transitions

My two kids are off school now. I downshifted to 32 hours a week so I could watch them for half each week during the summer. We're all learning the ropes together. I have a whiteboard with the new rules and each day's TODOs.

I'm spending most of the wait time writing Jezebel. I'm up to 64K words and entering the second phase of the story. I originally planned to just drop my novella in as the next 30K, but my writing style has changed so much in the last 14 years it's not working.

I'm not worried about reaching the right length; my characters could expand "a week later" to ten thousand words if I let them. The byplay and problems in their daily lives even keeps me entertained. The problem is "forcing" them to do what I want them to when I want them to, especially with my first female lead.  For example, Jez was supposed to jump the male lead as a reward after he rescues her from torture. But after that trauma and threats of rape she refused to feel sexy. Go figure. They also both had two casts for broken limbs. Try writing that scene. When they got casts removed a month later, she couldn't because it felt rushed and she hadn't fully bathed in a month. After getting officially engaged, she wants to and he wants to wait. Eventually, they end up having really hot married sex, something you don't see a lot in fiction.