Since I’m Not Empress of the Universe…

Once again, I’ve been very remiss in writing my weekly Muses and Musings posts. And this time around, I can’t even blame it on my younger sister or my darling little niece.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely did spend time fussing over L.J. and holding Maggie. But I also got another several thousand words down for Designing America, bringing my official word count up to 40,000.

Considering how I only have one book-related event this coming Sunday and no more nieces making their official debut into the world any time soon, my current plan is to reach that lauded 50,000 word-count by the 20th.

That’s the goal, but we’ll see. I do realize that life has a way of “happening.” And I’ve had ample opportunity over the past 32 years to see that I’m not in charge of those happenings, only how I handle them.

If I was in charge, believe me, there’d be a few little changes made. For one thing, I’d be empress of the universe. My first order of the day would be to force all Maryland drivers to retake their drivers’ test. FYI: Since most of them can’t tell the difference between a stop sign and a yield, most of them would fail. Miserably.

Since I still had to deal with Maryland motorists this morning, clearly I’m not empress of the universe. In fact, I’m not empress of anything, even my stories. As I’ve said before, I don’t rule my storylines in any way, shape or form. That came to light once again while incorporating historical details into my storyline last week.

(As a side note, I think I’m putting way too much historical detail into Designing America. I’m going to have to focus on adding dialogue and plot points into the second draft, since not everyone is obsessed with random period-specific factoids as I am.

No idea why.)

But back to not being empress… I was absolutely certain I knew how the next page or two were going to go. It was going to be perfect!

Until I wrote the very next line, where a nine-year-old character ended up stealing the scene and almost making me cry.

It’s that kind of surprise that makes writing such an adventure, taking my literary journeys on amazing twists and turns that end up being so much more worthwhile than if my word was law.

In which case, I suppose it’s better that I’m not empress. As much as I’d like to kick most Maryland drivers off the road, there’s so much to be said for letting someone else run the show.