Ruining my sleep

This is how you know that some of this writer stuff is starting to sink in.

Photo: Jensen Ackles (left) and Jared Padalecki from Supernatural

This morning as I'm sleeping, I've got this lovely little end-of-the-world dream going on (probably all Supernatural's fault), and I (well, me playing the part of a tough as nails cowgirl type) and this other character are trying to round up a few survivors. I pick up this old woman, real salt of the earth type and a recovering alcoholic. Apparently she can't even get a whiff of the stuff without going off her rocker.

Now the wise reader will say, aha! Foreshadowing! At some point this crazy old bat will fall off the wagon with dire consequences.

Meanwhile, I spend several dream pages deepening my relationship for the crazy old girl, so that when, as it inevetitably would, she sneaks just one tiny sip of vodka in a post apocalyptic western town we were rolling through, gets in our car, and smashes it through a store window not only were we

• horrified for her safety, because we had spent all those dream pages building our relationship with her
• she totalled the car, which was our sole means of transportation, thus making our situation go from bad, to hell of a lot worse.

So maybe this plotting thing is finally starting to sink in.

Because I included a supporting character in the story with a character with a fatal flaw, I advanced my plot in these ways:

• Plot complications arising out of character
• Successfully heaped more problems on my MC
• Built anticipation by introducing the drinking problem and having it come into play later in the story.

It was a nice change of pace from my recent tornado dreams. Now, if only I could get this down while awake!

-k