A few years ago I couldn't get enough of the tricky little blighters and I'd sit and ponder with a pen in my hand, dropping numbers into boxes until all 9x9 of them were complete.
Then I lost interest in the puzzles and didn't touch Sudoku for years. But recently I've found my way back into them. It started when I picked up a free copy of Metro on the bus into town and found three Sudoku puzzles inside. Three. There's an easy, a medium and a tricky one to do. I can usually do the two first ones, but not the latter. I'm not that good.
Anyway, the point of telling you this is that sitting down to solve a Sudoku puzzle has, rather oddly but most definitely, helped my short story writing.
It's working my brain in a different way.
Instead of writing and editing blog-post sized chunks of writing, Sudoku stretches my wordy brain, uncurls it. Sudoku doesn't come naturally to me, it hurts. But I stick with it.
Two recent short story submissions to women's magazines have been accepted and I'm currently waiting for them to come out in print. I've also submitted short stories to various competitions and have a list of ideas for new short stories to write.
But first, a Sudoku, to warm my brain cells up.
Deirdre: A Life on Coronation Street - official ITV tribute to a soap icon. Available here.
I'm on twitter @flaming_nora
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