Friday 20 May 2016

A little bit of bunting.




The rather amazing thing is that all that wild yelling yesterday did the trick. The wounding blow has now shrunk to a humming bruise. It is still there; it still exists; but I have perspective now. I am back on my feet.

I have a growing suspicion that this is what happens in middle age. Life gets very whackish at this time. It’s always biffing you and bashing you and smashing you to the ground. The biffs and bashes may be so small that they are hardly visible to the naked eye. They may be profound and oceanic, so that you feel as if you must drown. They are sometimes nothing to do with you. They are not personal, but out in the world. You turn on the news and there are stories of such sorrow and pity that your heart aches in your chest, in a sort of furious, regretful impotence. I sometimes think that all I am doing is falling down and getting up again. I sometimes wonder how I get any work done at all.

Yet, amazingly, in all this tumbling over and getting up, I have managed to finish my Secret Project. There are 98,000 words where there are none. I cannot yet tell whether they are good words, but they exist. I have to put them aside for three days and then do a paper edit, where I print out the manuscript and read it on actual paper. (The brain responds differently to words on paper and words on the screen, which is why this printing out is vital. You suddenly see glaring errors which were not visible before.)

Even if the words are not much good, I still feel quite proud of myself. I am a huge believer in buggering on, in not giving up, in putting one weary, stompy foot in front of the other. There were days in this secret project when I missed my mother so much that I felt my heart would crack into a hundred pieces, when the weight of grief was so heavy I did not think I could carry it any more. I felt stupid and lost and overwhelmed. But somehow I trudged to my desk and made my fingers tap tap tap over the keyboard. There must be words, and there were words.


There was nothing, and now there is something. I can’t quite believe it. I’m not exactly putting out more flags, but I’m damn well going to allow myself a little bit of bunting. 

6 comments:

  1. Hurrah, yes - put out more flags! And pour yourself a drink. A good large one, of something you particularly enjoy.

    I don't work any more. I used to sing, and I used to teach in schools, and I used to work in business administration when I wasn't singing or teaching. Now I am retired and the husband is retired, but still there are days of industry, in the house or in the garden, when one can step back and say this morning this wasn't there, or it wasn't looking as smart as this, or it was a muddle and now it isn't.

    Gazing happily on work well done. Good, innit?

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  2. Are we ever going to know what this Secret Project is?

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  3. Only if it's published, I guess. Still waiting on news on the previous one, the novel written last year.

    A writer writes, a painter paints, a singer sings. If we are not doing it we are not it. Selling is summat else altogether.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well done, you! Enjoy, throw a bit of confetti around while you're at it, and yes - do get a large bottle of your favorite wine, or mix up a pitcher of your favorite cocktail! For my part, I'm just biding time until we get to hear about what the Secret Project IS!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think You've done wonderfully well. You deserve a lot more than bunting right now.

    ReplyDelete

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