Segment
A segment is a piece of writing that may eventually become part of a longer piece.
The longer piece might be a short story, or might be a delivery, or might be a composition, or in some distant time be a book.
The purpose of a segment being here in the flow of story is to remind ourselves how seeds can grow, in the flow.
Scattered Writings
Entry one, 27 December 2023.
J.D.Saward
It is not often that a writer is invited to compile a History of Their Writings. Perhaps many are honoured with such an account, post-posthumously. I could not wait on that unlikely occurrence so on this morning, as 2024 is ushering out 2023, I begin.
I am not yet sure how much to make fiction and how much to keep to the facts. I can decide this later.
But where to begin? I recall the short piece I offered long ago, where the main character - I believe it was me, (or I) - begins in the middle. He is standing in a community kitchen in Holland and is tasked with tidying and cleaning a tall shelf-unit full of old and recent ingredients, and random cooking instruments, even a bamboo flute.
He turns to his supervisor and asks: "Where do I begin? At the top and work down, or at the bottom and work up?" The supervisor replies: "Start with what is in front of your face, comrade, which shelf do you see as you look straight ahead?"
The Main Man, who is me, laughs. "I see the middle shelf Stan! I will start in the middle!"
Stan laughs also and drifts away to supervise the pot washers. He calls back, "Yes, you have your answer, and thus your direction, but whatever you do don't turn it into a rule!"
[Editor's note: For FB presentation of entries, length to be +/- 250 words, white-spaced into +/- 5 paragraphs, as per layout modelling of Entry 1.]