I’m starting this blog as I approach the finish line on my first draft of The Seven Coins, which I hope will make a solid showing as a debut novel. I’ve been working on this book for over a year now and I’ve written (and retained) over 140,000 words. I expect it to top out around 200,000.

But I’m not going to be working on my current novel in November. Instead, I’m going to set it aside and focus on another part of the broader story for NaNoWriMo.

Don’t get me wrong. I really struggled with this decision. I want to finish this book. I want it badly. As you may know from the About page, I’ve wanted to be a novelist since I was seven years old–and at no point in my life has that desire waned. So why shift gears now?

This current story is so much fun for me that I’ve conceptualized about a dozen other tales in the universe of the story, which of course, has caused some new characters to emerge in the current story. Among these characters, I think one of them, Silke, has a much bigger role. She is going to be a key player in a pivotal scene in The Seven Coins. But I don’t really know Silke that well. I get who she is and where she came from, and even what she will do in the future. What I don’t get quite is what really motivates and compels her forward. Why, besides her heritage and the plot, does she make the choices she makes? What makes her happy? Causes her to hurt? Captures her attention? Infuriates her?

To get to these answers, I’m going back to her childhood and writing the story of how she learned who she was in the fabric of the broader story and how she grew into the person she is by her appearance in The Seven Coins. It’s my hope that by the time I’m done writing her story she’ll be alive enough–vibrant enough–to pop right off the page. In terms of releasing the stories, I’m hoping readers of The Seven Coins will be interested enough in Silke to further explore her back story, which I plan to write in November.

BTW, if you want to follow my progress or “buddy” me on NaNoWriMo, I’m jfournierii and the project is called Silke’s Story.