Time for a NaNoWriMo update. My current word count is 21699, which is 1695 words ahead of schedule. I’ve managed to keep up by adding whatever I can think of to the story. In the last few days, the novel has acquired a writing student with a sex obsession, a playwright who lets slip that Action Man helped him with his new play, a writing “superhero” named Point of View who doesn’t actually help with point of view, and a monkey named Tanguy*. Today I put M.T. through another unpleasant writing class, in which her teacher suggests she should think deeper thoughts and otherwise makes her miserable.

But I still feel like not much is happening, and once again, my ideas are thin on the ground. I’ve been getting the feeling it’s time to shake things up. Make some serious trouble for my main character. Either that, or punt kick this boring story out the window and start over. Experienced NaNoWriMo participants will recognize this as the doldrums of Week 2, where the excitement and new-car smell has worn off and suddenly our shiny new story seems dull and lifeless. Pathetic even.

I mentioned my problem to my writing friend Judy. She gave me her screen-writing teacher’s advice: Blow something up.

I resisted at first. My book is not an explosion sort of book, I thought.

Of course, it’s hardly a refined work. How can it be with characters named Action Man and Dialogue Dog, and, of course, a monkey? The one thing I’ve really done so far with this novel is stick like glue to my plan to Keep It Silly.

Still, I thought that my parody of a world where art is so important that medical professionals encourage their daughter to become a painter instead of following in their footsteps isn’t exactly a car-chase, things-blowing-up sort of world. Until I realized that artnappers, who steal famous art works and hold them for ransom, might need to blow up an especially tricky door to get at a well-protected collection.

For the last day I’ve been wondering how to use that single idea of an artnapping, and today I’ve figured it out. I can make M.T.’s strange roommate who just happened to be very interested in the roof of the building next door an artnapper. She can get caught, giving M.T. two huge problems at once. Not only will M.T. be without a roommate and trying to avoid moving in with her pushy parents, but she will also get saddled with the monkey.

Sounds like trouble to me.

*He’s named after the surrealist Yves Tanguy, and his name is pronounced Tawn-gee.