*Buzzlighter voice* To Liren... and beyond!?

 Today's the first day I came to the page after having completed the drafts for my first two books. All day, I was working, focused, not distracted by my eagerness to get back home to write and yet...

I was EXCEEDINGLY distracted because, once I did get home... what now?

Well, I have a-whole-nother book (or two... or three) to write. But do I just keep trekking along? No; I need to make sure I have the whole notion of what's going on before I do that. I should edit books 1 and 2. Ah, but I'm not really ready to edit yet (that whole "give it some time" thing -- which... will likely just be until January, or even earlier, since I'll be with family in the midwest with naught else to do for 10 days over Christmas). And, I REALLY don't like the idea of just... not writing. I've gotten into such a routine with it, I feel like I've finally become who I've always known myself to be (or rather, not BECOME; I've always been a writer, but have this year HONORED who I've always been with my actions). I can't just... not write.

Okay, so I write something different.

Yeahp, nope, that ain't gonna work, because I'm still enthralled with Liren and all of its characters and, frankly, I don't want to.

Okay, so fine. I'll keep writing. I want to keep writing into book 3 while I edit books 1 and 2 anyway, right? Right. Write.

So I open the laptop, rest my fingers against the keys, take a deep breath, and...

Crap, what do I write? It's obviously the beginning of the next book, so whichever character I choose to begin book 3, I'll have to weave in the deets about the world and recent events for the upcoming pages. Okay. Hm. So who... Well, I know I want to do a prologue. But, er, what's going to be in the prologue?

Pshaw, doesn't matter. Just write. Worry later.

No! No, that's NaNoWriMo thinking. As wonderful, exciting, word-count-producing as NaNoWriMo is, it is NOT where I am in my current state of mind with my book. I don't wish to just chase quantity, but quality.

And I have no idea where to start.

Or rather, I didn't.

Now I do.

When I realized I couldn't write, because my brain and my Muse were equally stumped as to the next steps, I took out my notebook, poised the pen, and...

Crap.

Okay, whatever. This part of the drafting doesn't have to be perfect, and God knows, when you look back through the last synopsis of books 1 and 2, the plot is already DRASTICALLY different. So, whatever. Just... freewrite, in a way. Get the thoughts down. Work through some of the I-don't-knows.

So that's what I did. For pretty close to the two hours I would have normally been actively writing.

The first few minutes were idle, but eventually my Muse started molding the metaphysical clay into somewhat of a concept model for book 3 (or will this cover 4 and maybe 5 as well? Gee-willikers, guys, FIVE?! ... and did I even spell that correctly?).

So even though I haven't "written," I think what I've done today is probably just as important, if not moreso, than the writing itself. I began actively writing the first draft of book 1 on 1/4/2020, but I was drafting the plot for the first three days of the year; so I have, in essence, done the same thing already, and it is wise that I have done another one.

So, because of this mind-mapping session, the rest of the the story of Liren is set to unfold, and now, my editing efforts for books 1 and 2, will not only be more fully fleshed, since I now know some more details about the future, but I will not have to worry about forgetting my place or the general direction in which the plot needs to go.

AND, fun fact, I figured out what the main character will be doing at the end of the book. Maybe not the ultimate, ultimate ending, but... I know. So anything that the Muse DOES spin-off from today's session will ultimately have the same end in sight -- which, as a typical pantser, is rather exciting and provides a sense of relief and peace, and encouragement... and almost permission, if you will, that I can still actively write and add to the story (*sigh* because now, I feel as though I NEED to, nearly as much as WANT to), without interfering with the process and progress towards the editing.

So yay. I guess this was yet another lengthy way to simply say: I'm a writer. And writers write. Writers edit, yes, but above it all, they write.

And write I will.

So it's off to Liren -- and beyond!? (maybe? Yikes.)

~J. R. DuBois

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