Day 13
Word count: 26,256 words
Word count goal: 26,000 words
Mapping the Hero’s Journey: Approaching The Inmost Cave
Save The Cat: Midpoint

#vss very short story

After a beautiful and inviting trail through the woods led Brenda to a little cave, she decided to give caves another chance. Using the light from her cell phone she admired the stalagmites and stalactites. A musky smell and humphing noise drew her to the innermost recesses where she discovered a lonely Bigfoot. They lived happily in their quaint forest cave.

Plotting with Tarot

Approach To The Inmost Cave (The emotion your MC feels as he has to traverse this last corridor to the cave): Ace of Pentacles- seed of your future fulfillment

Leap of faith your MC must take: Queen of Pentacles- enormous good sense and problem solving energy. Be confident that if you express your truth, you will not have to worry about the consequences. You will remain safe and sound – from tarot.com

Old angst that MC revisits: Four of Wands- the teamwork card

My interpretation: As my protagonist approaches the inmost cave, he still feels hopeful. He is planting the seeds of future fulfillment and believes he is on the way to reaping the benefits of a life of hard work. The leap of faith he is taking is leaving his responsibilities behind to pursue vital answers and using his good sense and the problem solving energy of an engineer, he is confident he won’t need to worry about the consequences of jogging away from his previous plan. He encounters some issues that need teamwork, but he doesn’t want to get family and friends involved. His entire mission is to protect the ones he loves. He will need to revisit these feelings when he needs some help.

Ask Your Character

• What are your special talents?
• How do you use these talents?
• Are they a gift or a curse?

Word Of The Day

sonorous: adj. loud, deep or resonant as a sound.

8 Action Verbs:

analyzed          chose          corrected          established

implemented          modeled          received          spoke

Poem prompt

Theme: Approaching the Inmost Cave

Have your character write a poem about approaching a cave. It may be their feelings about physical caves or approaching a dark place in their soul or psyche.

The Beast Inside

I cannot believe I threatened a man
Where did that darkness come from
I have lived with God the best I can
I run, my legs jelly and mind numb

I have lived a long life of peace
Defending my lines through fairness
What trigger did my fire release
The whip one too many for tameness

A beast in a cave deep within
Roused from its sleep for my pride
The power behind my fist to his chin
Did I mean that I wished he had died?

Now, what of me in its freedom?
Perpetual edge of fight or flight
Am I to bow to an enraged demon?
Or embrace it and taste every bite!

Awesome Sentence Challenge

Identifying Independent and Dependent Clauses

Using serial descriptive clauses, try to write the longest sentence you ever have.

Today’s Simple Task

Reversal of yesterday. Show that whatever your MC discovered yesterday, the opposite is actually true.

Warm-up Exercise

Try this prompt from Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months by John Dufresne.

Answering Machine: Your character is troubled as usual. What is today’s specific problem? Write about it. Now, he has a voice mail message and is surprised to learn that the message solves his problem, alleviates his trouble. Play (write) the message.

Recommended Word Crawl

I got very excited when I saw there was an Invader Zim Word Crawl. I decided to use it today, Monday, to start the week off with a crawl I really look forward to doing.

I love the Invader Zim cartoon. If you enjoy crazy misfit aliens trying to take over the world, I highly recommend Invader Zim: Complete Invasion Collectors Box Set (6DVD). 

I wish everyone a fun and productive week. I hope you’ll check back often for inspiration to keep going. I would love to hear from you in the comments. How is your novel writing going? If you’re not doing NaNoWriMo, what are you working on? How is your project going?

Happy Reading and Writing!