First, a disclaimer.

I love process.  I love reading about how other people write. I love talking about process. I love knowing habits, struggles, quirks, agonies, ecstasies, superstitions, muses.

And I also think that when one talks too much about how the sausage is made, one may ultimately remove the magic from the story.  Not for oneself, but for those who later read it. I’m glad JKR wasn’t keeping a blog the entire time she was writing the Potter series, and that each book arrived, like the magic it was, fully-formed and ready. I’m glad I didn’t know which sections she worried over, which ones she fretted might not make sense or might not fulfil her vision. I’m glad I didn’t have the author’s personality firmly imprinted on me while I was reading, and was instead, able to sink into her universe.

So my own selfish need to babble about the process is at odds with what I think benefits the book ultimately, and thus, these babblings may disappear.

That said, let the babbling begin.  Don’t expect profundity, just my mutterings as I work my way through the process of finishing the first novel I’ve written in over fifteen years, and a novel that is far more complex than anything I’ve ever tackled in my entire life.