A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-Five-Hundred-And-Thirty-Nine

I do feel that I am finally getting settled in the new novel.  Do not misunderstand: I still have a lot to figure out and am far from confident in where I am going, but I am at least in the story now.  The first week or two working on it, I was kind of just spinning my wheels and writing around the ideas, but something shifted and I found my way into the story.   I don't have the whole thing figured out, but I have a good sense of what needs to happen with what I am writing at the moment, and I have a strong sense of how it connects to the rest of the story.  I am working to establish certain relationships and to give a sense of the stakes of the story and the world where it is taking place.  A lot of what I am writing at the moment is still drawing on my experiences in a very direct way, which is helping me to remain grounded right now.  As I keep going, I know the story is going to head into a very different direction at some point and it may be that pulling from my own life is helping me to really connect in a way that will let me make that leap when the time comes.   

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