Simon's a doodler...

They're in the courtroom and other cases are going before the judge before Simon's is called, so he's sketching. It helps him concentrate. Another attorney sees him doing it and praises his work.

He also notices Simon does not back down in the slightest when called forward. The prosecution winds up delaying for more time because they tried a trick on him and he called their bluff.

MQM has begun to lead me deeper into the story and characters in ways I find fascinating, now. I love it when this happens...and hope it's not another wrong start.

I'm trying to keep this as close to reality as possible, so I can't go off on tangents just because they might fit the structure. Which is simplifying the story in many ways.

It's at 66,400 words, now, and may stay around that, because I know I'll be cutting some stuff later. For example, the bit where Dr. Aristian comes in to examine Simon, even though he's a Ph.D. and not an MD. That was too borderline TV-ish.

I'm listening to some light piano pieces on Spotify as white noise while I write. It's helping me continue with the forward movement. For a while, I needed complete silence to get my stories input...and sometimes I still do...but right now this works best.

Though I may start back to making sketches of my own...