Distractions and productivity are not mutually exclusive

I'd like to say 'Another day, Another Dollar' but since I'm on sick pay the days don't mean much either way. I would go stark raving mad at my current lack of activity if it weren't for the fact that my anti-epileptic drugs make me too lethargic to actually give a rat's arse. I meant to get more writing done today, and perhaps even work some more on my CV for when I find a job for occupational therapy.  Then the distractions hit...

Today's distraction...

- Decided to vacuum room. Eventually I actually got to this but only after I finished vacuuming the lounge out.
- Thought meh, may as well vacuum the lounge and realised no one had done the couches and cushions for awhile; two breaks, a washing pile and lunch later this finally got done
- Needed to hang out washing, having remember to actually put it in in the first place.
- Oh, right. Need to take down dry stuff first; but I want to work on this piece I'm writing
- Eh, no milk for me. :( :( Walkies!!!! :)
- Still not wrote anything but sudden epiphany made me put off making bed
- Working through notes on project, hit me that it may actually be easier to time up the 12 pages of outline I have to make the changes.
- Finally manage to write a writing challenge (Called kick her to the Curb), still not started typing up current project

Conveniently I 'forgot' about CV.  But since all I need to refine now is the references and format I think I'm good.  I'm kinda restricted in what I do at the moment anyway and have to consider any job as part of a learning curve. I'm expecting workplace stress factors to affect my triggers.

Actually, dispite the distraction level I was quite productive  ^_^

Think of of the fiction!!

It has been a productive week for my muse.  I have given him so much exercise he must have collapsed from exhaustion by this point.  But I have several great projects to show for it and my writing is steadily improving.


The Crown and the cavern started life as 'Picture it and Write' challenge.  It is flash fiction that is a cautionary tale about reading the instructions.
Country Guy and City Girl  are two separate pieces of flash fiction that happen to be the same story from different points of view.  Nice real romance.  I may do a continuation.
A parody  of 'Singing in the rain' that is deliberately of key about the joys of job hunting.  You will be able to tell i have been job hunting for too long that day.  I clearly needed a break.
A walk in the rain  A nice short poem :)

Musing on a challenge

I have completed yet another short story: Shouting Fire. This was another random word challenge. Like all the others, it made me think. But today, it made me really pay attention to the creative process for some reason.

The word was theatre. Nothing special. But it struck as I write just how important the first impression is to the creative flow. For example, my first though with theatre was the phrase 'never shout fire in a crowded theatre' to which my brain automatically responded 'oh I so want to do that now.' As can been seen from Shouting Fire, this had a direct impact on the plot itself. Similiarly, when I wrote Pepper last week my first thought was on the burning aspect rather then the versatility in food and this again carried through to the plot.

It is because of this that we actually need to be careful to be aware of these impressions because other wise it is easy to plagiarise without the intention. A good example of this is the fragments of 'The man from Ironbark' which I have included into the plot. I made a deliberate choice to work more of these in on the basis of a second impression I had from 'theatre'. It brought to mind my yr6 play in school – which is a similar production to what the character John is watching. I could have easily let this influence in without acknowledging it (although with what little I deliberately added it would be hard to accuse me of plagiarism).

This said, in such a short piece would the similarity to 'The man from Ironbark' have even been noticed if I had not gone out of my way to be obvious? This is a very good question.