Wow!

Success! I know I am in first draft mode, which doesn't say much because it's the revision and polishing that does a story good, but, danggit, I'm CELEBRATING!

I struggled with some character development and tension, the dynamic in the middle of the love triangle. The two main characters, the ones that are meant to be together, just made an intense move in the direction I needed them to go. It was a missing element up until this point. I labored on paper and in my head over this for three years!

I have been bad at creating tension in the story: I know where the characters are, I know where they need to be so I take them to that point! But that isn't a good read. It isn't about the path of least resistance or the quickest route there. I was skipping the reason people read! Tension! Drama!

Today I focused on creating tension and after a few pages voila! Palpable tension, and much deserved victory!

I struggled, along with my characters! It was almost unbearable.

Have you experienced first love recently? I hadn't, not since 1999, when I experienced a whirlwind first love with the most amazing man I have ever met (my husband). It was like reliving those moments where your next breath hangs on what they are thinking. But things are too new to actually ask what they are thinking and, even if you did, they would be just as unsure and unwilling to share what they are thinking. Whew, that was tense!

This is a draft I can be proud of! Hence all the exclamation points in almost every sentence.

I can't give you much more for now and I don't have much inspiration to lend today, but I can tell you that some success has come in this journey for me! I am on my way, one step at a time.

By the way, Novel Word Count: 22,174 at 53 pages so far. One and a half weeks into the first draft process! I'm aiming for 100,000 to 120,000 (an estimate)