A row of red-and-white candy canes light the path to my neighbor’s front door. Walking my dog at dusk last evening in the newly fallen snow, the decorations reminded me of Candy Land, my favorite board game when I was a child. This “sweet little game for sweet little folks” has an interesting backstory: a woman named Eleanor Abbot invented the game while a patient in a San Diego hospital in 1948. She was a retired school teacher afflicted with polio, which more typically attacked children in her era. In the hospital, Eleanor saw many children contending with this illness. To help cheer them, she created a fantasy game where players traveled through a land of candy from Start to Home.

When I began National Novel Writing Month, I felt like a plastic gingerbread playing piece stuck in the Molasses Swamp, waiting for the inspiration and discipline to write the story that I wanted to tell. On the first day of November, I gave myself permission to take a new and different path. By choice, I sent myself back to the Peppermint Stick Forest. By the 29th day, I feel like I’ve drawn a purple card that gives me a pass through the Gumdrop Mountains. According to the map, I have 92 miles left to go before I reach “Home Sweet Home.” 

What does this mean for me? 

With tens of thousands of new words now in hand, I need to redefine the final destination. Now, that means a solid first draft of about 50,000 words, organized into roughly 25 chapters. And while that first draft was what I could (or should) have accomplished during National Novel Writing Month, I discovered exactly what I was looking for: a new map. 

Now I know the answers to my story’s most significant questions: What does my one-eared rabbit protagonist want? And what is she willing to do to get it?

And here’s the most exciting part for me: it’s not what I expected!

Today’s word count: 1320. ONE more day to go!