Following on ...

Following on from my thoughts yesterday...

I am now finishing off my last short story, for this month. 1200 words were done in my usual 'spew everything forth' method, with a few paragraphs after the introductory passage and an extra scene to fill with the remaining 800 words, I sat and did a little planning so I know the final direction of the piece. This has been a much more enjoyable process. 

Thursday, I was hoping the words didn't run dry. I managed to fill in the early paragraphs, setting the scene a little more. I was reasonably happy with the outcome. Last night (as is often)  that missing scene started forming itself (when I was brushing my teeth!) I have a small notebook by the bed that now has a paragraph or two, with notes. This is what I faced on Friday.

By lunch I had filled both 'holes' in the story, with an initial word count of 1915 words. After an intial proof reading, two rewrites, more proof reading, some editing and typo corrections, the final story Fashioned in Black was ready to post. One day before the postal deadline. 

This was a much more comfortable and more enjoyable write. I have a feeling of satisfaction and achievement that I did not get with the last story. This week has been an interesting experiment and I have discovered more about my writing processes, the genres I prefer to write and why I write. I have found that I have to write what I love; if I was forced to write something that I cannot put my heart into, the whole process is torture rather than a fun challenge. 
And then what would be the point.

TGIF!

Thank God its Friday!
It has been a long week with frustration, procrastination and achievement in so many areas. My alter ego paid work has been very stressful but it looks like this is slowly improving.

The biggest frustration has been my lack of decision making about the background colour for the original scrolls I need to be finished by the end of the month. Whether it be in decision making or its ability to compound the fear of failure, lack of confidence is possibly the most destructive force in my life. I have been struggling with this over the past 8 months due to ongoing paid work stress. 

During this time, my photography has provided instant satisfaction on the days where I needed the knowledge and psychological sense of completion. Creating is something I often fall back on when I am feeling anxious. It provides an outlet that gives a more immediate result and taps my artistic brain. It is here that I usually have the most confidence. 

I have struggled with a mini writers' block this week. I am in the middle of writing two short stories. I have completed the first draft of one and discovered that I have another 1000 words to play with. While it is complete as is, it could do with some more meat on its bones! The other story was mentioned earlier this week. I am  on my third draft of that segue into the new scene. The words have refused to play nicely. At least, I have been able to flesh out the form and plot of the story so, when the words do behave, I know what I am aiming for. 

There has been some success in the writing field however. Several months ago, I wrote a children's picture book story (minus the pictures so far) called If I Were a Dragon. Today, I managed to compose enough confidence, gaining the strength to enter it into a Writer's Festival competition specifically for Picture book manuscripts. Wish me luck! 

When I Am Not Writing...

I have an idea for a short story, a little less fantasy/speculative fiction than I normally write but today I had problems getting the words to flow. I did manage 645 out of maximum of 2000 words so I have got  a start on it. There is just this segue scene.... 

So I took a break to let them muddle about, in my head, and see if they will come out to play tomorrow. 

My break  consisted of  some arty stuff and some garden-y stuff. 

Firstly, I tried out some new designs for Octoarm jewelry. Right now I have two new purple necklaces ($15+postage each). I have almost finished two sets of necklace with matching earrings. One set in purple and the other in red. I also made up some new bookmarks in red, green and blue.

Then some gardening: We had an old twenty-year old golden diosma bush in the front yard. Over this past (very hot) summer, it died. Since then, it has been a large, brown eyesore welcoming everyone's arrival at our house. Yesterday, we decided it had to finally go. (This photo was taken at 9.00 pm so is very dark...) My husband assisted me in digging it out.

This was no an easy task as we had to coax out all of the roots and then do a modern archeological dig to find the water pipes. We had previously 'dialed before we dug' so knew roughly where they should have gone. The information supplied, however, is not very detailed so today we returned to the scene of the crime and just kept digging along the pipe to ascertain its path. Luckily, it was in the opposite direction to our preferred place for the new lemon tree that will replace it!

The next step is to dig in buckets of old manure and compost and let it settle for a few weeks before we go shopping for a new dwarf lemon tree!!

Have a productive day, dear readers!

The Rule of Three

Publishing this manually... and late... sorry. I had tried the automatic publishing but it did not work... again.

There once was a young girl who read lots of books. She particularly loved fantasy and fairy tales - traditional, modern and futuristic. She dreamed of one day becoming a writer as she longed to create some of her own magic and share it with friends, family and everyone else. 

After many years of denying her passion, she finally started writing again. She wrote from the heart, she wrote often and researched in an effort to improve her writing. 

One day she came across an article entitled 'The Rule of Three' and realised excitedly that she had been doing it!

What is the rule of threes? 

In writing, the rule of three is based on the principle 'that things that come in threes are inherently more satisfying, funnier and more effective than other numbers.' (Wikipedia)

You can find it in traditional fairy tales-  Goldilocks and the Three Bears, three dogs in The Tinder box and Rupelstiltskin who spins straw into gold three times. You can find it in the classics - the three ghosts of Past, Present and the Future in A Christmas Carol, and the three witches in McBeth and in the Welsh Triads. In rhetoric, public speaking and adverting we can find many famous quotes encompass the rule of threes: 

• Friends, Romans and countrymen..
• Slip, Slop, Slap (Australian anti-cancer campaign)
• Veni Vidi Vinci (I came, I saw, I conquered) 

One of my favourites that comes to mind is the movie (and theme): The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

A story works best with a beginning, a middle and an end. Plays often have three acts for the same reason. A setting is established, tension is created and finally the story is resolved. In comedy you have the set up, anticipation and the punchline. In public speaking, it re-enforces a point and makes it more memorable.  

Maybe we are conditioned to respond to the grouping with its pervasion into our cultural heritage? (Or not.) We have come to subconsciously expect things to happen in threes. it seems to re-enforce a point and make a story feel more complete. It takes a minimum of three things to create a pattern (which explains why I subconsciously put three incidents in most of my stories!). It is simple, it is effective and it works.

"Cool!" exclaimed the girl, as she continued to write and write and write. 

Onward and Upward.

Friday, I spent most of the day doing final edits to  An Eye for Detail. How many times can I read and re-read a story and find more typos, sentences to rewrite or silly mistakes? Well, more than I would have hoped, actually. This is the frustrating and less glamourous task in writing. This is where I really find out if I actually like my characters. This one is a keeper; she will be returning in other short stories I am certain. I am not sick of her as yet. 

I have now read the story about fifteen to twenty times ( I actually lost count) and my proof-reading for the week has read it about seven, including four times just today! I think he is a bit 'over it' as well. Each time, he found errant commas, missed words or doubled up words (I was getting tired when I last re-worked it). My favourite was one of the main characters greeting the other with "Good morning," when it was actually in the late afternoon. Hmmm... that was corrected promptly. 

On the penultimate pass, I decided that those few sentences that had been really annoying me, as they did not quite track, were toast! I rewrote them and finally I am at peace with them. Interestingly, my proof reader had mentioned that there was something nagging him but he could not quite pin it down. On the final read through, he admitted that it was no longer an issue; I then told him about the rewrite (just a couple of words changed and re-shuffled). "Ah!" was the response. 

So, that was my exciting Friday. Polishing up a short story. While I still think it is not perfect (I never do), it is at a point where I had to either send it off for judging or ditch it and rewrite the entirety. For better or for worse, it is done. I faced my fear of rejection; It has been sent and now I can rest while my brain subconsciously tries to find another scene to add to my next short story...

Onward and upward.

Organising and Collating and Tigers - oh my!

I have so much on my plate right now. I have 3 commissions - all in the creative phase, one short story on final edits, three independant ideas, two short stories I am hoping to finish in this month, up to four next month, as well as two scrolls for my re-enactment group. Time for some slowing down and organising what needs to be done by when...

Now an hour later and I have a list of competitions and magazine 'call' deadlines that I would like to complete. There are twelve in all. Eek! They vary from one thousand to five thousand words in preferred length. As I mentioned yesterday, I have three story ideas already on the boil. Two are independent of the above list. The real challenge is to come up with something fresh and new for each individual story. Though I really love the open themes, I like the challenge in creating a story to a set theme. This could actually prove useful with the number of stories I wish to attempt over the past few months. 

Though not as gut-wrenching as the book culling process or the story editing process, I have had to make some decisions today. Gone (for now) is a story I have been looking forward to. It will not fit any of the soon -to-be-due themes and I will definately need longer than the allotted word limit for the others. However, the idea will continue to bubble in the background so all is not at a loss for it. One competition I would like to enter, may not happen. It is one of the longer ones (at up to five thousand words) but is due at the end of the month. I have an idea for it but if I cannot get it finished, edited and polished in time, I will not enter it. As this is an annual competition,  I can always work on it for next year. 

After a hiatus, I can also finally get cracking at two original design scrolls. I have mentioned these in a previous blog, in April, but had to wait until some details were finalised. Now that they have been, I can continue. However, I will need to find a light table that I can borrow, or use the 'old tape on the window on a sunny day' trick. Look for future posts on guache, calligraphy and ink work in the near future. I have three weeks to complete this project. The design work is done so it is just a matter of applying it. 

The tigers?

They could appear in one of the short stories I have planned... but that would be telling... 

Writing is not always glamourous.

Yesterday I managed one thousand words toward my current short story. With distractions and procrastination, I am happy with this accomplishment.  I hope the remaining five hundred word restriction will be enough to wrap it all up in a neat bow. It is not always easy to construct stories bound by a specific word limit. Usually, I let the characters write themselves. Sometimes they behave themselves and the story is completed in the allotted allowance. Sometimes not.

I have already heavily edited the first section of the story and culled  unnecessary dialogue and descriptions.   (Inner monologues can be useful sometimes). Some really badly constructed sentences are gone! They were useful, at the time, to get the plot idea on the page .. but hopefully they will never been seen by humam eyes again!  I edited yesterday's work and will review this section again with fresh eyes, possibly next week. Undoubtedly it will need more editing.

For now, I have just to wrap up the conclusion (already have basics on this), revisit two of the plot points and re-edit. I am sure I will need to lose some dialogue or possibly some description, depending on how long the conclusion is. We shall see. There is quite a bit more polishing left on this one. Hence I am now on the computer, transcribing some handwritten notes.

Today, I am taking a break and attending some May the Fourth Be With You celebrations.  We have all donned our Star Wars t-shirts (with a predilection for the Dark Side, it seems) and will be off to Burnside Library. Sean Williams is doing a reading. Maybe there will also be a little Free Comic Book Day shenanigans as well! After yesterday, I am feeling productive...

May the Force be with you.

The Smells of Reminiscence

While driving home yesterday, I was reminded of school days spent on the lunch time grass area where we used to look for four leaf clovers. That patch of grass was riddled with them. My record was fourteen, in one sitting. What triggered this reminiscence? I was driving, past the local community park. The car window was down and the caretaker was mowing the grass. 

I absolutely relish the smell of cut grass. It smells of a warm Autumn afternoon, the birds singing in the trees, while I sip a calming cup of tea - especially after it rains.  It is an afternoon pottering in the garden. It is school sports days and picking the freshly cut grass from the tread in my sneakers. It is the scent wafting over the front yard when my grandad mowed the grass - comforting, fresh and irristable. It is so many childhood memories conveyed in molecules drifting on the wind. Thank goodness, I am not allergic to grass pollen!

When I used to work, in the city, I drove past the Torrens Park gardens that followed the river (actually the size of  a small creek most of the time) specifically to smell the freshly cut grass. I would wind down the car window, and breathe deeply to draw in the copious amounts of air, maximizing the effect! The gardeners were diligent and regularly mowed it in sections,  so I got my fix on most days of the week.

The science nerd, in me, did some researching. Apparently the molecules, creating the smell of cut grass, are produced when the grass is actually injured. Studies have been made on other plants, such as tobacco, which undergoes a chemical change in compounds produced, when attacked by hornworm caterpillars (their saliva!). The modified compounds attract a predatory insect which attacks the larva of the caterpillars. It has been theorised that grass may produce chemicals, when it is cut, to protect itself, possibly with anti-microbial action.

What price the glorious smell of reminiscence?

I live in two conflicting worlds. The scientist in me craves information and facts. I know why the moon looks larger when near the horizon. I know why we get beautiful sunsets (the ones in Queensland after the Java volcano were the most glorious I have seen). I know why grass produces such a delightful and familiar smell. The artist in me relishes the beauty and wonder of the world's wonder - the colours, the sounds and the smells and the memories they produce. (and logically, we need to cut the grass to keep the snakes away)

For now, I will just sit back and open the door, while our neighbour mows his lawn, and smell one of my favourite aromas in creation. 

The makings of an almost period Patent of Arms.

I call it an 'almost period' Patent of Arms, as it this is almost like an unpaid commission for an individual, playing at re-creating Medieval and Renaissance times, living in a modern world. They have modern ideas and sensibilities. They have not grown up in the past, with all of the the ideas and cultural references that would have been everyday, say in the 1400s. So no matter how much I wish to recreate a perfectly accurate Award Scroll, by definition I am starting with a conundrum. A scroll is a rolled piece of parchment. What I am recreating is a modern document suitable for framing, to celebrate an achievement in a modern-day club, in the style of a six hundred plus old piece of scribe work. 

Yet, despite this, I find the whole process very fulfilling. Deciding on a style and designing and then creating, a homage to it. Firstly, I like to get an idea of the recipient, the colours they favour, any favourite images or totems (animals or plants etc), and whether they have a preferred era they like to 'play in'. This can cover from early, say Saxon, to late Elizabethan.   I need to get the feel of the form of the images, the layout, the colours and style of writing (calligraphy). This can only be done by looking at as many different versions that I can find.  Like most of my artistic ventures into a modern 'scroll' or 'patent of arms', it starts with research. Lots of research. 

Yesterday, I flipped  through a pile of my calligraphy/ illumination books and a few copies of Books of Hours, that I have at hand. I also trolled through the internet, trying to find a specific picture, that I KNOW I had seen somewhere. I did not find the specific one I was thinking of, but did find some adequate substitutes to get me started.

This project does have a few constraints, one of which is that it needs to be done in a short time. For this reason, I have decided to make it smaller than I usually do. Thus, I do not have to rush to fill a larger space. I would not be happy having to rush the painting portion as this is my favourite part and I do want to give my best effort for the recipients. This  also means that the calligraphy portion will cover less area - a bonus - as this does require more effort on my part. The standard script/wording also requires truncating, due to the smaller space available. This is still a work in progress.

The day ended with a definite size and basic layout which now requires a decision on the final decoration. The colours are mostly decided upon. I have sent a draft of the shorter version of the wording, after some help of friends, with possible translations.

I leave you with the layout and will elaborate, at another time, when more progress has been made on this project.

Wicked Words!

There are some really cool words in the English language! Some have a sound that describes the word itself, perfectly. 

Orb: One of my favourite sounding words is orb; such a short word, sounding much larger than the three letters imply. For me, it conjures up the image of something very round and complete. Spherical  just doesn't cut it; it is a larger, awkward sounding word. Three syllables make it sound spikey and irritating. With orb, I feel like it implies (a round, spherical object or globe); it rolls around on my tongue, continuing round the other side, in an never-ending roll. It is possibly one of my  most favourite of words. 

Untoward: Another uncommonly used word these days but I use untoward a lot. One of my favourite phrases is 'nothing untoward'. The definition of untoward is 'improper, unexpected, in appropriate, inconvenient, difficult to work with or control or unruly (another really great word!) However none of these really sound as cool as untoward. It sound so Victorian - like someone is telling me off for 'untoward behaviour'. I know I have done something inappropriate (which sounds a little cumbersome in comparison), or even downright unruly, but how can I get annoyed about it when it was described in such a proper and polite sounding way? There is absolutely nothing untoward sounding about the word, untoward.

Flabbergasted: This is such a descriptive sounding word, meaning to be overcome with astonishment, surprise or bewilderment, astounded or possibly even appalled.All of these  connotations (another great word, by the way) are embodied by this one word. Flabbergasted almost sounds like it is being spat out in exasperation. It creates an image of the 'flabbergastee' standing there indignantly waving around her arms, in astonishment. The very word, almost sounds like it is making fun of itself! 

Vivid: It does what its definition promises and evokes strong feelings or images in the mind. It is an 'in yer face' word - sharp, crisp and to the point. Vivid  is a word full of excitement and colour. In my mind, vivid  is definately red in colour, with a tinge of orange and yellow licking its edges! 

And finally balderdash! What a bomb of a word! It sounds like an expletive... but polite. I feel like I almost have to say it, while holding back the snicker that inevitably is associated with it (when I say anyway). My eyes just pop with the whole possibility of getting away with saying a word that sounds like one of 'those naughty words' that usually would end up with my mum washing my mouth out with soap. Originally, in the sixteenth century, it was apparently used to describe a frothy liquid associated with shaving. These days, it describes a senseless jumble of words. So really, it still means 'froth' and sounds like it too.

Language is evolving. With twitter and texting necessitating clipped words and sentences, changing our language to convey 140 characters per post, are we losing some of the beauty of the English language? Will we lose our ability to think and express ourselves in intricate and interesting ways or be restricted in our philosophies and thoughts, as in George Orwell's 1984? 

Is it not old fashioned to enthuse about such spiffing words as orb. There is nothing untoward about using the words untoward or vivid. I am flabbergasted that so many words are dropped from the English Dictionary, every time is revised. Some wonderful words are being lost. However, I will continue to have fun with the English language.