What was supposed to be a light little story (comedic, at that) about two people who fall in love has taken on so many complications, I haven’t been able to add to my NaNoWriMo word count today. Which sucks, because this was supposed to be the first novella of two I planned to complete for this month’s challenge.

But that’s me and my writing: no story is ever without its twist. I’m incapable, it seems, of writing a straightforward boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-boy-gets-girl-back tale. There are always other forces involved, and intricate ones at that. I think it’s the villains. They worm their way into my stories whether I want them to or not. There’s never just a circumstance. There has to be a physical villain.

As the title of this post implies, though, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve spent hours brainstorming–done everything short of actually getting in the shower, which is where my best ideas usually come to light. (I’m saving that for when I really get stuck … and saving unnecessary water-usage at the same time.) And I think I’ve got the plot sorted out. The bare bones of it, at least. That’s something I never do, and honestly, I worry that overthinking it will ruin my usual pantsing (flying by the seat of my pants) style. But we’ll see.

In case you’re curious about the book, it’s the prequel to the novel I wrote last year for NaNo, about an office romance between a female manager and a male temp who’s also a stripper. The story isn’t nearly as tawdry as it could have been. IT managed to be light (despite a menagerie of villains working in the office) and funny. I’ve already written the sequel to that one. They all revolve around the bar where the strippers perform. The second novella I still hope to write for this year’s NaNo will be the third in the series. The one I’m writing now will be free with sign-ups to my mailing list.

Wow. I never self-promote in my SoCS posts. I hope you’ll forgive me. But that’s what comes of just writing off the top of my head.

Anyway, time’s tight, so back to work. Hopefully the words will start flowing now that I’ve started writing. For me, writing a story is much like this stream of consciousness stuff. I start writing with a character’s mindset in my head, and it just comes out. It’s not the characters that give me problems. It’s the sticky situations I put them in.

Right! Back to work.

This post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Click the following link to see all the other posts in the comment section, and join in. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2019/11/08/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-9-19/