I hate it when I think I’ve created a word from scratch only to realize later on that it’s already a word, person, place, or thing. I wonder if all writers do this? Probably.

This time, I was trying to come up with a last name for a character. I suck at thinking up last names, by the way, about as much as I suck at titles. I finally wrote down “Alice Wheedle” because I liked the sound of the two words together. I totally didn’t remember that “wheedle” is a word with a meaning when I wrote it down, but today when I looked at my notes again, I remembered. I would still keep it except that “wheedle” isn’t a connotation I want associated with her family (the last name is important to the story) and so it’s back to the drawing board.

I’ve run into difficulties with “Tayce,” namely my itchy fingers want to dance to another story. I have written down two story ideas in the last three days. One of them I actually wrote out the first chapter because I knew exactly how it should be and I didn’t want to forget. The other idea fascinates me because it’s a YA. I haven’t thought of writing for a crowd below 18 years of age since I was…15 or 16.

But no! Bad Himani! Finish “Tayce” first because you’re so close now. I haven’t even needed to outline Tayce so far, I’ve just been able to write it, and that’s really too precious to give up. And like John keeps telling me, “Unless you finish something, you’re not going to publish anything.” I can’t argue with the logic in that. ??: