National Writing Month: The Best Day Ever

I woke up today with one thing in mind: I was going to get my poor characters out of that god damn bar.

See, in constructing my vague outline for this thing (I don't even like calling it a novel anymore - it feels more like this big, swaddling, B-movie Blob creature), I had always envisioned Part One as this sort of storm-is-gathering introduction - all the characters come together in a tiny bar at the top of a hill at the far side of the world from their eventual goal, learn their purpose, set off on their quest. The good news is that more than 18 thousand words later, I've got nine protagonists, two potential antagonists, an entire world mapped out, and several assorted mysteries to solve.

But they were still in that god damned stupid idiotic bar. (Inside the McGuff Inn. Get it?)

I'm not going to stare a man in the face and say that these are exactly well-mapped characters. I came up with most of the names and backgrounds on the fly. But if they aren't quite breathing yet, they've at least got a pulse.

So I woke up around 9 and slept until 10. The fact that I'm going to start a low-(but-nevertheless-definitively-)paid telecommuting job has sapped my passion for arriving to my fascinating yet unpaid job earlier than noon. I woke up and decided that I would go to the gym. At the gym I realized how I was going to get them out of the bar. I ate Chinese food in a take-out restaurant called "Asia Chinese Food." I came home. I watched TV. I did a blog posting. And then I started writing.

They're out of the bar. At long, long last, they're out of the bar.

Now I have no idea what to do next.