Synchronicity

How bizarre. I'm doing character sketches for my new book and I decided that one of them had inherited a rather nice country house, possibly in Hampshire. I've never been to Hampshire, although it felt right for this character.
The name 'Furze House' popped in to my head. I wasn't entirely sure what 'furze' was, so I checked in the dictionary and discovered that it's a type of gorse. Hmm, I wasn't sure if there were any areas of Hampshire where gorse would grow, so I googled 'furze' and 'Hampshire'. To my surprise, there's a place called 'Furze Hill'.
I read somewhere where another writer said guess first and check later and it does seem to work, just letting your mind run loose and seeing what pops in there...worked uncannily well this time, anyway!

RSPB Dummy for Margaret Atwood

Today I was out in the garden covering an old window dummy with newspaper and wall paper paste. In the background the cricket played. Live cheers from Headingley mingled with those on the radio as I plastered Dolly with paste and paper.
After several coats of newspaper, she got a couple of coats of white paper. Then she dried for a while.
As she dried, I thought about what images I'd like to put on her. I spotted the RSPB magazine and re-read the interview in it with Margaret Atwood - she's fund-raising for the RSPB when she lauches her new book in September.
So, partly in homage to Ms Atwood, and partly because the birds looked nice I began to snip them out - birds, words and some people.
I quickly began to see where each piece 'belonged' and it made me think about structure in writing, and how, once you've generated your material, each bit finds its place.... and settles down to where it belongs.
It was so satisfying creating 'Dolly', finding just the right pieces to sit perfectly on her body, and doing so has made me trust in the process of creativity....