Monday 14 January 2008

Slow progress

Chapter 13 creeps ever onward… The reason being is I have to stop and check facts quite a lot during this chapter, as it is written around a real life event, and so it would be absolutely awful to get anything wrong. So far I feel like I stop and research every five sentences. This is a sample of my day so far…

Oh the weather was wet… did they have plastic rain hoods? What were they called? What sandwiches would people have packed? Were thermoses around? Was rationing still in force? Did they get extra rations for Coronation day? Were plastic cups around? Was foil and Clingfilm? What time in the morning should they leave? What time did transport run? If you got into central London by eight in the morning, where on the route would you go? Where would be closed? Where would be too packed? Why are some people saying they got a ‘ticket’ to stand places? How did people get a ticket? Would you have feasibly seen anything? Is it still raining? Where did people go to the loo? What were those Rosetta things called? What countries were in the procession? If you have fought in the Second World War, would you wear your uniform (as a crowd member) or just your best suit? Can you make periscopes? What would the tube map look like… oh, no Victoria line. Where was Marshall & Snelgrove? Was Charing Cross station decorated?

This is just a small snippet – I feel like a child constantly asking questions that lead into more questions, until the Internet responds like an adult and says no more!/crashes on me. And then of course I am weaving my story around all this, which is sort of like throwing mud at the walls to see what sticks… haha, what a nice way to describe it. My life's work yer Honour, and it be mud, aye...

But good news – I have managed 3255 words, it’s sort of fun to research/write, and I’ll have a specialist subject should Mastermind ever want me to enliven their show. Coronation Day, 1953, is in the bag.

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