My daily word count has improved and finally I am glad that I have found more time to write. The problem is that I am writing stories, memoirs and general things but my writing course has taken a back seat - In fact it is in the boot. I feel that I am on a roll, enjoying my writing but feel guilty that my writing assignments for the course are getting behind! Now do I continue write my heart away? - or do I settle down for an hour to completed the writing assignments which require some factual articles?

There's plenty in Neil Simon's play to chime with big-city dwellers and fans of with Woody Allen's films, replete with funny one-liners, and a hopeless shmuck in the lead. It's Death of a Salesman territory without Arthur Miller's gift for social analysis, or Alan Ayckbourn's plays transported to New York without the experimental approach to drama. Neil Simon's hero is not so much a victim of a situation as a whinger whose life fails to match his over-inflated hopes.



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I don't really think my dog is speaking to me today. Dragged out of his bed WAY too early as I wanted to sit by the river and see if the otters would reappear. DVD camera in hand...dressed for the blustery weather...but nothing. Took pity on the moping mutley eventually as it started to rain and he was looking miserable.

Consolaton was sight of a pair of green woodpeckers and although bright and vivid birds, not really a substitute for the otters.

Never mind. Perhaps tomorrow...

I have a job that is unlike the profession of many of the people who contribute to Strictly Writing – can you guess what it is? Here are some clues . . .

I’m paid to invent characters and conjure up interesting settings and then write about them. I have to dream up plausible and lifelike situations into which to put the characters. It’s important that there should be tension and conflict in what I write and that the people who read it should not be able to guess what happens to the characters or what their true motivations are from the start. Often the characters are eventually played by professional actors and the whole drama is filmed.


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DOES THE WEATHER AFFECT YOUR LEVEL OF INSPIRATION?

I love writing when the rain is heavy, when I can hear the raindrops rattling against the window - It sends me into my own imaginary world which results in some good plots and story lines (well I think so). Does the weather affect anyone elses writing?

I have read this phrase in Jilly Cooper's novels and whilst the phrase in itself conveys a sort of tumoultuous excitement and I have not really appreciated it until today when I saw otters myself for the first time.

I live very close to the Stour river and walk my dog every morning, crossing it by bridge at some point. I arose late for some reason (probably the fact that the overcast sky made it a little darker than usual) and took my lurcher out at about quarter past seven.

At first I thought it was ducks fishing with their tails in the air not expecting to see anything different, but the fluidity of the movement in the water caught my eye - and there they were. Four otters right underneath me as I stood on the bridge. Two of them were rolling and playing in the water, oblivious to their surroundings and having - excuse the pun - a whale of a time. Two others, possibly the parents, chattered a warning and swam towards the bank. The two sparring otters were carried along by the current, more absorbed by their game and I watched them slowly flow out of sight with the stream.

I became aware that I had held my breath on seeing them and as I let it out, I felt so light hearted and well, yes, joyous it has put a huge smile on my face

I’ve not had the best week. My diet failed miserably. I succumbed to overwhelming chocolate desires. I haven’t exercised. I haven’t blogged regularly. I haven’t tweeted. And my daily word count target seemed determined to go backwards. I attempted to write a short story and couldn’t – it was like my mojo had left the building. Dissipated in the heat, disappeared through the pores of my skin – Mojo Osmosis...


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A friend's agent advised her to write a 'reading-group' book, because 'that's what publishers are interested in'. I've noticed that some books are now so targeted that they include 'discussion questions' as if they were A-Level set texts. It made me wonder about makes a good reading group book and I applied the question to two examples that came up last week.


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I’ve posted before about the fact that I’m a podcast addict. But I’ve never been able to work out why I can’t seem to get on with audiobooks. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of them. I have long wished for a device I could strap to my head so I could read while walking down the street. When you think about it, this is pretty much what audiobooks are all about. Although less ridiculous looking, obviously.

But for some reason they just don’t grab me. While I was walking my dog recently, I was listening to Radio 4’s Open Book podcast about the 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It was a great discussion with people like Meg Rosoff, Kwame Kwei Armah and Shami Chakrabarti all talking about the impact the book had on them. Every now and then there were clips from the new audiobook, read by Sissi Spacek. Now I’ve loved our Sissi ever since she had a bucket of pig’s blood tipped over her head in the movie 'Carrie'. And To Kill a Mocking Bird is an amazing book. So why did my eyes instantly glaze over at these bits in the podcast? It was like tripping a switch in my mind and I couldn’t work out why it was happening.



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