Rambling Musings and Musing Ramblings

The reports are done (for now) and I spent a fruitless half hour writing today.  I had promised myself a half hour, and a half hour I did, but I was bored of the piece I was on, and racing to get to the next part, which doesn't bode well. Yet I'm not sure it will work without a bridge from one scene to another;  in fact, it feels as though it lacks a scene altogether, but to put a scene in feels like filling....

I felt quite reluctant and unhappy, which is most unusual.  Early on, as I slogged through the first draft,  I read an inspiring article in Writers' Forum magazine, which tackled this phenomenon.  It suggested that if things were difficult and slow, you should take a step back because maybe subconsciously you were recognising that there was a fatal flaw here, or something that doesn't belong.  So tomorrow I will try to do just that, and see what it is that is jamming the process and how to smooth over it. If it continues to jam, I shall skip it altogether, I think, and fix it for the third draft, rather than waste lots of time now, without really knowing what to do. 

I'm pleased, on the whole, though;  I think my writing is improving.  It may have swayed too far at the moment;  all advice is being adhered to to the nth degree, which is amateurish in itself;  but I feel as though I'm a more thoughtful writer, more aware of how to improve and more able to recognise my own flaws.  I used to feel a bit snobbish about writers who went on courses - the purist in me felt it was cheating, somehow - but that was before I'd had a serious go at scribbling for anyone other than myself.  If I could afford it, I'd be on a course like a shot....

So imagine my delight to see there is a three hour course on writing in my home town this weekend! Wall to wall delight in fact...except, I'm not. Delighted,that is.  I'm trying to find excuses to stay away, that range from what kind of people would be on a course, to how busy I am at home.  The writer in me is rattling the bars, though, demanding that I take myself seriously and start to involve myself with others in the same boat as myself. 

I don't know yet what I will do...but it is important to me, and improving my work is, too;  so it may all come down to whether my lovely husband is prepared to baby-sit.