Under the Apple Tree
Imaginary Numbers!
Child Number 1 came home from school today (He’s in Year 7) asking about imaginary numbers. I was more at home when he was two and he and I lay on our stomachs peering down between the floorboards at the little people living there! ( We were both believers.)
Today he seems completely unfazed by the concept of imaginary numbers and launched into a deep dive discussion with his grandad on the importance of establishing the square root of negative numbers and thus the need for imaginary numbers. This seems to be a thing with the maths brethren. ( You feeling fazed? Yeah, me too.)
But please note, I take full credit for the development of Child Number 1’s creative imagination! Who knew that those little people under the floorboards would be the start of an elastic mathematical brain?
PS Never imagined it would take him in this direction.
PPS Or his journey into quantum physics which also interests him. ( Signal lengthy discussion with Grandad about black holes and their nature.) Quantum physics? Now that really is a work of imagination.
PPPS I guess the point is, you can launch a sky rocket but you can’t always know where it’s going to land. It’s just important to light the fuse.
PPPPS. Stand well back and enjoy the fireworks.
The Work-Shy Layabout is one of the authors at Thumbnail Books (see if you can guess which one?) who has a great deal of useless advice to impart on the subject of getting away with doing as little as possible while enjoying the life of an independent writer. His views are not to be considered reliable financial, medical or spiritual advice.
Who-said-it?
A work-shy layabout’s musings
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My cafe office is normally the perfect place to work. I say “work”, what I mean is work my way through a pot of Earl Grey (Not sponsored, but open to offers) while doodling or scribbling a few ideas in the trusty notebook.
There’s a rich source of material among my fellow customers. Snippets of conversation, lengthy political diatribes and accidentally hilarious slips of the tongue - “I love Bath, I find it very anaesthetically pleasing.”
It’s not always a joy, however. You’ll get the hyper-focused business types who can’t even have a coffee break without multiple screens around them while barking instructions back to the office, all generously shared on speaker phone.
But even these go-getting, “give-two-hundred-percent-Lord-Sugar” types can provide some guidance on turning real life chatter into written dialogue.
When you get the chance, tune in and see if you can catch what I like to call “Cluedo conversations”.
If you’re unfamiliar with the classic board game, each player holds cards that between them reveal whodunnit, where and with what. The challenge is to find out what cards everyone else has without giving away your own.
In conversation, this is the way people speak without directly revealing what they mean. Obvious examples: “does anyone want the last biscuit?” (I want the last biscuit) “Going anywhere nice this year?” (Ask me about my holiday) “I struggle with getting the layers of butter smooth enough in my puff pastry” (I’m a proper baker and don’t buy ready made).
In writing, good dialogue should never be characters just stating their thoughts and feelings, or even worse, just expositing details of the plot. Dialogue should feel sparky and energetic, full of hidden motives, hinted intentions and surprise discoveries.
Or to put it another way, “Hello. Doctor Black was murdered by Professor Plum in the library with the candlestick” is no fun for anyone.