The idea for this post comes from Jessica Patient by way of Suzanne Joinson who have both posted the ingredients for their own current works-in-progress, a short story and a novel respectively. Inspired by their own excellent insights into the writing process, here is my own. With my MA novel currently on sabbatical while I plow through this term’s Contemporary Novels II course reading list, my current WIP is a short story composed/cobbled together from the following inspirations and elements:
- Highcliffe in Dorset:
- Coastal erosion and the defences put in place to combat it
- The best setting descriptions from an old story of my own set there that never quite worked well enough for me, pulled out and repurposed:
- Dramatic coastal cliff-slides:
- Fossilised gastropods:
- A cliff-top car park:
- An amateur fossil hunter:
- Frontotemporal degeneration
- & finally, this latest, epic track from Villagers, The Waves:
Anyone else care to share the bits and bobs that make up their current WIP?
Dan Powell 
7 Responses to Ingredients of a Work in Progress
Excellent and really interesting. Thanks for sharing, Dan.
Glad you liked it, Nuala. I’d be very interested in reading the ingredients of your current/next WIP too.
Is it shaken or stirred, baked or roasted? Interesting premise.
Adam B @revhappiness
It’s currently cooking on a slow heat – writing a scene a day and letting the story flavours mix and merge organically.
This is a great idea. Sounds like an interesting story, too!
Thanks Carys. It is a great idea that Suzanne had there. I’m hoping lots of writing folk will do their own posts and give a glimpse of their process and what they are working on. It whets the appetite without giving away too much.
Hi Dan. What a great idea to chart the inspirations of a story. Your ingredients have definitely piqued my curiosity, given that many of them are from my neck of the woods here on the Jurassic Coast. I look forward to reading this story when it’s published.
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