Step One: Check!

Okay, I've decided what I'm going to do for NaNoWriMo this year: an old-fashioned monster novel. What do I mean by old-fashioned? I started thinking about "scary monsters" and the movies I've seen them in. My list of scariest monsters includes the xenomorphs from the Alien series and old classics like The Blob. And then I realized, I haven't seen a scary monster in a while. Most of the movies of late have been about vampires and zombies. And when there is a monster (District 9 or Independence Day) it's either held at such a distance that it's not scary (it's really secondary to the plot, as in Independence Day) or made so that we sympathize with it. So that's what I mean by old-fashioned: it's going to have a monster that is the center of the plot, the sort of book that makes you wonder, "what was that movement I saw out of the corner of my eye?" (which is what I was TRYING to say in explaining why Independence Day and District 9 don't count--they didn't have that "spook" factor).

Step 2, of course, is coming up with a monster. Not as easy as it sounds. Step 3 will be coming up with the people that you're going to root for and will (we hope) defeat the monster (or not). And steps 4 thru 912. Much work remains to be done!