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I just had to school Miss I-wrote-six-pages-today smarty pants Cece. She didn't think I could've blogged about all the stupid crap I did today, and still get stuff written. But I showed her. Uh-huh. uh-huh. Yes, I did.

Yesterday, I started the new novella (it really doesn't have much in common with the old novella) and finished the day with a word count of 980. That's almost two single-spaced pages in NTR 12. Not all that impressive. But today's final total is 2490 words. And when I rejigged the formatting to standard Courier 12, 1" margins, line spacing of 'exactly' 25, it worked out to 10 freaking pages in 2 days.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have lift off.

I kept pushing myself and finally, at some point, I crossed over and became "involved" with the characters. I was there with them, in their heads, experiencing their emotions, needs, and fears. It's such a good feeling. Suzanne Mcminn has a great post about this on her blog. "You write it wrong, and delete, write it wrong, and delete, write it wrong, and delete, till finally you write it right." (I'm paraphrasing.)

I'm finally(!) writing it right. And, "God, it's so beautiful."

And you know how else I know I'm doing it right? Things I didn't plan, fell into place magically. The hero is under a curse, and as I wrote, I decided he lived in a forest, then while describing this terrifying place, I gave it a name: The Lost. That became the title of the novella. And it works on so many levels in reference to the heroine & hero being lost emotionally and even physically. Sweet.

I also gave the heroine a fiance, who, once I let him lead, turned out to be a bit of a jerk. Yet I saw exactly why the heroine could be a little bit in love with him already--he has many admirable traits and attributes; he was compelling. And I wondered if I was making a mistake by introducing him first, before the hero. Then, *snap!* just like that, I knew I was going to write his story next. I won't be excusing his behaviour, but I can easily see him as the 'hero' in his own book, as the hardened Warlord who's brought to his knees by love.

From a marketing point of view it makes sense to have a follow up to the first novella, or, who knows, maybe I could sell them together to be released in one book. I'm getting ahead of myself here, I know, but the fact I'm even making future plans feels damned good!