This isn’t the lost post. I suspect it’s hiding somewhere just behind my monitor … sniggering!
… this one was prompted by a friend asking me how my summer on the Lake was going …
Summer on the Widderlake is full of people . . . where did they all come from? … they’re like locusts!
An armada of giant SUV’s towing speedboats, floatation devices of various shapes, hues and sizes, males with towels in one hand and beers in the other, females in bikinis and flip-flops and sunglasses, children screeching in delight … all marching by my window on their way to the lake!
. . . I mean! How dare they intrude on my seclusion?
I’m not one of these people who can sit down and write furiously for a few minutes at a time, in between chores, or kids, or whatever. I don’t think my synapses fire that-a-way. Although I do write fast, I need at least an hour of uninterrupted time to get going. I tried smaller blocks, but ended up deleting most of what I wrote. It’s a question of rhythm I suppose.
Our writing studio is in the nicest, and front, room of our little house, and faces the main thoroughfare down to the lake. This is the best place to write throughout the year, except for right about now.
Oh the horror of it all!
A writers worst dilemma – being confronted by people enjoying themselves!
There’s only one thing to be done. A drastic option I know, but sometimes hard choices have to be made.
I shall pour myself a bracing beverage, dress appropriately, and crash the party!
*
“There are certainly times when my own everyday life seems to retreat so the life of the story can take me over. That is why a writer often needs space and time, so that he or she can abandon ordinary life and “live” with the characters” – Margaret Mahy, prolific NZ children’s author. 1936 – 23rd July,2012 (bon voyage Margaret)
Margaret Mahy-photo by Steven McNicholl
… one more that I couldn’t resist, from Liz and John Dickens’ lad, Chucky …
“Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows – and china” – Charles Dickens, another prolific author. 1812-1870
