For Tourmaline .’s Halloween Challenge, “vampire,” I created a fang filter and found the monsters in my world.

OctPoWriMo

Today’s prompt is an empty pot. The suggested form is Double Exposure. I like this type of poem-within-a-poem form. It provides the opportunity for more than one speaker, or combining two different related images (like vampires and empty pots 😉). The 2018 prompt was “Once Upon a Time.”

A Bite Out of Life

I wake before the dawn this once and make   
              looks sharp like stakes that pierce upon the lake
some fangs to bite the day and suck its ache
                   the thirsty smiles of dreamlike life to take
I wander filtered searching out my foes
            blue blood filled veins that pulse my presence known
and find them lurking everywhere I go
                           I am but juice a lifeforce to consume
there was a time I had a foggy view
                           Nocturnal beasts eternal feast infer-
no light to guide this urge of daybreak to-
                                nal damned immortal aortal portal

NaNo Prep

Today I’m going to have some fun exploring possible plot points. First, I’ll skim through the scenes from the 2019 draft. If I find any scenes that I want to keep and re-write in the new draft, I’ll fill in a scene card for that scene. Then I’ll look at the Story Grid obligatory scenes for a thriller:

• Inciting Crime indicative of a master Villain
• Point of no return
• Protagonist’s initial strategy to outmaneuver the antagonist fails
• Protagonist discovers and understands the antagonist’s external object of desire
• Protagonist becomes the victim
• Hero is at the Mercy of the Villain / All is lost
• False Ending

For each scene, I’ll quickly list 25 possible ideas then choose my favorites. Then I’ll fill in scene cards for each of my chosen plot points.

In my plotting post from NaNo Prep last year, #NaNoPrep 101 Week Three – Construct a Detailed Plot, I laid out a lot of plotting resources and tools. This year I’m adding the great worksheets from Writing &Selling your Mystery Novel (affiliate link) by Hallie Ephron. This week should be a lot of fun.

Happy Reading and Writing!