Today I went to Bournemouth to see my Mum and to buy a shed. I’ve wanted a writing shed for a while and have been researching carefully for a while. I thought I had found the one I wanted – it looks like a beach hut – but the company weren’t prepared to bring it through the house, so I came away disappointed. There are several aspects to setting up a writer’s shed. It requires project management in its own right. Hoping that my dreams of writing in a shed at the bottom of the garden while my wife brings me tea aren’t, well, just dreams. I think I acted too keen, but it was like I was trying to sell to them and not the other way round.
Going to Bournemouth in one day means several hours on the train there and back and so I made progress on the novel, despite the disappointment about the shed. I’ve been using K.M. Weiland’s Outlining Your Novel as inspiration. Because I was on the move, I wrote long hand in a notebook. I found this surprisingly freeing (I think I had forgotten how much I like to write like this. Using some of Weiland’s suggestions, I put her book to one side and wrote from memory about the scenes in my crime novel – mainly the ones I’ve already written, but also the ones I’ve thought about but haven’t created yet. I also asked myself questions as I went along. Then on the way back – again from memory – I had a go at writing out the chronological order of events in the book. I was surprised at how useful this process was for generating ideas related to cause and effect. One problem I had was my main character’s motivation for solving the mystery, the sequencing of information (of what I’ve called ‘conceal and reveal’ in my notes), and the way one scene leads to the next. Writing long hand and asking myself questions as I go has led to clarity on some major issues in this regard. Not all of my questions are answered, but at least I know what most of them are. The next step is to write a story summary where I’m candid about what actually happens without concealing who did what and when – it’s going to help to have that handy.
What’s more, I realised (why didn’t I realise this before now?!) that I need to plan my writing in a way that is understandable, kind and friendly to the future me who will be reading it and trying to create something out of it. Of course. (Slaps forehead.)
Meanwhile, also on the train today, I watched a couple of Photoshop tutorials AND found a shed with similar specs to the one I wanted offered online. Waiting to find out if they will deliver and assemble it. Fingers crossed.