I know, I started posting again and was all aflutter with excitement over my new idea, and then… nothing for two weeks. I’m still alive, and I’m still excited about NaNo. One more week until the writing frenzy begins!

I’ve been stuck on my plot. I was hoping to have the major plot points figured out before November this year, but I haven’t quite gotten there yet. But then again, I REALLY hate writing when I know everything that will happen. As Flannery O’Conner said, “How can there be any surprises for the reader if there haven’t been any for the writer?” I’m definitely more of a pantser than a plotter, and I think I haven’t continued working on an outline because I simply don’t WANT to. So I have been doing other stuff instead, which is more fun, and next month I’ll figure it out as I go along as usual.

I don’t remember when, but I did decide that Apollo has to be a main character. I know, I know, it should have been obvious. But I was hoping to focus on Cassandra without including him too. Since realizing that he has to have a more central role than I was planning, I have had to research the mythology of him, which of course is massive. So I’m taking notes on everything, and next month I will pick and choose what I want to use, what I want to skip, and what I want to change.

I tried to do a Tarot reading of a Celtic Cross for Cassandra, but it turned out to be about a boy that I decided was a long-time friend of hers, since she was a child. Now that Apollo is a main character, I realized that the reading is about him – the reason I saw him as a child in the reading is that he is a god, so he doesn’t age. But I was astonished, as I read more of the mythology, to see how the reading told me things about Apollo that totally fit the mythology that I didn’t yet know when I laid out the cards. So I have to go back to my original notes on the reading and adjust my interpretations, but I think it will still work.

That makes no sense, I know. So here’s an example. In the cards, I was seeing the character as having Daddy Issues, and that he just wanted his father’s approval (Goals and Motivations was represented by The Emperor). Then I read in a book that Zeus hated Apollo’s gifting mortals with prophecy because they would predict his indiscretions and his wife Hera would get all pissed at him. (Apollo’s mother was Leto, and when Hera heard she was pregnant with Zeus’s offspring, she banned Leto from giving birth on any land or island… and she kidnapped the goddess of childbirth so Leto could not give birth!) So clearly there is something here I can work with.

I’m still figuring it out, but I’m glad to see my story’s potential is growing.

And tomorrow, crossed fingers, my Young Writers group has our kickoff party. Hoping to get a bunch of interested kids that will keep me motivated! After all, how can I be a positive role model to them if I don’t finish my own novel?