I recently decided to dust off the old manuscript (or open the old google doc, as the case may be), and revisit the novel I began researching and writing back in 2019.
If you’ve followed my story for very long, you know that I had just began my serious writing journey and had three self-published books under my belt when a health crisis involving a ruptured AVM in January 2020, followed by a worldwide pandemic that spring, brought my writing dreams to a screeching halt.
I had already completed quite a bit of research during the summer and early fall of 2019 to prepare for my next work of historical fiction. The story is inspired by true events involving a woman named Alice. My file of newspaper articles and research notes about her life was, unfortunately, lost during that chaotic time of early 2020 or during our move to a new house in 2023.
Regardless, I recently decided it was time to dip my toes back into the “serious” writing waters and revisit that work in progress about Alice.
I remembered bits and pieces, but not enough to fully flesh out the story. Much of 2019 and 2020 is still a blur for me. I think that was such a terrifying, stressful time for everyone in general, but on top of that I was recovering from a brain hemorrhage that left me with significant impairment. I was exhausted much of the time. Trying to learn to walk again and being shuttled to and from doctor appointments, protective face masks firmly in place, left me with no energy for writing. I was busy surviving and, like everyone else, trying to navigate a world that had been turned upside down.
I recently opened the Google drive folder (titled simply Alice) and found I had already completed six chapters of this novel. This was an odd discovery, since I didn’t remember much of what I had written.
Gradually, as I skimmed over the draft, little snippets of the story and the plot I had outlined came back to me. It was like running into an old acquaintance – someone you hadn’t seen in a long time. Even if you can’t quite remember their name, there’s a familiarity there. A sense of, “Oh yes, we shared something once upon a time.”
I have been thinking a lot about Alice and these other characters, these friends I had just started writing about and am now getting reacquainted with. Where will this story take us? Will we end up where I thought we would when the story idea first came to me back in 2019? Or will the story be completely different now, just like I am different now?
I’m not sure how it will go, but I’m excited about the journey.
Amy Bellamy, Author 