Every month, about the 8th, I get a twitch. I know I have something to do. Not unpleasant but pressing. I worry and fret -- ABBA Day is coming on the 13th. What can I write about? Sometimes I have to think and think for ages; often it's obvious what I need or want to say. By the 10th, I usually know what I'm writing about; on the 11th I write and schedule it. If I'm doing that on the 12th, I get worried. What if the internet breaks? In fact I sort of pretend the 11th is my deadline, because giving myself a trick deadline is something I've always done to make sure I don't miss real ones.
Last month, sure enough, I got my twitch. It woke me at four. It's a while since your ABBA post, it said. You must find something to write, it said. Bookish and witty. It must be nearly that time of the month. Well, gentle reader, it was not nearly that time at all. It was about the 17th. I had, for the first time ever, forgotten about ABBA.
This month I have not forgotten but I am incapable of bookish and witty. I have not written a word for weeks. The book that kept me sane during lockdown has been discarded -- for now -- like an old toy.
In fairness to me, I am moving house next week, and am surrounded by boxes. Boxes to keep, boxes to take, boxes for the charity shop; boxes for the friend's daughter who's conveniently moving into her first home and is proving an excellent repository of extra curtains and toasters; boxes for Freecyle.
The only remotely bookish -- though sadly unoriginal thing I can say is that It's like a great big edit, except that I'm working on several manuscripts at once. I empty cupboards in my house and fill cupboards at my fiancé's house, which is to be my new home. Only I have to empty them first. Well, not quite -- ruthless as I can be about my darlings, I can't murder all his without at least asking if he minds. (Note to self: be as kind about other people's vases as you would be about their characters.)
By the 13th of next month, I am hoping to be unpacked. I am hoping to have got back to my poor neglected characters, last seen in 1933 in some distress. And I will have something bookish and witty to say about it all, I promise.
2 comments:
Amazed you could write any post at all, Sheena, but thank you for hsaring your Big Edit,
Wishing you much happiness (and few uncertain vases) in your new home! Congratulations!
Well done for writing this in the midst of so much house-moving/clearing out! Hope all will go well, and that you'll be very happy in your new home.
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