This week I wrote almost 1000 words on the novel draft! I’m expanding a scene that I had only included as a one-paragraph flashback. I received feedback from a couple of people that this could be its own scene, replacing and expanding on a scene that wasn’t working. This expansion also required a switch in POV character. I’ve been banging away on it for an hour a day this week and slowly getting there.

Yesterday I did a community writing Zoom sponsored by one of the local writing workshops. These are on the first Friday of the month and include writing prompts and time to discuss writing progress/ideas/etc. The prompts this time were all about setting writing goals and intentions for the new year.

In one of the prompts, we were asked to imagine an ending for the project we’re working on, so I tried writing a different ending from the one that I have outlined. Radically different. It kept me awake in the wee hours of the night, imagining how the story might take a very different path. I realized also that to accommodate a radically different ending, the rest of the story would have to shift… A lot to think about, especially because I am far, far from finishing the first draft. I can dream.