Have read from start to finish my entire completed draft

Did ths over the long weekend, up at Aldeburgh. This was a good excersize. There are still flaws and repetitions but nothing too difficult to put right. The story reads well overall and to look at it in this way for the first time has been a morale booster for me. I was feeling very daunted about how to begin the rewrite. My next task is to re read everything and close mark up the changes.
Bren Gosling

Back after a complete 10 day break from writing

and I think I am rearing to go again. Will pick up a pen tomorrow and see!Have been to Stockholm, tangoing and then to Yorkshire(back today) where H and I spent our time eating cooked breakfasts and walking the Dales around Grassington. Finished reading the novel ' Beware of Pity' by Stephan Zweig...which..in the end I thought quite old fashioned with alot of irritating repetition(maybe its a bad translation from the german). Am trying to get stuck into 'So Many Ways to Begin' Jon Mc Gregors second acclaimed novel but again I am struggling with his style. Its beautifully written but the structure I find is irritating me and the plot (I am sure Ive already after just a few chapters, worked out the ending), seems rather pointless therefore. But I'll plough on.
Good news - one of the agents who expressed an interest in my novel has made contact again asking me how I am getting on. Encouraging!
Bren Gosling

Sometimes getting into the right head space takes a few days!

But I finally managed it today after much deliberating and wrote the very end of my novel.I read it aloud and its only 9 minutes but it took(aside from the last couple of weeks thinking about it constantly) three hours to draft - from notes started the other day which took me about the same amount of time! My next job is to go back to to the Epilogue and re write this to incorporate more back story relevant to the plot . Then I can print everything off and start again from the Prolugue and edit and fill in the gaps and make sure the plot threads add up.There are a few further scenes I will need to write still.
All my four especially selected readers - pre sending off to the agents - have agreed to read the complete manuscript in August- so I have to be disciplined over the next few weeks if I am going to meet this deadline . But it is possible. The hardest part I believe is done.
Off out to The Crypt in Clerkenwell tonight to tango off my angst!
Bren Gosling

Angst in Aldeburgh

Having a lovely week of walks, cinema and local fish eating! BUT have got a bit stuck with my writing(well, yesterday). Since returning from The Writers Retreat Ive written about 1000 words of the second part of a chapter with R and A in the middle of the novel, which took AGES but I think is alright. But trying to write the ending is proving a real angst making excersize. I sat down yesterday for 3 hours and kept starting and crossing out and restarting , ending up with about one side of hand writtten A4. The thing is I have important back story to reveal at the end and I am not sure the best way to do this. So, after opera beamed from the NYC Met at Aldeburgh cinema last night I slept on it ...and this morning am going for a long walk over in Minsmere with our neighbours then hopefuly I may have a 'light bulb' moment.
Bren Gosling