Thursday 5 February 2009

Bones & Books

Time for an update on the Broken Wrist versus Writing situation. I think the Writing is winning. But I whisper it softly.

It has been an interesting and at times laughable few weeks as I've struggled to make sense of the daily frustrations, and I have made good use of my own personal Dragon. This Dragon - for those who aren't familiar with it - is a speech recognition programme for computers and it has enabled me to read out my left-handed scribbles to my computer. It produces on screen either something approximating what I'm saying or something that bears absolutely no resemblance whatever, depending on its mood at the time
.

The best thing is that Dragon does save on the chore of typing, but first I still have to write my words by hand. Fortunately the bionic metal-plated wrist is strengthening as each week passes, and I can now balance a precarious pen between fingers and thumb to produce a just legible scrawl. So I have no excuse. Time to chain myself to my desk once more.

But wait. I am relishing this extra unanticipated thinking time. I find myself reluctant to abandon it yet. Instead of plunging head-first into the story immediately after the Christmas break, I have had time to re-evaluate plot lines, to discover further research avenues, and - this is the big one - to delve deeper into my characters, taking them apart, layer by fragile layer.

So, Broken Wrist versus Writing? Writing is definitely the winner. And so am I!