Ramblings about cheese and other things

I am having an uphill day of work. It's my own fault for taking a week off after the viva, really, and leaving the book to wander off on its own and fall in with a bad crowd.

After my epiphany the other week, I am a lot happier with the direction in which the book is going. When I get tired, I start to battle insidious cliches that - well, I would say weasel, but I am a fan of weasels - that snake their way into my narrative. Cliches are easier. They are shortcuts. Everyone can recognise the wise teacher-mentor, the sulky teenager, the smug married couple. Cliches are easy, flat, convenient things, like sliced and processed cheese. And equally tasteless. I realised a couple of weeks ago that I was venturing into cliched territory, and ended up cutting about 10,000 words. Now there's an enormous gap in the middle. A cliched plot device would be a marvellous way to slap a band-aid on this hole, but I'm resisting! I promise. No more quick fixes. It's hard slog all the way.

When I started work on Current Book afresh after finishing the Ngozi revisions, the words "be more ambitious" kept running through my mind. I think that it is our job, as writers, to always bite off more than we can chew. Or, at least, more than we think we can chew. (See how those cliches like to sidle in when you least expect them? Bastards!). Every new project you tackle should be harder than the last - otherwise, what will you learn? The book I'm working on now is difficult in new and inventive ways, and requires a lot more skill than the last. But that's how it should be, I think.

I have returned!

It has been a completely crazy week. Thank goodness, however, that the worst of it is behind me. I was so nervous about my thesis defence, and I had a huge job to complete for a client that had to be finished by Thursday. Now I can collapse in a heap.

The viva on Wednesday went well. No thanks to me - I blathered on like an idiot and waved my arms about so much that I knocked things off my examiner's desk. I am definitely better at written communication, as blog readers who have met me in 'real' life will no doubt attest. It must have made sense overall, however, because I have been awarded the MFA with High Distinction. Hooray! BestFriendAlly has some suggestions over here as to what that might mean. (While I'm on the subject of BestFriendAlly, I'd also like to direct you to the post where she converted my cat Mink into a fearsome Transformer robot).

I went thrifting today to celebrate, but held back a little as I'm going to be spending the day with visiting blogger Scribbles on Monday, and I need to save some pennies! Also need to save for our trip, which is only three weeks away. Equal parts terrifying and exciting. I can't believe I'm going to be meeting with my publisher in London - it still seems unreal.

I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask you all, if you don't mind:

1) Are there any bloggers in the UK who would like to meet up for a coffee or the like? I'm staying in Christchurch, Dorset (and yes, that is why my family decided to move to Christchurch, NZ out of all the possible cities. Very logical reasoning there), but I'll be in London as well, and I'm sure I'll be venturing further afield.
2) LOML and I have decided to hop over to Berlin for a few days. We've never been, and we would love some recommendations of places to go and things to see.

Thank you!

Cake disasters

Progress on the novel continues apace. It still feels a bit like the terrible cakes I bake, however: soggy in the middle. A friend suggested I cover it with icing, which is what I usually do to hide my real-life cake disasters, but sadly it doesn't work quite as well with books. Even if the icing is metaphorical. Speaking of which, have you visited Cake Wrecks? I just love the sadistic pleasure of looking at professional cakes gone wrong.

Anyway, I had better get back to work - I want to hit 74,000 words before I visit a friend's writers' group tonight. There are a couple of writing posts lined up for later in the week, when I have a bit more time, and I'm looking forward to posting them. I'd just like to reiterate that I don't pretend to be an enormous expert on the writing and publishing process, but rather am trying to share what I've learned. Everything I post about is something that I have struggled with and have had to solve in one way or another, and I write about each subject in the hope that it will prove helpful.