This
week it’s all about links. To be honest, when I woke up this
morning I was in a bit of a panic. What on earth would I write about
this week? Mind totally blank. Coffee helped to dispel the sheer
blind terror but did little to provide a theme, a subject, anything!
The
Marcia said something about a member of the family. Nothing of any
real consequence, just the idle comments that most couples throw to
and fro - the small change of conversation , the contact calls that
hold everything together rather like the delightful chattering you
get with a flock of long-tailed tits. Out of that comment, and I now
have idea what it was, came that thought. Links - I shall talk about
links.
From
the writer's point of view, thoughts and ideas: plots and characters
if the writer is a novelist, bullet points in other cases - these
come somewhat out of the blue, hanging there invitingly, asking to be
given due consideration and to be remembered come what may. That
last is so important. It may well that this 'thing' will have nothing
to do with the book or article or blog on which the writer is
working. In such a case it can, usually does, cause distraction and
muddle but it is there for a reason. It might not be for the next
book/article/blog nor even the one that follows that but these are
the nuggets of gold that will become the building bricks from which
the final work is built.
It is
the links that turn these nuggets into stories - and even the most
mundane of non-fiction writing should tell a story and tell it in a
way that holds the reader's attention to the bitter end. Suddenly it
becomes clear that there is a link: to use Marcia's The Sea Garden
to illustrate the point, a link between Kate and Joss. At this stage
there will be no idea what that link is: only much later will another
piece of information be revealed and we learn that Joss has won an
award endowed by Kate's late husband.
Sometimes
one of these nuggets is in storage for a number of years. The vision
of a journalist living in a converted coastguard cottage waited in
the wings for many years before Marcia realised that there was a link
here with the Chadwicks and, especially, with Jocelyn. Meanwhile,
Cordelia (for it was she in The Prodigal Wife) had to be kept
firmly at bay until it was time for her to step forward.
I
suspect that some of you are wondering why we have the badgers and
the swans. Well, the link is that these photographs were sent to us
by readers - the swans by Helen in Portsmouth and the badgers by
Susan in Kent. Many thanks to you both for sharing them with us.
Now for a terrible confession: I have lost the notebook in which I have recorded the names of the blog dogs. Marcia and I were having a cup of tea in the community shop-cum-cafe in Holne on Dartmoor when we came across this most delightful person but I cannot give you a name. So, if you know this week's blog dog, please post a comment here to put right this terrible wrong.
I should add that they do serve some really superb home made cake - so keep well away if you are on a diet.
