Time travel (Day 27)

I used to write these posts in the last 15 minutes of every writing day but I’ve shifted to writing them first thing next morning as they work well to get the juices flowing. I’m not really a morning person so sitting down at 9 of the clock and diving into writing goes a bit against the grain. I’ll think of this as the literary equivalent of the thoroughly thought through exercises Joan Littlewood devised for her actors to get them in the zone. I pinned down an interview date with one of the Theatre Workshop acting company today (which is yesterday aka Day 27) which I’m really looking forward to doing. He charmingly gave me a choice of Coffee or Tea slots which means late morning or 3.30pm (half an hour out if you go by Asterix in Britain).

I tried out some of the Writing Music suggested by people yesterday. The natural sounds of sea etc. were rhythmically tranquil but lacked that little charge of energy music can bring to boost you into the flow. I’m sure if I give it more of a go it could bring me somewhere interesting. The Nils Frahm piano music had promise. It’s along the lines of Keith Jarrett and ECM stuff I sometimes listen to when working, airier sort of jazz. Listening to it on Spotify may not be a fair test as the ads are so loud and irritating, and I don’t feel like subscribing because I don’t agree with the price point (same with digital books – given there’s no production or distribution costs how expensive are they!?)

I had a good, productive afternoon’s writing on the Paul Arden chapter. I want to start each chapter with an emblematic scene which captures the essence of the chapter’s protagonist. The Ginsberg chapter I knew from long off how it would start, which scene to springboard from. The Arden one I figured out today (which is yesterday aka Day 27) – I’d already written it so it was a case of shifting things around and revising it to sit more as a self-contained story, which actually made it read much better any way. I’m meeting the main character in that story (besides Paul) Monday week.

Tomorrow (which is today aka Day 28 or Friday 11th October) I am seeing a grand fromage from a London university for lunch to see if I can carve out an academic dimension to this project as its an institution I respect massively.

I’ll work out what tense I’m in for next week…