On Tuesday, the editor-in-chief at Little Brown travelled up to Scotland to give me her verdict on my memoir, and to begin the editing process.

I was quite nervous. There were a few things about the book I felt certain would be a problem. Firstly, the contract had initially asked for 100,000 words. My agent had manage to get that down to 70,000 because the book only covers the period of a year, but in the end I’d only written 55,000. The more I wrote, the shorter the book had become. I was sure that would be a problem.

I also wasn’t sure I’d get away with the ending, which wasn’t a Hollywood ending. And most importantly, to me, I’d been very careful to take Holden Caulfield’s advice, and leave out “all that David Copperfield crap.” Family history, my great-grandparent’s struggle with the bindweed, my mother’s addiction to chewing rubber in the weeks leading up to my birth. In fact, I’d tried to focus as much on possible just on the story of the formation of Belle and Sebastian. I didn’t know if that would go down well. Not enough of how I felt about the smell of lavender rising up from the tenement flat beneath my own, and how I reacted to the wind on Sauchiehall Street on a cold November afternoon.

But I needn’t have worried. When I picked Antonia up from the train station she told me that she liked the book, in advance of us talking about it properly, just to put my mind at rest. Then at home, she said- “I’m not going to ask you for another twenty thousand words or anything.”

She even said that she’d liked the ending.

So now the process of fixing up what needs to be fixed up has begun in earnest. She’s asked me to think about my own perspective on the events described in the book, from my vantage point now as an old man. And to think about certain motivations that drove me to do certain things back then.

I’ll write next time about what has come out of that- and what changes might be made to the book as a result.

My agent, Joanna at Hardman & Swainson finished reading the manuscript of my Belle and Sebastan memoir, here is what she said (minus the swearing):

“I finished reading your memoir over the weekend. I really, really enjoyed it! It’s
funny and full of insights. You really capture the time and there are some truly
wonderful scenes where you sweep us up into the atmosphere, e.g. the gigs, party,
the recording session of Tigermilk. I could really sense the excitement and elation
you all felt there. It’s a joy to read! It’s a good depiction of the other Stuart -
his method of rehearsing with band members separately seems pretty unorthodox, and I
also thought it was interesting to see your own conflict of ending up playing
someone else’s songs, which I didn’t expect.

“On a practical note, it’s about 20k words shorter than contracted. I wonder whether it might be worth thinking about other scenes you could add in. I specifically thought there were more
‘cut away’ scenes you might be able to write – so ones where it’s not all about the
band and the music (although clearly that’s what was dominating your life at the
time), like the one where you went to the beach with Karn. Just things like – did
you ever go back to Alexandria to visit home? What was that like? Things to give it
a broader feel. So that although it all hangs on the hook of B&S it has hints of the
other elements in your life, too. I’m not sure - I’ve just been mulling it over.

“Anyway, well done. It’s a brilliant read which I’m sure people are going to love!”

Tomorrow, my editor is traveling up from London to begin the process of turning the manuscript into a finished book with me. I’ll post about that next time…

When I was unwell, it got to the point where I couldn’t sit at a desk and write anymore- either typing or by hand. I started writing just in my head, and then when my head was full I’d empty it out onto a dictaphone, and then carry on with the next bit in my head.

I found a typing service online, two sisters called Joanna and Lucy, and I’d email my audio files to them and they’d email typed documents back and I’d print them out. I wrote two novels that way, Peacock’s Tail (which is free to read on the Barcelona Review website) and a YA comedy called Jackdaw And The Randoms.

I started writing “In The All Night Cafe” in September 2012, when I was well enough to sit at a desk again. I thought I might do a Kickstarter campaign and publish it myself just for fans, and I began writing it longhand- with the plan of getting the same typing service to type it up for me. But after I’d written a few chapters I couldn’t find them online. I went hunting for the old email address, and when I contacted Joanna it turned out she was a literary agent now. She asked what I was writing and when I told her about the memoir she said she could probably find a publisher for it.

I hadn’t written much, but when I had it up to 10,000 words we wrote a proposal, and Little, Brown offered us a contract. For a book I hadn’t written.

Having only written novels before I couldn’t quite get my head around that. I’d never sent a book out before until it was finished and redraughted three times. The contract with Little, Brown said I had to deliver the book by May 2014, for a release in May 2015. It all seemed like a very long time away- so I got to work.