(March 30 – April 5)
The writing has very much slipped into a predictable cycle now. Last week I embarked on the first draft of a new chapter in the novel, getting a little over halfway through. Once again, I’ve spent this week going back and re-editing that chapter.
It’s not a particularly heavy rewrite—just a bit more descriptive prose here and a touch more character development there. I already know what the story is and where it’s going; what I’m finding is that the shape of that journey firms up as I write that first draft, and eventually I reach a point where I feel compelled to go back to the start to make sure everything is consistent. Again, it’s probably a relatively inefficient way of writing, but I’m enjoying letting the story have a little room to breathe so it can tell me how it wants to be told.
Pandemic Lyfe
Despite my relative success at developing a routine for the kids, and for myself, I’m consistently failing to get the kids to brush their teeth in the morning. It was such a part of the Getting Ready For School routine that it seems to have gotten itself locked away in the past. I’ll need to find some other part of the established new routine to attach it to.
Meanwhile, I find myself starting to look ahead to when this is all over. We’ll have become so used to locking ourselves down and staying indoors that something as simple as meeting up with friends (and being able to hug them again), or eating dinner in a crowded restaurant, is going to seem like completely alien behaviour. I know we’ll adapt back to ‘normal’ life once again, but I wonder how many of these new tiny changes we’ll carry over into our everyday ‘normal’ behaviour.