Saturday, May 10, 2008

'FESS UP FRIDAY | Research and Randomness

As usual, I have been daydreaming and thinking about the story and the characters. I'm still vacillating on the name for one of the main characters.

Meanwhile I was at the library today, trying to do some research on organic farming. As I've mentioned in my earlier 'Fess Up Friday, the currently unnamed main character is an organic farmer.

One of the books I had in mind is The Art of Simple Food - which the local library does not stock.

Why is this important? It's totally random, just something I have been interested in for a while. I thought I could combine the two interests.

I'm thinking about motivations here. Why do people make the kind of choices - and mistakes they do.

Meanwhile, I have been writing random scenes in the story, trying to get a sense of things. This usually means I'm writing a lot of stuff that I will probably not use.

Jeanette Winterson once said in an interview, that she never start a story at the beginning. She usually starts somewhere in the middle, and sort of work her way around it.

Not that I write like Jeanette Winterson. It's just comforting to know you don't have to work linear - because if I have to follow the straight and narrow, I need alcohol.

4 comments:

James Dibben said...

I always enjoy hearing how any artist, and I consider writer's to be artists, work. At the very least it does just what you describe, it makes it feel okay to be doing what you are doing knowing that someone successful does things in an unconventional way.

Carl V. Anderson said...

Oops, that was me, Carl. On a friend's computer.

darkorpheus said...

Carl I like that too, reading about how my favourite writers and artists approach their works. And sometimes they come by their works by the most mundane way, it's almost extraordinary.

LK said...

Burp.

I hear ya.