There once was a writer who...

There once was a writer who love writing. She spent hours with pen in hand searching for the the right words  to share the images that swam in her head. One day the naughty words would not behave and she was very sad. 

"I love writing," she said. "Why is it that writing does not always love me?" 

Now in another part of the Kingdom there was a story just waiting to be told. It was sad as it could not find a writer to help it...

I love writing! I find it hard to describe exactly what it is that I find the most satisfying; Ironically, it is one of the most elusive things to put into the written word and is is also one of the most frustrating things I try to achieve. (go figure!) Conversely, I am in complete bliss when I am staring at a completed work, the words melding into a pleasing gestalt. Life is contradictory and yet awesome at the same time. Gotta love God's sense of humour there!

It is the loneliest feeling when I am staring at a blank piece of paper, or computer screen, waiting for the inspiration to turn on the flow of words. They can be very stubborn and refuse to co-operate on many occasions. There have been a few suggested themes or subjects that have eluded me, engendering no creative spark. Most have eventually bent to my will and agreed to be written in some form or other. Some of them are still lurking in my imagination, simmering away politely but refusing to bubble over. (I will get them later!). 

Maybe I need to learn more control but generally I have to have one (just one is enough) flicker of an idea, an angle that will allow itself life. An example of this is a short story I finished yesterday. The theme  was a retelling of a fairy tale. I set to researching my childhood fairy tale compendiums (I do love the Brothers Grimm and Andersen's fairy tales) for a known but not Disney-ified tale. There were some that have always bothered me. I mean why would you marry a King who threatened repeatedly to kill you... and could you really live happily ever after under those conditions?

For a few months, I have gone back to this project using a differing fairy tale as inspiration. I went through about seven (ironically) including a werewolf as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, before settling on one. Friday, I sat down with a few versions of the tale, as reference. It would not behave in modern writing styles, so I wrote it to be read aloud, with the long flowing sentences found in many fairy tales.  Yesterday I completed editing and polishing. Finally, I was in complete euphoria when at last the words almost wrote themselves. A fairy tale only works when written as a fairy tale!

And so it was that the writer overcame all of her trials and finally found the lonely story. Together they found a joy that could not be described by the non-writers in the Kingdom.  And after only a short time, all the edits and rewrites were completed and the story had a brand new life. The writer was more happy than she had ever been. And they lived happily for the rest of their days... until the next story was due.