"Who we are and what we do, the choices we make, the places, we visit all our informs our writing - giving it depth, tone and more importantly believability"
The above was how I started my notebook entry this morning, a difficult week having flown by - more difficult that normal even by my standards! so I decided to take five minutes and actually write something for me, from me and to me, before I was swallowed up by the events of the day.
I sat back and reflected on the above, admiring my neat copperplate writing, the picture it made on the page of my notebook, contrasting against the cream of the paper - shapes and shades of ink from the previous page tantalisingly showing through - and then realised just how pompous and downright factually wrong the statement is. The sentence comprises assertions emanating from the controlling element of my personality and doesn't actually take into account the things I have no power over - such as weather, external incidents, health and temper of those around me, economics of the working world - the list is endless.
So my task for the day - which I extend to you - is take the above assertion as your starter and "pad" out some free writing with it. By pad out, I mean write a paragraph and then leave a large space, move on and write your next paragraph, leave a large space etc... so you are creating thinking room in your writing.
Then after having written about your world (or ranted as my kids would have said) - go back into the writing, with a differing coloured pen perhaps, and then fill in the gaps writing/contrasting about all the things which were imposed on you (or your character) externally - over which they had no choice...
So for me, this week would have been about clearing my backlog of work, getting some knitting projects done, clearing up my office at home, sorting out some complex responses to an ongoing legal case, writing my blog, finishing off and printing out some coursework, sorting out my CPD points. A very busy week by anybody's standards, but those were the things I chose to do (well sort of... !!!)
In amongst it though, I was diagnosed with some serious health problems which came as a shock, someone I am very closed to became very distressed about his world - which impacted into destroying all the work I had done on clearing up my home recently - I found I was massively overweight and had to (whether I liked it or not) start attending a gym and diet classes, which I simply don't have time for and my work is out of my control....
and I forgot about all the outstanding stuff I still have to do....
Do you see where I am going with this? I am sure most of you can relate to the above in some form or another, or find an equally chaotic narrative to write about... then fictionalise it - expand it into a character - have your character solve the problem, win the day, or just sit down and cry, admitting defeat and self-loathing - your story... your puppets to move about your stage...
But everyone who reads your story will find some point in it where it is relevant to themselves - so my tale, as outlined above - for all its conception from inside and personalisation to me, will have believability....
Best wishes
Shani
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