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Thoughts on a Thursday…a new weekly post

5/14/2014

Dee Why Beach at Autumn
Dee Why Beach at Autumn

Sometimes I think my efforts to keep my blog interesting and on topic leave it not that interesting at all.

I thought I’d introduce a new “Thoughts on Thursday ” feature so I can ramble a little more freely on less bookish topics.

Of course the first thing I’m going to tell you completely flies in the face of that because it’s about a writing workshop I went to yesterday. It was given by the wonderful Australian author Kate Forsythe. It was two hours of her discussing plot and character, pace and structure and I found it very inspiring.

As I often do I came home all enthused to be a better writer. I mean this in the sense of better of the craft but mainly better at the job of writing. When I see how methodical, how systematic, how stinking disciplined some people are it puts me to shame.

I’m not really a competitive person in the pure sense – I don’t think in terms of winning and losing (probably why I’m not a business wunderkind ), I don’t look at someone else succeeding and think I must have failed and I don’t even get envious much these days of other people’s success – but I do often say to myself “For goodness sake, if they can do that, then surely I can.”

In the case of a writer who sets themself a neat routine and sticks to it I often think “Well if she can do it, why can’t I?”

I got up and hit my desk today fuelled by a positive attitude and that can do feeling and then the page stared back at me and nothing came. It was one of the worst days I’ve had in a long time.

What can you do? Keep trying I guess. Get up tomorrow and do better. I attended the workshop with friends from my writing group and I text one friend who said her day was just like mine. She tried and did not get her word count up either. It didn’t make me feel any better to hear that – I always wish my friends success.

In other unrelated news it is now Autumn and I am really not a fan. I like sunshine and beaches and balmy nights. I dislike Autumn because it’s a prelude to Winter which I detest. My husband loves Autumn – “Great for fishing and the water temperature is still warm.” Then again he fished through a cyclone when we were in Queensland earlier this year so his credibility is shot.

I might need to download some books set in the tropics to warm me up over the next few months.

I’m also pondering my writing future (as I often am) this week. What direction should I take, where should I focus my energy and does anybody but me really care? (I know the answer to that last bit by the way, no need to respond). Maybe that’s the problem with both the character in my book and myself – too much thinking and not enough doing.

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