Week 46 - Campanology

For the past week, I’ve been hearing things.

It’s been like my very own Turn of the Screw, with Henry James’s dense prose passed through some cerebral oscillator to emerge on the other side as a cacophony of bells.

Or to be more precise, I’ve been hearing that moment just before the bells ring. Like the beginning of Time on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon when you know there will be dozens of bells ringing out their discordant alarm and you brace yourself for the shock that is coming.

This can mean one of two things. One: my wife has been playing too many Neil Diamond albums; or Two: my deadline is approaching faster than you can say, “Oh, God. Not Sweet Bloody Caroline again.”

It’s probably both.

As I come to the end of week 46, even my failed algebra brain can work out that the end is approaching. I have spent the week going through my second draft armed with nothing more than my trusty red pen.

The good news is that it has been deployed into action considerably less than at the same point in my first draft. The bad news is that it is still making its mark on pretty much every page.

The key, as any Home Guard Corporal can tell you, is not to panic. I’m still on track and I need to take solace from the fact that the book isn’t as bad as it might have been. Some parts - whisper this only - border on the printable.

I have another ten days of red pen action, before I spend the remaining five weeks of my 52 on the final draft.

Deadline day is 20th September. Until then I need to stay calm and continue to work my way through my 52-week plan one step at a time, placing all the various pieces together to form the final work. When I look at it this way, it stops the whole task from looking too daunting.

After all, it’s just another brick in the wall.