No Time. Must Write.

I'm really far behind on my NaNo word count. Like, really far. I basically need to double what I have now in the next couple days in order to reach 50,000. And I work full time.

There's some cool things and some crap that I've written, and I'll tell you all about them later. I need to write now. So much writing…

I'll see you Friday.

Stalling Out

Basically the moment I dove into this Waffle House idea, I was tired of it. I know, it seemed like so much fun. I thought, this will solve all my problems, they'll just pass through the Waffle House to an infinite number of worlds, and I'll have all the worlds I need.

But, It's. Not. Working.

So Infinite Steve: Evil Edition (who is actually called Esteban) has kidnapped Andrea, because a series of fortune cookies told him to. Essentially, he thinks that she is the key to getting back to his reality, because the fortunes led him to her. They were:

• Enjoy the good luck a companion brings you.
• When the universe closes a door, it opens a window.
• A chance meeting opens new doors to success and friendship.

Open Doors

So it has come to this.

The Waffle House.

Now, I don't know a lot about Waffle House. We don't have them here. What I do know is they never close. Even in the face of natural disaster, if they can be open, they will be open.

I also know that the Waffle House is a nexus between dimensions.

Unexpectedly Jentacular

All right, this post is going up super late, but here it is. It's been crazy busy lately, with not a lot of exciting progress on the writing front.

I've moved beyond the timeline splitting part of the story, and our heroes have continued on, hoping to make it to that all important something in California. Whatever it is. They would have just kept driving if they could, not stopping for a second. But, well, the limitations of modern machinery. So they have to stop for gas.

And at first, everything seems okay, like all the weird shit is behind them.

Portals and Plot Holes

This story is getting weird. I mean, I know it was supposed to be weird, but then all of a sudden there was a cult, sacrificing our heroes to their gods. Okay. Why not. Then apparently they were cannibals, just because there happened to be a kitchen nearby. I did not plan for this.

And now I've written them into a bit of a pickle and I'm not sure how to get them out. It was all because I realized they were getting away too easily, and I had to make it more of a challenge. Now it's… too much of a challenge.

Honestly, you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to skip to their daring escape and figure out the how later. To be honest, I think I messed up with my interdimensional portal placement, and that's going to need to be fixed later. But you know what we say about that?

It's December's problem.

Murder, Mayhem, and Small Towns

Taking my own advice from last time, I jumped right in to the meat of the story and immediately killed someone. You know how I like doing that.

But by finally getting my first taste of murder, I opened the floodgates to the rest of all that nonsense I had brewing. By killing one guy, I've introduced the Hitchhiker (even though we won't find out who she is until she returns later), the Sheriff (who, despite all initial appearances, is not here to help), and a small town that's going to be a confluence of weirdness and dimension hopping. And it has the best introduction to a town I've ever written (as though I've ever managed to describe a town before),

Check it:

It was the very definition of a farming town. Obscenely small, where everyone no doubt knew everyone else because they all showed up to the same family reunion. And no one knew who had invited them. Aunt Judy brought a Jell-O mold with vegetables in it, for some damn reason. Who the hell invited Aunt Judy?

Rough Roads

For some reason the super fun, super random, super easy story is super hard to write. I'm way behind on word count, and the story is dragging like it's trying to pull lead weights through the Swamp of Sadness.

I have all these great ideas, about divergent timelines, but they have to happen later, or I'll run out of ideas later, instead of running out of ideas now. I mean, I have divergent timelines, and alternate realities, and time loops, and a potentially haunted cooler, and none of it's happening right now.

Why?

The Shape of Things to Come

Foreshadowing! Within the first 200 words! And I did it completely by accident.

I was just trying to get a little characterization in, while sending these people on their road trip. Already it's apparent that Tony is a bit of a dick. He tells this whole story about why he was running late for their early morning meet up and…

Here, just read it. And pay no mind to my use of "steerage." That's what I always call the cargo/back hatch area of a vehicle. I don't know what it's called.