Motivations, Inspirations, Imaginations…And Characters. A Journey Care Less and Content

Posted on 28th Apr 2022 by deteremineddespitewp

Strolling

Foreword

You know how it goes. You have this idea for a topic, and you start off. Then some allied aspect else occurs to you, which begs to be added on, which in turn leads you off down an interesting lane and somehow the original topic is behind you, round a bend somewhere and you are there, scratching you’re head wondering ‘So?… How did I get here?’

The intention was to write about World Building and how the one which formed out of my work was a place I liked to revisit, just to be there. Then the theme became something else. Here was another writer wandering through This, That and The Other. For no other reason than ‘Just Because’….

The books which are part of the post are not mentioned because there is no intention to publicise them. You’ll find enough information in earlier posts. The subjects of this post are creativity, inspiration and motivations. Anyway back to that start…

The Beginning

Sometime ago I promised myself ‘Tone down on the politics. Concentrate on the writing. Be at one with your creativity,’………………..

The next day……

Back on the soapbox or picking fights on Facebook. Will I ever learn?

Learn what? To desensitise myself against thing which get under my skin? Remove some part of me?

Well, maybe not picking on an easy FB target and ridiculing them. Maybe ‘They had it coming. Taste of their own medicine. See how they like it,’ Are not worthy and mature reasons, perhaps those sentiments border on excuses. Weighing down someone’s ‘one liner’ with three paragraphs of International Relations Theory and History? Maybe that’s showing off a bit. Overkill much?

I tell myself my political and social comments should be addressed to Word Press where generally the standard of debate is higher.

The fact, though, the political part of me, is one reason why I write fiction as I do; the challenge being to try and tone down the preachiness. A character sounding off on some political issue in the middle of an action episode sounds ‘odd’. A lesser character taking up half a chapter on observations on an injustice just spoils the narrative and detracts from the plot.

Yet there is nothing wrong with placing your opinions or views in a narrative, the characters will let you know if they think you’ve been too wordy. Those lesser characters’ two or three lines of conversation will suit just as well.

On reflection my views were one of the driving forces and at the same time a bit of a challenge to fit in neatly. I loathe the latent misogyny trying to slither back into our cultures. Thus was more than happy with Three Strong Women characters appearing. Prejudices on the grounds of race, religion, adult consensual choices tend to be a red flag, so those who embrace any or all of these prejudices would truly hate my trilogy. Sometimes a mischievous part of me nurtured on Facebook would snigger while whispering ‘If anyone hates this part. Good…they got it coming,’.

Another motivation and this is not criticism just personal taste, I did not wish to read anymore grimdark or ‘gritty’. The real world had enough of that for me. Happy endings and good folk running rings around bad folk was my intention.

In addition is a little fantasy of the whole trilogy being on a public forum where I would wait for the inevitable feeble whinge that is it is all ‘woke’, whose users are such easy targets…. (Ah but there I go again. Looking for confrontation)

Yet as I go treading into more dangerous and delicate yet related ground; it has been an observation that there is more than one way to receive criticism or even ire for portrayals of characters outside of your own social, ethnic, political, belief system grouping. This observation, and the word is stressed comes from reading commentary from those whose group is portrayed, in a sympathetic or positive light and yet is perceived by the commentator as not being the correct portrayal. My own conclusion is in this fraught world where colonialism, in the European sense has died out and the old Cold War alignments disintegrated and social norms are altering it is for many people or peoples essential their group are portrayed accurately and in a balanced, mature context. Of course my get out clause being; ‘These books take place in a Fantasy World. Not this one,’, though human natures being what they are it is unlikely this response would be seen as satisfactory. Never mind… ‘You can’t win them all,’ . And anyway folks this is a world of my characters and they led me through allowing me to explore (or was that witness?) all manner of the possibilities.

Characters eh?

One advantage, or salutary warning is once you let your characters in on the act and they start to influence you, the pace of writing picks up until the creative or speculative processes reach a velocity which leaves all caution behind. In a very paradoxical, maybe cussed mood, the lack of sales encouraged me and them onwards. We reached the ‘What The Heck’ Stage, followed by ‘C’mon Rog’. We just have to go this way, you know parts of the back story have been building to this. Remember the sub-text kiddo,’. This of course led to other directions for taking the main narratives too.

Maybe the final result would seem to some a vainglorious mash-up of genres, sub-genres and styles. And there would be no argument from me. In my defence this is what happens when the driving forces within you set the imagination in movement and in turn you feel confident enough to let the narrative take control.

Should the whole work come to public attention and there is consequential criticism of the plot line, characters and result, let it be so.

For I had far too much fun putting the whole together to regret. (apart from those stupid persistent typos and a few instances of getting the names wrong- sometimes you can be too indie).

And now I am learning restraint and economy on a monthly Blog Battle*, which is as much fun being very instructive, while keeping my interaction of Face Book to a minimum.

BlogBattle

https://bbprompt.com/

Just One Writer’s Statement…That’s All

Posted on 25th Mar 2021 by deteremineddespitewp

Placeholder Image

I should be looking through my friends’ blogs and reading of their views, adventures and interludes. I should be reading the news and keeping abreast of the miseries that torment others. I should be….. (you fill in the gaps, they are probably very similar to mine)

I should be writing something about the current state of the nation and world from various perspectives. There again I should be writing something about the creative spirit or maybe some other aspect of the craft of writing.

AND

There are the chores when need attending to, now that my breakfast is finished (8.30 GMT 25^th March 2021. UK). (Well, that was when it was started)

YET

Reflection stills and then diverts me to write this…which has come from a frequently visited place on the map of my Writer’s World, wherein stands a temple dedicated to Creativity and from which tolls one clarion bell, a steady simple peel.

There again perhaps inspiration to write this comes from the small bird perched on the guttering of our roof and singing its Spring Time Anthem of ‘Here I Am’. However, the image of a wolf howling out across the still landscape does have its attractions.

SO.

Three volumes. 600,000 + words. Fantasy Adventure. Independent minds. Comradeship. Humour. Romance. Acceptance. Upbeat. The Positive and Constructive Wins Out. Villains cast down.

AND when the final re-write is completed having hunted down most of the typos, the syntax tidied up and the continuity ironed out.

ALL will be well.

What happens after?

Why, the ship sets sail. I was but the shipwright.

Sailing Ship

But I love my craft.

Post-Completion Gliding

Posted on 18th Oct 2020 by deteremineddespitewp

Autumn is a good time to complete a book upon which I had but one certain intention and that was a feel-good happy ending. In my part of the world when as season grows there is a stillness settling in.

What is done, is done, time to reflect on accomplishments and what may be ahead

In my case, this will be waiting for the cover and Kindling away. Then re-editing and nudging at Volumes I & II so the whole fits together.

I have been posting on this and normally I would enter a link but Word Press seems currently incapable of doing this once simple act……

So to move on to another related topic.

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of sticking with your writing. Once you have reached the stage where you can admit to yourself that you wish to write, be it to name a few: fact, fiction, observations, poetry, then you should strive to continue, otherwise you will forever be unsettled. Of course not for everyone the writing path, however once a writer, embrace this with a resolve and an intention to write.

There is this theme which surfaces which suggests the only writing worth anything is the writing read by noticeable numbers of readers. And of course we would all like to have a large audience. Sometimes though this is not to be, there will be a variety of reasons and I will not try and list them, for doing that can be misinterpreted that these reasons are actually shortcomings on the writer’s behalf. This reasoning is flawed. Throughout History making one’s views known has always been a struggle, be it because of status, lack of resources and in this day and age the fact that the Public Place is awash with Ways & Means to announce, preach, amuse, inform, misinform and so on. Getting known is difficult, competitive as well; in this there are shallow folk who achieve this by being notorious or outrageous and when you analyse it nothing else and that’s commercially driven because these attention getters are another source of revenue for the Media Systems who are only too happy to use them, until they get too toxic, then bye-bye Yesterday’s Clown.

To return then to the clearer air of writing just Because. Recognition is nice and should not be avoided, but it should not be the measuring stick. The important facet, the very centre of your reason to write, is simply:

You write because you want to

Beyond that, all is consequence. You may attract readership, you may not. You may remain a writer in the shadows, one of millions. Yet what is wrong with this? A brief scan at any Cosmology site will reveal unto you, breath-takingly vast numbers of galaxies which each, themselves contain numbers of stars so vast as to be beyond normal comprehension. And if you are fortunate to be somewhere not bothered by light-pollution you will glimpse a fraction of those stars.

Thus shine on You Writer. One star in the firmament. No matter what else, you are there, and your light is part of a glorious patchwork of Human Creativity.

Musings on Writing- You Should Always…. 2

Posted on 25th Mar 2020 by deteremineddespitewp

You should always…

Upon receiving a rejection maintain a dignified air

Vintage engraving of a victorian era professor or schoolmaster reading a book.

True, there is nothing wrong in a small private release and annoyance

Royalty-free vector clipart of a little girl dressed in orange and pink, sticking her tongue out while holding a doll.

Upon receipt of that rejection notice….

You might even indulge in a modest amount of arrogant dismissal of the opinions voiced there in….

(Women writers are advised not to don a moustache and beard while doing this as it detracts from the overall aura of that most devestating of weapons……female distain)

However once the disappointment and annoyance are out of your system…

Tricycle 1

And you have returned to equilibrium

Remember this:

Behind every successful writer are editors who rejected their work and would now rather not be reminded of it

Musings on Writing- Don’t You Love It When….1

Posted on 24th Mar 2020 by deteremineddespitewp

Don’t you love it when…

Happy

There you were fully aware you have to do this piece of dialogue linking one part of the narrative with another while adding depth to the relationship of two characters, and you only have a slender thread of an idea to work with.