Tuesday, November 18, 2008

'Cracking mountains' Not

Here I am in Khorat, where I came for the mountains … and it’s a plateau. Brilliant: not a bloomin’ mountain in sight. It’s so flat it would give Bangkok a run for its money in the flat stakes. Oh well, at least I won’t spend hours gazing out the window.

And, you’ll never guess: there’s a school residential in MY hotel. No, it’s not one of our school residentials – but a primary school. I’m going to have to get up earlier tomorrow to beat those little critters to the omelette chef.

I had a little bit of a panic yesterday. A combination of ‘I am here to write: I must write’ terror and not being able to get onto the internet, meant that I couldn’t write a damn thing. I convinced myself that I needed the internet first… before I wrote and I couldn’t sort that out. I was waiting for help from reception. I telephone Husband and he is the kind of man who asks ‘have you plugged it in?’ so I pre-empted him and said ‘I’ve plugged it into the right hole’ which in reality turned out to mean: ‘I’ve plugged it into a hole it fits into.’ It was the wrong plug, obviously. When I eventually got onto the internet I was in a proper panic. Everything is crap, it reads like I’m in primary school, I can’t handle the story, blah blah blah.

Today I’ve woken up feeling less panicky. I will free write until I work out what comes next…

I had a look at the news, and I found this. Nick Park is one of my heroes. In an interview with the BBC, he says of his current project, A Matter of Loaf and Death, "You should do it for the fun or it, and not have any other ambitions in mind."

That, it reminds me, is what writing should be about.

Go and have a look at the BBC article: the film, due to air at Christmas, looks ‘cracking.’

10 comments:

Carol said...

Oh hon....I'm sorry you have no lovely mountains to look at!!

I do have to tell you that you definately can write (I know...I've read some!!) and not only that but you write beautifully (nothing like someone at primary school!!)

C x

See how nice i am...I didn't even mention the internet thing...and I'm not laughting...not laughing at all

Flowerpot said...

I'm JUST like that when it comes to plugging things in!! Best of luck with the writing - I'm thinking of you!

Sue Guiney said...

Deep breaths. I'm sure you'll settle in and get loads done. And that Nick Parks quote is fantastic. one to remember (and also remember, you might be surrounded by school kids, but none of them are yours! :-)) )

Lane Mathias said...

Good quote!
Hope you get loads done this week jj x

Jenny Beattie said...

Carol, It's a bit sad isn't it? It was one of my desires and it is supposed to be near Khao Yai! Oh well. Thank you. (Thanks too for not laughing out loud at any rate at my internet nincompoopness.)

Flowerpot, thank you.

Sue, the deep breaths are working now. You are so right: I had that very same thought about the little people.

Lane, thank you.

Anonymous said...

I love that quote and the new Wallace and Gromit looks great.

Good luck with the writing this week and with getting to the omelette chef first!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Hope you manage to get some writing done. It's horrible to be disappointed when you expect one thing and get something else.

Wise words indeed from Nick Park.

Angie said...

That's a fantastic quote. I have a hard time remembering that sometimes.
Sorry to hear the mountains are flat, but I'm glad you got t'internet up and running! It's amazing how untethered we feel without it these days, isn't it?
Enjoy your writing space.

Liane Spicer said...

Could use that reminder myself right now. Don't worry, you'll calm down and do the do.

Pretty fond of mountains myself. I'm surrounded by them!

Jenny Beattie said...

M&T, I got there first! Hurrah (actually there was no sign of any small people this morning!)

Debs, Thanks, I know it's silly really, but I do miss the countryside...

Thanks Angie, I'm such a silly billy about the internet ...but you know the hole was the right size and shape!

Wordtryst, I got calmed down in the end. But there are still no mountains - please can I have some of yours?