Milestones, Millstones and Markers

Hello Lovely Reader!

I find this hard to believe, but I am 4K words away from the midway point of my 100K goal for completion. That’s right: I sit at 46K words on the novel I started in early August. So, if all goes as planned, completion should be at the end of November, if not earlier. I’ve discovered as I progress deeper into the story, my pace of writing picks up speed as well.

Instead of 5-800 words, I’m hitting 3K words a session. In addition to that, I am touching up portions as I catch back up with the story. I know: no editing while writing. However, in this case it helps with MY flow into the story, making the portal even stronger.

It’s working, and when something is working well, don’t change.

Frank has become a permanent fixture beside me, no matter where that place is. Coffee, cranberry and vodka, wine – he likes it all and has become absolutely fascinated with the story. I’ve never felt more connected to my work as a writer than I do right now. Frank is, too: hence his own chair beside me.

The cat even likes him (it must be the kitty treats).

Am I obsessed? I hope so, as it’s been a dream long time coming. The difference between obsession and passion is a vague boundary, and probably defined by the intention. Is it destructive or creative?

Fantasy writing provided the opportunity to create something completely from scratch, imagining places and people that had never been seen before. However, the task of creation became a millstone in a way, as if the task was so huge it held me back from the passion of connection. I always felt the weight of trying to bring that world to the light, breathing life into it in a way that the people and world would be honored.

Romance is freedom.

I am plugged into the story wholly and completely, to the point that it is all I think about. I zone into space and see, hear and taste the world in which I’ve opened. Passion ignited, made real through my words of what I’ve experienced. I feel no weight, only energy. I feel the power of what I see and feel how it moves from mind to word to page. Like a river of golden soul-love, pouring forth from the open portal into the world of reality.

Word counts are mere markers along the highway toward completion. Yet they give witness to the journey. For indeed, it is a journey. Maybe much more than a thousand pages, and hopefully so. They mark time, they mark progress, they mark freedom. For as long as I remain on the road, I am free.

Writing is freedom, shared experiences from those I write about to those who read. Walls cannot contain, relationships cannot bind – freedom is the soul singing it’s song and I’m singing for you, lovely reader.

Enjoy and IN Joy.

Fair Winds and Following Seas, my lovely reader, Wherever your horizons beckon…

Stephen R, Gann