I had the hardest time producing any words yesterday for NaNo. I stared at my computer screen until well past nine last night. I managed 1,700 words, but it took me until just after midnight. I’m at a place that I’m not sure how things should go. Because I’m re-writing an earlier NaNo, I’m at the climax now. Here’s the thing. It could go two ways, possibly even more. I agonize because I’m actually not positive which is the correct ending.

I’ve come up with a possible solution (and it’s great for word count). I tag the document with the date and write Scenario # ___, and enter the number for that attempt. And I write the way it could go if this is what happens in a certain scene. It works. I’ve come up with more than one way of things playing out, and a firmer grasp on the outcome.

So for today’s prompt, think of a scenario, either for a work in progress or a new piece of writing. Write out more than one possible outcome for either scenario. Label them if it makes it easier. See where exploring different possibilities takes you. You never know where that exploration might lead–possibly somewhere exciting.

Wow, 100 prompts. Pretty cool. Wish I could also say I wrote something for each of those.

For today’s prompt, use the words one hundred somewhere in your story. They should be integral somehow.

One of the girls in my crit group is also doing NaNo, and from what I could tell, going along at a mighty clip. Her word count is close to 40,000 already. But she sent an email to all of us yesterday saying she’s almost run out of plot.

So I suggested her main character’s mother come to visit. Think of the potential for conflict. Think of all those things the mother knows that your m/c wants to keep safely buried in the past.

That’s your prompt for today. Have a person from your character’s past drop in at the worst possible moment. What happens if they blurt out something best left unknown? Ooh, conflict. Rubs hands.

Sorry about the lack of prompts for the last two days. I’ve been sick, wrapped up in a blanket or sleeping. Well, and drinking lots of tea. Yuck, hate colds.

Last Tuesday, my daughter came by to help me switch all the files from my old computer onto an external hard drive so I could put them on my new computer. Of course by the time we were done, I accomplished no writing for the day.

After much slogging for the remainder of the week, I’d mostly caught up my word count by Friday. Then on Saturday, I took my two grandchildren to their first movie. Half a day gone, and I needed the afternoon to prepare for my crit group. Saturday evening I went for drinks and appys with friends–ah birthdays. Oh, and in my in-box when I returned home was a request to dj on Sunday night as the regular dj was sick. No words written on Saturday. None. Nada. Zip. Okay, I tell myself, I’ll get back on the writing horse tomorrow after crit group.

Sunday: Crit group went much (much) longer than anticipated. I didn’t get home until after five. That left me much less time to prepare a playlist for the milonga on Sunday night. And still no words written. By this time I’m thinking I can’t even find the horse, let alone get back on it.

I opened both iTunes and my writing file. I’d wrote a few words, while listening to songs. That meant I’d stop writing to drag a song into the playlist. But while I wasn’t really paying attention, I wrote 399 words. Yipee. I thought I was back on track and would at least accomplish the day’s word count and the doorbell rang.

Most of my friends don’t just drop by my place without calling first, so I figured I’d only have to brush off some door to door solicitor. A bouquet of flowers dwarfed my friend. She’s little, what can I say. So we visited until the milonga.

One weekend. Three hundred and ninety-nine words. Oh my god. Now I’m so far behind on NaNo, I can’t even begin to comprehend catching up. But I’m going to get back on the horse, go for a ride and see where it leads me. I’m not so worried about word count right now. If I write something today, I’ll be happy.

Even if it is only three hundred and ninety-nine words. Hey, what are you sitting there for? Get back on the horse.

I’ve tried dialogue only prompts before failed to produce anything. Recently, I read a post on Scott Westerfeld’s blog about dialogue spines as a way to map out a scene via dialogue only. And of course I wanted to try it.

So for today’s prompt, try to use dialogue only to map out the direction of a scene.

Thursday started out like any other weekday. Late for work and caught in communter traffic, Samantha stopped at another red light. She stared out the window and decided that for once, she’d call her boss and let him know she’d be late. Taking advantage of the momentary pause, she rummaged around in her purse for her cell phone, but found nothing in the pocket she normally kept it.

Traffic inched forward in front of her. Hand still, half inside her bag, Samantha eased her foot off the brake, crept along with the moving traffic.

“Damn it, where is my phone.” Eyes averted, she peeked inside her purse. Heard the crunch of breaking glass. Felt the crush of an airbag deflating in front of her. Unfortunately, Thursday didn’t end like any other weekday.

If you are doing NaNo, you are almost at the half-way mark. By Sunday, our word counts should be at 25,000. That deserves a pat on the back. Or a nap.

To bad I’m ::cough, cough:: cheating and using NaNo to re-write the second half of my story. Makes it hard to determine actual word count. Although new words are flying off my fingers, I haven’t got the satisfaction of a new story. Maybe I’ll do my own version of NaNo once this one is polished up and ready for beta readers.

I thought because I’m so caught up on word count today, that I’d make today’s prompt about–well, word count. If you are participating in NaNo, write a new piece that is only 100 words long. That should still be something even I can accomplish.

More from Vincent Van Gogh. This is from a letter (again written to his brother Theo in March, 1883)

“Here’s a scratch, for example, that I did in that kind of daydream. It shows a gentleman who has had to spend the night at a village inn due to the late arrival of diligence or some such reason. Now he has risen early, and while he orders a glass of brandy for the cold he pays the innkeeper’s wife (a woman with a peasant’s cap). But it’s still very early in the morning, ‘the crack of dawn’, — he must catch the mail-coach — the moon is still shining and the glistening snow can be seen through the window of the taproom — and the objects cast oddly whimsical shadows.

In July, 1882, Vincent Van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother, Theo. In it, he included a watercolour and his thoughts on the tree setting he used. I think it is such a wonderful setting that I thought I’d use it for today’s prompt:

A sombre landscape — that dead tree beside a stagnant pond covered in duckweed, in the distance a Rijnspoor depot where railway lines cross, smoke-blackened buildings — also green meadows, a cinder road and a sky in which the clouds are racing, grey with an occasional gleaming white edge, and a depth of blue where the clouds tear apart for a moment.