Side Quests

I feel like a monkey, but these past few days I have been working on my side quest chapter of 'Mark of a Goddess'. I never thought I would be writing a side quest, since generally side quests sort of unnerve me when I read for pleasure. But I've been paying close attention to the process since I've never done it before. Usually, I'm really concentrated, so this was a really new experience for me.

For one thing, I found it was a lot like writing fanfiction for your own work. I had a few characters that were old and two that were new. So, I could lean on the established characters while I concentrated my efforts on the new ones.

I wasn't writing about anything that applied to the main story line so it was also like taking a break from MoaG, which was nice, since I've been nearly tearing my skin off (I want to write Ghost Mist so much!! It BURNS! It BURNS!). It was fun to write in a voice that wasn't Hitomi's. It was a good change.

Let's see, what else did I get out of it? Oh yeah, I got to concentrate on a romance that wasn't Van and Hitomi's. That was a relief as well. It's hard to describe a good relationship when it's as old as Van and Hitomi's without talking about sex directly. I try hard, but I'm not sure how well I do. I suspect that I'm not very good at pulling the old heart strings with romantic rosebuds, which is weird because I always thought that romance was one of my strong points. Lately, I'm discovering that it's not. It's probably because I'm an analytical bag. I've probably spent too many hours listening to debates to be a smooth talker. I'm better at writing the fight scenes - at least that's what I'm getting out of my reviews. Well, some people think I do well at romance, so I shouldn't trash myself too hard. Anyway, my side quest is more heated and it's from a woman's perspective that is much older than Hitomi, so I don't mind getting a little more descriptive. We'll see how well it goes.

I enjoyed the experience. Hopefully, my readers won't be too cheesed about me taking them off the beaten trail for a minute or two.