Wonderful things

Started watching The Detectorists (BBC Television). A wonderful, gentle show. And like a lot of things English, expects an audience that is paying attention.

Right in the first episodes, there's a bit of flirting going on, during a conversation in which Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter are name-dropped. A peek-a-boo moment occurs and there's this exchange; "What do you see there?" "Wonderful things."

Well, that said, my week has included turning against my first novel. I turned off sales at Amazon because I just can't bear it being out there without I fix a few things. I also cloned the work file then went through with a red pencil -- well, a macro that turns the text color red -- and marked all the stuff I want to delete.

Surprisingly, it isn't that much. The first few chapters get hit bad. After that it gets better. Total looks to be under a thousand words total and that's great. I could lose 10,000 words and be fine with it. (I might even like it better).

Other than that, though. Nothing written on the next novel yet. The main progress I've been making is to find more and more things that don't have to be front-loaded but can happen later (if at all).

Plus the oyster method is continuing to work. I can't even remember why I added the idea of a visit to the Imperial War Museum to the chapter plan. I've now got two characters, a more elegant way to make a connection to a local theatre, a way to set up BRO and their special radios, and another wrinkle in the stuff I'm doing about accents. The Battersea Power Station scene has also accreted more material; a life-saving act, a setting for some cat-and-mouse, and two more side characters.

Other than that, I've been mildly sickly but still walking to work every single day -- which means working every day as well -- and getting in practice on my violin most days as well. Which means my evenings have mostly been collapsing on the coach, having a snack for dinner than an early bed.

Not writing.