You know the Kevin Bacon game – think of a famous actor or actress (probably film-related, but not exclusively). How many links does it take until you connect them with Kevin Bacon? Oracleofbacon.org can help or you can play it as a party game for film aficionados. (Yes, you can tell your boss it’s research, can’t you? I know I’ve just given you a great excuse not to work for a bit.)
It’s become such a familiar concept that actors can now be said to have a Bacon number: how few links does it take to the great Kev? I was thinking of this in relation to reading other people’s blogs – how many steps will you go through from blog to blog until you find one that really stands out?
I’m sure it’s something that I should think about in my day job of how to keep people reading online. But it’s interesting to see the number of new blogs I’m coming across through reading other people’s blogs. And how many I want to come back to…because the writing is good. Honest. Beautiful, at times.
I wondered to what extend the process is the same for coming up with the writing ideas in the first place. Do they just spring out? JK Rowling talks of Harry Potter walking into her mind, as it were, fully formed, on a train journey. But I’m sure that there is a process of discovery for many stories, many characters, as well as those moments when they are not so much discovered as encountered.
In the meantime, given that I’m keen to explore rather than plan my way there, it’s like being a detective, keeping my eyes and ears open, and being prepared to hail a cab at the moment that an interesting thought or character emerges…follow that thought! Because who knows what plot lines will be uncovered when we do just that.