Siva’s book is finished.

Well, the first draft is. I still don’t even have a title for it yet.

And, of course, my creative voice insisted that I go back into the story and touch a few things at the end after I’d crossed that finish line and was making notes on the last two chapters. It kept say, “I want to add this…. I want to add that….” I’ve learned that not doing so can lead me to either getting up in the middle of the night to do it, or forgetting the idea entirely and having to wait for the retrieving Muse to bring the idea back to me.

Retrieving Muse — that’s funny. I hadn’t ever thought about it that way, but yes, sometimes if I don’t write things down (and sometimes even if I do but my creative voice turns cold toward the story), I have to wait for the idea to sprout again. It is almost like waiting for someone to bring the idea back.

Now I get to add all those words to my spreadsheet. Personally, I’m not liking this page count aspect I’ve been trying, but I’ve been waiting to finish this book so that I could update words and see how it feels to suddenly have that quantum leap forward in my count. I want to see if that could inspire me not to begrudge the page count.

Also up next: trying to figure out what story to go work on next. One more potential title got put on the list today when I was looking for a document I thought I’d written up. Remember that “alternate reality” post from a few days ago? Yes, I must have been in an alternate reality because I remember writing up notes for a spin-off book from Siva and I swore that I’d started to write the first chapter. I guess not because I didn’t find anything. But while I was looking for those notes, I saw another title that I started and I’m about a third of the way finished with. It would be interesting to follow Siva with this one since it’s a romantic sci-fi adventure that would “clean my palate” from writing about my dragon-born champions. But, I also got another idea today as I was driving to Twin to return items to the library and to make a quick shopping trip. It was a character idea, but that’s how Steigan’s story started. And Moonhunter’s. Oh, I guess Loki’s too. Okay, all of them really. I get this intriguing idea for a character and I have to run with it. Well, that’s this new one too. As well as the other story I want to work on that’s really chomping at me, but it’s so new that all the other titles currently on my list seem like a better choice because they already have more words to them and I should finish them up first. Boy, that was wordy! I’m not sure if that was my creative voice shouting for this story idea or my critical voice edging for a way in to shut me down later. I can hear it now, “Why did you decide to pick this story? You hadn’t even finished the first chapter. If you’d picked another story, you’d be done with it now? You’re not very bright, are you?” I know it wants to say that really loudly because it’s already been starting to say that to me. It’s part of the reason I want to pick one of the manuscripts that’s further down the line right now, but I don’t know if that’s where the energy is at.

For the moment, I think I need to “live” with this character that emerged today. I have too many questions. I want to imagine that lifestyle a bit more. So, that one is going to wait.

As for the second newest idea, I really like it. I also don’t feel that it’s going to be very long — maybe 45-50,000 words. It has a lot of energy because I really want to explore this idea right now. But, I’ve only written the first couple pages of the first chapter so far, so it’s just a wee infant.

The next manuscript with a lot of energy to it is one that’s about a third of the way done. I went down a trail I didn’t like and the story fizzled, so I have to go back some and start again. I feel like I’m about a third of the way into this novel and that’s always a hard point to get beyond, especially if the creative energy has left the building. But I still like the concept and I like the characters. I know I needed to step away from it, get a little distance from the setting. I might have been trying to push that and my creative voice might have balked at my insistence that we go in that direction. But since I know that path only leads to failure of the story and that I have to roll it back, maybe my creative voice will decide to come back to it.

As I said, there’s a few others, like my romantic sci-fi adventure, but I think I’d be forcing them. I don’t want to drag my creative voice kicking and screaming into one of them. So, it’ll probably be one of the two above.

I guess I’ll be making that decision real soon, won’t I?

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Cheers.