My swing state anxiety is pretty bad. Just praying for Philly and the burbs to engulf the ballot boxes with unprecedented (and unpolled) enthusiasm. It’s just not fair! Why does the whole weight of this dire election have to fall on this conflicted little state?! 😂
That’s not what I wanted to write about. What I want to write about is needing to properly edify myself on the Middle Ages. My main character (one of them) is a French girl named Giselle. When she was a baby Joan of Arc was executed. So we’re talking a long time ago, and I so wish I had a time machine in order to get this right. I have done a little research and I did listen to a great CD set from the library, which I think they may have since purged? Libraries are losing books and resources. It’s like an alt-Right plot to make everyone ignorant. But that’s not what I was going to write about. What I wanted to say is that my young heroine wants to learn to read. Her Dad told her get over to the convent and volunteer to help out. I don’t know if that’s realistic. I also don’t remember if her learning to read is critical to the plot or not. I’ll have to make it critical. And I need more info on the role of reading at that time. I’ve got the nuns illuminating religious manuscripts in the scriptorium. What’s my purpose in getting her over there, plot-wise? I need to double check. Someone else’s ability to read turns out to be crucial later on. But not hers. I don’t know. I guess the rule of writing is first have fun. Then tidy up. And don’t worry about a thing.
Phoebe Wilcox, Writing Like the Deadline is Death 