A to Z Challenge Blog 2024 The Letter D

Welcome back! How have the first four days of this year’s challenge treated you? So far, I’m staying above water and holding my own. Today’s blog is for the letter D

The letter D today stands for Decision. Every day, we make countless decisions, many of them without thought. We add sweetener and cream to our coffee without thinking about it, most of the time without even measuring. We decide what to do in the morning based on our immediate needs. We decide whether to shower or bathe depending on the time we have. We decide what to wear based on the climate and temperature. You get the idea.

As an author, I face countless decisions related to my writing every day. Let’s look at yesterday morning as an example. I got up at 7:08 a.m. DST. After attending to vital matters, I settled at my desk and opened my computer. I checked my e-mail, deleted the advertising posts, and opened and read the others, many of which were from people participating in the challenge, so thanks for the follow. I answered a few e-mails and then checked my Kindle site to see how things were going. Off to a slow start this month, but it’s been that way for some time now.

Then, I examined my calendar to see what I had on it for the day. Other than laundry, nothing much. We were expecting rain followed by snow, unfortunately continuing into Friday.

After grabbing my first coffee, I settled at the computer again to work on my manuscript, but before I did that, I needed to do my blog for the letter C. Blog done, a few more of them read, and I was ready to get to work.

I don’t work with an outline, but I have an ending in mind when I start a story–I’m just not sure how I’m getting there. My writing is linear. Although I use flashbacks in the stories, I don’t write scenes out of sequence. I tried that once, and it didn’t work.

So what did I decide to do yesterday? I’m at the point in the story where all of the principal characters have been introduced. I’ve planted all the clues, and it’s time to get to the nitty-gritty. The book is a contemporary, paranormal, romance, suspense novel. The contemporary and paranormal are well established, the romance elements are in place, so it’s time to put my heroine, and maybe the hero into danger. What might scream in the night and terrify? The island has no wolves, foxes, big cats, or bears. It does have eagles and the occasional owl. It seemed I had more research to do before I got to write.

By mid-afternoon, the decision was made. Something supernatural would do the trick. Decisions, decisions, decisions. You’ll have to wait for the book to be finished before you’ll know what I decided.

See you tomorrow for the letter E and a peek at the beginning of Listen to the Stones.

Check out blog posts from other participants here: https://tinyurl.com/w54yupwe