While writing a scene this evening, I caught myself smiling. Not just a little smirk, but a full-on wide grin that any of my family members would have called me on had they seen it. I wasn’t smiling at the words on the screen; I was smiling at the scene playing out in my head.

And it felt good. It felt good to be totally lost in that moment, not paying attention to word usage or rules. Whether I used “said” too many times or whether I showed instead of told. It felt good, because it’s been a...