Laurie Lee

Last night I met Laurie Lee's widow. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't even know that he had a widow. But I was weak at the knees meeting her. For me, that's something I'll be telling my grandchildren. I felt some how that I was within touching distance of genius. Because Laurie Lee was really one of the great writers of the last century. Also one just knows from his poems that he was also a wonderfully kind and gentle man. Having met his widow, I'm now going to start reading some of his books again. I know I'll be inspired. I need that at that moment.

The two year crisis

I'm having a crisis about my novel. I've been writing it for two years and I suddenly realise that large parts of what I've written are entirely off the point and need to be scrapped. I don't feel good about this. Except that I've been through this with three novels before. It always seems to happen. When I'm two years in I always realise that the book isn't about what I thought it was about. It's depressing but perhaps it is just part of the process - or my process, at least. And the main thing I've learnt about writing is - DON'T ARGUE WITH THE PROCESS. Arguing with the process wastes time and gets you nowhere. So I'll just keep going and hope that it comes right. I think that it will do but I get bored of waiting.

Slog - and inspiration

I'm writing pretty regularly at the moment but it's a slog. I do find myself wondering whether it is worth it. I'm still so far from finishing my book and I don't know whether it will get published. I've had two published but that isn't necessarily a help in getting a third book published. But then something happened which helped. My mother turned up with some DVDs she got from some charity shop. Amongst them was the Jeremy Irons / Anthony Andrews TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. I watched it and I just loved it. I've seen it many times before but it doesn't get less engaging. It includes Jeremy Irons reading quite a few sections from the book. The language is so luscious, the sense of love and loss so strong. It sent me right back to my desk. If there is any chance I could ever write like that then I that is enough reason to keep going .....