Plot Wrangling & The Bradbury Year

I've struggled with my WIP. Some lines have jumped, fully formed, from my brain like Athena from the head of Zeus. Beautiful lines. Someone else's lines.

And then I sat back this weekend and wonder what the hell it was all about.

My plot needed a unifying theme, something to bring all the bits into line. I think I found it, but I'm not showing my hand. Yet. Let's just say there's something worse in town than the dead coming back to life. (Should I mention the dead are afraid of the "something worse"?)

I really want to finish this novella/novel/whatever-the-hell-it-is before the end of the year because...

I'm participating in Write 1/Sub 1 next year. (Thanks to Milo James Fowler and co.)

Here's the rationale:

1. I love short stories. I love writing them and I love reading them.

2. I love Ray Bradbury.

3. It's an opportunity to spend a year doing something I love and following in the "footsteps" of an author I respect.

How can I lose?

People preach that writers need to have a platform, a message, a central "thing". If I do, mine is the sheer love of storytelling. I believe in short fiction. I think it can save the world.