Meeting my reader

Last week I went up to London and met the lady who reads for me. She is so, so good! I thought I'd talk to her for a couple of hours. Then I looked at my watch and four hours had passed without me even noticing. My reader sees a hundred things that most people just wouldn't see. I think she's a much better editor than most publishers and agents. I pay her for what she does but it is worth every penny. However, the strange thing is that the main things which she says are things which are very basic and which I know all about ..... But still (as I write my fourth novel) I need someone to say them to me. Basically she's making two points which are - dramatise, dramatise, dramatise. And cause and effect .... Because this, then this. Because that, then that. I know all that. I say it to my own students again and again. But still it takes someone astute, who is looking from the outside, to show me the ways in which I'm not following that advice. It is strange business, writing. But I'm now fired with enthusiasm about the book. I aim to get a new draft completed before Christmas. That will be difficult but I'm determined. Thanks those who have commented on this blog!

Not very interesting

The strange thing about writing is that it isn't very interesting. Or at least it isn't a spectator sport. I am writing properly again now and it is great to get back to it. But it's quite hard to describe what I'm actually doing. I just sit at a desk and ask myself questions - that's all it is really. And it is the same day in and day out. I don't go anywhere and I don't meet anyone. My publisher and agent don't contact me. Occasionally I switch the printer on and print out a section of the book so that I can read it through. That's about as interesting as it gets. And yet hundreds of people want to be writers - or at least they tell me that they do. I think they must have a misguided idea of what writing is about. I'm not really sure that it is a desirable thing to do at all.

Working under strange circumstances

At present I am working - or reading through my book to be more precise. There is no furniture in the house at all but there's a window seat I can sit in while I read. I'm continuing to find the book better than expected. (Not good, you understand, just better than I thought). I also really want to talk to someone about it now. I want to know how another reader would view it. Maybe next week I can talk to my reader or the week after. Then back down to the real work.

Reading through the book

I've finally found time to start reading through draft 4 of my new book. I need to do this in preparation for discussing it with the lady (a professional reader) who is currently looking at it for me. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. It reads better than I expected. I can really see how much the work I did earlier in the summer has improved it. Having said that, I've only read the beginning. The chaos doesn't start until later. But all the same, it made me feel quite good to read it. This week I'll have time to read some more of it - sitting in the new house which still has no furniture. At least, the heating is on which is definitely needs to be. The whole of our area of the country is threatening with flooding. Everyone has got water through their roof, if not actually in their house. It seems to have been raining since the beginning of time and there's no sign that it will stop soon.

Taking a break

It's strange. I've spent the last ten years writing continually. And then I start writing this blog and - due to a very complicated house move - I have to stop writing for a while. So suddenly I don't have much to say. Except that I'm planning a thousand writing projects in my head. And I've identified the room in our new house which is going to be my office. My son is going to be at school 8.30 to 3.30 so I'm going to get up early, make my lunch before he goes out of the house, switch off the phone and write for all that time. Or that's the plan .... Except it can't just be a plan. It has to be what actually happens.

Edinburgh Festival

I am in Edinburgh at the Fringe Festival. It's fantastic. My husband and I come most years for three days and we see six shows in a day. It's always freezing cold and raining and we eat bad food and get too tired. But it's fantastic! What I love about Edinburgh is that it is truly open. Anyone can put on a show here ...... And consequently there are shockingly bad shows going on. But the energy here is fantastic, the creativity, the sense of liberation. So many people in such a small space all thinking and talking and questioning. In my mind I've now got one hundred books and plays I want to write. Well, actually, I always have loads of ideas anyway but coming here has certainly increased my resolution to work harder and get more down on paper. We are taking the night train back to London tonight. I'm exhausted. But thank you Edinburgh Festival! You demonstrate that not everyone wants to sit and watch TV all the time!

The Women's Room

I am not writing at the moment because we're in the process of moving. However, I am reading a book called The Women's Room by Marilyn French. It is a famous book, a classic of the feminist movement. I have had it on my book shelf for years and never really fancied reading it. I imagined that it might be a rather tedious feminist rant. I couldn't have been more wrong. It's an amazing book. I don't think I've ever read anything so honest in all my life. It tells the stories of so many women and the reader recognises them all. And it absolutely refuses to offer any solutions to the questions it raises. It does ramble in bits and it is repetitive - but it is still an extra-ordinary good book and a gripping read. I haven't quite finished it but I'm nearly there. I wish I could write something that captures so completely the messy, difficult, compromised nature of life.