Life, brick walls and writing

Date: 13 April 2011 16:38:04

At the moment I’m going slightly up the wall. It’s one of those moments when life contrives to make me go slightly mad with lack of brain usage. I think the moment I used my brain at work the most today, was when I remembered the colours of the different engines in Thomas and friends (or for those who are old like me The Railway Stories.) Amongst the conversations I held yesterday both at work and outside of work, was which hair dye works the best and at what age can a baby start to drink from a cup not a bottle? None of these are conversations I mind holding, but I feel I need to hold one or two which exercise my brain slightly more! I just feel that I am living in a world that is slightly different from those around me. I just feel like I want to use my brain and don’t know how to. I go through fazes like this, which is why I think I enjoy studying so much, as I’m not good at engaging with written material which makes me think, unless I have to and then I enjoy it. This is partly due to laziness and partly due to dyslexia. At these times it’s good for me to meet up with people who will at least make me use my brain a wee bit in conversation. However due to different factors coming together, I am for a few weeks working lots, but not anything that uses my brain much, and therefore when I have the chance to be at home I need to be around, due to the situation where I am living, so can’t go out for bigger chunks which meeting up with various friends requires, partly due to location. Life will improve I know but in the meantime, having a space to moan is good.

I have been using my brain on other things, but not really in my interaction with others. Those of you who are regular readers of this blog with know that I have twice written first drafts of novels thanks to the inspiration of NaNoWriMo, well this April for the first time I am participating in the sister event Script Frenzy. I have never even thought about writing a script before, and am amazed at how much I am enjoying it. I think I may be enjoying the creative process involved more than that in novel writing. It is forcing me to think through how dialogue and actions, can be used to create feelings and emotions. When novel writing, while you paint a picture of what is happening, you can say how this or that makes the characters feel. When script writing you have to make people feel that, without them being told. You have to develop fuller characters by what they do and say. It is really helping me to think through how to build good and believable characters. The lessons I learn I hope will transfer to my novel writing as well.