I’m one week in and guess what? I managed to get this afternoon off! Before I did anything I had planned for the day, I decided to write and finish up a scene I’ve spent the past two nights working on. It feels good to finally move forward.

What I found interesting is how I still come up with new ideas for my story as I write. While I have everything plotted out and characters all decided on, I still manage to add little bits and pieces here and there. As I closed the scene today, I left an ambiguous cliffhanger. I don’t even have to resolve it in this book! It’s really interesting.

Whether or not I do resolve the cliffhanger is yet to be seen. Either way, it feels good to still create interesting plot devices after I had them all planned out. It’s amazing how the ideas simply present themselves.

If I tried to follow a word count, who knows whether or not I would’ve came up with these ideas! The freedom I gave myself on this challenge is such a blessing.

I gave Yes’ “Close to the Edge” a listen to today because it’s just a great album to enjoy on a Sunday afternoon! Close to the Edge, And You And I, and Siberian Khatru are all amazing songs!

Until tomorrow, friends!

These past few days have been shaping up to be some of the busiest and exhausting days I’ve had in a long while.

In a nutshell, along with working a ton, I’ve been busy with some more “life stuff.” After lots of nights with many prayers; as of a few days ago, I learned I will be moving on February first. With only two weeks notice, obviously things are a bit hectic.

But that’s okay, because I can still make writing happen!

Today – well, tonight – was a bit of a drag for writing, as I really am exhausted. I haven’t had a full nights sleep in two weeks, and it’s definitely taking its toll on my body.

I tweeted this earlier tonight: “Life is moving too quick at the moment. Remember to breathe & relax. Moving slowly is calming.” I definitely need to eat those words up as I know I’m going to be more overwhelmed shortly. But I have a writing job to do, and a challenge to accomplish!

My neighbours who live above me are tremendously loud tonight, so I felt like drowning them out with Evergrey’s “Glorious Collision.”

Until tomorrow, my friends.

Writing today came very easy. I’m setting up the transition for the next “arc” in my story. It’s actually quite exciting. I’ve been fiddling around with the current scene for the past few days, so I’m looking forward to move. . . well, forward!

There’s been a lot of talking going on in this scene, too. While I do my best to keep the dialogue refreshing and witty (when appropriate), I know I’ll have to go back to this scene later to play around with some words. It seems like it’s a dry spell in the story – as it is. It’s between two action scenes, so the “breather” is needing a way to keep the pace going without taking away from the excitement which had already happened.

I’ll figure it out.

I needed to listen to something light-hearted tonight. Jennie Abrahamson has a fantastic voice, so I gave her album “Lights” a listen to tonight. Because of her wonderful voice, I found it a bit distracting while writing. I just wanted to focus and listen to the album. Alas, I got through it anyway!

Until tomorrow, friends!

After another busy day, I finally got to head home and get some writing done. I was very excited to work on the story today because I had some pretty interesting dialogue to get working on.

I find when I’ve been writing, I’ve put a larger focus on dialogue, rather than the images and descriptions of things in a room, or the area surrounding the people. I love those types of details in stories (albeit, I know when it can be overkill as well). I definitely plan on going back and adding in a lot of extra tidbits of awesome information.

While I like the motto, “When in doubt, leave it out,” – especially when it applies to storytelling, I cannot help but feel that some things, like the colour of ones hair, or the type of clothes they are wearing is important – regardless of whether or not it is necessary for that particular scene. Why? Well, I want my reader to be able to picture the character a bit better. I’ve left things pretty ambiguous when it comes to descriptions of what the characters look like.

But I should move them into a certain direction though. . . right? I mean, they should see what I’m seeing – to a degree anyway – right? Ah, I’ll figure it all out.

Opeth’s “Blackwater Park” was definitely hankering to be listened to today. A song got stuck in my head earlier today. Then the whole album demanded to be listened to.

Until tomorrow!