A few weeks back, the weekend before KamiCon in Alabama, I found out that a good friend of mine had passed away. I had been friends with her for over 10 years, but we still kept in touch. We would encourage each other on writing and talking about work that we loved. She had fallen in love with my work in progress, The Seeking, that she even offered to beta read it for me. Outside of my close family, I had never had someone offer that. It really gave me motivation to continue and I kept her in mind whenever I struggled with how to proceed in the novel.

When she passed, my work on The Seeking came to a halt. My work on it came in fits and bursts, and I just couldn’t get anywhere with it. Thinking of the novel made me think of my friend, and I struggled with working through the already complex plot line.

Today I finally sat down and forced my way through. I wrote through the tough scene that I had been struggling with for weeks and finally got the plot moving again. It was hard. The words didn’t want to come, and since it had been weeks since I worked on it, the characters and their motivations weren’t as clear in my mind as they had been before. I thought of my friend’s disapproving face at allowing her death prevent me from writing a novel that she knew would be good, and I just kept going. It’s just a draft, I reminded myself. If it’s down on paper, I can at least work with it. And I knew I wanted to finish it. I had to finish it now. She would have been horrified if I had stopped writing on this because of what happened to her.

Here’s my progress today, and I think she would have been pleased with where it’s going.

Project: The Seeking

Each Seeking, the magic that protects the city of Carra must be renewed, which means the children of the High Family must go into hiding. Whether it be through disguise or bribe, through trusted friends or perfect hiding places, every child of the Priest family must avoid capture for the full day.

When things go wrong with the renewal, it’s up to seventeen-year-old Dahlia, the middle child of the Priest family, and her girlfriend, Bisa, to escape Carra and find the magical beings responsible for the protection. They must learn who would require such a cruel game to be played every year and if the protection of the Gray People is really worth such a deadly cost. What they will discover is far worse.

THE SEEKING is a YA dark fantasy novel

Words Written: 2,155

Current Word Count: 41,604

Progress:
Escaping the Safe House. Sometimes the monsters outside are safer.

Next Up:
It wasn’t easy getting out the door, and the next steps won’t get any better.

Commentary:
I finally got past the halfway mark for this novel! I can’t believe it. It’s got a long way to go before it’s done, but I think it’s going to be quite an interesting ride for our characters. I don’t even know how they’re going to get to the ending yet. As a part planner and part pantser, I like to let the story dictate how it finishes itself toward the end.I have an ultimate goal in mind, but other than that, the characters get to decide.

I’m grateful for my little book of monsters. I think it’ll be very useful moving forward…