At the beginning of the year I did not think I’d be able to launch [Whiskey Tango Foxtrot] in August let alone write [Foxtrot Mike Lima].
Thankfully with excellent care from Habit Health I did launch [WTF] and I did start writing [FML] … early on it was in very carefully managed blocks of a thousand words or so. Until quite a way into September, that’s what it was like writing.
Retaining all the information required to write a novel (in short bursts) involved more reliance on notebooks than before and then I moved to the Post-it wall to keep track of the whole thing. I required a more visual representation of the story and many coloured Post-it notes achieved that.
This week I removed the colourful notes from my wall and binned them.
This week I crossed the 80K mark in this story. I have no idea how it reads so far. I see a collection of scenes not a story. It’s too early for me to see the story the way other people will see it. While I’m writing, it is a collection of scenes. I can describe the current one and perhaps one other. All I need is the current one. That tells me where I am and where I’m going.
I was hopeful of a finished first draft by the end of November but it now looks like it will be October. Most pleasing.
This is a big story. Bigger than I expected. 80K and still have a wee way to go before the end whacks me in the face. 🙂
It’s an interesting story to write and hopefully that means it will be interesting to read.
I don’t know yet if what Ronnie suspects is happening is going to happen or if someone will stop it at the eleventh hour. Could go either way. How quiet would they be able to keep this thing? After the initial scramble I suspect it would go dark but that in itself is suspicious so … a dilemma. 🙂
I get the fun of writing and watching it play out, whatever way it goes.

The place I’m in now with this story is probably the best bit as a writer … a lot of the heavy lifting is done. It’s not as much fun as the next phase. Once all the writing is done – then it’s joy. Bones are there and the next step is fleshing scenes out (that I lazed my way through), reading, tweaking, checking, then it’ll be off to the first and most trusted reader to see if what I see is also what she sees. 🙂

I shall leave you on that.
Happy whatever it is you are doing today.

[Nothing happens here]