Early on in my coaching, I remember a fork in the road, two directions to drive my novel.

Originally, I envisioned my story to be a family saga, where a family of three journies together into the jungle, and each of them returns having learned something. Back in March, during my 2nd call with my coach, she highlighted a line that I included in the manuscript more as a throwaway line.

The organization that hired him to translate the language, a big scary corporation who believes the language holds the potential for new ways of thought, is becoming agitated with how long it’s taking him. They’re the ones who set up this trip for him to travel there.

This stood out to my coach. She said that has great potential. This overlording corporation that sends him on this journey, with hidden intentions. They want the language to manipulate people. My character will learn this truth over the course of the story, and towards the end, he will be forced to make a decision to sacrifice everything he worked for or hand the keys to manipulate others to the corporation.

That’s not the type of story I had wanted to write. Still, I thought, this year isn’t for that. It’s for going through the whole novel-writing process, to experience what it’s like. It’s to finish a story. That’s my purpose. With that in mind, I must recognize when my own desires are setting up obstacles, such as attempting to write a book that I’m not trained to write. That just adds more idling, more risk of never finished the novel, never experiencing what it’s like to write a whole novel.

So I’m leaving my family saga behind me to focus on this overlording corporation and to watch where that journey takes me.

Into the jungle!