Thursday 11 February 2010

A zigzag road

Does anyone travel a straight road through life these days? Not me - and especially not in my career or my writing.

All the changes of direction used to bother me. The roads not taken. The roads that were taken that turned into dead ends, roundabouts or diversions.

But since I've been writing, all this experience has become so useful to me. In many ways, if you want to write then the more you have to draw on the better. Did you make mistakes? Great! Did you feel utterly lost and confused? Terrific! If we'd only known a smooth, untroubled path what would we write about?

I'm coming to appreciate that life is better travelled zigzag.

2 comments:

Sarah Head said...

Hi Jo,

I seem to have done many strange and different things in my life. One of the lessons I learned early on is that nothing is ever wasted, it's all part of a learning curve whose ultimate goal I'm not privy to. I'm still using contacts and information I gleaned from a 3 week placement in Birmingham social services 33 years later. Nowadays, if I find I'm travelling in a new and unexpected direction (mainly thanks to the net!) I'm left wondering what's going to happen in the near future when this will be useful? Like you, I value zigzag living and developing my "wicker basket of skills" -straight lines and motorways can be incredibly boring!

joanne fox said...

Yes, I hate motorways! Thanks for visiting. x