This won’t buy baby a new dress

What do you do with all the bits and pieces that you write on random scraps of paper?
Yesterday, I was trying to bring some order to my study/spare room, as you couldn’t see the bed for the file paper, folders, teaching plans, half-finished novels and also bits and pieces that various relatives had been clearing out of their homes this summer.
I will give you a few examples of the aforementioned scribblings and sundry items:

• “Caramels wrapped in paper – six for penny and if you only halfpenny, you only got three”
• "She had a bad heart and she made ice-cream" (both of these are from conversations with Mum about the wee shop she remembers as a child)
• “The Farm Worker on the train”. This was a memory of a random conversation I had while on a train from Leeds to Somewhere Else while a student. I tried to make this conversation into the beginning of a thriller a few years ago but it didn’t work.
• A book review of Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman which I had clipped from a religious magazine. I keep meaning to order Binocular Vision from Amazon but haven’t got around to it.
• Train timetables
• Lists of things that I may or may not have done (because I’ve just written ‘reply to e-mail’ etc with no date)
• Lists of blogs and books that people recommended that I meant to order or look up and didn’t (see Edith Pearlman, above J)
• Notes from travelling around Ireland with my brother this summer which I keep thinking will make a good feature. However, each time I try to type them up into something breezy and factual (come to think of it, it was very breezy this summer, especially in Ramore Head, Portrush), it just ends up as a short story.
• A request from a Christian magazine to their readers for an article on Christmas presents

I suppose what this really comes down to is focus. Yes, I could go ahead and order Edith Pearlman and read all the blogs and books people have recommended. I could start yet another short story or novel based on one of the random scribblings.
However, as my mother would say, this won’t buy baby a new dress. (Not that there is a baby needing a dress just at the moment but you get my drift).

So now comes the tough part. Which blog do I choose to read regularly? Which book do I order from Amazon? Which random snippet do I choose for the beginning of the next novel or short story?

I’ll get back to you on that one.

ends/24.09.15