1/8/2015 8:30-9:35 AM

And trying to check out the sight, my web filter blocks this site as "suspicious." For now. And... I really can't blame them... this is a suspicious site...

Anyway. Woke up this morning all tired after spending till midnightish being stupid and awake instead of sleeping, not really wanting to get out of bed, my mind half-switched off and at least brainstorming a really awesome project for me to prototype immediately after finishing this, but my body still way tired- my subconscious so awake like that, I could think super clearly, and...

"Boon!" I exclaimed, springing out of bed. Still kind of tired, but excited enough to be all, whatever. It wasn't Celtic mythology at all, it must have been Hindu! The word for a blessing/curse I was looking for, it must be "boon," from Hindu mythology! And I looked it up.

And it's not "boon."


Well alright...

Alright. For every writer out there, you find a different writing "process" and work ethic, but it's generally universal that the reason behind writing remains the same, no matter who the author is- they all share the same audience.

Themselves.

Writers write because they enjoy writing, no matter how difficult it may be for them sometimes. I've got other media I have more fun working in, but it's impossible to deny the appeal of weaving a yarn using only words. Filmmakers can spend millions of dollars to bring to life what it's absolutely free for a writer to create. There's so much versatility in the form; it's such a basic one, that we've been using for many thousands of years, but we're still finding new things to do with it.

But, no, it's not my very favorite way to tell a story. Still up there, though, pretty far. And it's the one that I've been told is "my" medium.

Sometimes writer's block isn't caused by not having anything to write, but rather too much. It's the problem I find myself in here, on where to go from the plot outline I've got so far, story-wise. I'm Buridan's Ass here. Michael's being watched by his own agency; awesome! Every reason they'd be doing that is as compelling as the last, though. I suppose I could break it down:

1. The agency's been compromised; maybe there's a mole high up in the hierarchy who's trying to discredit Michael for one reason or another.
2. It's not the whole agency bugging Michael, but the one rogue agent. For some reason.
3. Molehunt! Michael's suspected of being the mole.

And what are the storytelling possibilities beyond those three I mentioned?

1. Maybe the agency's been compromised.
1. Maybe Michael has to take down the whole thing single-handedly. He actually nearly dies, even with his boony thing.
2. Maybe an agent's gone rogue.
1. That agent is the real mole. They settle their differences with fists.
1. Or, they settle their differences with a recorded public confession.
2. Or, forgoing getting the agent to gloat into a microphone for him, Michael just decides to expose the agent himself, accusing the agent of being a mole with no solid evidence.
1. Maybe nobody believes him; maybe the agent isn't actually rogue-- Michael looks like a total tool.
3. Maybe the agency thinks that Michael's a mole.
1. Maybe the real mole is pinning his moling on Michael-- but, no, that's stupid, of all the people to put in danger you picked Michael; that's just dumb.
2. Or maybe, Michael is the mole, having put in place a memory gambit where he can't recall his reasons for anything but anticipating himself and knowing he'd be able to get out of the supernatural danger he put himself it.

Alright, we're done. I like that last one the best. It was actually the first one I wrote, and I immediately knew I had a winner, but I had to make it look like I'd given more thought than that, so I filled in a couple of possibilities for the others as well just to be sure. And, yep, I really like it.

This works on so many levels-- just like I realized yesterday on successfully predicting the behavior of anyone, even if you can't expect people to act like themselves, you can still expect Michael to be able to save his hide from supernatural forces. In this one, it's Michael who's the successful chessmaster making the gambit predicting his own behavior. He really is the mole, and he set himself up? My goodness, why would anyone do that. Wotta twist. I love it. (I also love the fact that the spellcheck accepts "wotta" as a real word.) (Memory gambit, though- maybe Michael's the one bugging himself, but with the memory gambit and everything and so he doesn't, um, know...? That's also just stupid. Alright, Michael is the mole.)

With a plot so twisty as this, I'm really not sure when any of this gets revealed- how far into the story are we in so far, from the end of the potential outline I've got so far? We ended with Michael realizing he's being watched; how far along in the book is that? And how long is the book going to be anyway? I guess I am more planning on discovery writing, or at least was initially, but it would still be nice to know, wouldn't it? The easiest way to find out would be to start actually writing.

The way I want to do it is not necessarily chronological, beginning at the beginning and plowing through and everything there-- I think the way I've got it set up, it would be better to jump into scenes individually. And the best way to do that would be to expand my outline a bit, make the story "wider" by building it from the middle of my plot outline so far, blocking out scenes beforehand and everything-- but to do that I'd need to repost my original outline, add points from there, and I don't want to take up the space being redundant. Which is stupid.

Maybe I'll find a way around my irrationality, but, I'm good for now; feel like we're making a lot of headway.