Chasing thoughts

I've been thinking about thinking, following a curious mental quirk which visited me once more this week.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was writing a stage play, based on the tvdetective books?  Well, it's almost done - albeit after much sweating and swearing - but that's not what this little post is about.  Instead... 'tis this.

When I was on one of the play's key scenes, I was happily typing away, following the plan I'd set out in my notes when something stopped me. 

Exactly what it was is hard to say, but I'll do my best to descibe it. I do try to make a living from lacing these slippery word things together, after all.

It was like a whisper from a corner of my mind.  And the strange thing was that I couldn't quite hear what it was saying.  All I knew was that it was there, both persistent and insistent, but I didn't know what it was.  And that, of course, was frustrating, to put it mildly.

Now, before you start to worry about me (I like to think you would), I've known this happen on many an occasion before. The first time I can recall was when I was at university, sitting some final exams.

An aside here - come on, you were expecting it, and it's a long way into the blog, they normally arise far sooner! - but exams are so traumatic that to this day, twenty years on from the last time I faced one, I still have a recurring nightmare about them.  It pops up on average once a month, and involves me sitting in the hall, being utterly unable to answer any questions. 

Anyway, returning to the point, and it was this.  Back then, in 1990, there was a question facing me and I knew I had the answer.  The problem was, think as hard as I might, the thing wouldn't come to mind.  I remember getting stressed and anxious, to the extent that I decided to try the only possible remedy I could think of.

I started imagining something else, probably going out for a few beers to celebrate the end of the exams, knowing me. And lo! Into mind the answer popped.

Thus it was earlier this week with my play.  I had this whispering sense that there was a much better way of tackling the part I was writing, but it stubbornly refused to come to mind. So instead of worrying about it, I went for a walk around the river, fed the geese, and.... it duly materialised.

This is the strange way I've had to come to manage some of my creativity.  My ideas clearly like to tease me, and the only way to deal with them is to play hard to get.  It's almost as if I have to mentally walk away from them, even stick out my tongue and call "na na na na naaa!", and eventually they'll come back to me.

What I'm wondering is - whether it's just my mind that works in this peculiar way, or whether others suffer similarly?  On second thoughts, maybe you'd better not anwer that, it might just make me worry about myself even more than I do already...

Anyway, a couple more things to mention here.  Firstly, there's the excellent Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival - Words by the Sea - next weekend (Sept 16/17), so if you're free, do pop down.  They've got an impressive line up, with the possible exception of a strange, gangly, bespectacled crime writer chap who's appearing on the Saturday.  There are more details on the News and Events page - www.thetvdetective.com/news.html

And finally for this post, being the keen child of the white hot heat of the technological revolution that I am (or not), I think I've managed to link my Twitter feed to my Facebook page.  I'm not quite sure how this happened, or what it all does, but it sounds good, and for you, dear reader, I'm afraid I suspect it means this... even less chance of escaping my meanderings and musings!