A Distraction.

I was traveling into town on the District line, trying to work out a scene for the second draft of Laika. It’s a scene that I’d been thinking about and thumbnailing various versions of for days and I just couldn’t get it right. The dialogue seemed overblown and just, well, wrong, so I thought I’d think about it while on the move. This, in my experience, makes one less creatively constipated because there’s just so much to meditate upon and enjoy. The Universe usually presents you with the answer in something that you see. It can be quite accommodating, like that.

But it still wasn’t really happening, so I drew the two old ladies sitting opposite. Then I got distracted by a very cute, big black girl who got on wearing a grey and white mohair sweater and matching hat. You can tell I got distracted, because the second granny’s face is totally missing apart from her eye sockets. Works rather well though, for some reason.

Shortly thereafter, the dialogue for the scene just cohered. I’m telling you, it was that girl in the mohair jumper that jumpstarted it. The Universe does these things for you, if you let it. The deal is, you have to pass the secret on. So that’s what I’m doing.