Day 1: Summery lamentations

I made quite a bit of progress on my novel, yesterday, at 1324 words. The word-count is probably around my usual one, but the most important thing is that I managed to work myself out of a rather finicky spot. Those points of a novel, where something important has just happened, and you've written the aftermath of it all, and then you simply don't know what to write next.

Usually, my writing simply flows out naturally, ebbing and abating like the tide, the events naturally weaving themselves together through the description. But, sometimes, I get stuck- I fall into a hole in the sand. The carousal music where's off after a time. I have to do something, something to get my story on track.

When I'm writing my first draft, I have two options. I can either come up with a little diversion, or I can introduce the next bit of the plot. In my first-draft, I usually just speed through the main bit of the novel. The second-draft is for fleshing it out, cutting down or ramping up the luscious prose, adding in interesting sub-plots that weave into the narrative... All of that good stuff. So its usually the former.

My second draft, however, has deviated considerably from the first. Which makes it very easy to simply pick something up from the first-draft and put into the second. Of course, you can't just dump. You have to make sure it fits.

But my first draft is still definitely my right-hand man.

I'm up to Chapter Eight of June Lilies now. On critique circle, with the latest submission up for review since yesterday, I'm still languishing at Chapter Four.

'Tis life, I suppose.

Apart from writing, I haven't been up to an awful lot. It's summer already for me but I have exams coming up next May, so I've been mostly kept preoccupied for revision.

I've come to the conclusion that Electromagnetism is too much for my poor, tired brain to take.

Meanwhile I watch enviously on Whatsapp statuses as my friends swan off to the continent.

How many people can be visiting France and Spain in the last few weeks, you might ask? Rather a lot.

I might not be out and about on semi-Mediterranean beaches (you can see how much I want to be from my seaside imagery), but at least I can take comfort in relatively bug-free, not too-hot, perfectly clement English weather. It's about room temperature outside, and I can't envy anyone suffocating under electric fans. By August, I suppose it will be me suffocating behind electric fans, since I don't have air-conditioning, but I like to live in the moment.

Weather and writing. That's what dominates my days. I can't really complain.