I'm off to Berlin tomorrow, flying low-cost via Liverpool (which maybe isn't the most glamorous way to arrive, since Charlie will have made it by train from Venice, via Switzerland - the lucky git).
This'll be my second research trip, and my fourth time in the city. I plan to start writing TGTGT Berlin a day or two after I get back, which means I need to develop a much more detailed feel for how it would be for Charlie to live there day-to-day. The book is going to be set in October (around the time of the Frankfurt Book Fair), and although temperatures are probably a bit colder just now (lurking below freezing the last time I checked), it should be pretty easy to picture what it would be like for him.
This trip, I plan to spend more time in Berlin's neighbourhoods, with a focus on the former eastern districts. We'll be staying in Kreuzberg, but I also want to explore Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg, Historic Mitte and Tiergarten in more detail. I already know I need at least five specific locations or apartments for the plot I've been working on, and I'm pretty sure they'll be spread among these areas. What I don't know just yet is where exactly they'll be, or the best way to describe the distinctions between the different neighbourhoods, and that's what this trip should help me to nail down.
That's not to say I haven't been doing my research. When I first started the books, I used to find this stage pretty arduous, but I've come to really enjoy it. So for the past couple of weeks I've been staring at maps, reading guide books, watching Berlin-based movies and reading books set in Berlin. I've also been dipping into some books about life in the diplomatic service, as well as some Donald Westlake and PG Wodehouse. And now I have the bits I enjoy most of all to look forward to. First, I case Berlin. Then I set my mind to figuring out what that crucial first line should be.
Oh, and I also have to settle on the best desktop image for my computer, so that I'll be in the right frame of mind whenever I settle down to write. At the moment, I've gone for this image of the Fernsehturm (the television tower), but I have a feeling it's going to change.
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