Jon's Author Diary - 125 - February 16, 2020

Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending February 16, 2020. This week was a mixed bag in terms of productivity. My voice has been a bit dodgy, so dictating my first draft of The Devil will have to wait. Instead, I’ve been working on my second draft of Blind Reset, which is the follow-up to my gamelit novel/meditation on disability, Blind Gambit. I’m halfway through and am happy with the scenes so far (or, at least, what I’ve turned them into). There were a few bits in the first draft where the pacing was all wrong and I needed to up the stakes in terms of conflict and tension. That’s why I love the re-drafting process. It almost feels like cheating because I get to tell the story I wish I’d told in the first place. Life doesn’t get many do-overs, so that’s very cool to me.   Inconceivable! I introduced my seven-year-old son to a couple of movies this week that I loved as a kid—The Princess Bride and Willow. These moves were huge for me. I must have watched them hundreds of times, wearing out the VHS tapes and no doubt annoying my mum. I kept expecting to have to adjust the tracking at any moment. It was interesting to see how they held up compared to some of the movies he loves, like How to Train Your Dragon and Detective Pikachu, etc. It took him a while to warm to Willow. The first half was much slower paced than a lot of modern movies, but he stuck it out and enjoyed it by the end. He absolutely loved The Princess Bride and laughed out loud at many of the classic lines. I was so proud.  He’s been getting me to pick movies and cartoons I liked as a kid for us to watch together. I’m weighing up whether to show him The Neverending Story or Labyrinth next (though I’m not sure how appropriate David Bowie’s leggings are for young eyes). Take care, Jon