That one small change

Well, just to let you know how last night went. The film was wonderful and if you haven't yet seen it, the scene where a panicked Joey gallops through the hellish, barbed-wire battleground of No-Mans land is a heart-breaker.

The man sitting on the other side of me, (not H.I.) did an awful lot of sniffing and there was quite a bit of throat-clearing going on around the audience as well. Oh, and the strangest thing happened when I took out my mobile phone to call a cab - whether planned or not I don't know - as we came out of the cinema the time on my phone said 23.11! Eleven minutes past eleven. I love strange little coincidences like that.

Watching the film brought to mind the first novel I wrote called, Another Time Another Place, which was set in dockside Liverpool before and during the first world war and the story went rather well up to a certain point. But there was a point where it wasn't working and I could never get my head around what it was that was going wrong with it, so I put it to one side.

Then during the night my creative, unconcious mind must have been doing its job while I slept and suddenly, in the wee small hours I woke up and immediately thought "that's what it is!" My eureka moment had struck.

I couldn't wait to get back to it and change that part of the story. So, leaving the comfort of my snugly duvet for the teeth-chattering cold of the kitchen, I put the kettle on and pondered. I knew exactly what had gone wrong and I could see the story unfolding in my minds eye; it was such a simple thing - why hadn't I thought of it before?

Now, as I'm sure many of you will know, it is quite impossible to change just one part of a work in progress as, after that, the other parts don't quite sit right, I call it the domino effect and when you dislodge one piece you have to bolster everything else, otherwise it all comes tumbling down, so that simple thing - that one small change - isn't going to be the five minute job I envisaged, so is this my project for 2012? I'm not sure.

But one thing I do know, the change may just be the glue that holds the whole thing together, I hope so, but until then I'll keep chugging away relentlessly and I'll let you know the outcome in due course.
Keep smiling.
She x