Writing ahead of running this weekend - Man Gone Down

No running today… Had a busy day at the office, including finalising proposal for a research project to be undertaken from next March to October.

Last Sunday whilst children selected DVDs at the video store I chose one (usually I had no chance to select one). Invariably I had no idea what films to watch because I generally don’t have time to do so, but this time I selected an Italian film, Besieged, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, director of the Last Emperor. Until this evening I watched the film.

This film is about a struggling medical student studying in Rome, whilst working as a housekeeper in a villa for a young pianist-composer. Her employer falls in lover with her and he proposes to her but she rejects his offer, because she is already married to another man. She reveals that her current husband is a prisoner in an African prison.

I would not reveal the rest of the film or the plot, but this serves to me as a preamble to my first weekend for which I am able to dedicate most of the time to my research task exercise. Early tomorrow I am heading out of town with no fixed itinerary but equipped with notebooks, pens and the laptop for a weekend of writing. This is the first occasion I had since my venture to Penola last November. For most of the week I have been pondering themes and an order to my manuscript, following the research plan I developed then.

Because I am such a superb procrastinator early this evening I ventured into one bookshop in the CBD looking for a book which I had just read the review in The New York Times. The review of the book resonated with me – Man Gone Down. The book was written by Michael Thomas and it is his first novel and the theme is about his experience in growing up and his sense of identity. Fortunately the book was not available… honestly one does not need to read all books that resonate in order to work on your own.

It is time to move beyond the talking into the action and this weekend this is exactly what I envisage I will do. Hopefully I shall manage to fit in one running session.

I had lunch today with a person who I respect and with whom I had worked in a research project I led in recent years. He told me he is also going through same process and he is expecting to have a manuscript ready within the next three years. Inspirational. I was given details of the story and it is simply amazing how many people there are out there who are working on a manuscript as we speak.