From the mouths of children

At breakfast one morning this week I was steadily chewing my muesli and wondering whether I was a pessimist, a realist or a depressed optimist. Between chews and admonitions to “sit still,” “eat your breakfast,” “don’t put your fingers in your juice” – the usual cadences of breakfast with a young family, I decided that I am probably just delusional. Life gets busy and I tell myself that after this event, or that deadline or some other date, things will quieten down and I’ll get back to blogging and writing more. At times things have been so bad that a friend offered to “ghost blog” for me, fancying the notion of being Blithe’s Ghost. Every time I think that I will have a moment for literary pursuits, some other thing comes up. Now I’m managing another blog for the Residents’ Association, pulling together some things for a family event, rushing into town to buy camping equipment for Blithe Girl’s first overnight camp…There’s always something to do. If I am going to write I am going to have to do it in spite of all the other things that come up. My conclusion is that if you want to write, if you really want to write, then you will find the time somehow. Or you will just wait until your children have grown up and left home and you’re trying to write in between the other things that will inevitably rush in to fill the space.

Wrenching my thoughts away from such early morning philosophising, I realised that Blithe Girl and Merry Girl were discussing their own literary efforts. Blithe Girl is on chapter two of her book and is concerned that she is only now introducing the villains. Merry Girl is also composing a story. An animated discussion was under way as to appropriate font size and selection because “the story is more interesting if you have a good font.”

I had never considered this aspect of my book. In fact, font isn’t an issue at all because it’s scribbled in my notebook. Now I have to think about it. I realise intellectually that good design is part of a good book, but they have the issue nailed. Perhaps I should just get them to type up and layout the book.