I am working on too many projects. This is a bad thing (tiredness, lack of social life; family forget what I look like). This is also a good thing (exciting; educational). The best thing though is the way I find my mind expands during this periods of 'feast.' I am constantly thinking, making connections, researching and discussing ideas for these projects, and I swear can almost feel the new pathways being created!
One of the reasons I became an author was because I like playing with ideas. Writing gives me a place to put them, before they fall out of my ears. I trust (hope?) that my writing has improved over the twenty one years I have been a published writer, but I am just about sure that my thinking has.
I started out writing when I was a teacher, and continued as a lecturer. I 'thought' a lot as part of my work: reflection, connections and exploration are a vital part of teaching. Yet it is the act of writing itself that I feel expands my mind the most - and I love it! Researching a new area (I LOVE the research phase of a project!); finding the right context for my writing; mapping out how characters act, think and behave - utter bliss.
The only thing is, sometimes - like last night - the thinking goes into overdrive and I snap awake in the darkness of the small, wee hours and then think until the sky brightens. Tiring; awkward (I don't want to wake my husband with my loud pondering) but somehow satisfying...but how do I turn it off? Perhaps better that I don't - or how would I write all of my books? Perhaps I should just content myself with the thought (there's another one) that writing is just 'thinking out loud.'
(Image by Cyril Rana https://www.flickr.com/photos/retrogui_photos/)
