Writing discovery

Am I becoming something new to myself?

Working on my latest novel, I've discovered a few things. First, the novel has become something akin to Southern literature (though I use the word "literature" loosely ... I'm no Thomas Wolfe).

Southern literature is something I've dipped into with a few stories, but nothing I've ever considered seriously. I've always been a fantasy or horror writer. But I'm discovering I'm enjoying writing this novel, "Looking for America," quite a bit.

The writing is flowing ... differently. Yes, I still sometimes dread sitting down to the keyboard, but once I do, everything seems to come easily. More easily than anything else I've written in some time.

I'm also having fun breaking rules and not following stock setups and stock characters and the like (or, at least, it seems that way to me). This writing is just different, lackadaisical in some ways. There doesn't always have to be action, action, action. Every single conversation doesn't have to be all-important. But everything still has to move the plot forward.

Maybe this is my thing, my niche. Time will tell. Whether it is or not, I'm enjoying myself.

And, because this novel is so different from most of my other writing, I'm using a pen name. No, I won't tell you what it is. At least not yet. Let's see if I can get this thing written and published.