Grrr!

'Nuff said.

Mind Pollution...

 

 

I've been a voracious reader all my life. Words are like another food group to me. On the rare occasions I've been without a book to read, I really have resorted to reading the backs of cereal packets. In short, if I don't have some kind of reading matter, I go loco.

 

 

But--and you knew there was one of those coming, right?--when I'm in writing mode, I have to be very careful of the words I'm ingesting. I try to adhere to a strict diet of non-fiction, or genres that bear little resemblance to the world/characters I'm creating. Why?

 

Pollution terrifies me.

 

I'm one of those people who, unintentionally, picks up accents. If I'm speaking to someone with a broad Yorkshire accent, my speech mirrors theirs. If I ever met the Queen or a BBC newscaster, I'd soon be speaking with a cut-glass English accent.

 

In the days B.C., I worked on the phones in a GP's surgery. Put it this way, if my calls were ever recorded for 'quality and training purposes', the listener might be forgiven for thinking I'd been possessed by a legion of spirits. I just can't help it.

 

That's why I'm not reading much fiction at the moment. The risk of 'voice' contamination is much too high. No, I'll stick with my copy of 'Out of Africa', which is more of a memoir than a story.

 

How do you avoid being contaminated when you're in creative mode? 

 

 

 

 

I'm on a roll...

As you might have guessed from my lack of recent posts, I've hit a sweet spot with my current WIP. The words are spewing out of me. :) It's such a rush!

Today, I'm hovering somewhere between picture two and three.

When the words are flowing, I'm like a manic Duracell bunny. I sit on the bed, tapping away at my faithful lap-dog, trying to capture scenes and record the dialogue being whispered in my ear before they fade. Scene captured. I get up, do a little happy dance involving lots of butt-wiggling. Then I go downstairs, have a smoke outside, before tackling some random domestic chore while mentally thrashing out the next scene. Then I run back upstairs to do it all again.

I love days like these. What kind of writerly day are you having? I'd love to hear some of your writing habits.