Focus

I sat down to write about 10 am. I'd gotten up an hour earlier, had something to eat, done several word games (what can I say? I'm all about words), and then prepared to write.
I opened the previous week's file and did my usual Save As with the current date.
And then got distracted by another game that I play with other people. Someone played, and now it was my turn.
And then I got the hiccups.
And then there were plans to be made for dinner with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law in a couple of weeks to celebrate birthdays for two of the four of us.
And then there another ping on my phone about Ukraine.
And so on and so forth.
By the time I actually started to really think about writing, it was noon.
Since it had been a week, and since last week's writing was about wrapping up some tangential stories, I had to read an earlier chapter to remind myself where the questors were. I had the outline, of course, of what was to happen next. But it's important to get reframed. To orient myself from one set of characters to the next.
Because, like the authors whose work I appreciate, I do try to have some distinct voices for my characters. And those on the quest have different goals than the characters I had written about last week.
So, I had to focus again on the Jewel Keepers and their companions. About their goals. And how to get them from where they were to the next part of their journey.
I didn't think it would take a whole chapter.
But it did.
Once I refocused on the quest, and the obstacles to the quest, I wrote as I have had the pleasure of writing for most of the last ten years - freely and with ideas flowing. In this case, the Jewel Keepers had just arrived in Amboria, the last of the countries they need to visit. To find the last of the Jewel Keepers needed to fulfill their quest. They had had some hints about where to find the Amborian Jewel Keeper. They believed they needed to go to Batca on the northern coast. They were currently on the southern coast. It was going to take a couple of weeks to get from one end of Amboria to the other.
But the god of Amboria has other plans. I knew this when I started to write. I knew the Jewel Keepers were not going directly to Batca - they will get there eventually, of course. I knew the god was going to interfere.
But how exactly? What did that conversation look like? Did she meet them immediately when they landed? Was the Amborian ship captain involved? He had already disrupted the Jewel Keepers' plans at the request of his goddess by taking them to a different port than they had planned for. Would he be part of this new disruption?
So, fingers on the keyboard, I thought about this turn of events. And watched it happen in my mind's eye. And recorded the conversations and events. Finally focused.