I’m still struggling to focus my latest android story on my lead character, Robin, one of two androids. I’ve put her on stage more frequently and tried to keep the spotlight on her. I changed an important dramatic crisis by swapping the roles of the two ‘droids so she had more air time than the male. Still, the story is a slow burn, with evildoers who won’t let her be, but she’s not a character driven by internal desire. There still is no MacGuffin and I’m halfway through the revision. And worried.

I can claim distraction for some excuse. My computer crashed again, hardware failure again, this time the keyboard, which renders it fairly useless for writing a novel. So it’s gone to the shop and I’m back on my ancient but reliable clunker. (Hint: Beware of HP Spectre 360, manufactured jointly with Microsoft). Fortunately, after a previous hardware disaster, I paid up for a continuous cloud backup service, so I haven’t lost a word.

And then I got zombies in my air conditioning. The system comes on at random times, day or night, even though the switch is set to “off.” Since the problem is intermittent, the repair guy says, “Everything checks out fine.” More maddening technology.

I’m afraid Robin is never going to be a traditional Aristotelian hero. Her main motivation is self-preservation. She is victimized by many forces but she is not raiding the lost ark; she is the lost ark. Different point of view.

I will eliminate her business partner and put her in the top spot so she can suffer the slings and arrows coming around soon, and I’ll give her the central role in the reversal of fortune at the end. It will be quite obvious that she’s the main character of the story, but she will never be Indiana Jones.

The trouble with creative work is that you never know if you’re being original or stupid.