I earned my 10,000 word badge today. Even thought I’ve been somewhat sidelined by doctor’s appointments, power outages, and Election Day, I’m still on track with NaNoWriMo. It’s been six whole days. Only 24 to go. Will I make it?

Yes. You know? I think I will. However, I’m not quite sure if those 50,000 words are going to bring me to the place I thought I would be going.

Today, my main characters wandered away from the river they were supposed to be following. I left them standing on a dense path, in the pouring rain, lost in the woods, face to face with a large and very angry…

…wild pig.

Like Kona and Kiaya, I’ve also wandered from my path. You see, during NaNo Prep days, I had actually written out a very loose outline. I didn’t go all the way to the end of the story, but I had some general ideas of where I wanted the story to lead. I thought I knew how it would start, what the middle and main climax points would be like, and generally how it was going to end.

Where I left the pair today was, well … nothing like any of those things.

Do I keep following the path through the woods, and hope to avoid the occasional wild pig?

Or do I nip this detour in the bud quickly and head back to the river?

I have this funny habit of losing myself to my characters. Like the mischievous Little People of legend, they have minds of their own, and are not at all inclined to obey my mandates.

I rather have a feeling I’m going to be wandering lost in the woods for a while, in other words.

Eventually, I’ll find the river again, or another river, or a path up a mountain, or maybe throw the whole thing off a cliff. Sooner or later, though, I’m sure I’ll type “The End.”

I guess, if I’m totally honest, this is one main reason I so love to write. My physical life is pretty mundane, after all. The world in my brain, though?

I never know where it might take me!