I've been asked a few times - and all I can answer is, please be patient. I've been back a couple of weeks, and begun the process of transcribing my scribbled notes onto the computer - which sounds mind-numblingly dull, but it enables me to highlight the relevant bits and to recall little gems I might otherwise have forgotten. And delete the drivel, of course, and there's plenty of that.
Once that is done, I need to spend time thinking.
Sometimes thinking can be mistaken for faffing.
I discovered, on one trip some years ago, that not everyone understands the verb 'to faff'. It's more than procrastinating, for that can sometimes be fruitful - the kitchen floor might get cleaned, for instance, when you really ought to be writing that synopsis. Faffing is far less directed, or constructive; it is an apparently aimless mooching about which, to the casual observer, might be mistaken for wasted time. I would argue that is can be highly productive, for it is in the faffing time that ideas are allowed out to play - and if we let them be they can realign themselves without any apparent intervention for the player. We can emerge from that faffing time with a story we hadn't seen before.
Okay, I'll dignify it with the name of 'thinking.' For me, it is an essential part of the process of finding the thread to hold any travel narrative together. I can easily offer you a succession of anecdotes; but I want to do more than that - to find the idea, the story than holds it all together. Only once I know that I have a coherent story can I tell you if there will be another ebook.
But, for those of you for whom this is not enough, here is another picture. It is a handbasin, in a the loo in a little restaurant in Havana. There was no water in the tap, so it was not fit for purpose. So it doesn't matter that there's no plug. But hey ho, who needs water when you've a basin like this?
Just one small question, Jo, and I'll be patient. Did you enjoy Cuba? I haven't really had an impression of your response to the place or the people yet - except for the dancing of course!
ReplyDeleteI loved it - but it's not without its contradictions. And very different from the Far East.
DeleteI love the verb "to faff". I first heard it about eleven years ago and was puzzled. I didn't know whether the person had just worn or I had misheard the word. But no, it was "faff" and "faffing around" is good. I indulge in it sometimes. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have actually found it in a dictionary - which is, in some ways, disappointing as I love words that seem to appear like this one has.
DeleteI'm a greater one for faffing around. You take all the time you need. The trip has to swirl round in your mind for a bit until you suddenly decide on an angle and then you'll be away. Love that sink!
ReplyDeleteAh, the sink. Who need water, with a sink like that!
DeleteI can do faffing to industrial strength. Love the basin.I think one would look good gracing the ladies rest and retiring room in Hedges Towers!
ReplyDeleteI doubt if there was anything holding it onto the wall, Carol - though maybe not so easy to hide in your handbag!
DeleteIt sounds like a place where hand wipes would be useful. I am waiting patiently. Well, fairly patiently!
ReplyDeleteI love, love, LOVE all your Cuba pictures, and I really hope you come up with another book about them.
ReplyDeleteI like that word "faff", too. Some friends from South Africa have a similar word: "larf." Nice to know my favorite "doing nothing on the outside but thinking like crazy on the inside" pass time has two such lovely words to describe it.
I always thought faffing was "Pfaffing," or maybe that's just if you're sewing. Nice sink!
ReplyDelete