Why did I wake up so early this morning? Not that I’m complaining - it was good to be out of bed and working on the book before nine. It was just unusual for a Saturday, that’s all.

It was hard going. My last writing session left me in the middle of a tricky scene that unravelled a lot of secrets from earlier in the book. I knew exactly what those secrets were and what they meant to the characters, but letting them find out in a subtle, natural way took a lot of work. I think I got there in the end, but I have a rule that I’m not allowed to go back and re-read what I’ve already written. I know that if I do I’ll just end up editing it. What I want to do is get it all down on paper and worry about how it reads in the second draft. If I don’t, it’ll never get finished.

I guess it’s a bit like writing a 200,000 word plan of what the book should sound like when it’s finished and then actually knocking it into shape later on.

I got myself rather carried away towards the end and didn’t pay too much attention to the time so the combined forces of leaving late and then a traffic jam kept me from arriving on time for lunch with mum.

I wasn’t just coming around for lunch, though - I’ve moved in for my regular April week of cat sitting while they go off on holiday. It means I get to watch DVDs on a big, loud telly, cook nice food in a great kitchen, and sit out in the patio in the sun (or in the conservatory in the rain). It’s never easy going back home after a week here. After a fortnight here in the summer it’s all but impossible, much as I love my flat.

So, everyone seems to be off on holiday somewhere. Dad is just back from Argentina, and Sal and Dan are somewhere in the air on the way to Goa right now. And here I am. Holidaying at home and in the office. Let’s hope the weather is fine.

Took the afternoon off the writing to sit and chat and drink tea with them until they left, then mooched upstairs with the iBook for another couple of hours on the book. My word count now stands at 44,500. Only 5,500 words to go until I have completed my target of 50,000 within four weeks. Twelve days to go until those four weeks are up.

Paul came around for some food in the evening, and we headed into town to watch The Recruit. Very formulaic, and rather easy to guess the ending, but it did have the painfully beautiful Colin Farrell playing the lead role, which in spite of the fact it was scheduled for 22h00 and the ads and trailers pushed it way back to start at 22h35 meant I’d have quite happily watched it twice back to back.

If they seats had been a bit more comfortable.

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