I'm kind of studying...

I'm sitting here in the little computer room (which is actually just the hallway with the front door blocked off), pretending to study. I have a creative writing book open in front of me, a few post-its scattered around, and an Open University tab open on the computer, just in case anyone comes past. I have actually been fairly good today - I've finished looking through Treasure Island for examples of fatherhood, I've got a page of notes, and I've opened a new word document ready. That'll do for today. Tomorrow I may type a few bits and delete them again. I kind of know what I want to write about, which makes a nice change. I also have a better idea for my creative writing assignment. My story about the scarlet fever outbreak in the village has been shelved as being complete twee-rubbish and far too Larkrise to Candleford, so my young village school-teacher can rest easy in that I'm not going to kill her off. My new idea combines:

with:

They're just the pictures that fired off an idea, anyway. Probably to be shelved as rubbish sometime in the near future... 

Advice I've seen is to write what you know, and I did used to work in a bookshop. (I was terrible. I was 18 and hated, hated answering the phones, which got me into no end of trouble. They were probably hugely relieved when I left to move to Norfolk.) That 'write what you know' thing is rather worrying, I think. A friend once lent me a book about a man who killed people and left a dead bird sewn inside them. And then there's American Psycho, which I couldn't actually finish. 

I read somewhere that the books you choose can say a lot about your character. I'm not sure whether I disagree with that or just find it disturbing. For example, I enjoyed Last Exit to Brooklyn; well, 'enjoyed' is probably the wrong word, but you get what I mean. However, I don't really identify with drug dealing prostitutes who end up... well, anyway... I just think my bookshelves say that I'll give most things a go. Not the activities in Last Exit, I hasten to add, I meant books...

As a total contrast, a child at school has just lent me 'Jacky Daydream', by Jacqueline Wilson, which I'm loving. And which I must go and continue reading...