Over the last few years, I’ve been slowly, in spurts, writing The Forgotten Vanir, a novel about runic tattoos that enable certain people to cast magic.

I am currently back working on the book and have added a few thousand words the last couple of days. My hope is to get the majority, if not all, of the first draft completed this month, during NaNoWriMo. What I’m doing is not part of NaNoWriMo, but I’m trying to use it as inspiration to write creatively again.

It took me a bit to get back into the story and I had to go back and re-read what I’ve written so far as well as reviewing my planning document and inspiration images. It feels good to be back in this story. The characters are coming alive in my imagination, and I’m enjoying the process, despite not being able to get as much as I want from my fingers to the story… I was hoping to average over sixteen hundred words, and I’ve been averaging around half of that.

I don’t know how career writers do it. Creating a world with words is so difficult.

If you are interested in reading the first draft, the first twenty-thousand or so words of the raw first draft are available online at TheForgottenVanir.com.

A huge thanks to my wife for reviewing my first draft and providing suggestions for my second draft, as well as anyone that has or will take the time to read my writing.