Home today. Then I go to Write On. A couple of hours of timeline mapping and rewriting an old scene made new. It’s not much. Only ~700 words of the actual scene and an incomplete timeline on a Figma board. But at least I can have a better answer to all those people asking me when the last time I went to Write On . . . today. So that’s something.
I pull up the old story to get the vibe again — and to see if I can steal any lines. One or two fit, but that’s the problem with a 1950s redux of a previously contemporary setting. Now the truck doesn’t have a built-in heater or seatbelts. Now there’s a draft going on in 1942 for WWII. Now MLM schemes weren’t big things yet. Now I have to look up what arcades were like in the 40s and find the term ‘penny arcade’. Now I find out that the Little Tree car air fresheners weren’t a thing until 1952. Now I look up what door-to-door salesman jobs were popular.
How does anyone get any writing done with historical fiction when they have to keep looking up facts? I have a feeling the answer isn’t to stop midsentence to research. But today was more about doing something rather than doing something well. With that, I can call it a small writing win.
With Love,
Natalie