turning

It's autumn, and leaves are on the turn. I took this photo of an Acer (I think) in my favourite park. It's definitely responding to the shorter daylight hours and cooler temperatures and is on the turn, changing into its autumn apparel. As the tree withdraws the supply of chlorophyll from the leaves, the green colouring that that chemical provides slowly recedes, and it happens by degrees along the length of a branch. So, the leaves on the outer tips of the branches can be the bright red seen in the photo, while the next set of leaves further up the branch can be part red, part green, and the leaves closest to the trunk retain, for the moment, their bright green colouring. This is Autumn arriving slowly; leaves turning by degrees.

This coming Sunday, the last in October, here in the UK, we'll turn the clocks back by one hour. Always an adventure in time, and space, when this happens. The change officially marks the end of British Summertime, and the beginning of winter, at least psychologically. The nights draw in, the temperature drops, and the leaves fall along with them. Jumpers, coats, hats and scarves are all pulled out of storage, and I, at least, turn away from salads in favour of soups for dinner.

Other habits and inclinations start to change too. With less time spent out of doors I think about indoor pursuits. I'm making lists of films and TV shows to catch up on. My tbr list of books suddenly lengthens along with the hours I have available to sit and read. But the biggest change is that I find my mind turning to writing again.

Experience has taught me that I write very little during the brighter months of the year, and that if I'm going to settle to any writing project then it's going to happen during the autumn and winter, during the darker months. I don't know why this should be but I'm not going to fight it. I have a story that I've been living with for a couple of years. I have a notebook full of, well, notes about it; characters, events, scenes. Much of the work on this was done at a one day writing workshop I attended last year. For my attendance fee, I got a desk, a chair, and as much tea as I could drink, and as many biscuits as I needed, plus lunch. Also, there was a lot of encouragement in the room, from the other writers/attendees, and the organisers - Writers' HQ (WHQ). The basic idea was that we took along a project we wanted to work on and were given the time, the space, and the biscuits, to fuel our creativity. I came home with three scenes that I'd worked on. Rough drafts, of course, but the results convinced me that I wanted to spend more time with the characters I'd created and the story that they were involved in. Because if you're not prepared to spend hours/days of your life with these characters, then you're setting yourself up to be pretty miserable for a pretty long time. I like my characters, they interest me, I'd like to tell their story, and I've committed myself to spending more time with them. So, I've spent some time over the past few days, typing up all my notes, scenes, dialogue, character beats that I wrote during that workshop, and I intend to spend more time, in the coming weeks, fleshing them out. The season has turned, the clocks will soon follow, and my mind has turned towards writing again.

 Photo is the author's own