I am just speeding along with Arlyn’s story. It is going utterly fantastic right now.

Of course, I am in the first third of the story and still working on the setup. I’m trying to ignore the critical voice telling me that I’ll slow down once I start to worry about where the story is going, as well as “how will I fit in everything I want to tell?” Yes, that second part gets special quotes because it is storming in my head and the critical voice wants me to stop and think about where the story is going so that I can fit in all the “special moments” I want to put in.

This might be the story (or at least one of them) where I practice not writing a story based on moments that I want to put in, that I can let the story grow naturally without having to force it to certain scenes. I feel like I already forced a book in a certain direction with the drummer story because there was a scene that came to me before I even started writing it. Arlyn’s story feels like I must do the exact opposite, and perhaps it is this way because I do have so much information in my head about the character already. So, resisting the urge to visit every scene in my head would definitely be something worth practicing. It would free future stories from the need to become something it doesn’t want to be if I get a sudden wild idea for a scene that would “cool.”

By the end of the week, I hope to be one-sixth of the way through the book, if my gut is correct about the estimated word length. I usually come in pretty close. I do have to get back in the booth this weekend and get some recording done. I’m now up to the last chapter I have recorded. I’ll need more sometime next week.

And shows to apply for.

Much work to be done. It’s going to be a busy weekend.

Cheers.