Minds at War

I have a wide and varied CV. I’ve piloted a Spitfire, commanded a tank, a warship, and rode horses while in the military. And all this before I reached the age of 13, mostly from the seat of my trusty CCM 1-speed bicycle. Oh, and it helped me blast off for the stars, as well.

Hmm. Perhaps I should step back a pace or two. The old CCM wasn’t all that trusty, after all. Its chain had a certain proclivity for coming off, and nothing I could do would change that. One time, on my paper route, it came off whilst I ‘flew’ with a loyal wingman down a gravel road at high speed. It somehow jammed the wheel and the bike threw me, ending up with me having a fingernail torn off. Bleeding, scraped, and somewhat in shock, I gave over my paper-bag to my wingman, while I and my Spitfire limped back towards home – and eventually the Emergency Room at the hospital.

Then, later, the brake began to go. Remember, at that time with a 1-speed, you braked by pressing the pedal backwards, which would apply the brake to the rear wheel. In my case, I could stand on the pedal and the rear wheel wouldn’t lock; my bicycle would only slowly coast to a stop. I found it more efficient to put a foot down and drag it. So, perhaps I should exchange the word ‘trusty’ for something else. I’m a writer; surely my vocabulary might cover it. But, then again, I loved my bicycle. So, in my heart and my [flawed] memory, it remains my trusty CCM.

When you get right down to it, one might consider this an early attempt at multitasking. Overtly, I delivered papers. I certainly went through the motions. But, while my body engaged in this action, my imagination had me soaring over the earth, and sometimes leaving it entirely as my bike became a rocketship bound for somewhere far, far off.

Later, I continued with this multi-tasking as I started to write poetry. I would compose while I walked my route – the trusty CCM no longer conveying me to the heights. Today, I still work on books in my head while my body does other, more mundane tasks. I can multitask in that regard.

HOWEVER, it has lately come to me that I don’t do so well at multitasking if the two tasks are in the same field, but of inimical forms. In other words: Writing and Editing.

I ran up an impressive word-count earlier this year – until I started to edit “A Throne At Stake”. And then it all collapsed. I’ve heard and read that the Editor Mind and the Creative Mind are two very separate entities. I believe it; I can’t just go from one to the other. So, if I’m engaged in editing, I can’t seem to jump back into my creative space for an hour and write my thousand words. About the middle of June my daily word-count began to drop and continued doing so until it reached 0 earlier this month.

In that time I edited and published “A Throne At Stake”, and then re-edited “Pelgraff” in order to put it out in paperback. I gave a preliminary edit to “Trading for the Stars”, the first book in my Colleen Yrden saga, and then I re-formatted “A Throne At Stake” for paperback form, as well as “The Steadfasting”. I need a new cover for “The Steadfasting”, and may have something in the works. “Pelgraff (paperback) is now for sale from Createspace, Amazon and other entities, and my proof copy of “A Throne At Stake” should be winging its way to me, arriving this week. I’m about ready to give up on the paperback stuff as soon as I give ATAS the final look-over. I want to get back to writing again, for I’ve written only about 8,000 words this month – a far cry from the 30,000 of last month or the 66k and 85k of May and April.

I wish I could truly multitask, but this seems beyond me. So, I ask forgiveness for my ‘laxity’ of late, and promise to try to do better in August. Hopefully, lack of dropping into my Editing Mind will allow my Creative Mind to spark again and take us all on another journey.

Ah, to have my CCM back again – though I suspect it might be a little small for me. Then I and my imagination might multitask once again, discovering new worlds, riding fire into the skies, and rescuing damsels in distress – something I thought little of back then. Grateful damsels, I trust. D.A.’s damsels, however, seem to be a pretty hardy lot who don’t need much rescuing, though they do accept a helping hand at times – but woe to those who get in their way.

Until then, I thank you for your patience – and thank those who have picked up a copy of one of D.A. Boulter’s works.

Happy reading.