No manuscript progress again today - still trying to sort out a modus operandi for organising my scenes.

See yesterday for figures!

Now that I've looked over my draft of Act One, I'm beginning to realise it needs some more work in order to establish a strong enough foundation for the rest of the novel. I have therefore started writing some alternative scenes that I hope will spark new conflicts and interactions between the characters.

Daily progress: 707 words

Running total: 24,787 words

Not much time to write today, as it's the CWIL anniversary curry this evening (4 years and going strong!). Managed a few words this morning, but feel like I'm going down with a cold :(

Daily progress: 211 words

Running total: 24,998 words

Started writing (albeit slowly), but got increasingly frustrated by the behaviour of my optical mouse, which seems to be sending multiple 'click' signals even when I am careful to click the button only once. I decided to try a trackball, which has the advantage of not needing to be moved around, so I can sit it on my lap tray next to the iBook. Rather than order online and wait several days for a delivery, I popped into town and bought one, but then got distracted by browsing the bookshops. Ended up buying a DVD of "Twelfth Night" and a book on "Playgoing in Shakespeare's London" as well!

Daily progress: 85 words :(

Running total: 25,083 words

Starting to get into the new perspective on my characters :)

Daily progress: 971 words

Running total: 26,054 words

Had to attend a friends' baby's christening - long day, much wine, no writing :(

Daily progress: 0 words

Running total: 26,054 words

I'm enjoying writing the more "low-life" scenes required of my new take on events, though I still keep getting distracted by research.

Daily progress: 886 words

Running total: 26,940 words

I've been feeling too unwell to write much, so yesterday I decided to take a whole load of screenshots from the DVD of "Shakespeare in Love" for reference purposes. Apart from a few deliberate anachronisms, the film is visually very historically accurate, so much of it would not be out of place in my own books. However this was not as straightforward as I had expected.

I'm still getting over my virus and thus not writing a great deal; also, I've had more feedback from the group which has given me food for thought. Hence, I have decided to concentrate on revising Act One for a while, and so there will be no word-count updates until I have finished this stage.

After spending the weekend resting, my subconscious seems to be ready to tackle the revision process. It helped that a useful book arrived from Amazon yesterday; "Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes" by Raymond Obstfeld. It covers some of the real nuts-and-bolts of the craft; I read several chapters straight off, and within minutes of lying down to sleep I found myself visualising exactly what I needed to do to improve the opening scene of my current draft. I shall definitely be adding this one to my 'recommended' list!