THE FOUNDATION OF WRITING - PART 1: The Wiggles, Head Shoulder Knees and toes

So you want to write a novel? Think back to your earliest days: during the development of your literary skills, the mantra of the writer was spelled out loud and clear:

HEADS

Not for no reason is this first.

Slicking somewhere in the chemical soup of everything you have ever seen, done, read or heard about is the germ of an idea. Until it explodes like a geyser of inspiration: speculate, percolate and mediate!

SHOULDERS

When you are weighted down with familial, fraternal and financial burdens add the fanatical need to write. Time management, like the wooden yoke, comes in all shapes and sizes.

KNEES

Not to agents or publishers, that is a marriage of equals – it is true that while gratitude may send you to your knees, that is a passing phase, the one before the phenomena of non-mechanical, human flight  – it is periodically necessary, to use your knees to crawl to your partner, friends or family. When begging for support, forgiveness or five minutes more than your allocation on the computer, the knees are an important writerly tool.

TOES

An essential part of the writer’s arsenal, they are often overlooked – or invisible, after too many hours spent writing at the expense of gym time – they tap with urgency, when the manuscript is going well; curl with excitement, when the inbox reveals the name of agent you have queried; suffer the pain of fitting into those gotta-make-a-good-impression shoes

PART 2 – Eyes, Ears, Mouth and Nose to follow ;)