The Collective NaNovel

Well, it’s happened.  I’ve reached the first time that I’ve run into a brick wall in my plot.  And I need YOUR help.  You can either visit the NaNoWriMo forums (and if you’re a WriMo who’s registered you can offer your suggestions via the site.  They’ll be miraculously transferred to my email box by hard working NaNoBots.) or you can offer your feedback and suggestions right here on my blog.  Sadly, the only prize I have to offer is my undying gratitude and a nice line item mention my my acknowledgements.

Ok, here’s what I need:

Stan is proposing to Darla.  This is actually past tense because all of this happened before the last time he was in prison.  But nonetheless, Stan is proposing.  He’s pretty excited.  And despite that he’s tempting fate a bit, things are actually working out really well for him.  I know, I’m shocked too.  Anyway, everything is going so well until he accidentally burns down and/or blows up Darla’s trailer.  This event is scheduled to occur maybe a day, maybe only hours, before he’s supposed to propose.

Problem is I don’t know exactly how this happens.  All I know is that it involves a decent amount of kerosene; and it’s immutable that the volatile liquid be anything except kerosene.  It can’t be propane, it can’t be gasoline, it can’t be any other kind of volatile, combustible liquid.  ONLY KEROSENE!!!! (Damn, you’d think I really meant that, huh?)  The other thing is that it has to be an accident.  It has to be an accident that to a woman who’s just had a fight with her very “in-need-of-anger-management” boyfriend looks like it’s on purpose.

So, we’ve got:

• Reason for a trailer to burn down and/or blow up with kerosene
• That’s an accident, but
• Looks likes it’s on purpose given the situation, and
• Shouldn’t be so violent that we kill everyone in the trailer park.

As for that last bullet point, I’m OK if someone gets a little singed or if maybe all the fur gets burned off of someone’s beloved pet’s tail.  But let’s not kill anyone, OK?  Death can be such a downer.  A word count builder, yes, but I’m not looking to get depressed while writing this novel.  Depression is a big mood killer for me, and I tend to not be as verbose when I feel sad.

I would like to thank you in advance for all your comments, suggestions, and for basically just sticking it out with me while I am struggling with this little plot point.  You will surely get my undying gratitude as well as a line item in my acknowledgements (please be sure to include your FULL name so that you will be able to contribute as much as possible to my word count).

Tags: brickwall, help!, plot, writer's block