Plots and characters are like plants and seasons; they come and go. They bloom, hopefully they shine and then they perish.
But even in their perishing they can serve a purpose.
It’s only natural.
For you NaNoWriMoers right now just write. You can decide what goes into the compost pile later.
Write on!!
You know I mentioned going to Benton Arkansas last Friday.
It was a nice break. We shopped a little, ate too much, chattered like magpies and — well, I just had to see the old sanitarium/asylum aka “nervous hospital” where Karl spent most of his life.
Thank goodness my family is as adventurous and crazy as me.
There were no observable signs that forbade us from entering, so…
We considered going in a window but oddly enough we did not have to.
The doors seemed to beckon and willingly opened without the slightest resistance and ta-da, we were in.
Exploring the dilapidated history in search of answers and ghosts and what-ifs.
And possibly inheriting a demon or a deadly disease. 
What does this story have to do with writing?
This: Every now and then you have to break the rules to spice things up.
Of course you need to know the rules before you break them and sometimes the rules are not obvious.
Write On!!
It will be necessary to choose a genre (or a narrow list of genres) when you get ready to submit/publish but don’t let that annoying detail inhibit your writing.
For now just write; your story can be catalogued later.
Here is a brief overview of primary genres. Glance at them and move on.
Action/Adventure: fast paced exploration with conflict.
Erotica: focuses on the sex, not the romance.
Fantasy: Magic other worldly, mystical and mythological.
Horror: anything that invokes fear/dread.
Literary Fiction: focus on the quality of writing style/prose over the narrative/plot.
Mystery: involves solving some sort of crime.
Thriller/Suspense: creates tension which can involve action or mystery.
Romance: love and intimacy without the down and dirty details of said intimacy.
Science fiction: think aliens, alternative worlds and high tech
Westerns: usually taking place in America’s ‘Old West’; cowboys, etc…
Women’s fiction: all about the woman e.g. growth and hope.
I just finished packing to head to Benton Arkansas for the weekend and I thought about the movie Sling Blade.
Sling Blade is a drama. No, there is not a drama category listed above because drama is written for performance. The paperback copy is categorized as screenplay. As a screenplay it is listed on Amazon as follows:
#1100 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Movies > Screenwriting
#5851 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Television
#26979 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts
Now allow me to detour a moment because I do love me some Billy Bob Thornton. I am also excited about visiting Two Peas in a Pod Flea Market and some dear kinfolks in Benton where Sling Blade was filmed.
Ahhh. I still cackle when my [adult] kids slip into character and quip, “fried taters, Mhm.” “With mustard and biscuits. Mhm.”
If you are familiar with the movie Sling Blade you’ll be familiar with this line, “Some folks call it a sling blade; I call it a Kaiser blade.” Yeah, I heard some of you saying, Mhm.
Well I have a sling blade too (along with a few other tools) but I call it a limb-chopper. 
People can call it what they want but that will not alter the way I use my limb-chopper. I use it to chop limbs — all sorts of limbs.
I call it what I want to; I use it however I please BUT if I decide to sale my tool… my merchandise, I will need to identify it properly and list it in an appropriate category.
See what I mean? Mhm?
Congratulations on your writing accomplishments!
Whether you have written a paragraph or five hundred pages so far this month, you’re doing great.
I once wrote 500 pages in one day. Yep, the Ctrl+v got stuck on my keyboard. When I returned from my walk I had five hundred pages of totally inconceivable gibberish.
I jest, but speaking of taking a walk…
Where are your characters going? Why are they going? How are they going to get there?
Feel free to use the photographs to get the creative juices flowing.
Write on!!
I was driving 90 mph down the highway with my camera beside me and I snapped…
I was in a mad dash and mad in every sense of the word. (Some of that lunacy is revealed in the poetic memoir Getting Me Back.)
The above photo is not one I would usually keep in my collection; it is dark, out of focus and lopsided yet I like it. Why? Because it reminds me of the world as I saw it at that moment in time.
I will probably be the only one to ever appreciate this inferior blurred image but maybe it will spark something in a stubborn character you are trying to bring to life.
Maybe the character is hiding something from you; afraid to reveal their passion, their fury or the fact that they are bat-shit crazy.
Tell them it’s okay. Everyone… every living creature [even saints] have moments of madness at some point in their life. Heck, even Jesus got mad. Wasn’t he ticked-off/pissed/irate when he turned the tables over and cleared the temple? Damn right he was!
And what about the insanity so many of the great artists/creators in history suffered from? Think about that, eh?
Allow your characters the freedom of expression. Let them be mad.
All little humor [especially for you NaNoWrimo-ers]
You all have probably heard the phrase, “Write drunk, edit sober.” Well now is the time to be drunk my friends. Write with abandon.
There will be plenty of time for editing when you sober up.
What are your characters eating? Drinking?
Set the table and invite us into your story with tempting descriptions.
Is the food/drink new to the character or is it the usual?
What is the usual?
Is it wine? Is it red wine or white wine? Do they prefer Merlot or champagne?
Maybe one of them prefers liquor? Water? Soda?
Is it smooth, bitter, dry or sweet?
Add your own beef, chicken or lamb – heck serve it to a vegetarian. How did they respond?
Light a candle [or not] and cook up something imaginative from the elements in the photo.
Groovy huh? Write on!
I was just thinking…
For NaNoWriMo writers to average 50,000 words in 30 days they will need to write 1666.666 words per day. I can already hear some character gasp, “Six, six, six. It must be the work of the devil!”
Bwahahaha. I suppose it could be if you are into that sort of thing.
Hey, write what you would love to read.
Ten words a day or ten thousand, focus first on your story. That is my 2¢ worth but what do I know? I’m just sitting over here in the cheering section, waving my pom-poms and goading the contestants.
I am not much into writing under pressure these days but I do like to mentor and I encourage others to take the NaNoWriMo challenge, especially new writers. Do it even if this is the first thing you have ever written.
Don’t worry about failing the challenge; there is not a NaNoWriMo jail. (Pst. You can be a NaNoWriMo-er without registering. 😉 It’s like exercising at home.) And remember I am over here cheering you on. I’ll even try to post a picture/prompt/ mental exercise throughout the month of November.
Sail on NaNoWriMo-ers!
That is not just a sailboat with a blimp above it. Describe. Describe. Describe. I.e. the color of the clouds/sky; the lake/ocean/water; the shape of the blimp; the shadows/silhouettes. What type of boat is it? Where is it going? Why? What data is the blimp collecting–who does it belong to?What is the spatial relation between the boat/the blimp/the land? What is just out of view in the treeline? How fast is the sailboat/blimp traveling? Describe… Readers want details and they are so fun to write.
Welcome to the first day November.
Let the hair growing and writing begin.
Oh, and all the other awareness’s that live in November.
I was wading in the surf on Matagorda beach one warm, sunny day exchanging dialogue with Clara.
I had known Clara for about ten years and I have to admit, conversing with her was like pulling teeth. I don’t want to say she was dull, but she was too quiet and a tad introverted. Don’t get me wrong, she is a lovely girl. She is smart and pretty and sweet and kind, but she was just too darn nice for the most part. Too calm, too reasonable, too… dull! There, I said it!
Anyway, as I was wading in the surf, dragging my feet (literally to scatter the sting rays) I was thinking how I might kill her. I know that must sound horrible, we had been comrades for so long, but she wearied me. Her unspoiled, hoity-toity, prim and proper, everything by the book personality made me want to send her sailing face down with the outgoing tide. I think she knew it (she has a sixth sense thing, you know) and I figured she wasn’t going to fight me. It wasn’t in her nature. I thought maybe she wanted to die?
I had mulled it over and finally come to terms with the decision when a perky little blonde came running down the beach waving and shouting,
“Hey y’all wait for me.”
Oh my lord, I thought, while trying to ignore the thin, tanned Mississippian’s approach.
I quickly shoved Clara toward the incoming wave but her feet were planted too firmly — she didn’t budge, and to my surprise she pushed back!
“Do you know her?” I asked.
Clara shook her head slowly and replied, “No but you do. You met her on a trip to Biloxi once.”
I was speechless.
“Hey, I’m Maggie,” the lady smiled as she looked past me and held out her hand, “you must be Clara.”
I suppose it’s true that opposites attract. I watched Maggie come alive and in doing so she saved Clara.
*This is a story about a story. Clara and Maggie are safe and sound (for the most part) inside a fictional series.
Read about their meeting in Book 1
The Real Janna Hill in 