A good writing day

Yesterday I wrote a new, tentative, re-draft of chapter three of my punk women book. Because I'm essentially re-structuring and re-writing the book using it's existing, but increasingly unmanageable and incoherent, structure, the process of re-planning and re-drafting is akin to picking shards of glass out of a wound. Or (less grim analogy) to doing a really complicated jigsaw very, very slowly.

It is not a fun process, particularly as the main reason I'm re-doing the first three chapters is because they will be part of a proposal to send out to various literary agents. But, it is interesting to watch a new narrative unfold from my old interviews and secondary material. Originally the narrative was thematic, not chronological really, and it's amazing how different it feels already as a result of re-organising the material chronologically.

I re-drafted, solidly, from 4pm yesterday to 8:30pm, at which point I'd finished, my writing hand felt like it was about to fall off, and I'd missed the campaign meeting about bus re-regulation in Manchester. Which is probably for the best as I suspect I won't be able to commit the time to the campaign that it will need.

I then moved from my desk, which lives under my bed in the living room,  to the kitchen. Where I had a horrible time making very mediocre soup (the blender decided to leak for some reason, plus the tomatoes were the wrong ones to use in retrospect), but perfect hot chocolate (white chocolate + cocoa powder + hot milk and boiling water. Who knew?)

Afterwards I leant back on the sofa in the living room and listened to Ceremonials with my eyes shut, feeling increasingly blissed out. Lovely. Not every day ends like that.

Thoughts 'n' stuff

I haven't been writing on here much in the past week on so because I've been writing in my diary instead.

Also, I'm feeling slightly devoid of ideas and inspiration this week, though I think that will change as I went to a particularly inspiring Manchester Histories Festival related event today.

Next week I've decided my priorities are reading lots of books and working on the proposal for my punk women book. Again...

Which means the Spotify playlist is in play again...

My book chapter is out!

My book chapter on women, punk and fanzines is out!

I am very excited. Not just because this is my first academic book chapter, but also because they spelt my name right and didn't cock up my endnotes. I am very easily pleased.

Regular readers of this blog will know that writing the chapter in question was a bit of a trial for me but that, all in all, the whole experience has gone much better than I expected.

I will have something to talk about at Louder Than Words this year and I'm hoping it will lead to further work.

I also intend to pick up a number of neglected bits of writing as of next week as I'll have more time then to think, and to work on them. One of the things I will be picking up will be my punk women book proposal and the punk women book more generally.

Expect more soon...

Getting there, with musical interludes

Regular readers of this blog (yep, all two of you..) may have noticed that I haven't been writing any long posts recently.

This is because I've been doing a lot of punk related writing work and haven't had time to do much writing outside of that. There's been a lot of music up here though, and that's to reflect all my 'take my mind off punk for a bit' listening lately, of which there has been A LOT.

Today, in-between punk chapter edits, I bought the XX album and pre-ordered the Overcoats album, which comes out on 21st April. I can't wait for the Overcoats album.

The XX I have been aware of for at least eight years I'd say but, while I quite liked them before, I never bought any of their records. The new album is a lot more dance orientated, and it's really struck a chord with me, and improves with each listen. I always liked the slightly melancholy minimalism of  the XX, but the dance element brings a whole new dimension to it.

I did see the band live in 2010 at ATP in Minehead, but I had to leave partway through the set because Sara and I were being tasered by the bass and felt too physically discombobulated by it to stay, even though we were enjoying the set aside from that. We subsequently wandered around outside for a bit, unsteadily wailing 'TASERED BY THE BAASSS!' to the tune of Manfred Mann and the Earth Band's 'Blinded by the light'. I think this incident occurred the same night as we went berserk at one of the club nights to Sonic Youth and then found ourselves sonically embarrassed when the DJ's switched over and didn't recognise any of the songs the new one was playing because they were all very student-y and hipsterish. Both incidents reflecting a growing sense of 'Am I too old for all of this?' which, I imagine, grabs anyone over the age of 25 periodically.

But anyway, I don't think the XX are in need of an endorsement from me, but I do so freely anyway. It's a great album.