When I woke up on Monday, I could tell something was different.

I was… happy. Excited to be going back to work. Feeling good and energetic.

Yes, this was partly a shift in hormones. But I haven’t felt like that in months.

“Huh,” I said to myself. “Maybe this slow productivity thing is working.”

Go figure.

It’s been a gorgeous week in the Peace Country, weather-wise. I’ve even managed to take advantage of the sunny blue skies and warm temperatures with a couple of walks so far. Maybe today will be three for three for walks on work days this week. New record. ;-)

Probably the most exciting thing (for me) that happened this week is that I dove back into my manuscript yesterday (Book Two in the Peace Country Romance series). I finally have a handle on my heroine’s personality, lies, and longings, and that has made a huge difference. Fortunately, the existing outline only required minor tweaking to align it with that.

I’d previously only outlined about the first third because my lack of clarity about her left me wandering around in the dark after that point. Yesterday, I reworked that plus a little more, and I hope to get most of the rest of the outline done over the next day or two.

And then, all I have to do is write it. (She said, tongue stuck firmly in cheek.)

This new vision for the story is mostly thanks to a new book I recently read, Reclaim Your Author Career by H. Claire Taylor*.

*I am an affiliate of Amazon.com, .ca, and .co.uk, as well as Kobo, which means if you go to one of those stores through this link and make a purchase, I get a few cents at no extra cost to you.

“Great Resource for Authors” Alert

Claire is a respected voice in the indie author space, and she is also the one who got me so interested in learning about the enneagram as a tool for creating better characters. This summer, she launched Reclaim Your Author Career with a Kickstarter, which I backed so I could have as early access to this book as possible.

Even with all I’ve learned about the enneagram so far, it was extremely enlightening. Probably the two most impactful takeaways for me personally were understanding how to create conflicts by understanding a character’s enneagram type, and mostly, understanding theme.

I can finally say that I understand what theme is, how to find it, and how to use it to create and enhance my stories. As I thought about my previous books, I can see that they all had themes, but those were mostly unintentional. The themes that are there were natural outgrowths of the ideas I wanted to explore. Had I intentionally sussed out those themes during the writing or revision processes, I’m sure I could have made the stories tighter and even more impactful.

Now I’m seeing theme in every story I consume. For instance, Jason and I just finished watching Lost in Space on Netflix (fantastic show! Do recommend), and the theme (which they’re not subtle about) is family. One word. Everything comes back to what being a family means and how important family is.

I’m also still working my way through Star Trek: Voyager, and the theme of that is discovery or maybe exploration.

So, I’ve definitely got a lot more to think about in the theme department these days.

Of course, I’m writing a romance series right now, so the series theme is love. Another underlying theme is community, since it’s based in a small town setting. And the theme specific to this story? Forgiveness.

It’s going to be a good one, folks. :-)

Anyway, Reclaim Your Author Career is now available for pre-order in stores. If you’re an author, I highly recommend you get it. The main purpose of the book is to align not only your stories but also your brand and business with your own core values and motivations. I think every author should read this.

Alrighty, friend. I need to get on with the fiction writing and other tasks in my day. I hope your week is off to a wonderful start. Looking forward to making some story magic for you to enjoy. (Eventually.)