What is it like to be alone, really alone? We are an interconnected world now. People are glued to their screens or phones much of the time. What if these ceased to work?

One study found people were anxious in as little as fifteen minutes of not having their devices. I’ve seen people walking down sidewalks past flower beds filled with vibrant colors and never glancing at them as they were staring at their tiny screens.

Even during lockdowns in the past year people haven’t really been alone. They’ve had families. They’ve had their devices.

What is it like to be alone, really alone?

I am trying to imagine this in my present NaNo novel draft. My main character lives on an isolated place, but has a phone and drives to town several days a week. Her husband drives a truck, but comes home between hauls.

A major storm arrives with extensive flooding. The phone is dead. There is no cell service. The electricity goes out. She is alone, really alone.

Even after the storm, the road is impassable. This property is not on a main electric line or phone line. The road is a minor one. She lives at the end of the road with few others living along it. She is at the bottom of the priority list for getting these services back.

What is it like to be alone, really alone? This isn’t for a day or two. It has now been a week.

Imagine your house if the electricity went out. What would it be like? Sound like? What would happen to your food supply? In the country well pumps stop working so the water is out too. How would you cope?

As I write, I remember times the electricity went out, sometimes for days. And the phone was out for days several times this year. Floods have happened, but not on the magnitude in the novel. Still, news stories tell of such events in other places.

What is it like to be alone, really alone? I’m trying to imagine the answer.

Living out in the country with no cellphone or internet and lots of quiet makes planning novels easier as there are fewer distractions. Even during times when I’m doing chores, I have time to think about my idea, evaluate it, find the plot line, visualize setting and other important preparations.

Rural living suggests ideas as does the radio news. For over a year the pandemic has dominated the news with its lockdowns and distance learning and isolation.

Storms are another big part of the news. These occur here and have increased in size over the past few years.

My premise has having a large hurricane move inland gradually degrading into a tropical depression that stalls out over the Ozarks bringing huge amounts of rain. What would my valley look like with ten or more inches of rain? We got a taste of this a few years ago when a deracho came through with wind bursts and massive downpour downing trees and turning the road into a raging river.

A woman homesteader whose truck driver husband is away is stranded by the storm. The phone goes out. The electricity goes out. The road is impassible first due to flooding, then due to downed trees and washed out roadbed. She is on her own for two weeks.

Planning novels may begin with a premise, but then there are the details. First with this is the timeline. There is a time before the storm arrives, the storm and its aftermath. What happens during each of these periods?

She is human and can only do so much in any given amount of time. Much as she may wish to be superwoman, she isn’t.

The real crux of the story isn’t dealing with the storm itself while continuing to do chores etc. The real crux is how this isolation affects her and her decisions about her life, the turns and choices she is facing even before the storm.

Some writers outline all of this out in detail. Other writers just start writing. My novel planning is in between. So I’m developing a rough timeline and the layout of the homestead plus a list of possible thing going on. Writing begins next week.