6 - mosaic of the prosaic

When I find myself having difficulty with linear progression, I change to the film-making model.

Just to put words down - this can be the time to

• sketch portraits of the characters and their relationships to each other
• describe each of the locations in a little more detail
• simply to jump to a scene you are looking forward to writing.

Fitting them all together, later, is a job for the Scrivener cork board, when you can move things around, and piece them together, and trim and fit.

As the challenge, now, is simply to write, then getting words down is the game.

Jose and me in the Poligono Sur

As ever, with these kind of writing projects, I think back to my friend Mick - and, as it happens, one of our great adventures involved discovering Sevilla, back in 1985, and totally falling in love with the place.  We visited once together, then later I returned on my own, and met Jose, who led me into the back streets, safely enough, and allowed me to glimpse the life of the Gitanos.  He loved all the magic and juggling and everything like that.

A year later, and quite a bit richer, I was back

Then I went back to the UK for some film work, which gave me enough money to return and really have a party.