My new study is almost finished. The walls and woodwork are painted, there are blinds at the window. All it needs are a carpet, furniture, a lampshade, ie, everything. Oh, and it needs a cushion, it definitely needs a cushion. A cushion is not an essential item but when we were in Scotland I saw one that caught my eye; its colours were so beautiful that I could have eaten it! I don’t think I have ever bought a cushion in my life – all mine have been pre-owned and recovered by me, so it felt like an extravagance to buy one, especially as it would not go with anything in my house. This did not stop me coveting it … DH suggested that I should buy it as a first purchase for my new study. I imagined how it would look against the pristine white walls and handed over the money. Problem solved.
I wish it were as easy to solve plot problems. I am writing a children’s book at the moment (Cris and Minty save the planet) and was 5,000 words in when I thought that the story would work much better if a child-minder was substituted instead of the children’s grandfather. It took a lot of effort and a lot of cutting and pasting of text but I changed everything and rushed along and had got to almost 7,000 words when I realised that I needed to go with the first option. The child-minder was deleted and the grandfather reinstated. Perhaps if I had been writing in my new study with my new cushion to give me inspiration I would not have had to deal with that problem. Fingers crossed that it works that way.
