This is what writing should feel like ...

I'm working on the Oz book -- another 1st person mystery set in Kansas after a tornado. I'm writing a few pages a day, somewhat effortlessly. The story is flowing off my fingertips and into the keyboard.

This is the way I like to write. On my previous WIP it was a struggle. I just never felt like I connected well with the characters. I think I crafted a good book, but it was just that -- a craft exercise, a placing of words on the page without that visceral connection to the plot or the setting throughout the book. I did feel that in spots, but in other spots I had to analyze what I was writing and deliberately think, "Now, what's needed here? Should Dru get lost or should I have her meet with Cal and his group?"

In the book I'm writing now, the characters are dictating the story and it's such a relief! With stories like this, I can write my draft, let it sit, then come back and review it later. I don't feel I need to tweak it and prod it and massage it. My character has determined the scope of the story and I'm just telling it. I do nudge things in certain directions, of course, but overall the feeling of the story is all done by the time the first draft is done.

I think this is my niche. Many folks think first-person mysteries are tough to write, but I find them refreshing and invigorating. Yep. My niche. I'm here.