My previous existence managing a sports facility gave me plenty of character ideas and stories to tell, but provided little in the way of constructive time to actually commit any of them to formal text; thus I found myself in search of a voluntary role in order that I can simply step away and write when I feel the need to.
I spend one day a week working at a brilliant place which runs computer-based courses for all, teaches life skills to those let down by a failing education system and assists the unemployed in making themselves employable; searching for jobs, completing applications, preparation for interview and so on.
I have the opportunity to meet a huge range of people of different class, nationality and intellect and thoroughly enjoy every minute of the work I do as much for the amazing array of characters I encounter as for the chance to put my skills to better use than the usual waffle and twad I churn out!
At the present time, I am writing at my previous place of employment; no other reason for this than “Because I can”. It tends to be my go-to place; somewhere to hide from those who feel working from home means having nothing to do but hand out free coffee and chatter all day; somewhere to be around people who no longer ask “when will you?” “why didn’t you” “couldn’t you just?”; somewhere to simply write for the hell of it. Alright, they do throw me the odd free coffee from time to time, but I put in a lot of hours for them over the six years I worked here, I earned a few coffees at least!
So here I am; writing character profiles on those around me; making judgments as to their habits and hobbies; inventing jobs and families based purely on the fact they have chosen to come out today in a red jacket or that they arrived in a beaten down Vauxhall Corsa.
There are times I suddenly realise I am knuckling down and taking my work more seriously and this really is one of them. For the most part, people think I spend my days hiding in the office doing nothing more constructive than refreshing my social networks; and I’ll admit, there are times I realise I could take on far more work were I better able to focus and aim for a faster turnover. Spending a couple of hours scribbling in my notebook, though, and finding myself with a heap of transcribing to do and some new ideas to work up I can see just how differently I am coming at the whole process than this time last year. Maybe this is the year I actually decide to package myself into one of those neat little straight-edged, pointy cornered boxes people are so keen on... or maybe not.
Fairy steps, I think... a few character profiles and a couple of really exciting new ideas are really not enough to warrant choosing a genre, are they? ... especially given that the new ideas are so very different from one another!
But changes are afoot, nevertheless...
As always, watch this space!
Seriously, keep watching....
Don't look away, now!
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