I'm about 30 pages of material in. Something Stephenie Meyer said, in an interview or some blog, maybe her website has been very freeing for me. She spoke of writing scenes she liked first. Wait...you mean I don't have to start at the beginning and end with the end?

I'm just writing about what these characters are dealing with. I'm jumping blythely through time and have avoided most self-defeating thoughts. I do notate a jump in scene with a couple of asterisks, just for my own good. I've also switched point of view to include a second character. It has taught me more about their world, writing in the third person. I always prefer to write in first person, and I wouldn't be surprised if I went back to it permanently at some point, but I had a ton of fun today and I even made myself cry a little while writing.

I feel like the writing process is completely different from what I tried to teach my kids. I have no deadline and I have no audience. I'm in the state of pure percolation - I thought about this story for nearly a week in between writing sessions and that was purposeful time, even if I was being a little bit lazy at the same time. I'm not worried about anything except like being too much like Twilight or too much like Harry Potter. Plot wise I think I'm good, but I do find myself stretching to express my self on the singular word level so I don't inadvertantly invoke some other story.

I may have a friend interested in reading Robin McKinley. My metaphoric fingers are crossed even as the real ones are poking at the books that have fallen under the bed, trying to find the two missing volumes that this friend actually asked for.