Art therapy...

I had a breakthrough earlier this week - drawing my story instead of trying to write it.

The story that has been in my head for so long - years - for some reason just wasn't gelling. I couldn't make it sit right or make any headway every time I sat down to tackle it.
So I followed the advice of my wise old friend in Africa, put the pen down for a few days and let it mull away in my unconscious mind.
And then it came to me, my story. It's quite different, but not entirely, from my original direction - so goodbye perplexion and hello excitement!
The ideas came as imagery rather than exact words, so to capture my muddle of thoughts before they evaporated, I got out the textas and mapped out my characters through pictures.
And it's coming together, albeit in bits and pieces. I'm figuring out how the characters are connected and the way they interact through mapping their personalities in pictures. When I get stuck on structure or credibility, I go back to the pictures and it starts making sense again. It starts to flow.
See mum and dad - maybe all that mess I made as a kid with pens and paints and oil pastels will be worth it after all!