I’m currently writing a cli-fi (climate fiction) novel set in the mid-21st Century with the lead protagonist, a young woman from the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, called Barsha. The action takes place across multiple settings including Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and the Western Pacific and is set against a backdrop of catastrophic climate events, mass migration and conflict due to geoengineering.

This is my first attempt at writing a novel and it’s made me appreciate how much I underutilize my imagination in everyday life. Developing the characters, plot, and setting of the story has been super interesting but also a real challenge. Not to mention establishing the discipline to sit down and write regardless of the quality.

During NaNoRiMo (National November Writers Month) in 2020, I managed to write the first 20,000 words (my target word count is 80,000). In the intervening months, I’ve been busy with other things but now that I have free time again, I want to set myself another target word count to work towards. And once I make it official on here, my hope is that I’m more likely to follow through!

So keep an eye out for updates on how it’s going as well as short extracts of the first draft…