In this time of lockdown, one of the interesting things to note is what sorts of activities have become popular and what sorts of products are getting increased sales. And as far as I can tell, from both first and second hand evidence, one of these is jigsaw puzzles.

The second hand evidence I’m basing this presumption on is media reports. I’ve seen a number of newspaper and television stories detailing the rising appeal and consequential sales boost of these puzzles.

Zeitgeist – I love that word. I love that aura of European sophistication that it evokes (especially given that I’m as un-European-y sophisticated as you can get). I love the literal translation as well – time ghost. It summons up all sorts of images in the mind – like some sort of white shade holding up an hourglass (I know – I’m terrifyingly literal).

In the process of what passes for my career, I’ve had the good fortune to undertake a number of personality assessments. You know the ones, where you’re asked to fill out a questionnaire and then you get put into a little box that describes exactly who you are.

It’s one of the great cliches of fantasy writing. Crossing from the light side to the dark side – when a character who had previously seemed like the paragon of righteousness has a sudden change of perspective and becomes instead a paragon of evil – the classic example being the fall of Anakin Skywalker to become Darth Vader in Star Wars. Or the alternative – crossing from the dark side to the light side – the classic example also from Star Wars when Darth Vader becomes, well…, good Darth Vader (and dead Darth Vader not long after that).

One of the most commonly heard cliches you hear relating to writing is that writing a novel is a marathon not a sprint. The fact that it’s totally correct doesn’t make it any less of a cliche. But that fact that it’s a cliche doesn’t mean it should be denied either.