Was feeling incredibly weary this afternoon, but decided to do some work on a long term writing project. So glad I did - was a very energising experience.Not least because I was getting incredibly interested in researching one aspect of the project. As I wound down for the afternoon I paused and considered: what if I take this and add it to a previous topic I'd been looking at? All under the same general banner, but so far divided, subtopics in different sections, if you like.
I took what I'd been learning and applied it to my previous research.
Wow.
It was one of those moments when I realised there was no need for me to make a link; the link was there waiting for me, radiating through the subject matter, ready to be discovered.
I was so excited, mind spinning with delight.
I can't declare that it is an 'original idea'; I'm sure I'm not that clever, but it felt so specific, so different that I half wanted to write a dissertation instead of a book.
You're either baffled in a bored kind of way or frustrated that I'm not telling you what it was. But my thoughts feel too precious right now; I need to clutch them to myself for a while. When I express them I'll be doing so properly - writing them out, making the book work. In all honesty, it's not something I could easily summarize at this stage.
It wouldn't seem all that exciting to anyone else anyway. But when you've been researching a subject, following ideas and then suddenly, unexpectedly, bam! A new vista opens up, a eureka moment takes place.
I don't have them very often; it felt so encouraging. It reminded me of the joy of discovery. I love to learn and to study, and to express this in writing is something I find hugely rewarding.
