Sunday 17 July 2011

Quick post...

... before watching The Apprentice.

Yesterday I read and commented upon a friend's blog. I enjoyed it very much, as I also enjoy a number of other blogs. Not necessarily from celebrities or on a particular subject, simply for the way in which they chronicle the minutiae of daily life.

This blog has become preoccupied with scoliosis, surgery, pain, drugs, scans and now the possibility of more surgery. I still haven't read it but others have done so - one person told me just last week that they had read it in its entirety and I was surprised. So much so I let on there are "hidden chapters" that they definitely hadn't read - but I am not sure I am ready to publish them more widely as yet.

This blog - the url and design etc - was in place before my operation as I've always wanted to write and a blog felt like a place to start. The ambition to write a book refuses to go away but maybe it's here that I cut my writing teeth, and more importantly learn to write for others and not just myself.

I've written lots of books - none of them quite finished and most of them lost on flash drives or defunct laptops, or protected by passwords I instantly forgot. No one has seen them except me. I did in fact happen across one recently which somewhat quaintly was written on paper. It was a shock to find it, to remember writing it, and to recognise what was going on in life at that time. It's for that last reason that I don't want to share it and herein lies the rub.

I still find it impossible to believe anyone - with the possible exception of J K Rowling - can write a book that does not in some way reflect their personal experience. No matter how much you change or try to disguise names, characters, places and time, surely you write most powerfully of that which you know. Why else would authors spend months or years researching and living with communities they plan to write about (again - JK has to be an exception as I've yet to meet a death eater and doubt she has either...)

Perhaps there is a certain self protection then in keeping to one subject here - and in many ways too this blog isn't open to the sort of comment you find elsewhere. I'm not sharing my thoughts on politics, the news or current affairs so no one is jumping up to disagree. But at the same time it doesn't give the full picture of what else has been going on over the past year or so...

I've been embarking on a project to collate some of the correspondence from last year, with a view to including it in the book I one day will write about this experience. Re-reading some of the emails they pick up on the everyday and world news - good to get a sense of context and realise life truly does go on.

Today we went to see the final Harry Potter film. I found myself reflecting on how in spite of my recent angst about growing older it really is rather nice to be free of the multi-faceted angst of our younger years. Perhaps to be explored in another post but for now my money's on Helen...

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