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Road under construction - Detour Ahead

Don't you just hate these signs. Detours. Whether they are in the road on the way to work, or home, or on your way to your holiday destination. Even in everyday life these detours happen. I'm sitting at the moment, under the apricot tree in the back yard. It's summer and there is a nice cool breeze blowing. Why am I outside? Simple. A teenager has taken over the space where I normally write.

I've just started to get this free loader called procrastination under control, when my brother dropped his two kids off to visit the grand parents. Ah, well. My newest detour. At least the change of scenery doesn't seem to have affected the writer in me. Been scribbling in my notebook, mostly venting about work. I've also picked up another of my purchases from Writer's Digest. A book by Elizabeth Sims called "You've got a book in you"

Now, for most people the title would not stand out. But for us writers, this is like a flame to a moth. It drew me in. Called to me like a sirens song. I thank the gods and godesses that the writer of this book is not a typical academic writing tutor. Thus far I've found the style refreshing, fun, and wholesome. Entertainment of the cerebral kind without the rule books. Granted she has the required academic qualifications, but it seems that the halls of academia had not killed her inquisitive mind, or the rebelious side that said: "Now that I know the rules, let's break them."

She has however, raised a point throught the section of the book I've read so far, that before you can worry if your book is any good, or that you can write one, you actually have to sit down and produce the words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters to call a book. Then you can start re-reading it to find where you've dumped the rules of the english language in favour of your 'style'. Also referred to as your voice.

We as aspiring authors forget, and this is mostly self inflicted, that writing a story, or a factual piece, is very much an individual thing. University professors try to understand the creative process by "reverse engineering" it. This is wholey Elizabeth Sims idea, although thinking back to my short lived time in a BA course, this was what bugged me most about the 'analysis' that the professors and lecturers gave about a piece of writing. They present an analysis as if they have discovered the Holy Grail. That this is the only possible meaning that the author could have had. Uh, no. Says who. Who died and made you the arbiter of thought?

Now that I've blased a trail through the writing community, alienated a good deal, garnered support (I hope) from a few pen wielding authors/writers, and started a war of words - as if - this blog piece served multiple purposes. It let me slay the beast of procrastination. I got another blog post done. Read some more on writing. Applied what I've learnt from the other two Writer's Digest books into this piece, in short witten about the now and what I've read, but also solidified that I have come further in my campaign to write more.

Elizabeth has also underlined a core fact learnt from Jack Heffron's book "The Writer's Idea Book'.

CHISEL IT IN STONE: "If it's not fun, don't do it. If it's not fun, make if fun."

Jack referred to this as the joy and gratitude. Joy at writing, being able to put something on paper, and the gratitude of generating ideas to write about. In this piece I've used a modified version of Fred White's advice on writing about something topical. Taking a piece of news and viewing it from different angles to see how the news article can be made into a story line. Just here, I've taken what I'm reading, about writing, and applied that to a piece of writing. Stating the obvious I know. You will be amazed at how many times you need to do that. People can sometimes not see the wood for the trees.

... to be comtinued.

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