Research—or Possible Side-Quest

As soon as someone admits to me that they want to write, I point out that there one single action that writers do, and which nobody else does: they write.

You want to write? Write! Like everybody offering unsolicited advice, I'm pretty awesome at suggesting solutions.  

​As for following my own recommendation?

Erm.

Why yes, I constructed that rather large ball from grapevines. I offer no reasons.

​If my house is clean, and there's a complicated meal in the oven, and I have reorganized the books or weeded all the gardens, let's just say as a writer, there's room for improvement.

Since I'm working mostly for myself (and you, dear readers) these days, I go easy on my work shortcomings.  

​Distractions are merely side-quests. 

Yeah, no, I don't know what I'm going to do with the rather large, albeit decorative globe.

In the novel that I'm trying to finish right now, (or is it a novella? It's a lot shorter than She Taught Me Everything but okay) one of the characters spins wool and linen. The story's set in a pre-Industrial world where there's magic, but she's often to be found spinning away.

Do I know how to spin wool or linen? Do I need to know? Pffft! I make up shi—ooh! There's a CLASS!

Just so happens I bought a plastic sack including some wool and a spindle last year at the thrift store. One human's trash is another person's back-up hobby supplies.

Add in a pleasant day spent in the company of an enthusiastic teacher (thanks Julia at the Thousand Islands Arts Center!) I now, as have our ancestors for thousands of years, can use a drop-spindle to make wool yarn. 

Spinning wheels are SO 17th Century...Copyright-free image from the British Museum.

The process of making fiber behave is not unsimilar to making twine from nettles or willow. Missed that craze? here's my link: http://www.amysmithlinton.com/blog/paleo-crafts

Spinning can be pretty lo-tech: a hank of wool, a stick, and within moments, you create a fluffy bit of innovation. Kind of like magic, really.

Or like writing...