Still Writing

Well. I managed to keep to my plan for the past four days.     At my desk by eight (or thereabouts). Head down for ninety minutes writing. Then another half hour reviewing, planning - throughlines that are either developing or needing refining, highlighting elements that need some research  It slows me down - all those rabbit holes! - if I do it in regular writing time, so I do it in separate session. Right now my research notes include watching some videos of sandstorms in Middle Eastern urban areas, and to read more about djinns .  I do keep a daily Journal and Notes so I can record what I have done, document names, wordcount, etc. etc. All in one folder on my Desktop. Also a scene list (photo included here) - extracted from my Reverse Outlining template - on which I am recording early info on each scene. At this point I don't worry too much about overall 'plot'. I know the beginning, the end, the main story questions and story goal, so first write the most dynami...

 I leave for a trip to the UK in 48 days. Can I get my longstanding Work in Progress (WIP) The Return of the Summer Fish completed in a good draft form by then? (And by longstanding, I mean I have been working in it, on and off, for about 15 years. And have many draft scenes to prove it.) Since Creatively Human: Why We Imagine, Make and Innovate came out just two weeks ago, I have been at loose ends. I have a number of abandoned projects, and until recently little energy or motivation to get back to any of them. But Summer Fish is close to my heart, a memoir-based midgrade novel about two sisters efforts to reconcile after almost a year apart. Set in the Middle East where and when I grew up in the late-50s. Everyone who shared that time with me is gone - my parents and brother. And my sister, on whom the character of Lena is only very loosely based, is now living with vascular dementia in a care home in the UK. I am the only one who remembers. Over supper last night I decided to ...