Experiment in Writing

I’m working on something completely new; an experiment in writing. My writing, that is.

In an earlier blog I wrote that I would like to work on a short story per month, emulating the ideas put forth by another author, Dean Wesley Smith at his website. I even came up with a plot, a ghost story, with conflict and a couple of characters.

Trouble is, I could not get into the story, which has led me to a lot of thinking — what kind of writer am I? At the same time, I’m re–reading Stephen King’s little book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. He describes himself as a situational writer. In other words begin with an idea, a scene, a what-if scenario and develop from there.

All along, this — a situational writer — is what I have been, writing from a scenario and developing from there. Characters appear, insisting they have roles, one scene leads to another, theme and symbolism gradually materialize.

Which leads me back to my title, Experiment in Writing. I have a what–if: What if the ak’asha is the source of all magic, and it is leaking, threatening to end all magic in the world — in this case, of course, a parallel world and parallel continent I call Ca’ancartti (I’ll let you figure it out). What if early attempts to stop the leak had failed. What if one character who could do something doesn’t care, another doesn’t know, a third is driven by an unearned reputation and the fourth isn’t allowed to do something to stop the leaky ak’asha?

Here on this site, I’m experimenting with the voices of those characters, having some fun with them, letting them speak their minds through their blogging efforts. Each appears under the my story category with his or her own by–line. Each has concerns which I hope over the course of a few months will bring them together to address the what–if scenario I have devised, in spite of the fact that they don’t yet know it, even though they do know me.

Running along the same timeline, I am writing the actual story on my word processor. The blogs are first person. The story is third. Will I become confused? Don’t know? Will all this acting in character drive me mad? Don’t know. Will a third person — that wonderful Omniscient him/herself — fall by the wayside? Don’t know that either.

But it is an Experiment in writing I am Excited about, an Emotion I’ve been lacking in the past while I tried to be a good writer and follow all the missives and thou shalts/shalt–nots of every Tom, Dick and Harriet who has committed how–to words to paper, either the tree–type or the ‘e–type’.

Related articles

• The 5 best books for (preternatural) writers and role-players (preternaturalpost.wordpress.com)
• Subconscious Hauntings… (dragonflyscrolls.wordpress.com)
• all about Sophie (riotthill.com)

* image thanks to http://media.photobucket.com/image/writing/justpinkpastel/Writing.jpg?o=1

Century Storm

Picture Perfect

We watched with amusement as our southern east coast neighbours struggled with a huge snowstorm this past weekend. We were of course, quite smug about the whole event, since we had just endured a whopping 121 centimetres (4 feet) of fluffy snow, which broke all local records for a single storm. As you can see, from the picture at right, my hubby made a valiant attempt to clear the snow. It was overwhelming, as you can imagine.

Digging out the Car

Our neighbour about a kilometer down the road arrived with his front end loader and worked on the whole driveway a day later, for which we are very grateful, since it is very likely we would still be shoveling a week later without his help. Now that we’re cleared… gorgeous scenery, sparkling snow and intensely blue skies to frame our yard, our road and our region.

Winter Wonderland

There is something wondrous in experiencing a snowstorm, a blizzard by environmental standards, standing at the windows watching the ground whiten with heaps of snow, burying all the drabness of a cold wet November, gifting us with a bright new world. Wherever the birds have gone during such terrible weather, they return to our feeder, hungry, but as cheerful as always, chittering and chirping to let us know how pleased they are with themselves. Our cats pause at the door, wondering where their familiar landmarks have gone. We struggle with heavy boots and coats, remembering long-ago days when we tobaggoned, made snow angels and hurled snowballs at each other. Today we sit by the fire, enjoying its warmth as we watch the results of the snowfall all over the east coast just in time for the holiday season.

Read about another snow fall experience here…  How My Neighbor Saved America

Happy Season to All!

(cross-published at my Web Site)