So, the previous story is complete -- today was the first day I didn't have to get up and think about how to manage Robin and Chloe -- and didn't that feel weird after a year -- and now it's time to start thinking about which idea to tackle next.

Christmas!

Truthfully, I would love to do a Halloween story, since we're sort of but not really talking about holidays. But I just plain stink at scary stuff. My 'scary' always ends up being 'dreamy,' and that's just useless.

So I have had this Christmas idea kicking around in my head for about a year now, while I worked the other story, and I'm thinking I'd like to play with it a little and see if it's viable. A year ago I wrote a little stub for it -- the fun stuff, of course -- and when I re-read it, I was genuinely pulled in. Not bad for reading my own work! But it leads me to think maybe I can do something with the idea.

Dovetailing into that is the idea of writing a story through a series of letters. It just seems very intriguing to me, to follow someone's history through their own writing -- and then to use that as a means for fiction. Yes, I know I'm not the only person to think this up. Of course not! But it still sounds like fun and I still want to do it.

The harder part is taking what I learned on the last story and applying it here...mostly because I have no idea what I learned on the last story. I don't work that way. I just emerge places. I have all the same practical processes of a cone of cotton candy. Read: No Damn Idea. All I know how to do is sit and plot and write, and if that doesn't work, then sit and plot and write again. I sincerely don't believe anyone else does it very differently. Maybe just faster based on experience.

So anyway, it's going to be Christmas at least for a little while down here in the basement, while I figure out if I can make a really sweet story without making it really sappy or really maudlin or -- worst of all -- really cliched.

And what is with the dashes tonight? *sigh*