Ah, the best laid plans…last week I was feeling pleased because I’d managed to clear all my chores off so I could have an interrupted week of writing. Hah! Between migraines and power cuts and unexpected – but always welcome – technical work, I didn’t have the clear week I thought I was going to have.
But when do we ever have the time we think we’re going to have, in any endeavour? I ‘made’ more time, by writing in the evening – if unexpected things took my daytime writing time away, unexpected things also added free evenings.
It went agonisingly slowly. I planned to do three scenes, and I ended up doing more than that, but because 1) I was working from existing rough scenes, and 2) I was splitting those existing scenes up into several scenes to follow the chronology of the other POV, I felt like I wasn’t making much true (new) progress.
And then, I realised I need more scenes overall. I had previously cheated in the placement of the Lily chapters by occasionally allowing a Simon flashback chapter to stand in for one of Lily’s (he has twenty years of backstory including the exceedingly relevant war – I don’t put backstory in unless it’s relevant – while she has about three months’ worth), but this messed up the chronology and didn’t allow Lily time where she needs it.
Therefore I had to add in more than the 18 scenes I originally planned for, placed around the Simon flashback chapters. Between splitting existing scenes and making room for the necessary extra scenes, I ended up finalising more than the planned three scenes but still am only three scenes down on the original count of 18.
So this is where I’m at: fifteen scenes to go. I’ve given myself six weeks to do it, but you know what. I think I can do a scene a week-day and get it done in three.
Let’s find out.
