I’ve been flitting over Yorkshire a fair bit in the past month or so. I’ve visited York, Leeds, Doncaster and Sheffield, as well as the visit to Hooton Pagnell I wrote about a few weeks ago. So, the other evening, I took a train to Halifax (no Last Tango quips, folks, it’s still far too raw for that). I was there for a non-writing-related meeting, but it was taking place in the The Victorian Craft Beer Cafe. I’d heard it was a good venue and I wasn’t disappointed.
Forget the gaudy lights of your regular pubs and bars. This was mainly lit by candles, flickering across wooden tables and chairs. There’s the odd sofa and dusty books on shelves set into the walls. You’ve got a little staircase going up to a secluded area and, I swear, the whole place was like a light bulb exploding in my brain.
One of the novel drafts hanging around waiting for me to rewrite it is partially focused around a bar. This novel already has one other rather memorable location, but the bar idea felt a bit off to me. It’s necessary and the social aspect of the novel is integral, but it was lacking something. I discovered what was missing the other night – character and individuality.
When I was in York at the end of October, I also discovered a pub that really felt as though it was built for me. Thomas’s of York has a gorgeous little showbiz room with theatre bills and portraits pasted to the walls and ceiling. It was probably a given that a room with Judy Garland, Angela Lansbury and Maggie Smith in it was going to appeal to me – that’s again part of the character my novel pub needs to develop.
I don’t know when I’ll get back to working on that novel. ‘Valerie’ is the current priority and, after that, I have a couple of specific rewrites to focus my attention on. However, I might have found the missing link for that novel. Coincidentally, that’s the first novel draft I ever completed and has been through numerous drafts since. Ain’t this writing life a funny thing?
In other news, But By Degrees is on offer from now until the end of 2016. You can buy it on Kindle for 99p or $1.49. There’s never been a better time to try a new author…
