Shouts From Down Under

Shapeless blog

I feel reasonably certain our bean bag has a digestive system. We top it up every so often with a new bag of beans from K-Mart but it's not long before you sit on it and no matter how you move around or fluff it up, there is just no solidness to be found. No backrest, no support of your neck or shoulders.

I see there is a clear analogy here.

If humans had no bone structure, they would be just like a partially filled bean bag when you throw it on the lounge. It slumps into a flowing gravity influenced boneless blob of semi-liquid matter in a bag.

So it makes me thankful we have bones. We have a framework that gives us shape, leverage, practical usefulness and the ability to carry stuff, do things, be people, walk and live.

This does have an important point.

Writing is just like this. Well mostly, I think.

Framework. It's something that is vital and no solid plot can be built without those components similar to a building.

Foundation, stumps, joists, studs, beams, plates, noggins, trusses and bracing. Steps and stairs to carry loads to a higher plane.
Hardware pinning it all together. Glue.
Clever versatile use made of voids, difficult corners and under stair spaces. Bits cut out to let in bathtubs, shower bases, plumbing pipes, holes created for wiring, lights, power outlets and whatever else makes up the required specifications.

With some things, a good builder can possibly get away with not having and unless it's another expert, people don't notice. But other items are vital.

Such it is with writing something that should serve a certain purpose for the reader.

Some faulty workmanship can be sneakily covered over. Sheets of Gyprock wall fixings. Building insulation wrap. Corrugated iron or tiles. Sheets of whatever. Silicon. No-More-Gaps.

Perhaps this is the same with literature. But we can't afford to be complacent. I can't anyway. My mistakes stick out like an apprentices shoddy efforts. A first year or work experience school kid. (not knocking those in the necessary basics learning process ok? we have all been there, and I'm still there!)

Sparky