Leaving it to Marinade - Linda Newbery
I'm at that intriguing, exhilarating, slightly nerve-racking stage of gearing up to write. This means that I'm not doing any writing at all, just leaving my idea to marinade, and working up the sense of atmosphere that is so necessary before I start. I enjoy this time - the daily discipline hasn't started yet, the fretting over plot clunks and stodgy bits, and the story is open to me with all its possibilities. Meanwhile, I'm indulging in various start-up rituals. These include: finding a desktop background for my laptop which sets the right tone; filling the noticeboard in my study with pictures and words; making a playlist of background music (Rautavaara, Gyorgy Ligeti, Arvo Part and Jan Garbarek); ah yes, and buying a notebook. The purchase of notebooks can be a major displacement activity, but this time, after rejecting several, I bought a plain lined pad in order to customise the cover. I don't want to intimidate myself by using a notebook so beautiful that I...