I am still writing the Great British Novel, which is why I have not been writing the great local blog. I have often wondered whether there is so much writing you can do in a day and if, if you just did nothing but write all day, whether you would run out of it like a train running out of track, veering off, unscheduled, into a bank and falling over.
When I say I am still writing, I am lying. What I am doing yesterday, today and probably tomorrow, is redesigning the cover and artwork to take account of developments in the plot. Last time I wrote a novel, one which was never finished, I began by drawing the scene of the action. This time I have invented a village, including a museum, a stately home, a pond and a factory. All these locations have characters interacting with them, so I have to know (for when Steven Spielberg makes the film of it, obviously) how long exactly it takes the character to move around these bits of scenery. So to begin with, this time last year when, looking back, I was really poorly, I began by drawing the jacket cover of the book with the scene on it. At the time I couldn’t really type easily but I could, just about, hold a pencil.
It’s incredible really, to think how lucky I am. This time last year I was having exploratory surgery endlessly postponed because of waiting lists. I had my strong right arm hanging useless by my side and I had cancer. Last November the S&H and family arrived to go to an engagement party and left me with the grandson. The OH naturally absconded to the pub. I remember trying to change a wriggly baby one handed. I found a photo of the occasion on my computer yesterday while I was looking for something else. I looked so ill. Yet here I am a year later, so much better, so different and so keen to get on with the writing I am bounding out of bed each day like a thing on a spring. Doinggggggg.
I am also redesigning the main location, which is a museum, because the scene in my head is at variance with the drawing. I am doing actual cut and paste, with scissors and I am finding my powers of drawing seriously challenged. Which is a good thing but thank goodness for erasers. At the start I purchased a battery operated eraser, thinking it was a dreadful extravagance and that I was indulging myself because I wasn’t well and feeling sorry for myself. I was wrong, it has been a necessity and very well used.
So, literally, back to the drawing board. (Actually a flat A3 light table that has been another necessity.)
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