April showers

 

April showers

I cannot imagine a life in which I'm not writing. Even if I never got another thing published, I'd still write. If I had to say why, it's a hard one, but I love telling stories and love sharing them. Even in those years I barely wrote - when I married and bringing up children - I wrote letters. I started writing letters to penfriends when I was about fourteen, and I've never stopped. Some have come and gone, and one I still write to at Christmas and have known since I was eighteen. Some penfriends I have met. Sometimes that can be daunting because you never know when you meet if you will click as you do in letters, but one of them I really did click with and we still write. We began writing when my youngest was around six, maybe younger. We tell each other things we probably don't discuss with anyone else.

In today's society where few people still write letters, it is lovely when a letter from one of my penfriends drops through the letterbox. And I could tell you some stories of past dalliances with male penfriends in the past! My poor mother! There is certainly material there for a story or two, or a poem.

My writing is like April showers. There are periods of intense writing and then I go off and do something else. There are longer periods when I write, but when the sun comes out I want to be outside in my garden or walking.

My latest WIP became all consuming recently. Maybe that is good, but my head was filled with scenes. I was even dreaming about it. This can be offputting when my head is in my work and not on what is going on around me. One of these days I know I'm going to miss my bus/train stop. It once happened when I was reading! But I try to be present when I'm with friends, though I did once have to apologise to a friend when I wasn't on the ball. I'd taken my characters with me, and while I know my way around on the tube well, I had a blank moment about where we were going and which route!

I sometimes think my characters are leading the lives I can't. As a writer you can be who you want to be. My characters are my friends. I know how they think. Sometimes I even fall for one! 

So, in the last few weeks I have been plugging away at my latest WIP. The end is in sight. It's just about how I wrap it up. I'm almost at 40,000 words. Apart from that, I've been slow to submit this month, with only two so far. My friend, who is reading the novella I sent her, has now proofread it and will be adding her comments. I'm expecting that back soon now. She's not said very much so far. Is that good or bad?

A friend of mine asked me the other day if she could come with on one of my days out. When not writing, I love taking myself off to places. Anyway, she said 'we could sit and write or paint.' I couldn't bring myself to disappoint her and say I rarely write when I'm out, or in fact on holiday. This is another part of my life and I write about it, but for a different blog. I walk miles and take an exorbitant amount of photos. I'm not quite sure this is what she had in mind. I'm sure we can work it out, though.