Friday 1st January 2020

Technically, I should be hung over and having a day off.  But I’ve never been a big drinker and with the year we’ve had, it ended up being a small  celebration with my support bubble who was asleep most of the evening.  That was OK, as I ended up watching a documentary that will be helpful for the script I have to write.

I realise that January is going to be very busy.  The priority is getting the script done by the deadline of next week.  I’ve got an idea and I’m starting to flesh it out…and the documentary gave me a bunch of ideas, but I’m aware what I have is just a collection of scenes rather than an actual narrative.  Though I did read a sample script, with the programme playing in the background, tonight,  I plan to use some basic story structure on it tomorrow and start writing Sunday.  I feel confident I can get it done but…

I’ve also realised that getting the first draft of this novel done by end of January is going to be tough.  A break away from it has seemed good and I came to the conclusion that a lot of the problems with it is that it’s in the wrong POV.

I used 3rd person limited after so long of working on something with a complex first person, but I think this needs that too.  I’ve told myself that wanting to do something different is all well and good, but I have to serve the story first, and I think this story needs 1st person.

I was going to rewrite it all from the beginning but I’m not sure there’s time.  This is a first draft, I’ve reminded myself.

Sooo… the plan is to write the next chapter in first person and see how it goes.  If it’s no better I might switch back.  If not I’ll continue in first person.  Obviously chapters in a different POV to the one it ends up being will need to be fixed, but that can be done in the next pass.

I reckon I need to do about 3000 words a day to hit my target.  That wouldn’t be too bad but I need a week for the script, and so I’m going to have to do both.  They’re vastly different in scope and tone so hopefully being so far removed from each other will allow me to do both.

I wanted a busy 2021 and it’s already that.  Looks like I have a lot of writing in January.

I guess you should be careful for what you wish for.

Past Issues: 678
Past Years: 2020 – The Year of Being Fearsome | 2019 – The Year of Soldiering Through | 2018 – The Year of Priorities | 2017 – The Year Of The Offensive