[flickr id=”6065425471″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]Real Life has has been insane lately. So many things popping up, so many events and activities to keep me and mine busy. It seems impossible that I have all of these stories just waiting for me to write.

Out of all of them, one has stood out. Masked Hearts, even though it is a brand new idea, forced its way to the top.  I started writing it just over a week ago. At first the going was incredibly slow. Unlike most of my stories this one had not sat on the ‘drawing board’ as it were. In fact I started writing within a week of getting the idea.

This never happens.

The reason why is because I’m a free-writer. 95% of the time I just sit down and write. I worry about fine tuning and editing later. In order to sit down and write I have to know where the story is going.

For Masked Hearts I only had the most vague of ideas. I didn’t know the characters beyond their initial descriptions. I had an idea of a conflict, but it was far from clear.

The day I started writing I had my first “Aha!” The MMC’s backstory came into clear view as I finished reading the history of an event during the many years of Indian Wars in the US.

Yesterday, six chapters into the story came the biggest ‘Aha!’. The entire story’s plot line became clear. I knew all the moments of conflict, all the climactic moments, and the way the ending would come about.

So I dug in deep and wrote my ass off…

Only to learn in the middle of writing a chapter that two of my characters were gay.

Wait, what?  When did that happen? What the hell? Not that I mind, but a heads up a little earlier would have nice.

Oh, and by the way, those three side characters you thought were footnotes?  Totally instrumental in the ending of your novel.

Ah, crap.

Now I have all these extra characters with personalities. No, they aren’t becoming MC’s – but they have a bigger part than I ever expected in this thing.

Now to keep it within my word count goal of 50k.

I’m not good with the low word counts. Think I can make this one stick?