I am on my writer retreat in Bristol and I have spent all day working on chapters 4, 5 and 6 apart from a brisk welly walk round the estate morning and afternoon (in the sunshine!) and the necessary breaks for the preparation and consumption of food.
In Chapter 4, Broderick, the protagonist, has another bad day at the office. In Chapter 5, he goes travelling in pursuit of his professional and personal interests and in Chapter 6 he comes home with the intention of taking his wife out for a meal at the Italian restaurant in the city, which he does. Their evening is interrupted first by Broderick's chief antagonist in person and then by a phone call from a damsel in distress.
It is amazing how structure still dominated the process of the rewrite. The main plot points are secure but secondary events are still fluid. Did this happen then or then? If he did that there, then he couldn't have been there then. If they met on the train ... How can he have done that without her knowing about it?
This is all part of the fun. Plotting your way through your own novel can be as fascinating as reading someone else's, and more so. It can be fun but it can also be frustrating. When you see your story dissolving in front of your eyes for the nth time, sometimes you despair. But there is always another day and today was one more day's journey realised, another milestone made along the trail towards the ultimate goal of the finished novel.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be a driving day as I am going to see my Dad in Wincanton in Somerset but I will, if I can, squeeze in some rewriting when I return.
Ends
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