Re-entering prose after graduating has been far from easy, and so far every session sat typing at the kitchen table in my new little city flat is a forced effort, pushing each time to maintain - actually, to establish - a conscious progression, exploring prosaic style with a broad but thorough sweep.

But it is easy, in prose, to find yourself retreading the same worn ground, and keeping your eyes on the same spot. This I have done ever since I moved into the new place - expanding on a work I have previously mentioned (the 7000-word story for the degree), and in particular its most successful aspect. The story's primary achievement, in fact its only achievement, is its evocations of the city in summer. I intend to share this story after the graduation, when sharing it will no longer be thought of as collusion.

But I'm not happy with simply expanding on these successes; it is worn ground already treat, or at least it feels so, and I'm reminded of how Hemingway came to view how a writer should stretch his ability:

"What a writer in our time has to do is to write what hasn't been written before or beat dead men at what they have done. The only way he can tell how he is going is to compete with dead men."

"You should always write your best against dead writers ... and beat them one by one. Why do you want to fight Dostoevsky in your first fight? Beat Turgenieff--which we both did soundly.... Then nail yourself DeMaupassant.... Then try and take Stendhal."

My decision, then, seems to be who I should aim to beat first. Hemingway was writing to see writers as fighters, though it is not the need for competition that defines the two, but the importance of form and fitness - and as it is I am weakened from the final push that was needed to complete the degree. Like physical agility, a writing skill must be readily maintained and toughened if one is to create truly, say, 'muscular' prose. Presently a feel though I have lost the powers of efficiency and imagination that began to emerge at the beginning of the year.

Form and fitness! That's what I need now. A regularity to my writing - as most writers would recommend - and then, when I have recovered, it may be time to compete with dead men.