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I’d hit the doldrums with revision of my work-in-progress. A difficult chapter, a loss of direction, stagnating in the middle of a plot that I’m otherwise quite happy with. It took me a fair while before I worked out one major issue that was holding me back: my character had somehow got out of time. I knew vaguely where and when they were but I didn’t actually have any account for the passing of time, what happened on what specific date.
So this sent me back to the planning spreadsheet. A new workbook has now been populated with real dates. This has involved digging up calendars for 2016 and 2017, checking for bank holidays and the like. My novel is set in the real world so this also meant finding school term dates for those years for two different areas. These were harder to find but they were still out there. Then I could make sure my dates work and anchor the events of my novel firmly into reality. The full moon is also relevant as at one point the character go aurora-watching. Huge relief as I found my date for that coincided with a new moon, a good time to catch those Merry Dancers without a big glowing moon to compete with.
As an aside: what a terrible year 2016 was! The Brexit referendum in June and Trump’s election in November both make it into my novel as events too large to ignore. I remember it felt like the end of days, both times.
So now I’ve made a few notes and corrected a few assumptions, anchored my characters firmly in real time and place, and I’m feeling like the wind is back in my sails. Onwards!
Lucy Waterfall 