Monday

How wonderful, a hot bank holiday. I have avoided the crowds down on the beach and thronging the front by sitting in our verdant garden gazing at the dull-gold dandelions, smelling the lavender and listening to the bees.

I have also been indulging in what I love to do - writing outside. I have been working on my second draft of the 'Scarborough Consequences' story and have been typing on a lap top whilst being warmed by the sun. How pleasurable.

The story is shaping up well. I have decided to stick to the epistolary style/genre, so everything is told through letter, email, tweet or text. There is a danger that this can exaggerate the artifice of all story-telling, but I think I've managed to keep the right side of believable. I have used the ideas given in the missives submitted at the Lit Fest for the plot lines and also some of the wording given by my 'collaborators' in this project. This has helped, I think, in creating distinctive voices for the different characters. Since creating distinctive character voices - and ones that aren't always echoes of your own - is a challenge for writers, this could be a useful technique: asking others to write or be recorded talking about a subject. It is akin, I suppose, to another writerly technique: ear-wigging on people's conversations in cafes. Although it could, perhaps, offer more control to the author.