A few weeks ago, a character I did not recognize began following me.

At the time I knew very little about this character. Things have changed. I now know the character’s gender, name, age… some of her motivations.

But this process is annoying. I am a writer. But working on two projects at once is a bit much. I have finished my outline for this “mystery character’s” story. But I am still elbow deep in my “current” story. But this new character will not stop following me.

I have notes on new, interesting characters for my next story. But as I work on my current novel, flashes of brilliance for my next novel continue to pop into my head. This has caused a drag on my current novel. I like to write with energy, but I feel like some of my best energy is going toward my next novel.

I am in one of the middle stages of editing stage for my current novel. It’s a stage I call the story edit stage. But an upcoming stage for my current novel is something that I call the character edit stage. The character edit stage is my favorite part of writing.

I hope to really dive into the character edit stage before Thanksgiving 2014.