The season.
It’s here.

How do I know?
My cup says so.

Really,
the stores have been saying
so for a bit already,
haven’t they?

(Yes, I heard that early
Christmas music.
Did you?)

And, really,
TV has been saying so,
for a week or so now.

(Did you see those early
Christmas commercials?
I did. Hmm.)

This Christmas Season has been
sneaking in with
little hints
here and there.

So many things start early,
but we don’t “count it” as so.
(Until all is fully in place,
it doesn’t count.)

I call this early-start-stuff
The Fuse.
ssssssssss…

The Fuse is all around us.
Like a kid who has a meltdown tantrum.
It didn’t start there, with the tantrum.
Oh, no.
It started quite awhile back.

But the parent didn’t see The Fuse
and stomp on it, before it went
ka-BOOM!

Writer.

The Fuse of your Doors of No Return
and of your Critical Moments
starts way back.
(sssssssss…)

The reader just doesn’t see it.
(sssssssss…)
On purpose.
(sssssssss…)
We plant bits and pieces
(sssssssss…)
On purpose.
(sssssssss…)

I love stories that have bits and pieces
dropped in, lighting The Fuse.
(Don’t you?)

ssssssssssss…kaBOOM!

And you say,
Hey!
That little fact,
That little action,
That little dialogue,
AAAHHHH!
I GET IT!
(the hints were there all along)

Plan the ssssssssssss.

Sometimes it takes drafts
and drafts
to put the sssssssssss in.

Draft away.
(I am.)

* Thup