On Not Killing Characters #AmWriting

I suppose you can’t expect much concentration from a squirrel. I scamper off to my next objective, change my mind halfway, turn back, and turn back again—all the while forcing the considerate people around me to slam on their brakes.

Over a month ago, I expressed my utter joy that I got to murder a character. Well, I haven’t done it yet. I know, I know. It’s long past due. While I was working on his nefarious demise, my mind darted ahead, knowing the next stop was a second earthquake, based on another POV. As I tried to fit all the proper nuts into my mental tree, I just couldn’t see a good way to move from one earthquake to another in the murder-the-character POV.

Now some people suggested the earthquake POV could experience aftershocks that murder-the-character POV wouldn’t feel. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for my world. Earthquakes aren’t normal. They only occur for a particular reason, and when they do occur, it affects the entire continent. So it’s all or nothing.

So I set aside my plans of murder in favor of removing the earthquake from the other POV, because the earthquake takes place before the murder in the timeline, and if I was removing the earthquake, who knew what kind of ripple effect it would have on the other POVs, so might as well get it out of the way first. (Holy run-on sentence, SquirrelGirl!)

I was diligently working on that when a couple of people responded to a post I’d made in the Ladies Who Critique forums. See, I’m working on book 2, and I want people to be able to start reading this book and still enjoy it, even if they haven’t read book 1. Therefore, I needed to make sure I explained enough about the various powers and races for people not to be lost and confused.

It turns out, some things needed a bit more background. With the swish of a furry tail, my mind leapt to new branches and I found myself bobbing on the idea of a pre-prologue prologue. This one would be nine centuries before the start of the book, when the humans first arrived on my elemental-inhabited land. Again, I abandoned my progress and chased this the new direction.

Good news, though. I set my goal with my accountability partner to finish a scene in a week. I did finish writing my pre-prologue prologue, coming in at 3600 words, though it’s still in a rough draft. With that out of the way, I can return to the earthquake, and then back to killing the character after that.

Oh, and I did promise pictures of my aqua hair. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken any good ones of myself, but here’s one with me and my daughter. Her hair goes from natural, to aqua, to fuchsia in a nice rainbow effect. She’s definitely the cuter between the two of us.

Are you the type to write where you feel driven, or do you force yourself to finish a scene before tackling something new? If you could dye your hair any color, which color would you choose?

Squirrel photo taken by Camelyn Gast.

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