The Words: 2598 written today. My region’s Skype group hasn’t been doing many word wars, and when they have, it’s been before or after I’m on for the evening. So I’ve been doing a lot of my own sprinting with Write or Die. I’ve barely even been using @NaNoWordSprints, because their start and stop times just aren’t lining up with mine. It’s weird how things that were so helpful to me last year are falling flat so far this year.

The Story: I had one of those “Aha!” moments today that come when you suddenly realize the perfect direction to take the plot. I sort of had two of them. One is more likely to work out, while the other one I’ve brainstormed out it would play out, and there are definitely some wrinkles.

It all started with this line: “Listen to you, thinking like you’re some kind of amateur detective, she chastised herself. You’re no Nancy Drew, and in the real world, no one would tolerate you snooping around.”

Since my story is a murder-mystery, it might seem odd that I hadn’t already planned for the MC to be snooping around, solving the mystery. In fact, I’d specifically decided that she wouldn’t, probably because I’ve been too busy trying to keep things true to real life. But for some reason, when I wrote that part, I realized that it might be just what I needed. I’ve already been telling myself that for the story to have the lighter mood I want, it can’t be so realistic.

And then as I thought about the mystery and the way it all worked out, I thought it all seemed too obvious and maybe just boring. And suddenly I had what in the moment felt like an amazing plot twist to incorporate at the end. But now that I’ve thought through what it would mean, I’m not so sure it will work.  That part isn’t important to figure out yet, so I’ll how the rest of the story unfolds for now.

Total word count: 35,186

Don’t forget to check out today’s NaNoToons if you haven’t already: 2015 – November 6th