Editing going well now !

Have now edited the first ten chapters of Sweeping up the Village( currently there are 39 chapters in total) so thats about 25% done - all of the openning section - and I'm pleased with how it reads so far. Spent best part of 9 hours on it over this weekend...but had a haircut in town and then dinner locally with H and two friends last night, and today after more editing all morning from 9.30 am until 1.30pm I went to Tango on the Thames - and tangoed well for a couple of hours on HMS President before meeting H at the NFT to see Cutters Way- which I found dated and slow( I nearly dozed off more than once)...
Tomorrow I am being shot for a mens clothing magazine . I cant quite believe it...I was spotted by a scout at Hackney milonga a few weeks ago and was contacted by him again last week to say would I do a photo shoot on Monday at a hotel in South Ken. so better get some shut eye now! My life is becomming like a work of fiction!
Bren Gosling

Think I've "unblocked"

Had an early morning eureka moment whilst waiting for my yoga teacher(thank you for being late this morning!)...two specific areas of plot thread in the last two chapters I've been editing just didn't seem to be working but I think I've cracked it. The ideas came up and semed to be staring me in the face. Just goes to show - again - these things can't be forced or hurried. Sometimes the have to be mulled over and teased and teased until they come out.
Bren Gosling

blocked!

I'v been reading again guidance material from the City Course and also sections from various creative writing books on revising and editing. Today I feel I 'm in a place where nothing will come right, everything I am writing is rubbish and it's not good enough. Apparently this is part of the course... I know this...but it's frustrating I can't make it happen when I really do want to get on with it. I just feel completely distracted today.
Bren Gosling

An entire afternoon editing

From 12 noon until nearly 6pm(with 1/2 an hour off for lunch...I'm now up to chapter 8(of about 40). Close re reading seems to generate mini re writes of parts of sections of chapters and in the case of Chapter four almost an entire re write as I've introduced a different plot thread. Tonight we had turkey dinner for seven! - This was the perfect anti dote to the afternoon - social and lots of discussion about things like death, the nature of conciousness and metaphysics(yes we covered all of this and more). A relaxed and wondeful evening!
Bren Gosling

A week of editing in Aldeburgh

came back on the train on Friday night. Managed to fit in a couple of festival things and some walks too. Was roped into attending a dance class by my neighbour, which turned out to be an aerobics dance worksout. I felt naked without leggings! I left early.
Editing not going so fast as I thought it might. Some chapters dont need much tampering with but others- like the last one Ive been doing- need a whole rewrite. Ive introduced a different subplot thread. Even though the word count had actually drooped on this chapter, I hope it 's better. Emma, my mentor liked the idea.
Am cooking dinner for 7 friends tonight - thought a turkey would work - so will try to write once I've got the said bird in the oven!
Bren Gosling

Editing progresing !

I have now edited the prologue and first three chapters of my novel. It took me 7 hours over two evenings!I feel I am over another psychological hurdle!
Bren Gosling

Humbled

I have just finished interviewing a Kosovar Albanian guy who is the same age as my protagonist and came to Britain in 2000...although when I embarked on this project two years ago I interviewed by telephone another Kosovar Albanian and one year ago I interviewed an Albanian academic at University of London School of Eastern European and Slavonic Studies - nothing compared to bearing witness to the testimony of someone who'd lived through the Kosovan Conflict -talking about his terrible experiences whilst sat across from me at my own kitchen table. The interview was a humbling experience for me and so incredible to believe that such hardship and terrible things were taking place in Europe barely a decade ago. As a writer this was an great opportunity. I feel it has also come at an incredibly fortuitous time - at the point I am starting the editing of my completed manuscript. Now I have a very real sense of Almir, of what he lived through and what he had to do in order to survive. Much of the research I have already done is strengthened by this mornings interview. And I feel now inbided even more with a need to tell this story. I know, though Almir is a fictional contruction that all my story is plausible.

Tonight I cancelled dinner with a friend(I believe this is what's called writer's sacrifice)in order to attend a MeetUp Group of The London Writers Cafe nr Liverpol St. The topic is Editing and the speakers are editors from The Wordpress - so - again, this is perfect timing for where I am in the evolution of my novel.
Bren Gosling