Like Hot Buttered Toast…

Every wonder if you aren’t spreading yourself a little too thinly?

I do… but have never really let it worry me until now when I find myself wondering if I need to hone in my hoarder spirit a little.

Being an eclectic person, I have made conscious efforts to avoid pigeon-holing myself by genre or demographic; I have worked with equal pride and gusto on projects for children and adults alike; I have put together basic instruction guides aimed at complete morons incapable of sussing which is the “on” switch of a new kettle to full technical guides of which I understand little myself; I have written poetry, prose and short stories on many themes, from sci-fi through to trashy romance and beyond; I have published articles on a huge array of subjects, some relevant to my own skills and experiences, some completely research-based. I have started, though, to look at whether I need to actually start to fit my writing neatly into a little box so people can find me easily.

I think it’s great to have the freedom to write about what I want, when I want but is this just the slightest bit lazy?
It probably is. If I do not declare a genre, I do not have to follow rules of that theme. In fact, I mostly just write without really thinking about what it is I am trying to say. You may tell from the here-and-there nature of these posts!

I was asked the other day “Do you not worry that you won’t build up a reliable fan-base?”
Now I see the point in this question, especially given that the person who asked does have quite a cult following of their own, but honestly; no.

I do not write for others, I write for me. Even in the case of reviews as I write here and in other shady corners of the internet I do not write them to inform others, more as a way to make my opinion heard – and let’s face it, who doesn’t want to be heard?

But yes, maybe I do need to decide who/what I am; maybe I need to focus on one thing at a time; maybe I should be writing for a market rather than for myself.

Or maybe there is enough of me to go around and as such I can spread myself as thinly as I choose.




It isn’t only my work which is affected by my ‘bits and pieces’ nature.

Having a deep love for words and language, I could not resist recently snapping the hand off a friend who was selling a Rosetta Stone bundle with a heap of language packs. I think you normally buy just the one language, but this had some twenty or so. The obvious start-point for me was Welsh, so I have worked through that set of lessons and have now commenced both Polish and Vietnamese.

I did not see an issue with learning two languages concurrently; after all we were made to do it at school and that was not so long ago… But my friend challenged me on the decision: “Would it not be better to just do one at a time?”

Um… no! Because then it would take an age to complete ALL of them, which I fully intend to do.

“But when will you use all those languages?”

And she is possibly correct, maybe I won’t; but at the moment I fully intend to.

Yesterday, after discovering my ALISON account had some 17 active courses on it, I decided to have a clear up. I finished the accountancy diploma and claimed the certificate for that, then deleted some of the others which seemed irrelevant to where my life is now, still leaving me with four ongoing courses.

Added to that I have not yet finished the final stage of my PLT training, am trying to expand my Makaton beyond that required in schools and am still planning to complete my degree once things are settled here I certainly need to do something about my hotchpotch gathering attitude!

But I have made a start at least!