I feel like I’m spinning my wheels. Sure, I’m adding to my word count — slowly but surely — and I’m making some progress but my brain is distracted. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Still no news about my proposals. Since Envisioned isn’t contracted, I don’t have any deadline to meet. This seems to have given my muse carte blanche to go haring off in all directions, taunting me with details to other possible stories.

When I was at this point writing Entangled, it was all full-steam-ahead. A big rush to The End. But now that I don’t have to prove to myself I can finish a novel, there’s no sense of urgency. Maybe because there’s no deadline looming even in the far horizon?

So I allow myself to be distracted. Or hope the “distractions” will actually spark inspiration. For example, titles. The titling style for my first universe should be obvious: Entangled, Envisioned, Endangered, En…? (Okay, Endangered is just a vague concept with just two unconnected scenes, but it’s there already.)

Me being me, I check the dictionary and the thesaurus to make a title list to see what might catch my flighty muse’s fancy. Hmm… Endowed? Well, all my heroes are endowed, if you get my meaning, but this could have something to do with an inheritance (leaving aside its association with dowry). Then I reach Enflamed/Enkindled and one of my secondary characters informs me his heroine is a firestarter. Cool! But that’s not helpful. He doesn’t even show up in Envisioned.

Then more procrastination on the Internet results in a vague scene and a loose plot for Endowed involving two of the secondary characters in Entangled and Envisioned and a mysterious inheritance. (Insert muttered imprecations here.) I hadn’t even planned on either of them getting a story and here they are ganging up on me! They haven’t met yet by the end of Envisioned but my muse assures me the two are made for each other.

And, no, none of this babble has added a single word to Envisioned. I know where that story is headed and how it ends but the text remains annoyingly out of reach. No traction. Still spinning my wheels. (Sigh.) The Year of the Fire Dog is supposed to be good for creative endeavors of Dogs. (Yup, Metal Dog, here.) At this rate, it’s going to be a loooooong year.