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