WEEKEND TWO

Well, I'm still enjoying myself, and I'm still a crucial few days ahead of the game. I am gong to do this progress report in list form, which is not elegant, but there you are. Some of the points have been dealt with in comment conversations, but this is a round-up.

1. Monday: this might be a holiday for bankers and suchlike sybarites, but it isn't for freelancers. We never take days off. I am not taking today off. In fact, while I get on well with bankers, lawyers, accountants, etc., all they are doing is servicing the world. They say that people like me are dreamers, etc., but someone has to make stuff, whether that means digging stuff out of the ground, or turning stuff into chairs, or whatever. These primary producers are the green plants of the economic ecosystem, the people who make the things that the accountants and lawyers can then make money out of. Writers are primary producers in the purest form - we create stuff out of nothing. I am almost literally chorophyll. By which I mean, in response to a number of emails, 'Yes, there will be a new chapter on Monday.'

2. 'How are you finding the creative process?' a couple of people have asked me. Well, it's liberating not to be worried about the whole, and just to trot along writing the next thing that comes to my mind every morning. And, indeed, HAVING to write like this, because I can't afford to spend more than an hour on it every day.

3. Feedback: as I've said elsewhere, it's nice to be writing for an audience. I'm not worried by working alone, and trying slowly to get stuff just right, but this is nice for a change.

4. Editing: I think it might be bad form to edit a personal blog, because it goes against the immediacy/intimacy of the form. This isn't a personal blog, though, so whenever you point out typos or obvious mistakes, I will correct them. Thank you very much if you have already done this.

5. Consistency: is the hobgoblin of little minds, etc. However, I am striving not to make continuity errors, as per above. What I cannot guarantee is that storylines I set off on early on will necessarily all be followed through. I have an increasing idea where this story is going, but it is only an idea, and certain things are bound to go by the wayside. Hopefully, those will be the crappy bits you haven't liked.

6. I have got a grip on my obsession with site statistics, to a certain degree. And comments. I only check in a few times a day.

7. I love writing Sir Conn to a ludicrous degree. This is something to be wary of it, and I am beware of it. There's another character you will meet sometime in the next couple of weeks (I think) that will also cause this trouble. She is French, and I will say no more about her, except that every time I think of the things she is going to say, I find myself giggling.

8. I'm having a whale of a time; I dare say that's obvious; I hope you are too.