So my novel journaling has been very topsy turvy. That turned out to become a serious problem for me, once I began writing the scenes for the rough draft, and remembered that I had left notes in a spreadsheet, and on paper, in different locations at random. All of the writing advice insists on keeping a novel journal as you go through the writing process, but personally, at this point (and it has now been 2019-2022, three years, since I began jotting down ideas, excerpts, timelines, and research notes), for me, the novel journal is getting to be more of a hassle than a help, it seems.
Maybe I will find out, later on in the process of writing this novel, that it is helpful. I hope, at any rate. 
Also, having already tried to put too many subplot and scene notes in too many spreadsheets and online reminders, as well as on paper, I am drowning in paper and in online notes, and even in bookmarks stuck in my research books for this novel project that I paused to write a nonfiction book, and restarted! I found that a short series that I wrote completely off-the-cuff actually helped me thinking about this novel, more so but perhaps also with the help of the novel journaling process, in a different way than I had expected. The series: 
(Ann and Anna, linked below…) was so easy to write that I found myself wondering what was so difficult about this project, and then I realized that I already knew everything about the series, because I was using a historical personage with a known itinerary, and adding a second protagonist with a history that I already knew intimately, since she was drawn from my own family history. Not as a person that I found, but a person that I have been trying to find for many years. But looking at the known history and tracking backward, it is clear that such a person, or persons, certainly existed in my family, sadly.
Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter. This novel is my personal way (as opposed to founding the Project, overall) of contributing to building tools, through story, which is one of humanity’s most powerful tools, that can help increase empathy and compassion in our world. Story, as part of how we see our world, helps us make sense of and define our actions in this world. And remember how important story is also as part of this project. Let’s Do Better.
Shira
Action Items:
1.) Share your thoughts, please.
2.) Write a story, post or comment that uses those thoughts.
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Click here to read, if you like:
B5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa de Papel/Money Heist Reviews
Holistic College Algebra & GED/High School Lesson Plans,
Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS
ShiraDest
Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
is trapped elsewhere, and thus has her own subplot, which I began to plan out before doing very much (if any) of her character bible or voice journal work. 
His name changes, so we leave the details of that change a mystery, for the moment:
I have reluctantly decided that this will be the last part of our publicly published story. I’ve been urged to finish this story as a novel, which cannot be queried if it has been published on a blog, so I must apologize, dear Readers. I never imagined that the dream (nightmare) that started this story would lead to all of this, but now I would like to take it and develop it into a book. I hope, once completed and published, that you will all read the remainder of this story. While these past twenty one parts will make up the prequel to the story, I doubt that a publisher will allow them to be part of a novel, so I am closing this now, upon strong advice from several friends, to start working on the novel. I plan to post an excerpt, each Sunday, to keep in touch with our dear Willow and Anna.
Context, Critical Thinking, Continuous Learning: Project Do Better 