Micro Diary - and then some...

Monday 10th March 2014

Worm my way through a day of workshop preparation, return the single mattresses to separate bedrooms, put away my layers of doom and clear some floor space so I can breathe. Go to the shop for bread and monster munch. Re-heat a cup of lemon squash, sit on the couch and grapple with flash fiction. Think I need to stick to memoir, poetry, autobiography and essays. I’m going to bed soon. Maybe a dream will devour the inner critic. Maybe I’ll wake up refreshed. We’ll see… 10.10 pm.

Tuesday 11th March 2014

Today so much better. Both writing sessions were great. Sequenced random words into mini stories and dialogue this afternoon. Settings and dialogue this evening. And thanks to student Tim, I got a lift home - and his feedback led me into next week’s session. Notes already written. It’s that Pessoa moment when you’re back early and don’t know what to do with the time. 10.25 pm.

Wednesday 12th March 2014

Another good one. Flash fiction and Ruth Padel poetry dissection. Home by half two. After much clashing, banging and swearing I get the old Specialized Rockhopper bike fit to ride after nearly a year of dormancy. Really warm today and I didn’t want to pass up on the opportunity. Rode over to The Grove, up the old heaps behind the new houses towards Tesco, down the footpath to Consett Park, then up to The Prom and over to the golf club at Blackfyne where I’ll be doing a speech in a few weeks. Rode down to Blackhill, over to the schools I used to attend, then back over the old slagheaps and down the trail and home. My hands ache a bit but are bearing up okay. Tonight I listened to Kate Bush and Leonard Cohen whilst keying in poems for Mind. Really tired now. But it’s been a good day. 10.57 pm.

Thursday 13th March 2014

Of course the good news is that Mind want to keep me for yet another block of workshops with Consett Writers, which should take me up to June. If Clayport course runs again next term I’m sorted. Got eighteen likes for my status update mentioning the quarry and old Allensford rocks with a view to maybe taking the trials bike out again. Made up a Home Town Slog book for tomorrow. Hope my hands are okay. Interesting to see a Facebook status relating to ex-Queen bassist John Deacon: Roger Taylor says JD is a bit fragile and Brian May says the guy has retired from public life and lives in his own universe. 11.10 pm.

Friday 14th March 2014

So long as you remember to ignore the inner critic when doing a Home Town Slog solo writing marathon and just keep taking notes, responding to sensory data, even just listing random things and making comments on them, you can’t go far wrong. Even if you think it’s utter junk at the time, chances are when you get home and take a look at those pages again, you’ll be a different person and the writing will have captured you in a totally different frame of mind to your comfort zone self. And hopefully you’ll have the raw material to flesh out your poems and vignettes. Enough stuff in a hundred page notebook to keep you busy for a month. Today’s volume was started in Consett Library at 10.30 am and completed in Wetherpsoons at 7.34 pm. So pleased I started making a date to do this exercise. It’s a really cool way to stretch yourself. Unlike a regular marathon you have to rely purely on your own will, your own drive to see it through. Had a blast today. 9.55 pm.

Saturday 15th March 2014

Seem to have spent a small fortune on food over the last few days. It’s cold again and I’ve just paid my extortionate winter fuel bill. Worked up three gig sets today. But I’m kind of sleepy. I heard myself snoring a while ago. How is that possible? Jenni is here this weekend. What I saw of Stuart Lee’s stand-up on tv was good. Wish I had more time and energy to read books. Bed soon, I think. 10. 50 pm.

Sunday 16th March 2014

Jenni tells me that Microsoft are withdrawing support for Windows XP next month. My desktop was a birthday gift brand new four years ago. I got the tech guy to remove Windows 7 after twenty minutes coz it made me want to put a hammer through the screen; I fucking hated it. Can’t find the disc that came with the computer, so if anything goes haywire with the old system, there’s Windows 8.1 at a hundred and eighty quid a go. My 500 GB external hard drive is nearly full. I’m not really a techno guy. I hate having to keep up with the fucking Jones’s. More fucking money scams. Like Jenni says, if it aint broken... Pleased to get a new poem up on Facebook today. Might watch Morgan’s Ferry, a film starring Henry Rollins, Kelly McGillis and Johnny Galecki, tonight. 8.36 pm.