No good deed...

The more I think about this next project, the more frustrating it is.

I've been kicking around a few ideas with the thought 'no good deed goes unpunished' in the back of my mind.

I've been looking over a character sheet, trying to list a few things without much success. No name, no physical description, no birth date or astrological sign; no partners or parents or history. I have an occupation, a talent and an opening scene with dialogue that keeps changing. That's it. But I've started with less.

Okay, I've got a villain, of sorts; an amorphous, strident, spoiled, briefly glimpsed, villain.

It's as if this story is holding back until October 31; that it doesn't want to be told until someone presses the start button on Nano. For once, I want to be further along than just a thought when I start.

And before anyone suggests it, yes, I've tried the interview technique as was met with resolute silence - from every single character I could come up with.

Sounds like writer's block, but it's not. It's all there, the flashes of insight, the brief sounds, half heard questions of dialogue, the colours of magic...

I'm slowly - oh, so slowly - building the picture, but it's two dimensional yet. It needs to be three dimensions, with depth, vision, and full blooded characters I can torture for four hundred pages or so.

The difficulty, I think, is reconciling a protagonist who has the ability to both harm and heal with the same hand and at the same time. Cryptic, vague. No good deed goes unpunished. Magic has consequences. Modern, ancient or fantasy world? A mixture?

I'm gonna have to give it some more thought, coz, damn, it's a good idea!