National write some stuff month. Nablopomo Nanowrimo and whatever

So November seems to be the time that people encourage other people to write stuff. Be it in a blog or to write a novel or whatever. The important part is to create, to put words down, to make something.

So I'm going to try. It's been a long while since I've written anything (except for church) and I have a stack of story ideas that I've never done anything with, so maybe it's time. Maybe November is the excuse I need to put effort into this craft that I enjoy but have never really developed or attempted to be any good at.

I've had this dream, this vision, over and over again. It's based partially on an actual event (several actually) - I'm driving late at night, early in the morning, through a roaring midwestern thunderstorm, the sky flashes and screams with lightning and thunder, rain comes down not just in streams, but in rivers, the wipers on my ancient car can't keep up. Traffic, what little there is, crawls at a snail's pace, visibility of other cars is reduced to blurry images of white and red lights.

And the worst happens. The car stalls. Dies. Won't restart. No lights, no engine, no anything. As it rolls to stop, darkness engulfs, me. A few cars go by, then nothing. Nothing but the rain and the thunder and the sky.

If you've ever been on the Interstate across Nebraska, you know it's miles of nothing. And not just nothing but NO THINGS. Miles of soybean fields without a structure in sight. These days there are giant wind generators too, but mostly nothing. And at 3 in the morning, when your car dies, there is nothing but dark. And in the wrong place, there isn't even cell phone towers. It is possible to be truly alone.

So in my dream/vision that's where I am. In the dark, alone. Not able to contact anyone. No traffic coming by. Complete darkness.

I wait. The rain abates. The sky still roars and flashes, but darker, quieter. So I do what I feel I have to do, get out and start walking. Find help, a ride, a way to get home, or at least to a phone.

Walking. Alone. In total darkness, on the Nebraska interstate, on rain slick blacktop.

And the rain returns.....

There's much more. But that's where it starts. Walking, in the dark and rain.

Let's see where tomorrow takes me.