Have just finished the section I've been working on

Decided more is less where the sex scene is concerned. All off for typing now. Will edit my other new material in prep for Fri's tutorial with Emma this afternoon and the new chapter tommorow when it comes back then email it all to Emma tommorow night. Tube strike again Tuesday to Wed so will not be able to get into town to my tango class!
Off to cook lunch now then will get stuck into the edits. Tonight H and I are out at friends in Finchley for dinner.
BG

Got thinking late last night...

...about how "swimming ly" my writing is going at the moment( and got my Graduate Certificate in Novel Writing along with a nice letter for the course leader in yesterdays post)and it got me thinking. I need another layer going on in the story...I HAVE to really apreciate how A's past lives with him on a daily basis in the present and how this presents in his manner of thinking and personal behaviours...I have the obvoius ones - but need to personalise these more and show the reader how this filetrs through as A tries to build new relationships with the other characters esp R. I've contacted some one I met earlier this year on Vicky Gruts Novelists club course - who is a psychiatrist - to see if she'll discuss A as a case history. That should help. Meantime...now going to my kitchen table to try to move into the first sex scene btw A and R.( OMG!)
BG

Moved on...

...new chapter nicely yesterday and have reached the tricky sticky point(where they have sex)...went out to Hackney tango last night. Great atmosphere and good dancing as usual. H up and away to work b4 I got up this morning. Tango lesson this afternoon in Moorgate and opera at the ENO tonight...we are seeing the Handel thats had such bad reviews!
BG

Waiting for washing machines and yoga teachers !

A new scene done - three hours and 600 words completed yesterday afternoon at the Old Street flat whilst I waited for the arival of a new washing machine. I am at the point in the story where Almir goes back to Rolands flat for a second time...and it all heats up..I can't decide if they will have sex at this point...my hunch is they will...hope to get moving on this today...am waiting for arrival of our yoga teacher Frani...she's normally here by 7.30am and its a quarter to.She's normally prompt so not sure if there's a problem.

Is this a new trend ...my creative process is spurred on by waiting for the arrival of washing machines and yoga teachers!!!?
BG

Yesterday was a writing day

...and was the main focus. I got so immersed that I ran late for tango class and so missed it - I was tired though and will be going later this week(3 x)...I HAVE FINISHED ANOTHER NEW CHAPTER-h u r r a y ! Its funny what new writing throws up isn't it. I found myself suddenly needing to know about mobile phone handsets that were popular in 2002 - what sort would Julie have - and googled but that wasnt too helpful. I will need to re check the details later once Ive completed a first draft but for now have settled on a Mortorola flip "V" and made it silver and purple - any help from any one out there would be welcomed.

In atempting to dwell more on moments of high drama I wanted to write about the shape and feel of one of those caramelised biscuits you get given with your latte - I dont eat them but H must have collected some 'cos I found two in the kitchen..so...sat there at the dining table (where I always write when at home)examining it as my character might examine it as he thinks deeply about the impact of something he's just said to another character.

Yesrdays progress was good because last week got only a very little done dur to work - work. I did finish reading Maggie O' Farells book "After You'd Gone" which was an amazing read...some beautiful writing and great close observation - what I didnt take to was all the flitting POV's - I know this is a device the author probably designed to reflect the protagonists situation - she's in a comma...but I found it jolted my attention. I also didnt like the ending which was a real downer and she semmed to repeat favorite phrases - like red mouth - quite alot. But its a really good read and I'd recommend it if your looking for something new. I've started If Nobody speaks of remarkable things by Jon Mcgregor - its unlike anything else Ive read - one big prose poem really. Hard going(but this type of overly stylised writing I always have difficulty engaging in for the long haul) The prose IS beautiful again though.

NEWS! I have another follower ...Sue...Please do introduce yourself!!
BG

Alas...

Have not had time for any new writing since Sunday post. Work's been very busy and have had tango . But did go to Forest Writers and work shopped some of the new material I havent yet(but will) tutorialed with my mentor AND it went down v well. Got some useful feedback on a couple of things I wasnt sure about - so - proves its always extrmely important to have a forum to workshop new stuff evry so often to make sure one is still on the right track and not losing the plot(sic)..it also gives a well needed and deserved boost when you feel you might be flagging. I want to finsih this whole section with Almir and Roland from when they first meet to the start of the deepening of their relationship ...before I my next tutorial with Emma my writing mentor 5TH November - if I can.

BG

Did more in the week

another scene with Almir in the village on the Beat AFTER he has met Roland ...but its not quite finished how I want it...but have left it where it is for now and tonight began another scene with Almir again in the Village but much further along in the story - well thats what came.only managed 300 words in 1 1/2 hours but its a start. I almost didnt write anything as I was tired afetr being out all day. We came up to Aldeburgh on the train yesterday evenning and today walked to Snape, had lunch then went to a recital at the Maltings as part of a Britten Weenkend. Got a lift back with friends who live here permamnently and then went for Fish and chips and ate them on the beach as it got dark. Came home and wrote - like I said for 1 1/2 hours thn watched a DVD - rather mindless Sliding Doors -with Kate Blanchette.
BG

Finished another Chapter this afternoon

wrote for three hours continuing on from yesterday and joining from the previous scene. All emailed for typing up. Had to research what an Arsenal FC official mug looks like and who was a top player in 2001 as this info I needed to insert into this latest chapter, which has Almir back at Rolands flat for the very first time for a post work out coffee( note -no sex is involved yet!!)

BG

Been GOOD

and have just managed to get 2 1/2 hours of new writing done and am happy to have moved on my scene with Almir's first visit to Rolands flat. I really had to think hard about what he'd notice and HOW he'd notice things. Hope to get more done tommorow, though I know I'll have some work - work stuff to attend to first thing.

On Sunday listened to the second part of the Radio Four dramatisation of Isherwoods I am a Camera/Goodbye to Berlin - enjoyed it v. much,especially as it's not long since H and I were strolling about around the Nollerndorfplatz oursleves. H visited(well looked at from the street, as its not a museum or anything) Isherwood's old rooming house, just a short walk from our friend Berndt's flat in Grunewald Strse. - I think I was writing myself at the time as I didnt go.

off to bed now.
BG

Just Back from Aldeburgh

H went onto a work meeting in Wimbledon.Didnt really write - maybe did 1 hour - whilst away as the weather was so wonderful...we did a couple of nice long walks and Sunday night I had fish and chIps in front of the telly - a rare event these days and one I'd normally chide myself over but I fancied just putting my feet up and watching a DVD of Atonement then a Loius Theroiux prog about Lagos gangs and state corruption(a crazy place nIGERIA!!)THEN A REPEAT OF THE FIRST IN THE NEW SERIES OF THE Apprentice(entertaining but the candidates seem such dummb heads).sTARTING READING A NOVEL eMMA HAS RECOMMENDED WHICH i BOUGHT IN fOYLES LAST WEEK - aFTER YOU'D gONE - mAGGIE o 'fARRELL - READ FIRST FIFTY PAGES - GOOD BUT IT DONT HALF JUMP ABOUT A BIT.

BG

getting ready to go to a tango milonga workshop

and then catching the train up to Aldeburgh. Wanted to do some writing this morning but its already after 10am and I need to shower, pack and pay some bills so they'll be no time I fear.

Deferred to Emma (my mentor) about submitting to Circalit novel competition - you have to put in first thirty pages - initially thought I might enter but then my gut feeling was confirmed by Emma that this would create a distraction AND I am not ready to go back to the beginning of my novel at this point - to do another revision - I need to keep the momentum up and continue from where I left off(ie somewhere in the middle). Anyhow I have already jumped through that hoop - of getting access to agents(this is the prize Circalit is ofering). I know that four agents - all of whom I respect and and expressed an interest in my novel - have said to send it to them to read when I am ready. I have to hold on to this, though I do admit to writing being a labor its a labor of love. There is nothing(except maybe for those special moments when I'm dancing tango and feel everythings going right and my partner and I are just at one with the music) like this feeling I get when I am really immersed in a new scene - inside the characters heads - seeing the world as they see it, feeling it as they feel it.

BG

another scene done - partly written in the Barbican

yesterday afternoon after a work meeting in Chelmsford and waiting for a tango lesson in Chiswell Street. Wanted to do more today but work - work got in the way and my turn to cook dinner - chicken stew - which we've just eaten. H is reviewing Waugh's Brideshead Revisited for the gay Book Club at Gays the Word so has got out the DVD set from Love Film and is avidly watching it end to end. It now(it was first shown on TV in 1981) looks stilted and dated with annoying background music. Jeremy Irons is SO camp...

off to Hackney tango tonight..will try to get there in time for the lesson at 9 so need to get moving.
BG

New Start

Managed two hours yesterday beginning a new section at the centre of the novel...producing about a side and a half(!) of long hand...but that's usually how it goes when I begin a new section . Going to try to continue it this afternoon now I have got work stuff out of the way.
BG

Apparantly my writing routine is like Virginia Wolfs'

...according to my mentor Emma with whom I had a tutorial yesterday. Ive more or less settled into the habit of writing for 2 1/2 hours in the morning and then continue in the late afternoon or early evenning for a further 1 1/2 hours. In the afternoon I go for a walk or do work-work or a tango lesson and late in the evennings go out to either tango or other things. I still am under no illusions about how much there is to do - the next section I will tackle I think for me will be the most challenging as its at the core/middle.Emma was also encouraging with her feedback on the new material and where a couple of things dont work I 'd already had my doubts so overall yesterday was a confidence booster.
I have another cold and felt aweful yestrday on my return from Euston - we have tutorials in the Welcome Centre Cafe - and made myself hot lemon with maple syrup and watched TV which was memorable mostly for the continuous bombarding of adverts. I hardly ever watch TV these days and prefer to be engaged with other things but when you are ill its a distraction I suppose.

Bumped into Sue Lovett yesterday - ex City Cert.course student - who has also started mentoring tutorials with Emma. Sue's novel is set just down the road from mine in Leyton and is more or less comtemporary with mine! I admireher writing and like what she's doing.

BG