Okay, stop whining about plots and stuff. There are plenty of great writing tools out there to help you out. Mac users like Scrivener, a word processor beefed up with organizing tools to juggle all those ideas that used to be on notecards tacked to the wall. Power Writer and Power Structure not only keep you organized but guide you through the process of storytelling. WritePro is another self-directed program with tips for novelists. I've played around with NewNovelist, and it seems like a cool way to go from a thread of an idea to a finished manuscript, and includes templates for creating characters and scenes and actually teaches you about literary theory almost without you knowing it. Dramatica Pro is actually for screenwriting, but has an intriguing way to approach building characters and plot that would work just as well for a novel. StoryWeaver sound great... walking you through fleshing your story out step by step. I might actually make November "Second Novel Writing Month."

Fascinating. I took these photos and created two more ways of looking at these same 10 pictures. One (http://tinyurl.com/4dysoq)is a little disturbing, but the second (http://tinyurl.com/64zxoc), as we've all been taught, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.