Friday 4 June 2010

Voice

I'm on retreat at the moment in Ty Newydd, North Wales, an amazing location. I'm sitting in the library at the moment and looking out through the bay window at a view of trees, sea and mountains. It's so beautiful that I had wondered if I'd get any writing done but actually it's been just the inspiration I needed.

Having taken part in an unrelated workshop on the first morning, I sat down and Tag just started to talking to me in exactly the voice I've been looking for. So weird how that happens and so difficult to explain. I'm just so grateful to this place for the breakthrough I've been looking for. Since the voices started to sound right, I've now gone back to the beginning re-writing (again!) and I'm almost on course to reach my 30,000 word mark by the end of today when I'll be heading home to see my beautiful daughter (and Tim, of course, and the dog....etc)

One of my writing friends asked me the other day about what attracted my two characters to each other and I've been working on that connection between them quite a lot over this week. Gradually music is emerging as one of themes of the book. I found them mentioning Massive Attack in a conversation they were having and suddenly realised that 'Protection' is the perfect soundtrack to the book. I'm now wondering whether to use the lyrics in the book - possibly even as a title - but I'm not sure how I'd go about obtaining copyright. I've just found Tracy Thorn on Facebook so I've asked her but I'm not sure whether she'll respond! It's an amazing age when, with the click of a button, you can just get in touch with one of your favourite artists of all time though!

In upcoming workshops I'm thinking about asking young people about their musical interests. Since having a baby, I feel so out of touch with current artists. Do most teenagers know the song 'Protection' I wonder. If not, here it is. It's fab!