First Draft - Teyssieres, France

By mid-summer I have written the first draft of In Pursuit. . . in my Teyssieres writing room (far back apartment facing ridge). I want to love it but the writing feels forced and worse it isn't the story I had envisioned telling. The voice is wrong. The point of view is wrong. Katherine has to tell this story. The story wasn’t about what Ida did for Katherine, as important as that was; it was about what Katherine did for Ida.

So what does a writer do when the story doesn’t work? She throws reams of printed pages into the recycle bin. The only files I keep are the massive research notes I had written that include an old Tide soapbox packed with 5 x 7 index cards.