proof that I'm going crazy...

...or that I'm doing something right.

I spent a solid two hours writing this afternoon. It was surprising to me that my attention span lasted, but also that I made real progress. My male lead is developing his character, and I'm prepping to nearly completely rewrite the first section that I wrote today. Yeah, I know...I made progress and now I'm changing everything. That is part of the proof that I am doing something right! 

Proof that I may be going crazy: one of my minor characters (or so I thought!) decided that she wanted to be someone else. She told me. And she wouldn't let it go until I made the change in my notes. Like I said, I may be going crazy. But I know that I'm not the only writer that this happens to. Stephenie Meyer, for example, tells a similar story about one of her minor characters in the Twilight series. On her website, she writes, "Jacob's development into a major character was a strange journey. Originally, Jacob was just a device. ... Something happened then that I didn't expect. Jacob was my first experience with a character taking over—a minor character developing such roundness and life that I couldn't keep him locked inside a tiny role. (Since Jacob, this has reoccurred with several other meant-to-be-minor characters. I really love it when this happens, though it often destroys my outlines.) From the very beginning, even when Jacob only appeared in chapter six of Twilight, he was so alive. I liked him. More than I should for such a small part."

Granted, I haven't gotten far enough in my story to have what happened to me tonight be monumental...yet. Although I'm already seeing changes just from this one thing. A few hours ago, Elizabeth was just a name I had written down to fill out a family that was functioning as backstory. Now, she's editing the plot! 

I think that I am really starting to love the writing process. Bring on the insanity! =)