Year of Words: October — Rule of Three

This October, I have achieved three — and only three — things.

Thing one: I’ve finally finished drafting Part III of Project Pine. I’ve been battling with this section of the novel for months now: I planned, drafted, and completed a whole separate project to avoid it. On the bright side, it’s not exactly a mystery why it’s been so challenging. It deals with a bundle of difficult themes and events in the protagonist’s life, which then dramatically shapes the rest of his story. In order to deal with things sensitively and effectively, I’ve been grappling lots with structure and voice, focussing on the sequencing of events rather than the prose itself. Objectively it’s a very poor piece of writing, but I think I’ve finally been able to lay out the bones of something that I can draw out in a second draft. I’ve just needed to get this rubbish version out of my system first, and I’m relieved it’s finally done.

Thing two: I've started a strange new mini-project. What started out as a writing prompt has evolved into a third person autobiographical piece about my writing journey. It’s becoming a really interesting piece to work on, in a new prosey-bloggish-non-fiction-ish style. I’ll post it here, one day, whenever it’s finished. Maybe I should just keep giving myself incredibly challenging stories to tell, so that I keep coming up with exciting new projects to avoid it.

And finally, thing three: I’ve still been writing, every single day. One day it was 293 words, another day it was 9. I’ve only been able to manage just shy of 4k this month. New lows all round. And yet, today is day 300. Three hundred days of writing. I guess keeping a streak really works for my strange little brain: Duolingo and Wordle and this Year of Words have become parts of my daily routine like little else. Now, for the first time, I can squint and see the end. What then, when a new year rolls around? Do I stop? Carry on? For how long? Yikes. Let’s leave that as future H’s problem.

Three things, then. Part Three. Third person. Three hundred days. That’s a theme, I suppose. Aside from that trilogy of coincidences, the plan-free approach didn’t seem to end well this month. I’ll lay out some vague aims. Enjoy the half term break. Finish the mini-memoir. Start a new section of Pine. Try not to kill the streak before Christmas. Sounds easy enough.

Until then, fare well, wherever you fare,

— H