The new route to finishing my novel

Why my main character made a hat for Proust

In November of 2020 I took a day off from writing my first novel, pleased that I had completed 90% of it and confident about the way forward. I’d be finished in a month, would take a short break and give myself four months to rewrite and edit. The years of writing scraps and more scraps of stories and novels on the side while I made money through other writing would be wrapped up with my first completed work of fiction, the place where my writing heart had always been.

This was a plausible plan. My writing had been publishing since 1974, when I became a journalist. Over the years my work appeared in more than 200 magazines, I worked regularly for major US and British publications, made a name for myself as a travel writer, then a wine writer, and I’d become a news publisher and editor. Deadlines didn’t worry me and I was confident about my basic writing skills. I’d authored three books. Writer’s block has not been an issue since my early days when I developed methods for staying on track. Recently, I’d worked hard at learning how to adapt those skills for fiction writing, taking two intensive online courses and getting good feedback. I didn’t expect completely smooth sailing, since publishers and agents like to see writers who have a promising career in front of them, and I’d have to convince them that this old biddy has plans to write great fiction for the next 30 years. If you’re a writer, you write, and you don’t give up hope of connecting with…