I’m writing like a maniac again. It’s so much fun. I’m trying not to put too much pressure on myself and just write when I want to, as much as I want to, which makes it a lot easier on me and makes writing more enjoyable when I don’t feel that I have to. I’m making a small effort to try and at least think about writing every day, though, and that seems to be going well. I’m not forcing myself to write great gobs or letting myself sit around until my life is in perfect harmony for writing. In short, you could say I’ve struck a balance which works well for me right now.

I’m also talking about writing a lot, bragging to others about what I’m up to and telling some people about the ideas I have. I’m trying not to give away too many spoilers to any one person, but everyone, for example, gets to hear about the predatory rose bushes because that’s what the book starts off with. Yes, rose bushes-turned-predators. I’m having a lot of fun with that one. (“Feed me!”)

Even though it’s not as intense as November was, in a way it feels the same. I’m living and breathing book to some extent again. In the moments between other activities, I’ll spend my time to puzzle out another character’s name or resolve some minor issue. At school I keep two sheets of paper in front of me at all times: one for class notes, the other for story ideas. I try to spend most of the time paying attention to the lecture, but during breaks and roll call you’ll find me scribbling away on the story sheet.

I’ve taken out all the pages in all my notebooks which contain scribblings that are related to the story and put them all into one binder. I can pull sheets out to take places and put them back in when I’m done. On the computer, I’ve got a directory filled with files containing more organized notes, including a list of the major characters grouped by race and a glossary of various terms, what they mean, and how to say them.

My plans for this thing are probably way out of proportion. My current novel focuses on one race/continent/language, so I’m mainly developing that right now, but the series this fits into — assuming I can manage to go through with all these plans and create a series — should have, on completion, six races, six or seven languages, three sentient species, two or three planets, and span a period of . . . let’s say one or two millenia for now. This is necessary because I have about twenty main characters and want to spread them out.

What I’m really looking forward to in terms ofcreative work is to start near the end of the period I plan to cover and give those characters all these myths and legends, then go back in time and write about what really happened to show how stories can change as they’re passed down. Then in the beginning of the millenia I’m going to have more myths about what happened before that and leave the reader with just a few hints so they can speculate about the actual truth that sparked those myths.

I don’t want to say too much about what the larger story arc of the series is, but I do want to add that I’m planning on working a rewrite of the Chronicles of an Azalea into the series: same story more or less, just a different world than Pern. This world that I’m already working so hard to create. That way, my second novel attempt will benefit from the work I’ve done in returning to my very first novel attempt. Right now, I’m still planning on keeping Death Lurks Here separate, however. (That’s a different can of worms; it has another point, a separate feel, a different genre from the Aza and Rowan stories. I do have ideas that may become a sequel to Death, but I’m not worrying about it right now. Resolving plot issues comes first and I can’t work them out yet.)

So I’m feeling pretty damn good (wonderful) right now. I think very few things can make me quite as happy as the satisfaction writing brings me. I’m glad this is going well so far, and I hope I can keep it up. I’ve wanted this to go well for so long.