Rattling Along With The Rewrite

6 February 2014

Guess what? It’s 2 o’clock on a Thursday afternoon ...
The thing about routine is that it gets the everyday tasks accomplished. Not that Writing Life is an everyday task, but you know what I mean. If I didn’t set aside the time, it wouldn’t get done.
It’s the same with the writing. Day in, day out, rain or shine, 6.30 to 11 with half an hour for breakfast. Last week I afforded myself the luxury of a day off but I’ve been back at the desk every day since - to good effect in that I’m well into rewriting Part Three of AS DAD LAY DYING. And I’m pleased to say that things could hardly be going better ...
Although I want to begin by correcting a mistake I made last week. I said I was trying to get the work down to 100000 words from 111000. It’s actually 115000. The 111000 relates to the original draft and I discovered I was working on version 2 which had gone up by 4000 words. So it looks as though I’m going to have to cut a little harder than I thought.
Not that this concerns me. In fact the more I strip the thing down the better it seems to become. This is important because Part Three is the heart of the book. It deals with Frank’s formative years as a child on a caravan site in the late 1950s. An event takes place which scars him for the rest of his life and there’s a need to get that right. Fortunately, in my opinion it’s the best piece of writing I’ve ever produced and I’m really, really pleased with it. Rewriting it is a pleasure. Other than strip it back a bit, I don’t need to do a lot to it and I’m rattling through it. At my current rate of progress I’ll have it done by this time next week, even allowing for a day out birding on Sunday. You’ll obviously be kept informed.
I’ve also made significant progress with my Lit Fest campaign. I’ve secured a place at Darlington, and both Helmsley and Leeds look promising. I’ve discovered some new venues too, particularly in Harrogate where I’ve struggled to find anything suitable in the past. Bids have been submitted.
I’ve just been to a couple of Writing Groups as well (Batley and Holmfirth) although I’ve no more visits planned in that respect for a while. The online Blog Tour has also come to a grinding halt and the moral of the story is that you can’t keep on top of everything and expect to have a life. I’m reminded (once again) of the juggler trying to keep all the plates spinning on the end of the sticks. The one stick I won’t be letting go of is the writing ...
And in other news, I’ve received a (very polite) rejection from the Richard & Judy Book Club. I don’t think it was a personal letter but it felt like one all the same. Well done Andrea Sansum for letting my balloon down as gently as possible.
On the good side of the balance, Book Talk continues with our second programme on Monday when I’ll be looking at STONER by John Williams and THE RED HOUSE by Mark Haddon. I’ve already posted my reviews on the Book Talk page of the website but if you can join me at 4pm on BBC Radio York on the 10th I’d be delighted to have you listen in. Bye for now.