Photo credit: Austin Neill on Unsplash

Memories can be an excellent jumping-off place.

Tonight, I started with my main character walking in the woods. It’s actually a patch of woods I know, because it’s right in my town. Next thing I knew, she was remembering my memories, albeit tweaked to fit her. She recalled walking along the beach down on the shoreline, dinner in those eighties-style restaurants with lots of blond wood and ferns, and a bar my friends and I frequented in Westport where we drank white sangria and ate boursin and cheese. (I did say it was Westport.)

From there, my main character’s memories jumped to a trip I took in the late nineties to visit a friend in Hawaii. I even co-opted a line I’d heard someone say at a party we attended there. After all, why not? I didn’t know the name of the woman who said it, and she probably doesn’t remember  saying it anyway, but to me, it was a memorable line for being so unexpected. For my main character, the overheard line is an indicator of how people in such an exotic and popular locale can still be unhappy if they feel trapped.

This is Day 8 of #1000wordsofsummer. My enormous work rush wrapped up today, with three documents I’d written (and in the case of one, produced a sizable appendix for) being filed. I’d love to have a true break tomorrow, but that’s not in the cards because I have to take my elderly father to an appointment. Maybe the next day. . .

On the other hand, I may overhear something while we’re out that will serve as a springboard into the next scene. You never know.