I was heading to an Arvon writing retreat at the end of February next year. I suspect that CV-19 and the imminent, but as yet unannounced, new lockdown will put paid to that. My plan had been to take the hundreds of pages that I have already written, and shape them into the next draft so that I would have something tangible to work with when I got there.
The retreat probably won’t happen but the process of redrafting is still worthwhile. The last two days I rewritten about two thousand words. I will post updates over the next couple of weeks. It’s a good way of gently keeping me accountable. The previous draft was done in Scrivener which is my Swiss Army knife text management tool.
The Scrivener Print Out
For this draft, I have taken the print outs and I’m handwriting the next version. I find it slows me down and makes me pay more attention to the words. It also means I get to use a good fountain pen in conjunction with a big notebook with premium paper. The hint of luxury gives me a little thrill of pleasure and I will take what I can get in the current climate. I don’t NEED these tools to write, I can work just as well with a rollerball and cheap A4 notebook, but sometimes it’s just nice to enjoy the tools as well as the process.