My wrangler  is doing his job admirably, but I have run into a problem tonight.  I wrote 130+ words, you see, and the last two of them were “The End.”  

And then my brain stopped.  

I finished 'Office Demons,' which is a great feeling.  I've gone back through my other works in progress and I just haven't thought about any of them in so long — I don't know what happens next.  In any of them.  The one I want to tackle next is 'Red Carpet' but it's largely done except for the end, and the problem is that I don't know how it ends.  I need time to think about it, to weigh possible endings against what's on the page already.  

I went through some other stories that have been languishing for months or years, and came up against the same problem.  I just don't know what happens next in any of them, and I'm not going to be able to figure it out tonight.  So I thought maybe I'd try to start something new — but I don't have anything new, apart from my NaNovel.  Nothing's really been perking upstairs, getting ready to be written.  No sparks or new connections have been made in a little while now.

So tonight my word count falls short.  And also I realize that I absolutely must have at least a rough outline for November, or I'll find myself in this exact spot, not knowing what happens next.  

I'm going to let myself off the hook tonight, but tomorrow I've got to have something ready to bring to the table.  Maybe it'll be 700 words of outline — who knows?  But tonight I'll take my win and forgive the shortfall.  

'Shortfall' sounds like the title of something, doesn't it?   

(Was that a spark?)