It's my novel - I can write what I want to

In my last point, I included a little number at the bottom to track my progress in NaNoWriMo, with the hope that I'd reach maybe 25,000 - 30,000 words by the end of the month. Well, without further ado, here's my grand total right now:

[NaNoWriMo 2014 Progress: 9,161 words as of November 19]

Wow, that's...underwhelming. And the reason is I've changed course and am no longer working on Native Son this month. Instead, I've chosen to redirect my creative energies and fleeting free time to:

1) finalizing edits on The Queenschair Volume II: Of Goddess Born, which I expect to release in mid-December

2) finishing the new segments in The Queenschair Volume III: A Kingdom Apart, which were completed about a week ago so the book is "done" and ready for intensive edits

3) plowing ahead with The Queenschair Volume IV: Blood of Our Own, which involves rewriting the 70% that's already done and then writing the missing 30%.

Why did I suddenly jump from one thing to another? To put it simply: I felt like it.

Which leads me to my Big Point for today: write what you want, if at all possible. I include that caveat at the end because I understand not everyone is free to do that, or at least they feel pressure to do something else. A popular writer whose fans clamor for a continuation of a past series may choose to write that sequel and rake in some handsome profits rather than start a new series. A writer under contract to a traditional publisher may face deadlines to deliver her next book; she's not going to be totally free to pour her energies into a new passion project. A writer who follows the market and tries to ape what's selling these days may find himself writing all sorts of things he doesn't even enjoy.

There are a million and one scenarios out there, and every writing life is different. I'm happy to say mine is unfettered and free. If I miss the Queenschair world (and I always do), I can write that now and into next week. The week after that, I might be inspired by something I see on TV and decide I want to jump back into Native Son. It's all good.

And maybe, hypothetically, there's just a one crazy week when 2 fantastic and long-awaited video games are released; we'll call them "Dragon Age: Inquisition the Real and Truly Worthy Sequel to Origins" and "Grand Theft Auto V the Next-Gen Remake Which is Totally Sweet". Totally hypothetically. And maybe the week after that is Thanksgiving which is just insane in its own way. The amount of writing work that gets done might take a hit. And that's okay.

I, and hopefully you, can write what you want to, when you want to. And right now, it's time to get to work!

"It's still kinda rough, but here's the world map for my next book. So...what do you guys think?"