It's been almost another week since my last post and I feel like I accomplished what I set out to do. I wrote another three chapters of my Open Novella Contest (aka ONC) entry, Hive Island - The Awakening, and submitted it with time to spare. I also completed another project that was due on April 1.

All in all, a good week. The pressure is now also off, at least for the time being. I'll need to keep working on my ONC entry but I can be a bit more relaxed about it. I felt like I needed to take a break after spending all of last week working on it.

This morning, I loaded the project file for The Departure Protocol for the first time in what feels like forever to re-familiarize myself with the project. Over the weekend, I had this horrible feeling that I lost touch with where I wanted to go with the project, that the revelation I had about it some time ago had been lost. It was a moment similar to other times where I've laid in bed and had a brilliant idea, only to not write it down and forget it by morning. 

Reading through my latest notes, however, was encouraging. I know exactly where I left off and where I need to pick up. 

In other words, back to work. 

Here's where I'm at, currently. I've done a rough outline of about the first third of the story, or first act if you want to call it that. I have a good idea where I'm going from here and my intent from here is to continue to do a rough high-level outline until I get to the end.I also need to work on my characters. As I'm working through the outline, the personalities of my characters are becoming more clear and I want to make sure I record all of this, together with clarifying what their goals and desires are. 

That's enough to get me going. Once we get to the end of the week, we'll see where I'm at and whether it's going to be possible to determine when I'll start writing. 

On the home front, our lives have settled into what I call a new normal. Work from home for the adults, school from home for the kids and frequent outdoor excursions to keep our sanity. We've been fortunate that the temperatures have been warming, which allows the kids to spend more time outside doing what kids do. Here in Alaska, the COVID-19 cases are approaching 200 (185 as of yesterday), with few documented cases in our immediate area. I'm cautiously optimistic that our area will be spared the worst, although considering how many people I saw out and about over the weekend, I'm not sure that's realistic. Time will tell. 

Regardless, I feel like my writing mojo has returned. Time to write.