To be honest, talking about works in progress feels small in light of Ukraine being attacked and invaded right after the 'governor' of Texas declared open season on trans kids, their parents, and any professional supporting them. It's hard to feel like anything I do matters at the moment. But. The hard fact is that I cannot do anything remotely useful about either situation except to say I'll fight for trans people the only way I know how: at the voting booth, by supporting organizations specifically helping trans youth, and by supporting the legal groups that will take apart Abbott's nonsense political posturing. To support Ukraine, I can donate to chef Jose Andres who is taking his mission to the region to feed those in need, whether it be refugees, other aid workers, or Ukrainian troops.
Then I recognize that I can write a story that might give someone else a few moments of escape and rest. We use the tools we have, right? So why this story?
I'm working on book four of my space opera series. It's the next logical step in the story arc and there are a few issues that have to be worked out in this story before the final book in the series. I like the characters. I like the premise. I like where the book needs to go and where it needs to take the characters. But something hasn't been right about it for a long time. I think I've finally figured it out. I had the heroine's core goal at odds with her core wound.
Psychology Tik Tok likes to make clear in three minute snippets that the wounds we internalized as children lead to our unhealthy coping mechanisms as adults. After spending some time feeling called out by a bunch of videos I thought I was scrolling for entertainment, it hit me that I'd gotten my heroine's issues wrong. I'd imagined she had a people pleasing problem. She doesn't. She has an abandonment issue. That changes everything. It changes her action. It changes her thinking. It changes her conflict with the hero.
It changes the fact that up to this point, I haven't liked this story. Now, if we talk about why this WIP I can say, "Because finally I get to go have fun in this story."
