Journal Entry 1: Grasping at Straws

Reflections on writing The N.O.A.H. Files, deadlines, and a recent discovery that I'm adopted.

It’s Saturday, October 26th.

I’m sitting at the café on the 119th floor of Shanghai Tower, hoping the weather clears so that I might see something other than clouds, but so far, no such luck.  

I’ve spent the last two hours writing in my notebook, working on random scenes from THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER.

Only random scenes because. Eric and I are yet to cobble together the entire story. Also getting a lot of brainstorming help from Claire who is my “assistant” but that diminishes what she really does. I call her my “Hand of the Author,” because she’s just that important, both in dealing with logistics, and helping spark creativity. As always, we know where we’re going, but how to get there is an entirely different matter.

The trick is to make it look like we knew exactly what we were doing, which is why I think writers so often suffer from imposter syndrome--the job of writing is all about appearing confident even when you’re grasping at straws. So here are the straws I’m grasping at today--