A point of view

When I started this blog it was to help me write. To engage my discipline gene (if I have one) and subvert the gene that makes me clean cupboards, re-organise drawers etc. So I have a week off purely to relax and write...maybe clean the car - god it needs it!

So... I thought why not come here each morning this week - or as many as I can work into my time - and write....that's a plan right?

First, I do the usual -....computer on.... check the headlines, emails, order a couple of birthday presents and then start listening to a radio play.

Second, I then turn my attention to my assessment from Lesley. I have decided that what I read, or at least take in, is not the same as what others see. My partner reads it and gushes about how the points are tinkering here and there - gentle guidance. What I read is more complex. I seem to see faults and some of them are obvious to me once they have been pointed out. The worst is repetition...I hate that! Not the criticism but the fault.

I now will pick over the submission and revise it all with Lesleys' pages alongside my keyboard.

One point made has me stop in my tracks and think. My tutor pointed out (correctly) that I didn't explain how I revised my writing and when I thought about it it is very haphazard. I have always worked along the idea that I trust my intuition and the process; some things take moments others take years. I have notebooks full of one line, an image, a thought or observation which appears useless but will, in time work to spark the original idea that is jotted down with it.

One that jumps to mind is "Leaf fall" - a disjointed, short memory sketch of an abandoned corrugated shed where my friends and I would play as children; eventually using it for sheltering from the rain, talking, dreaming and smoking tiny cigars. Strangely, the next assignment, using the sound of words to invoke emotions, sparked this memory in my mind. I will jot down some of the memories of that time, writing as much as I can recollect; most will be discarded but what I hope will come out will be a piece for submission with the next assignment. The challenge will be monitoring how I arrive at the final piece and to put it out in words.

I hear the sound of the washing machine finishing its final spin cycle....I'll hang that load out and then begin....trying not to look at the dusty car.