Finally a break through. After months of what feels like the minutest changes and three drafts with no real effect on the novel I started working down my task list and realised that the ‘weak scenes’ that I’d ear-marked for some rough treatment to increase the tension and the sorting of rubbish chapter openings’ had taken care of themselves.
There I thought I was just deleting the crap and changing a word here or there and without knowing it I have the novel vastly already.
So with all my free time I’ve been checking out Hanoi with the local ex-pat crowd. I had a hedonistic halloween, have been eating lots of street food washed down with Hanoi beer and spent last nigh in a random part of town drinking shots of rice whiskey with a bunch of french people.
Let me tell you that a rice whiskey hangover is not a pretty thing. It is especially unpretty when you have to cycle behind a motorcycle with a freshly slaughtered pig over the handles. In case you are wondering what a freshly slaughtered pig looks like it looks quite human, with white soft skin, limp, staring head and blood trailing from it’s slit throat – in other words horrific.
Tonight we are off to the Asian Indoor Games Kabbadi finals. Kabbidi is a bit like british bulldog but with breath holding to boot. Apparently skills needed are those of ‘breathe holding’ and ‘penetration.’ Very excited for the stadium snacks and Bia Hoi (fresh keg beer) but not too much Bia Hoi as tomorrow is the beginning of the mortifying ‘read aloud draft.’ Arg!
Karen said,
November 6, 2009 at 11:04 am
It’s nice when a plan (or story) comes together!
Whiskey hangovers and slaughtered pigs?? Definitely not a good mix.
Have a nice evening (sounds intriguing!) and good luck with the read aloud
)