I haven’t started the new story yet, or for that matter, done any writing at all since sending the latest one off on Monday. There have been lots of distractions: Zach has an ear infection (his first). We have contractors at the house repairing a closet that was damaged by a leaky shower. It’s been non-stop hectic. But the other problem I’ve had–the one that is stymied me–is that I lost the voice for the character. I had the voice running through my head a few weeks ago, and then it was gone. I couldn’t seem to get it back. It was really disappointing because I liked the voice.
Last night, however, while in the shower, the voice came back. The entire opening of the story was rendered clearly in my head in the voice I was looking for, and if I’d had a keyboard in the shower with me, I could have typed it out as dictation directly from my brain. I made sure to lock it in so as not to loose it again. And sure enough, when I woke up this morning, the voice was still there, strong as ever.
I hope to get started on the new story this evening. I’m trying to write a series of shorter stories over the next month or two. My goal is to keep them all at 4,000 words or less (my stories typically run 7-10K words; “In the Cloud” was 7,500 words). We’ll see how it goes.
