Whodunnit?

 

Writers, especially NaNoWriMos, will get this. I'm 70% finished with my "novel" but I don't know who the killer is yet. It's one of two people but I'm not sure which one. They both have similar motives. I'm just not completely sure which one could actually do the deeds. I hope I can figure it out in 3 days and 15,000 words. We'll see, I guess.

Inspiration

The nine Muses of Greek mythology were goddesses who ruled over the arts and sciences and offered inspiration in those subjects. That's why we traditionally think of women as muses. But, more and more, people are beginning to realize that a muse isn't necessarily a woman and could be anything from an animal to a favorite part of a park or garden.

My muse happens to be a guy. For a long time I fought the notion that he was my muse. But now I'm doing NaNoWriMo and bringing back a character, based on him, that I invented more than 20 years ago. The words and ideas are flowing like crazy and I'm even ahead of my word count goal.

But it's not just that. I've already written one short story inspired by him and I'm nearly finished with another. A couple more, both inspired by him, are percolating in my brain. 

He helped me when he was alive. Seems as if he's still helping me now. 

As I told him many moons ago, "I told you that you have my undying gratitude. Now you have it in writing."

It Didn't Occur to Me to Mind

 "Dirty Dancing" was set in 1963. I turned 3 that year. In the beginning of the movie the main character says, "... when everyone called me 'Baby' and it didn't occur to me to mind."

I was thinking about that as I was running through some dialog in my head for the NaNoWriMo story I'm working on. I was going to have the male mc call the female mc "baby" as a term of endearment. Then I thought I know this character pretty well by now (I've written several stories with her as the mc) and she would not want to be called "baby."

Honestly, I'm kind of embarrassed that it didn't occur to me to mind for all these years. I kind of liked it when my boyfriends and husband called me baby. Maybe I wanted to, or needed to, be babied. But today the implications and possible implied meaning make me cringe.

Now to choose an actual term of endearment. Honey? Sweetheart? Love Muffin? The first two sound as lame to me as the third one. This may be the most difficult part of writing the story.

Be that as it may, I'm sure I'm not the only person whose favorite line in "Dirty Dancing" is "I carried a watermelon?"

Let's Do This!