to myself is a good start.

Let's do this shit!

I'll see you Friday, hopefully with some words to show off.