Countdown: 7 days until the start

So. In the week since his last pre-novel posting, YT has written several pages of notes fleshing out the SF novel he intends to write. Your friendly Brico would much rather be writing the novel itself. New this year, a vague outline of a plot with some ideas about pacing. Wow, take that, reader C.! A plot! There are also various notes about characters, world-building, motivation and clever lines.

The main character, Lena, was and will be misled by curiosity. One trick this year will be emphasizing that trait as an underlying reason for Lena's actions. It strikes the Bricoleur just now that one theme that demands inclusion in the novel is the role of free will versus compulsion, whether the compulsion be external rules or internal desire. Curiosity, of course, is on the side of free will.

YT filled out a character sheet for Lena, a multipage questionnaire found through the Helpful Orgs and Sites forum at NaNoWriMo.org. Doing this exercise revealed, first, how Lena wasn't going to fit into anyone else's preconceived notions of her. Second, thinking about different external facets of the character shed some light on her internal dynamics. YT does not advocate slavishly following this method or filling out that form, but doing this kind of exercise fleshes out the character. Now, if she would only start speaking in her own voice...

In the real world, just yesterday YT had oral surgery. It was either that or lose a tooth, not a hard decision. Now, 24 hours later, this man of the world is reduced to eating macaroni and cheese, and floating on pain pills. Floating is the word, all right. YT is enjoying a bout of chemically-assisted free association. Driving is definitely out of the question today.

So it's off with the notebook to fill a couple of pages with the connections that are floating into view, in the hopes some will still make sense a few days from now. The author hopes this feeling will also suggest something about the moods of his characters after they exercise their special talent. Every experience is grist for the novel-making mill. Everything!