I kept coming back to the issue of setting. Hungry Ghosts wanted something more than a modern, urban fantasy setting. I couldn’t seem to get past that. I have been seriously blocked on the story.
I finally made my decision: I’ll be doing House of Cats for NaNoWriMo this year. I know, using an existing story is technically against the rules. But as a soon to be six-year veteran, I think I’ve earned the privilege of breaking a few rules. And it will be really helpful to get that kind of head start on the rest of the HoC season. I’ll keep a running file of the rough drafts, which I’ll count for NaNo. Then I’ll make separate files for each episode as it gets edited and posted.
I’m not scrapping Hungry Ghosts. I still like the idea. But I’ve realized that it needs so much more background and world building than I can give it right now. So it will be on hold until at least the end of HoC.
So. This leaves me four days in which to plan as much of HoC as possible. I’m looking forward to it, really. And the 50k of NaNo will take me into April’s material. A six month head start sounds just fine to me.