The last time I did one of these posts I ended it by saying a had come to a standstill. There was a choice I had to make before I could continue with the story. This week I’ll go over that and more.




So what was the question? I had always planned for Kakura to be in the very early chapters of this story and leave for the rest of the book. The idea was that Token would go through this first adventure alone and then go to Nijon where he would reconnect with Kakura. That would lead into the second the book. 

Then I started to think about how the book would work if Kakura stayed with Token. It opened up some new possibilities. My mind ran with them for a while and thus I was faced with a choice.

After a little bit of thought I realized that my first plan was the right one. In fact it wasn’t even much of question when I really looked at it.

So choice made. Everything is back on track right?

No.

About a week ago, on a whim, I started writing something. Close to 15 years ago I wrote a very short story called “Smoke“. It was a dark noir detective story. I had just come out of a psychiatric ward, I was there for 2 weeks, after trying to kill myself.  I was on medication and even though I was in a much better place I still had a lot of darkness in me.

The story was all atmosphere. That was the main draw to it. I enjoyed writing it, but it wasn’t too long before that darkness was gone. I wasn’t able to continue it the way it deserved. Sometime after that my computer died. I mentioned that before. Smoke was one of the stories that went with it.

Since then I’ve tried re-writing it a few times with limited success. Until now. In the past week I’ve written about 9 pages, which is a lot for me, and have not missed a day. You have no idea what that’s like for me.

So here I am with another choice. Do I continue with Smoke or go back to the Token story?

On the one side I’ve put a lot of work into Token and really think I have something there, on the other side I’ve got a lot of momentum going with Smoke.

I hate to say this but I think I need to keep going with Smoke. I don’t want to lose this train of thought.

So, what does that mean for these posts? I think, until I get back to the Token story, I’ll just do a simple Writing Journal.  Talking about what I wrote, how much I’ve written, and the problems I’ve had.

Or, I could keep talking about Token. I could expand on the world and the characters. It would keep me invested in that story.

Here’s another idea. I could talk about all of the ideas and stories I’ve had and worked on that I never finished, or have yet to start.

Actually, I should alternate between all three of those. Wednesdays could just be about my writing in general and not any specific story. I think that is the way to go.

Now about the title of this series. After weeks of racking my brain over what to call these posts I’ve settled on “Tales from a Roving Mind”. It fits with what the posts will be about and goes with the name of the Blog.

So next time on ‘Tales from a Roving Mind’ I’ll pull out one of the unfinished stories from my vault. See you then.