Knitting a novel

We're still deep in puppiness here at the moment. If it goes quiet I jump up and shout 'Where IS he?' in a great panic over what he might be up to. I actually lost him this morning. He was herded the wrong way by a miniature schnauzer that he was too scared to pass and suddenly decided I must be off in the opposite direction and scampered off to find me. I had to sprint past peaceful Sunday morning back gardens shrieking his name in the exciting falsetto voice that the puppy training lady says they respond best to. He stopped in the end when he found a Jack Russell that he wanted to jump all over.

When I say I was sprinting, it was more of an uncomfortable flapping lollop. It felt as if I was running through treacle. Makes me think I need to work on my fitness a little. Early morning running again? I don't know how I stopped. Although of course now I will have to sneak out past the puppy. I'll give it some thought...

I'm also giving some thought to a novel idea I have. Not a novel idea, as in exciting or new,  I don't have any of those. But more of a fiction story thing. I have a rough plot and lots of ends and threads. They need to be woven together in some sort of order, neatly and coherently. I'm still doing non-fiction writing, but I'd like to write some fiction too.

I think I'm the sort of writer who likes to have it all planned out first. I need to know what everyone's going to be doing and work out the twists and turns. As I say, I have a whole ball of ideas. Some of them are even written down. But they need to be connected and the ends worked in neatly. It's a bit like knitting no? All of those individual stitches. Different strands being pulled together to make a pattern. No holes. And slow progress, row by row, until suddenly, one day, there's a whole thing. My knitting record isn't great, except for non-wearable items like blankets. But I've never let it stop me. I have a huge amount of optimism. One day I might pull it off, you never know.

I shall spend the day tackling the post-camping laundry mountain (only one child went away, but still, you know how it is) and thinking about threads and how to tie them all together. Wish me sunshine and good ideas.