I was working on TOPAZ last night and my fingers surprised me. They typed out a line that made me stop and say, "Huh." It was one of those moments where the creative process was flowing so naturally, it took me in a direction I didn't expect, but one that makes perfect sense. It's definitely not what I'd originally intended for Faith, my MC, but I like it! For those of you following my first draft on the WD forums, I won't spoil it here (you're welcome and/or sorry!).

I believe Cursings and Musings has a post about characters running away with their writers, and it's so true — although in this case it wasn't Faith who ran away from me, just my creative little brain. In the first draft of SENTINEL, though, Callie totally took me off guard by confessing to a murder! I'd intended to have her profess her innocence but she quietly admitted that yes, she'd killed her ex-boyfriend. (As it turns out, she didn't...but it's a moot point, anyway, because that part got edited out. ;) ) It's funny to think about characters as being in control of their stories, but in a lot of ways, they have more control than the writer. Weird, but true.

Oh, and in more writing news, I also wrote Jason and Faith's first love scene last night. Yowza! ;)


TOPAZ status: Working on Chapter 18. Things are flowing again, which is great.

SENTINEL status: Ideas are germinating.