I took some notes for Midnight Never Come . . . but not so many as you might think. I knew a fair bit about the period already, which makes it easier to hold onto new details, and those things were mostly in the background anyway. I did not need to know what Robert Beale was doing on February 12th, 1590, in order to make that book work.

Writing didn’t happen last night because, while I had done some of the necessary reading for this next bit, I hadn’t yet taken notes on it. And therefore I couldn’t be sure when to set the scene, and what should have happened/be happening/be about to happen in it.

So after a virtuous afternoon of note-taking, I sit down with my rapidly-filling notebook and prepare to put down the 1200 words I need to stay on schedule. It feels a bit like I’m laying track ten feet in front of the locomotive, but last night is the first time the train has had to slow or stop due to lack of track, so I guess that’s moderately okay.

It would be nice to get ahead in this game, though.