I think that Chinese puzzle with the empty space is a metaphor for the whole declutter movement. :)

Today on the local NPR station Chris Baty, founder of the NaNoWriMo movement, is being interviewed. Some of you will remember that Katlaughing participated in that at least once, possibly several times. Her last book was written during one of these challenges.

I'm thinking that might be a very good thing to do right now, as I contemplate the whole empty nest syndrome unfolding here. Having something to create is helpful, whether a quilt, jewelry, paintings, crafts, etc. For a wordsmith, stories are a creation. Organizing my thoughts to put together some of the stories that for years I have threatened to write - I'm considering it. Kind of short notice, but what the heck. Here are some tools to help for those seriously pursuing it. I hadn't heard of the Scrivener software - it sounds interesting.

I've been thinking a lot about character development lately. Some of you know that a few months ago I started watching the program Bones on NetFlix, from the beginning. I had never watched it, except to see a few this year when the television was left on in the room and repeats came on - they finally convinced me to explore the series. By watching 9 years of a program over a fairly short space of time (perhaps 9 weeks instead of 9 years) the character development is interesting. And that particular program is much more comprehensive that many a mystery/police procedural. Each episode is free-standing, yet each one adds to what we know about a lot of characters. Contrast this to something like the CSI or Law and Order programs and you learn very little about them beyond the job. The Good Wife is written with some of the same characteristics as Bones as it uses nuance and depends on the viewer's memory and knowledge of previous stories to understand the full extent of the most current episodes. I like episodic novels in the same way - Raold Dahl wrote collections of short stories that, by the time you finished, you realized was actually an episodic novel. With all of these examples in mind, perhaps it is time to take the plunge. And, if nothing else, I would end up with a set of short stories that I could consider sending out individually for publication. This is something found in literary novels - writers like Louise Erdrich will often run a single chapter as a story in The New Yorker.

SRS