Heroes are cool and all, but there'd be no story without a good villain poking them with a really long stick.
My long-term goal WIP: This is a weird one, I guess, and it's hardly the only thing I love about it, but I'm thoroughly enjoying writing from the perspective of a character I've come to think of almost as me if I were a girl (and much cooler.) I have moderate to low self-confidence in many areas, but I'm very lucky in that I have total confidence in my gender and sexual identity, so discovering and enjoying what I initially thought would be a serious challenge was a total surprise. Am I pulling it off? I guess only female readers will be able to tell me that. In the meantime, I'm enjoying it. It wasn't an experiment. This sensation had nothing to do with why I wrote the character in the first place, but it's become, in part, an exercise in "what if." I always find myself looking through the eyes of my characters, no matter who they are and no matter how big or small a part they play. This is the longest I've ever spent in that headspace though, and it's a fascinating experience. I'm hardly the first guy to write in female first person, and the story exists squarely in a speculative reality, so I seldom have to figuring out how she would react to real-life situations. That makes things easier, I think, but she still has to act and think and feel in ways that I thought would involve more guesswork and doubt. (If I'm also a little in love with the character, does that make me a narcissist? Probably. Oh well.) My side-project-that-immediately-became-my-one-and-only-current-writing-obsession: I love how easy it is, and I'm virtually positive I can sell it. Better yet, it's short, and I think i can sell it soon! That all sounds very shallow, but I really am proud of the work I'm doing. It's a new format and genre for me, and I was shocked how immediately and naturally I took to it. I'm more excited and confident than I've ever been about a project. Woo!
I love my current work in progress because my main character is, essentially, me. Heroin addiction is a bitch. That's all I'll say. Hopefully it makes for an interesting book. Note: I will market the book as "realistic fiction" because of the statute of limitations on certain crimes, of course. I lived a fast life. Boring is nice now.
