SCATTERGUN...

My writing style lately , if you can call it such, is a tad scattergun.

Lots of small pieces being created, going anywhere and everywhere...and hitting nothing.

I have no focus. I do a bit of this...and oh that's an idea. Start writing a poem, get the very basic first draft then...oh....idea for a picture book.


I do it in 'real' life as well. Find something I want to make, and give it ago.


Then I attempt a unicorn sock puppet....


Bake a biscuit or two....

Knit some baby stuff...


Do a cross stitch and turn it into a cushion...


Bake for a birthday...


Make a hat for Storytime...


Knit something else I haven't tried before...


Interspersed with gardening of course. I'm all over the shop. Don't have a favourite. I just like doing, or attempting, different things.

That, I think is (ONE) of my problems. It's like I lose my focus, spot something shiny and I head in that direction. I decide that this is the one I want, then I spy something even shinier. Or I think it is..perhaps it is...perhaps it isn't but I head off to have a look.

In some areas this does work. I can knit a bit when it's cold and wet and rainy as in the last few days. Then the sun comes out and I'm in the garden. Bake on my days off, and when an event is coming up.

For my writing I think I have to bring the focus in. I'm in the drudgery of third drafting. Not yet lost in the minutiae and nit-picking, this is still big picture stuff. Trying to see if it works as a whole. Are there any missing chunks and gaps? Does it flow?

Of course this is when I begin to second guess myself. Why am I writing this story...is there in fact a story? Do I like this main character? Or should I get rid of her and tell the whole story (if it's worth telling) from the secondary character's view point? Is the setting right? Time and place?

Is the timeline viable? Should I speed it up...slow it down?

So of course, amongst all this, I stop and write a poem.

Or five.

First drafts only, no thinking, just put some words down to actually prove that I can.

I head back to the editing. Do a few pages...then have an idea for a short story. I'll only note down a few lines...half an hour later and I have a few thousand words.

Even though I'm being productive..it's still a very unfocused way.

Time for some deadlines.

But before I begin...there is a cake I have to bake.

Vicki 

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