“Do you need anything?”

“No, thank you.”

“How are you going?”

“Good, thank you.”

“Do you get lots done?”

“Yes great, thank you.”

Theses are typical questions I’ve been asked the last few days and my responses. It’s actually harder to describe my progress and state of mind than a small talk allows.

My rough idea of my first week of my residency with FAWWA is to dust off my novel, assess my gaps, research ideas of how to fill them and plan my next three weeks in September when I continue my residency.

Sounds good? Yeah, but really quite ambitious for only five days. It’s day 4 and I feel like I’m just about to get my head around a few problems and I’m going CRAP! I’ve only got one more day!!!

I’m recapping what I’ve achieved so far. There’s lot’s of notes with question marks, swirling lifelines on a huge piece of butcher’s paper marking my timeline and events, a whole list of chapters that don’t actually fit into the story (yet).

I’ve got sufficient distance to sort my scenes and put them into good, bad (but useful) and shit (throw them out completely) without bawling my eyes out.

Ah and then there’s all the things I’ve got in my head…so here I am staring out the window, listening to magpies warbling at dawn and thinking about this story I want to tell…