Well Signposted
Mar. 2nd, 2006 10:47 amSome days are just better than others. And sometimes, you’re lucky enough to be gifted with two of them in a row. Tuesday and Wednesday were fantastic days for me. I was finally busy at work for once: something I thought would never, ever happen, short of some hideous disaster occurring, somehow causing everybody to crowd into the library and require our attention. You can tell I haven’t really thought that one through, can’t you?
Yet, despite these predictions of doom and gloom and a high demand on our information managing services, I still thought I was sentenced to a life of desperately searching for something to work on in order to prevent my brain from stagnating. And it has finally arrived, in the form of the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge. Essentially, we have to encourage as many year seven to nine students as possible to take up the challenge so that they can a) learn about the wonders of reading and literacy, b) make the school look good and c) cause a lot of work for us. But it’s work I don’t mind doing because I feel as though I’m achieving something positive. It’s a great chance to learn students’ names and to encourage them to read all of my favourite books. I finally feel as though I’m contributing something to the library and being seen as somebody who knows what they’re going on about when it comes to books.
If that had been the only thing that came out of those two days, I would have considered myself incredibly happy and satisfied. One shouldn’t expect too much, after all. But there was more to come.
For days, I’ve been thinking over my Nunnery story, trying to decide at which angle I would have the highest likelihood of taking it unawares. So far, nothing had presented itself and I was at a bit of a standstill with the whole thing.
Until Tuesday.
On Tuesday, an opening line popped into my head, quite unbidden. Nunnery already has an opening line, but it’s not a great one. This one was much better and besides which, it acted like a master key, opening up all those sections of the story that I need to address. My imagination caught onto the situation and dropped by, offering up plot points and concepts that linked beautifully into existing ones. Now, as a result of a couple of words, I have a clearly-defined path with lovely sign-posts and pretty alyssum growing beside it, directing me smoothly to a most plendiferous re-write.
All I need to do now is to stay out of the way of Procrastination and get on with doing this final draft.
Yet, despite these predictions of doom and gloom and a high demand on our information managing services, I still thought I was sentenced to a life of desperately searching for something to work on in order to prevent my brain from stagnating. And it has finally arrived, in the form of the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge. Essentially, we have to encourage as many year seven to nine students as possible to take up the challenge so that they can a) learn about the wonders of reading and literacy, b) make the school look good and c) cause a lot of work for us. But it’s work I don’t mind doing because I feel as though I’m achieving something positive. It’s a great chance to learn students’ names and to encourage them to read all of my favourite books. I finally feel as though I’m contributing something to the library and being seen as somebody who knows what they’re going on about when it comes to books.
If that had been the only thing that came out of those two days, I would have considered myself incredibly happy and satisfied. One shouldn’t expect too much, after all. But there was more to come.
For days, I’ve been thinking over my Nunnery story, trying to decide at which angle I would have the highest likelihood of taking it unawares. So far, nothing had presented itself and I was at a bit of a standstill with the whole thing.
Until Tuesday.
On Tuesday, an opening line popped into my head, quite unbidden. Nunnery already has an opening line, but it’s not a great one. This one was much better and besides which, it acted like a master key, opening up all those sections of the story that I need to address. My imagination caught onto the situation and dropped by, offering up plot points and concepts that linked beautifully into existing ones. Now, as a result of a couple of words, I have a clearly-defined path with lovely sign-posts and pretty alyssum growing beside it, directing me smoothly to a most plendiferous re-write.
All I need to do now is to stay out of the way of Procrastination and get on with doing this final draft.
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