I spend a lot of time cleaning my writing up – the spew of words and confusion of ideas need to be tidied up. Let’s not even discuss prolific adjective use. It seems like house cleaning to me – a cross between boring and calming like doing the dishes. It can be gratifying. I sit back and think – such lovely order and clarity – I imposed that! I am mighty. OR it can be a freaking slog where I despair at what a mess I am and how much time I am spending cleaning stuff up. The joy of cleaning can be thin and I feel alone.

A new secondary character, a fully-formed and clear character had problems fitting into the end of the story. I realized in some weird epiphany that “he” should be a “she”. I naively thought I just needed to change a bunch of pronouns and physical description. I know – stop laughing. It was like pulling a major support beam in a house. I have enjoyed this process and awareness of how gender changes various characters interactions.  The kind of tough warrior stuff my male character would say in the mouth of female warrior sounds less plausible. It has been a fascinating process. Besides my female hero and her girlfriend she texts for support (because really if you just met a hot guy who might be a Daemon – wouldn’t you text your best friend?) – the story was awash with amazing strong men and needed more interesting complex female characters. It’s very energizing to make a change. I am feeling mighty again….