Monday, August 10, 2015

What every (fiction) writer needs...

is a compost heap. Yes, you heard. A compost heap. So,  here, in best tabloid newspaper tradition is an anonymous snap of a slightly more sophisticated compost heap than mine.  (3 bins instead of 2.)

My two bins work like this. To one is added all my vegetable peelings and other organic (non-meat) waste such as discarded citrus peel, egg-shells, tea-bags, old plants (not weeds or woody stems) and grass-clippings etc. The second one is last year's heap which has taken a year to rot into a moist mush to add to the borders for plant growth and nourishment.

What on earth has this to do with fiction-writing? Well, I have had quite a few months recently when I didn't write a word. We've had several breaks in our camper van and soaked up the atmosphere of several parts of England. And it's not over yet. In the next few months we'll be spending some time in Scotland, then Dorset and several other places, depending on the weather and our inclination.

Jon, of course, has been triathlon racing and training. I've supported him on and off but, mainly, I've been sightseeing with him. We have visited some memorable places. For instance, Kedleston Hall and its grounds is a gem....



And do you, like me, find yourself playing an imaginary lady/daughter/grand-daughter of the house or maybe a scullery maid or governess - or even the cousin bent on revenge or jealousy?

I've also been avidly reading. Here's a little look at two of them with I enjoyed enormously.(I've been catching up with the Inspector Banks Yorkshire-based crime novels by Peter Robinson. I'm as far as number 16 and I'm hooked.)


I hope you see, I've been building up a fine compost heap. And my writing brain is beginning to bear fruit after months of laying fallow. You see, writers don't steal (apart from those unspeakable plagiarists) but they look around them, absorb sights, sounds, smells not to mention experiences from all around and within themselves; they read like sponges, filling their minds, memories and hearts with ingredients that, during those times when they are not writing, they are filling up the compost heaps.

This also goes to explain why I haven't been updating this blog for some time and why I won't be blogging for the foreseeable future. Nor will I until I've something writing-related I want to blog about. Until then, I'll be experiencing life, reading and writing, writing, writing fiction. In other words: building up compost and collecting the seeds of many projects.

For instance on my travels around the UK, last year,  I collected (but didn't steal) some poppy seeds which. I later scattered them over my enriched soil earlier this year And this is the result. Lots and lots of these and plenty of seed heads I've been collected to scatter next year!




In the meantime, here's to happy writing and composting, everyone! See you soon.