While working on the climactic scenes of The Sequel, I discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that deliberately writing myself into a corner, setting the scene aside overnight, and then coming back to it worked quite well. In the past, I've gone out of my way to avoid putting characters into impossible situations from which the only apparent escape is 1. death, or 2. some sort of ridiculous deus ex machina, but I found that after a short rest period a third, more workable solution inevitably presented itself.

I don't want to hijack the "arting harder" thread any further, so I thought I'd start a new one to deal with a couple of things the last few posts have covered.
A few people have mentioned Deviant Art as a good source of cover artists; some of us may also have untapped talent among family, friends, and so on. It just occurred to me this morning that my SO's daughter in Philly has an art degree and may be interested in creating a cover for my next magnum opus. (Fingers crossed.)

MegEvonne mentioned that she has difficulty coming up with characters' names and often gives them "placeholder" names during early drafts. I'm exactly the opposite; if I don't find the perfect name for a character early on, he or she doesn't work for me at all. In fact, names are often one of the first things I'll come up with, and then I have to find a way to work the characters into the story. The protagonist of my urban fantasy was giving me problems I couldn't quite put my finger on until I realized his name was wrong; once I changed him from Max to Julian he suddenly became a far more interesting character and a more willing collaborator in the process.

Titles are more difficult for me. Frequently I'll give a work in progress a placeholder title and eventually come up with something better along the way. (However, I'm great at coming up with random, useless titles I have no use for; some of them include Dead Birds Through the Skylight, Vestal Vixens of Vesuvius, The Dead of the Shed, Vampyromaniac!, and Cannibal Carnival. I offer these to you, my dear colleagues, free and clear, to do with what you will.

Thanks!
This may well be a question for a new thread,  but...how do you go about finding cover artists anyway?  Advertise on CraigsList?

124K tonight on The Sequel.  The home stretch!

Fixed a major plot hole last night. Figured out who murdered the artist and why, which is always a good thing to know about one's own character.

111, 500 on The Sequel tonight.

Possibly a Skant? (Mashup of Skirt + Pant) or a Mant (Man + Skirt.)