So I was driving as I was writing again ...

... because the words were coming into my head, and I had to write them down.

See, this year's NaNo is a sort of prelude or prequel to another novel. I always wanted to write a novel where I created a whole bunch of random and hopefully wildly different characters, threw them together ... and sit back to watch what happened. I'd also had an idea that popped up now and again in various guises, involving different people that were brought together for some sort of purpose - but didn't know it until later.

Well, I toyed with the idea of doing something with this for last year's Nano. The idea of a group of very different young men going to the same university who became friends (without realizing they were meant to) was very appealing to me as I walked across campus. But ... why would they be brought together? And how long would this novel take? I wanted to do it justice.

So I saved it for a time other than November.

However ... a month or so later I read a book about ... quilting. Tada! (Hehe, I know it sounds boring, but it was actually a very good book. This author is excellent at characterization - in fact, one of the sequels brings together a bunch of very different characters too, just like I plan to.) But anyway, in this book there is a big, dusty old mansion, with crumbling gardens. Bit by bit the rooms are cleaned and restored, the gardens rebuilt ... beautiful!! What a treasure trove for description and descovery!

So. I would write a novel about this, in November, when I could give my fancy free reign.

I saw my MC cleaning out a room. Her best friend was elsewhere in the house - perhaps down the hall? But as she cleaned a young man suddenly stuck his head in the window and grinned at her from where he was repairing the roof. And with a start I realized - I recognized him. It was Rafael! Rafe! Dear old Rafe ... I had never seen him before in my life. But there he was, with golden curls (rather like Merry's, but much less poofy ... I mean the color, dark with gold on top, if that makes sense), and ... I knew he was one of those young men at the university. Or rather, he would be. He wasn't yet.

I didn't know where he came from ... but he rather threw a light on the story. He certainly gave it a purpose other than restoring an old mansion.

In any case. This post has turned into something about my NaNonovel ...I didn't intend it to. Because I didn't write anything about my NaNonovel while I was driving.

In the semester during which last Nano took place, I had a class on Human Development. In front of me in the class sat a young, red-haired young man, next to his girlfriend. And I knew that young man was also one of the characters in my someday-novel.

And here he is, in less than perfect style; but there all the same.

He was good-looking, with the flaming red hair of a poet or revolutionary. But it was cropped close to his head in a very practical and unpoetic way. There was something a tad rebellious in this very fact, perhaps, as it went against the current style at ------. But it was more in disregard for the impractical fashions than an attempt to defy them. In any case, it accentuated a very prominent brow, which was set in a sternly sensible expression that was almost, but not quite a frown. Beneath was set a pair of sharp, grey eyes that observed their surroundings with a keen glance, and gave the impression of an intellect that not ony knew, but understood all that it saw. His mouth was serious and silent, and even his smile was rather solemn. But his laugh gave a glimpse into another man that might have been - a little wild, overflowing with life and a quiet sort of passion, all the more lively for being so seldom released.

Yet there was something in his eyes as well: a perception that, whil applied to science, belonged rather to poetry. And perhaps he was a sort of poet after all; for if ever he spoke of his work, his words breathed of beauty.

Meh, needs to be polished up ... but heavens, I can barely read my handwriting! lol!