First Post...

[teadog1425]

Well - here we are...*looks about*... hmmm, spacious, isn't she!

Testing, testing...  one, two, one, two...  This feels rather like standing on a lit stage in front of a darkened auditorium, just you and that microphone, and suddenly you can't quite remember what you came up here to say... 

The point of this post was that I wanted to remind myself why I was doing this - perhaps as a way to make this less scary, and to make myself feel more like I have a point to doing it, when there are probably other things I should be doing instead...!  And also so that later, when I look back (if I do - I mean I'm not sure how much stamina I'm going to have here...!), I can get that moment of going - so that's what I thought I was doing! - when the process of doing it has changed everything along the way.

So, the main purpose of doing this was to have a place to keep my thoughts about my two main apprenticeships - which are respectively in horse-riding and writing.  Because both of them seem to involve a process of thinking about things that is kind of interesting - to me at least, and sometimes it's difficult to remember the inspirations you have along the way.  And sometimes you really, really, need to be able to see that you have actually progressed, when you hit another rocky patch and you feel like you are completely skill-less.

So, I've been riding since Feb this year (rode a tiny bit when I was early teens, but never learned properly, just sat on horseback and picked up lots of bad habits), and have just (about three weeks ago) had my first proper fall (*inserts comment about how now only six more before you become a proper rider here* - I was amazed how everybody in the whole world seems to have heard of that one!).  Was lucky though - only bruising to my back and some joint soreness, which though v painful, is now all but gone.  In its place though, is an increased nervousness, which is v annoying and which I'm trying to work through.

And, I've been writing with intent for about six or seven years now - nothing published, couple of novel-length first drafts completed (really really bad drafts), and a head full of ideas for the other stories that want to be written when the current head-squatter finally moves out.  What I'm in the middle of at the moment is a total rewrite of the first of those really bad drafts - I'm about 15 chapters in, but it's taken me over a year!  Aargh!  *clutches head*  I had really hoped that it would go quicker than this, but I am discovering the hard way that this will just take as long as it takes.  And, you know what, I'm actually ok with that.

OK, so that's a start, and I've got other things to say, but I'm going to keep them for the next post!