Living

Every now and again, I'll listen online to old episodes of favourite radio programmes. The quotation below reminded me of some things that I've been reading and thinking recently - about serious writers, who variously over-write and who experience writers' block.

‘Plots are everywhere - plots, themes, characters, one-liners. Beautiful sentences are waiting for you to pluck them out of the air. They’re all around, they just need to be channelled to you in some way. If you’re gonna cut yourself off from life, you’re never gonna find those plots and those characters, so the writer has to be dedicated to living’.

(Ian Rankin, from the BBC World Service's 'World Book Club', Broadcast: August 2006)

I like the idea that the term 'writer' can be interpreted quite broadly. In making decisions that shape our present and future experiences, do we not all write our own lives.

Good day.