2AM Traffic

Yesterday was more of the same, moving records onto Lacie, not doing much of anything but spinning through websites and watching America's Funniest Videos. Around 2 AM I went nuts and wrote. All of this stuff just poured out of me - stuff I've been thinking about, stuff I invented on the spot. Words I needed to read at that moment. Ideas for stories. I'm trying to get back to this ability I once had to tell a story from beginning to end. I think participating in NaNoWriMo back in 2006 kind of screwed me up as a writer. I wrote over 30,000 words of a novel and didn't finish it. The experience drained me of observation, description, the feeling I used to have that there was so much that needs to be said that hasn't been said yet. I need a reawakening. I need those moments when I get so lonely or bored or dissatisfied that it has to come out. A story has to be told to save a life, or at the very least contribute to a person's well-being.

I think what I'm most interested in, thematically, after returning to Ottawa, is what makes a person "good," and how a person can live without thinking of themselves as good. What kind of life would that look like? What kind of decisions does this person make, and why? What points in the culture dictate goodness? How does technology affect it? What has become of morality in the person who is made aware of ten atrocities a day and does nothing because he is insulated by the experiences he has in environment? How has urbanity affected goodness? How does it change as a person gets older? Has the WAY it changes itself changed in the last ten years? How does a person become good, if it's possible? Is a good life an active life, and if so, what constitutes action? I need to come up with a character who can address these concerns in an interesting way.