Sometimes my writing flows smoothly, like a stream along well-worn channels, curving around obstacles, intent on its course.

At other times, my ideas are like ants in a disturbed ants' nest, scattering in a hundred different directions.

Sometimes my images come out almost as a list on the page:

• a glint of a gold tooth

• the rhythmic rocking of the boat

• red and gold fabrics, gleaming in the midday sunshine

I take what I get, and use it any way I can, pushing aside thoughts of

should be

should do

the right way

the wrong way

There is only what there is, and it helps me to remember that:

Streams flow to the sea.

Every ant has a designated role in the colony.

Lists help you to remember.

This past week has been a disrupted one for me. It can be difficult enough to deal with self-inflicted disruptions to our writing - a tendency to get distracted by social media, or to put our own dreams and priorities last.

But sometimes Life just happens. A two-day headache that divorces you from your imagination. A phone call from the school asking you to collect your poorly son.

That's why I've learnt to take writing - especially the writing I do for a first draft - as it comes, whether it's in the form of streams, scattered ants or lists. However it comes, it  accumulates and gets stuffed together. After a while it coagulates and becomes part of something bigger.

A book, with a life and an identity of its own.

How wonderful!

Until next time,

Margaret