Four weeks to deadline and I found myself talking out loud this weekend, using my the glass cabinet doors as a mirror (I barely know how to think without a mirror . . . it’s its own problem) and recapping character arcs and intention in the scenes and hacking up my timeline. I’m in the second half of the story now and I remember as I get there that it’s the half that needs the most work.
But it’s also really fun to talk out loud and figure out problems in my quiet apartment, acoustic radio playing over Alexa while my cats pace my living room with me. Writing is so much quiet and in my head (duh) that it takes on a different meaning speaking it out. The pieces fit together a little quicker.
I say “figure out” very lightly. We’ll effing see.
Here are the last sentences I wrote from this past week:
- 7/30: “I know,” I tell him and finally fall asleep.
- 7/31: I didn’t get him anything.
- 8/1: I say thank you but feel a prick of guilt.
- 8/2: He hands me another envelope.
- 8/3: I thought it had been a pretty good one.
- 8/4: We go through three rolls a piece, sitting side by side on my bed.
- 8/5: He was the only man I saw Mom kiss after Mason, and it wasn’t for long.
With Love,
Natalie