Slow process

I think, perhaps, that I might be done with chapter four. I spent most of last week racing out of work at lunchtimes to find a coffee shop, and then furiously editing the pages I had printed out from the previous day. This arrangement is actually working well, as at the moment I can take a full hour for lunch and I have found a coffee shop that is about ten minutes from my desk, so logistically this is a possibility. The only thing is of course wondering whether the editing / rewriting I do during this time is valid and good – but at least I am doing something, and it is sparking my interest again.

This weekend I have pretty much rugby tackled myself to stay indoors and work on the story. I still have the attention span of a gnat though. But today I revised all the edits I had made last weekend, and am mostly happy now with chapter four.

Mostly happy means of course still room to fiddle, but I am ignoring that for now.

I have now moved on to chapter five, and have printed it out ready to work on in the coming week. The only problem is the price of sitting in coffee shops! I have moved down the menu from coffee to tea, and slowly will make my way to the cheapest thing I can see (one small mint and a glass of tap water please).

I also need to get more disciplined with lunch – I need to get up early and make something that in six hours time I will want to eat, rather than open the bag and think urgh (battered apple, thumbprint sarnie, crumb covered chocolate). The only issue with this is I find it hard enough to squash breakfast down my gullet before racing for the train, let alone having the time to pause and make nice lunch. So I have been naughtily buying salad from M&S (£3 a time) and that, combined with the lunchtime coffee shop visit, is turning each day into around £6. I know this is a rather minimal amount, but I’m still climbing out of the money pit, so it feels a fortune! The trick is getting up on the dot of 6.30am. That means healthy breakfast and lunch, equalling guilt-free coffee shop visits. Lying in bed until 7am means the fat breakfast (pain au chocolate from bakery) and throwing cash down the pit. Maybe I should go to bed right now.