In the quest for something fresh to stir up the pond, I’ve taken an online workshop — which ended up showing me I have a better idea of what I want to do, and really wasn’t my cuppa since lists were involved — and I’m reading Karl Iglesias’ Writing for Emotional Impact.  (Well, technically, that’s the non-fiction currently going, the fiction is Silent in the Grave, although I’ve a couple of other things going on — does anyone else multitask their reading these days — I have to believe yes.)

Anyway, so far Inglesias is very clear — great quotes, good examples — but the best advise yet is the old ‘if you were this person what would you do…’  yes, yes.  I’m now tempted to skip ahead since chapters 8 and 9 have promised more specific techniques, but I’m being the good student.  There is a reason for the order here, and refresher course stuff is always good.  There’s been many a workshop I’ve sat through that was just redudant enough that I could daydream and let things shift like a shuffled deck of cars — and that sounds terrible.  But I mean that in the best way.

Learning sometimes isn’t just finding out new stuff–it’s seeing the old stuff in a new light.  It’s a fresh pair of glasses, or it’s even pulling the glasses off for a change.  And maybe some fresh music to go with–eh?

It must be the autumn–and there must be deeply nomadic blood in me, because fall and spring always make me want to move things around (mostly myself), and make shifts.  It’s a good time to write bad poetry, and try exotic drinks, and go someplace where one can sit and soak in experience.