Grab an Analgesic and Come See How my Groovy Brain Works (Or Doesn't, as The Case May Be!)

And now I have no clear direction on where I want to go with my novel so I am going to ramble, amble, ramble. Hopefully some more cohesive ideas and plans will formulate as I do so.

Somehow, someway I need to get Jason inside the Timmons' house to realize they have a menagerie (Sarah copes with goth, her dad copes with pets), have him interact more with Gabe and Lydia leading to an invitation to youth group and church and finally a Gospel presentation, Have Mrs. Collier met with Mrs. Pierce and come back "changed" because she's accepted Christ. Have Sarah start hanging with Lydia and slowly start to morph into colors of hope, especially pink. Insert the sleeping bag scene, have Jason land a date with Dina and find he doesn't like her after comparing her worldly attitude with Lydia's, have Jana recover from anorexia? Or should she tragically die? That might destroy Sarah - or Sarah could turn to her new friend Lydia and Mrs. P for help. Hmmmm. I also need to add in a murder by the traveling-shovel-of-death, the weilder of which shall, for a time, be falsely believed to be one and the same with the Pink Panther - the mysterious person who vandalizes farm machinery by coating it with pink spray paint. And how does this story end? Will Carl and Celia get married and move into the menagerie house? How weird would it be for Jason and Srah to live in the same house as siblings? Would all the pets get on Celia's nerves, or will she love them?

Oh my word. Horror of horrors: Will Mr. T's python eat Mr. Jelly Belly?

Oy!

Must. Move. On.

But wait! Jason needs his next writing assignment for the magazine and needs to come up with a noble use for his money. Or should he waste it? Or should he secretly use it to help Jana's family cope with her illness/death? Who should be the victim of the traveling-shovel-of-death? One of my characters? Mr. Pierce, the father of the eight children next door (or is it nine - I still need to go back and deal with the wailing baby that doesn't exist)? One of Jason's teachers? Or...oh...............HER. Oh, how per.fect.ly. awful! Yes, definitely her. They will kill her to steal her ______, though it will make me so sad I'll probably cry. And now that I'm going to knock her off, I think Dina needs to live or do I mean Jana? Oh yeah, Jana. Whatever.

And what else do I need to work in here? Ann P.? Oh..no, sorry. That's a new friend on FaceBook that I'm supposed to ask about rats. Let's see, Istill need to find someone who loves/prefers homemade oatmeal. I think Mrs. Pierce is the obvious choice, much to her children's chagrin. Bad poetry. That should be Jason responding in a "fun" way to Sarah's goth diatribes. (I was not excited about writing tonight, but this is really fun! AND it's giving me fodder for the class I'm teaching for the writer's group in January. I shall entitle it "Overcoming Writer's Block the NaNoWriMo Way".

As Jason would say, "SCORE!")

I think Jason's friend, Rose, shall be a chocolate fanatic who pays no attention to fashion and doesn't wear any make-up or spend hours doing her hair each day. Nonetheless, she is pretty and winsome. Oooo, maybe she can develop a crush on Gabe. Of course, first I'll have to figure out how to get her into Jason neighborhood. Maaaaaaaaybe Jason needs to have a party. Yes...OR he could invite his friends to his Mom's wedding. OR people can meet at one and develop crushes at the other.

And why is my stupid (STUPID) word processor typing everything in italics? Need to fix that. There. Done.

And I had planned a Search & Rescue component that hasn't even begun to materialize yet. It is essential to Sarah's healing…

Woodpecker wars seem likely at the landlady's house. She'll have wood siding and will burst in at obnoxiously serious moments demanding that Jason come help her beat the beasts away before they ruin everything. EVERYTHING!

More children. Who wishes they had more children? Jason's mom? Wouldn't it be funny if…

If I'm going to assign someone to be a non-germaphobe, it should be someone who has ample opportunity to exasperate a true germaphobe. Kind of a GrammaJ meets Funsocksgirl echo. There can be some rewashing of dishes and spraying of air freshener and…….I've……...GOT IT! With 8 children (nine?) the Pierces are reasonably tidy and organized, but Mr. and Mrs. P do NOT believe in anti-bacterial soap. They firmly sunscribe to the "dirt builds immunity" philosophy. Enter Gramma Pierce. Heh-heh-heh.

I like it!

I also need to firmly establish whether it is Fall or Spring (I'm leaning toward spring), how many children the Pierces actually have, and straighten out Celia's school and work schedule. Is she in nursing clinicals or not because that will really make a big diff in her schedule…

I think I need a snack - maybe some ice cream because my throat is sore. That's not good because Ken and I are 'sposed to do music in church tomorrow. Of well, if the Lord wants me to sing, I'm sure I'll feel well enough to go and to sing. None of this has anything to do with my novel except that...maybe school is about to be shutdown for ove r wekk because...everyone's been hit by a flu epidemic! Except the Pierces! Because they homeschool! They can bring soup and cookies 'round to the sick neighbors. Then maybe one of them will get the flu - *gasp* - it will be little Michael - *double gasp*

Sheesh, all this drama is killing me.

Worse yet, I STILL don't know what the end will be. I detest stories with weak endings. But I so seldom finish a fictional story, I have no idea if I CAN write a good ending. Do I want to leave it a little open ended for a sequel? Maybe I could meld some of this story into Linear Equation and use that as a semi-related sequel.

Groovy, I like the way you think, girl!

All the rambling thus far has added over a thousand words to my total (and this sentence bought me even more). I will not make 50,000 words by the end of November unless a miracle happens, but I WILL finish Through the Molasses Swamp and then I WILL finish Linear Equation and I will start Hold the Mustard.

Suddenly it occurs to me that - hey, why did my stupid (STUPID) word processor switch colors on me? Gotta fix that…

And now it's back to italics for no good reason. Stupid, Stupid! Gotta fix that too. I think the word processor is jealous because the photo program is currently holding almost 6,000 photos, but my document file is soooooooooooooo much smaller.

Dang. Now what occured to me? Oh yeah. I've called my novel Through the Molasses Swamp, but the Candyland game has not yet………………...oh my word! I see it plain as day. Never mind. I see where the game will be played and who will play it and, even better, I THINK I JUST GOT A GLIMPSE OF THE...well, you'll have to wait and see.

1241 words. SCORE!