Berlin, immer Berlin but have kept on writing !

Have been here since last Tuesday enjoying the Queer Tango Festival. Inspite of 3 and 4am milonga finishes Ive managed to maintain my daily writing routine - and enjoyed it...perched on my stool infront of my tiny desk in the Motel One (Mitte) bedroom. I've completely edited almost 6k words of one important section ...incorporating all the critique feedback from first draft readings.Today I sacrificed a trip to the Reichstag to get it finished and off to Emma my writing mentor in prep for our next tutorial on Friday.So, am well pleased as I log off(at an early - for Berlin ) 5 minutes to one a.m.
Bren Gosling

reply to Mike's last comment

Hi Mike - sorry not to have replied sooner but I have been (still am until tomorrow) in Berlin at the QUEER TANGO FESTIVAL. In answer to your question - no - since I am so immersed in each part of the rewrite(and am actually enjoying it). That time will come no doubt in a few weeks time though - but I am not thinking or worrying about it until I have finished and done as good a job as I can. Deadlines are useful. I understand where you are comming from. I think it's necessary at some point to frame it all and aim for a deadline( and then usually another and maybe even another - but atleast that way the project doesn't remain open ended. Besides , for me personally, I 've other stuff I want to write that's currently on the back burner until this novel is finished.
regards
Bren Gosling

Another writing orientated weekend

H left for his 10 day buddhist retreat on Friday afternoon so Ive had no distractions and have knuckled down well, averaging 4 -5 hours daily. Today I completed a 'from scratch' re write of a scene that wasn't working but now I think is.It'll need an edit once I have it returned from typing though. I have put last Thursdays research to good use! I went to visit a friend who is in Chelsea and Westminster hospital...and on the way home went to the BFI and saw Last Year in Marienbad - which was weird yet wonderful. I found it oddly rather inspirational with regard to my writing.I can't quite explain why.
Bren Gosling

got started again

yesterday completed rewrite of another three chapters. After that I find I've used up most of the creative energy I have so it's best to stop and resume the next day. I cut an enire section from the end of one chapter yesterday, rewrote it from a more major character's point of view and inserted it earlier in the novel. Not sure if I'll have much available today to do more although this evenning am meeting a friend whom Ive briefed about my problem re French langauage ability of a 12 year old with two terms of learning that language. So I'll hopefully get feedback when I see her and can attribute today to research!
Bren Gosling

Letting it mull !

Had planned to keep editing all weekend ..Saturday went well with 3 more chapters out of the way but today...urgh...ground to a halt. I was intending to re write the scene with Jade and Roland having lunch out but realised I need to do research on the french level of a 12 year old at a good Comp. who's completed 2 terms! so put that aside...phoned a friend for help and left a detailed message about it. Moved onto Roland and Al..the chapter where Roland asks Al to leave the flat after a row. But as I re read what I'd already written it was apparant this whole section of scenes needs to be redrawn as chronologically they're slightly out of sync. So I just masde a few notes and went for a walk around Walthamstow Village - guided by the local history soc. which is all good in the name of "Sweeping up the Village". Never the less I feel edgey not to yet be on top of it again, quite. Rather irritable actually. I must be a sod for H to have to put up with at the moment.
Bren Gosling

ploughing on !

Did alot more editing over last weekend and on Monday and am making headway although what is interesting is that it's not just about effecting the changes Ive got from feedback/ my mentoring critiques. Reading through the chapters again fairly closely and in context with the novel as a whole often means I am putting in new bits...maybe a sentance here, a paragraph or two there after I have been thinking over a particular section.And of course I am cutting or pruning aswell as I go along. I can't do more than 4 hours in one stretch as I am finding it almost as mentally taxing as just writing. But it is moving along and shaping up rather nicely. The word count needs beefing up to an 80k minimum... I am hovering around 72 k but this changes with each editing session I complete. I'm not hung up on that at the moment though. Best to just keep it all moving.

Bren Gosling