Darragh Ó Bradáin

A week ago, I finished the first act of Witness to the Forgotten. This seemed like the natural point to return to Lessons in Absence. Juggling two major works in progress can be tricky, so I think it makes sense to do them both in chunks. I had spent just over a month working on ‘Witness’ and I knew it was time to step back from that project for a while.

When I returned to ‘Lessons’, it was with fresh eyes. I hadn’t seen this project or even thought about it at all in the nearly five weeks I spent away from it. I had a quick look over the last few sections just to bring myself up to speed, before embarking on the opening of the second act. I knew that this was going to be a different challenge than writing the first act, as things had to start happening to the characters. The world-building was mostly over. There had to be stakes. I managed to get 7,000 words done in the last week, where things definitely did happen, the story is moving forward in the way I had planned.

Another challenge I faced was linking in with the earlier threads that I had begun to unravel in the first act. These needed some sort of acknowledgment, so I made sure that some of these had their pay-off moment. Small threads, but significant nonetheless.

Continuity was the major one. I know that I’ll spot the flaws when I do my first read of the first full draft, but at this stage I’m also thinking about minimising future me’s workload. Maintaining continuity now means that all the big moments can largely stay untouched during future edits.

What surprised me most was that out of the 7,000 words, I didn’t necessarily advance the story a huge amount. Although a lot happened, there’s still so much room for the rest of the story to be told. I’m aiming for at least 60,000 words, so I think I’m on track.

I think I’m on track to get ‘Lessons’ finished by the end of the year. I’ve definitely been blessed with time this summer. When I return to work full-time in September, my opportunities to write creatively will be significantly reduced. When that time comes, if I can manage to carve out an hour a day and just be productive with that time, I’ll be happy.

What’s next? Well, I’m up to 20,000 words in ‘Lessons’. If I can get another 13,000 to 20,000 written in the next month, I can take a break from it and return to my other projects. I’ll keep alternating, so that each time I return to a project, I’ll be doing so with renewed enthusiasm.