This is what draft number three of part one of my novel looks like. There are twenty five chapters in each part. Each A4 seen here is merely a chart of plot points for each chapter, and the butcher paper in the bottom right hand corner is the ‘timeline’ and something not always totally disregarded. Pinned up this way the plan takes up a fair bit of space but it is far easier to see, in full, the nascent story with its glaring inconsistencies due to countless alterations to characters, names, plot, points of view, etc, made along the way. It’s all there at a glance and is helping to pave a tough road.

(Notes are essential, of course. This pile is from the last two drafts alone.)

Am I enjoying writing my novel? Yes, very much. I’ve been told all along it’s really hard and lonely work but all throughout the research and the writing and editing and finding those incongruities that make you yell and gnash your teeth I truly love what I’m doing and have another four up my sleeve after this monster.