The early morning thoughts of a writer !

THE BIRTH OF A BOOK

It’s 4.30 am on a clear and crisp January morning, my rear garden and frost sprinkled lawn are lit by a full moon; this seems somehow quite appropriate – only severe insomniacs, lunatics or writers wander the house at this ungodly hour. Even the mad paper clip on my computer (a dotty symbol that tells me if I am using everything correctly) is in sleep mode. According to statistics the hours between 2.00 am and 6.00am are the time most of us say goodbye to our earthly existence, it’s certainly the time of day when thought patterns are at there weirdest. Having given you my excuses for writing this piece, I will sally forth with my creative waves. The nearest analogy I could draw in creating a written work is that of creating life itself. I know it sounds somewhat grandiose but bear with me.

Firstly there is the conception, that strange moment when the seed of an idea hits the fertile brain, then comes gestation, a period normally far in excess of the mere nine months taken to create a human being. During this time the fetal book is researched and nourished with facts and ideas before being correlated, corrected and finally edited. After too long a time within the creative womb and a cruel process of pre-adoption (the publisher) your child is shown to a waiting world. What happens then is completely beyond your control.

Well that last line must have done the trick, the paper clip has woken up!

Copyright John Brown 2007