Authors Electric

  Funny old business, this writing lark. I never know when and how it’s going to take me. If only I could be one of those admirable people who have their writing days organised and keep office hours. I expect their workplaces are tidy too. Sigh. I saw a slogan on a t-shirt once – something about how necessary chaos is if one is to be the dancing star. Great-sounding rubbish. I sometimes wonder how productive I might have been if I’d had the capacity for organisation, or even tidiness. Idle speculation. Lost cause. The writing I’ve been most pleased with has come, not from study but chance. A place, an event, a passing thought, a memory, and something drops into my brain from somewhere and a story or poem or play begins. As for writing to order – a brief, a theme for a submission, sometimes it sets off a spark and sometimes it’s a dead loss even when the topic seems appealing. I do struggle with it, I try, but can only produce dross which no amount of effort will make better. I’...