hrj

Four years ago (though it seems longer) I began a new writing project. Like all my fiction projects, it started with an "emotional postcard": a snapshot of a scene involving a few characters, a scenario, and a strong emotional "feel" for what was going on. And like all my fiction projects, one primary purpose of the story is to create a context in which that "emotional postcard" has a context and meaning. But one other thing I wanted to do was to engage in an entirely new (for me) writing process -- to see if changing how I wrote would affect what I wrote, especially in terms of the complexity, overall coherence, and consistency of the story.

I think it worked.

About half an hour ago, I finished the (very rough) first draft of Daughter of Mystery. If I may say so myself, I think it's the best thing I've ever written, even in its current state. (And it's still a long ways from being ready for test-readers.) And now I get to start revising.