The world we live, or read, in.

I love to get transported to a new world, so when I began on my fantasy, I had great fun creating my character's new environment. Today, I read the post, The Importance of World building Uncreated Conscience and was reminded of several of my favorite "new worlds."

Memoirs of a Geisha, Girl With a Pearl Earring, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are all favorites for me. I think we all tend to enjoy escaping our lives for a good read or movie.

JJ says:

...what makes a work of fiction with great worldbuilding stand out is the
implicit understanding the writer creates about the values of the society in
which the novel is set.

I think this is a major part of world building and is a good place to start building. Without consciously thinking about it being a basis of the world, my whole "what if" idea for Moon Tree Brothers is based on a conversation, or argument actually, wherein it was said that we just had a "difference of opinion in child rearing."

From this grew a world of dragon men, dwarfs and fairies, all dedicated to protecting children, and magical electrical energy that we are depleating by our increasing violence. They work to erase the 'Unknown Darkness' that is affecting the world we live in. They would like to do it without violence, but is that possible?

Wednesday's with Writer's Journal - Ideas

Okay, if you really want to get technical about this, it is Thursday. So shoot me! It has become more important to work on my edit than on my blog. This is a good thing and I am sure you will all understand.

With both the Journal, for January 2nd (still not going in order) and my edit in mind, the question for today is: Where do your ideas come from?

I think we all know that anything in our life can turn up in our writing. My current project was inspired by my grandson’s lives and the issue they deal with from their past home life. Prior to coming to live with us, these three boys were living in a radical home, were barely, or in the case of one, not home educated, they worked a man’s job from a young age and the abuse ranged from just plain weird to horrific.

In attempting to interest the thirteen year old into learning to read, I let him watch the first two Harry Potter movies. He loved them and he related to Harry. All those Dursley’s had their equivalent in his previous home. When he asked me to buy the third movie, I told him I would do so after we read the books. So, we set off on a journey to catch up. I would read a chapter at night and he would haltingly read a paragraph. He would often ask for a second chapter. He was enthralled with Harry's world. Three books letter and we purchased movie three. By the end of the series he was reading chapters.

I cannot take all the credit for this. He is a bright kid and the public school system worked hard to catch him up. But, watching these boys deal with all the educational and psychological issues they have, from their past life, is what is inspiring my book. Plus, okay, I admit it, I miss reading to him each evening.

The tv was turned off and everyone at home would listen. So, it was a nice family entertainment. I tried getting him involved in Terry Pratchett’s books but, he is on to sixteen year old entertainment now and cell phones and girls seem to take more of his time. His twenty-one year old brother loves them and got me reading them, it is just not the same.

I am way off topic here, as I tend to do when I talk about these boys. But, they are an inspiration for me.

Writing Dreams

I have worked on my current book for almost three years now. Since I have vibrantly realistic dreams, I find it odd that I have not dreamed anything for my book.

I have spent hours searching for the perfect name for some of my characters. (Be patient. I will link these two paragraphs in a minute) I was reading Pollyanna and the Random Weirdness of Baby Names « Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom's blog on the Random Weirdness of Baby Names and came across several potentially interesting sites for name generators.

I had to try the Harry Potter name generator Rum and Monkey: The Name Generator Generator, just because I love Harry Potter. But, alas, I turned out to be Hermione. Just between you and me, I think all women turn out to be Hermione. (Personally, I think all women must turn out to be Hermione in this exercise.) I may have been like Hermione in many ways when I was ten, but I am far from her now.

(The connection with those paragraphs will happen now. Just in case you do not get it.) That night, I dreamed I was Hermione and in a huge house and it did tend to go on and on pointlessly. Much as this blog is beginning to do.

Here's the thing. I have had dreams about Nicholas Cage about six times. I have dreamt about the Harry Potter world numerous times. I have actually had several dreams that were in the range of foretelling. But, I cannot get myself to have a dream about my book. Even though it is often the last thing I do, read, and think about.

I am just thankful I did not dream about my Indie Band Name:Rum and Monkey: The Name Generator Generator Silver Alligator Strange Castle.

Wednesdays with "The Aspiring Writer's Journal"

Wednesday may become “The Aspiring Writer’s Journal” day.

Today’s assignment is, because all writing is good practice:

“What would you like to never end?”

And, no, you are not allowed to say life. That’s what the book says, anyway. Frankly, I think it's a fair answer.

I would like to look up and see a never ending aurora borealis, or even better all the nebula, etc in outer space. (We don't see aurora borealis in southern Indiana.)

I would like my nighttime hallucinations to go on forever. These were black and white movies I saw when I woke up during the night, while taking certain prescription drugs after surgery, and actually once since I was off of them. They were much nicer than my bloody Melatonin dreams; which I have only had two of, thank goodness.

I wish there was always a baby to cuddle and revel in the smell of it’s hair.

I wish a cool gentle breeze always blew across my body at night

I wish good books would never end: Harry Potter, The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George, all Janet Evanovich’s mysteries,

I wish fall leaves fell from the trees forever. Actually, this year they kind of did all summer.

I wish snowmen never melted and you could always have snowball fights.

And that spring flowers grew up through all of it, always.

I wish there was a never ending supply of watermelon in the fridge.

I wish the feeling of that Halloween, when I fell in love with Zorro (who was also trick or treating) would have lasted forever. That’s the first time I felt that “in love” feeling.

But, if these things never ended, would they be as special? I think so.

Eggs or Live Birth?

I belong to several on-line groups of artists. I was once involved in a “fairy wing” discussion on a sculptor’s site. The discussion was about where fairies wings were located anatomically. It seemed to me the correct answer would be, “Anywhere you want them. It’s your fantasy.” But, then they got into how a fairy has babies: eggs or live birth and was it like a sea horse?

They could totally suspend belief to accept little flying people, in our world, but they drew the line at where the wings went and live birth or eggs. Everyone had their own idea of what was “correct” and good, logical reasons why. I began to take the whole issue a bit more seriously.
I, for one, feel that a fairie's wings need to be between the shoulder blade to balance the body weight. Maybe I’m just a klutz, but if I was hanging by a harness and it wasn’t at shoulder blade level, I would probably be upside down most of the time.

I’m not too far into Terry Pratchett’s, Color of Magic, but I want to totally believe in a world that resides on the back of a turtle. By page one hundred and twelve, I'm not sure what the laws are, but I'm pretty sure he has them. This may be the worse example I could give, but hey it's a really fun book.

Readers will suspend their belief for your world, as long as you make your rules and stick to them; or make the world so wild they just don't care anymore. These rules do not have to be complicated, just logical.

Think of all the things we need in our world and how would your magical world handle it?

EXAMPLE:

Food: In Harry Potter’s world, J. K. Rowling does now allow food made out of thin air. Her characters are, however, allowed to take food and enlarge/multiply it. That is but one of her rules.

So, start with your world, from brushing teeth in the morning to getting into bed at night, and decide the rules you need to create to make your magical world believable and stick to them.

A discussion of Eggs or Live Birth anyone?

Is it good enough to make me cry?

Actually, the answer to my title is, "It doesn't take much." But, good paintings move people’s emotions. I have always been fascinated with Picasso’s Guernica and it’s agony of war. Good books have the same effect. They move me to experience their world.

I wish I did not cry so easily. It can get darn embarrassing actually. I cry over books and movies, parades and flags, babies and old people. I can see a little old stooped guy with saggy pants and my eyes fill with tears. Of course, it usually reminds me of my dad. I had to turn the Cancer telethon off last night because I was bawling too hard to watch it. Which was perhaps not the effect they hoped for? But then again, I have lost seven relatives and several friends to cancer, so there is that too.

And, that is the thing with a good book or a good movie or a good painting; they are all something to touch memories we have. They should open up our hearts, even if it is to some past pain. We need to identify with the protagonist and live the experience, feeling their emotions and let our own emotions out.

I have heard people who comment that they cannot feel what other people experience and I am sorry for them. The one person I know who has stated this a few times is an avid reader. I think he must miss an awful lot of the essence of a book when he cannot feel the emotion. I know he is a bear to watch a movie with as he likes to point out all the “things” that are not possible. I so want to say, “For crying out loud, this is fantasy. It’s a movie. It’s not life, just shut up and get lost in it, or just pretend.”

I may not be enjoying the made up words so much in Terry Pratchett’s “The Color of Magic”, but I sure do enjoy his world. It has its laws too but they do not intrude on the wonderful story. He takes you off on an adventure, where chests have legs and run away, cameras have little painters in them and giant turtles “with geological slowness” and "hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs” and “sea-sized eyes…crusted with reum and asteroid dust” live. Yes, I am wearing those lines out but I love them.

These are the items that move my emotions and memories. They help me visualize his world with things I can see, and even though I cannot see sea-sized eyes, I can see what they would look like.

Looking at Guernica, I can see the agony of a people being bombed out. Just as I can see the Star studded night sky dancing in VanGogh’s Starry Night. And, cry my eyes out when Dumbledore dies or when Harry is so bravely walking to his death. And, cry over the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, even though I have seen this movie more times than I can count.

I think of this each day as I do my final edit and go over each sentence. Is it good enough to make someone visualize this world? Is it good enough to make someone laugh, or cry? If not, is it necessary? If yes, reword it. If no, cut it.

In the Nick of Time - Before the End

Writing is my life saver. It keeps me sane and maybe it keeps me from packing a bag with my camera, sketchpad and pencils and hitting the road too. So, when my writing is not going as planned, it is really nice to find the perfect answer to the current problem.

I have said before, you need to be “open” to ideas to learn from them and for one to strike just the right note. This has been achieved, yet again, in an article by Cheryl Klein, in her blog Brooklyn Arden and in a speech she gave at the Terminus 2008 Potter Conference in Chicago, Illinois. It is also posted on-line at A Few Things Writers Can Learn from Harry Potter and I thank, Ms. Klein, a thousand times over, for all of the help she has, unknowingly, given me over this past two year period.

Unlike other writing sites, which tell you that you MUST do this and you CANNOT do that, Ms. Klein tells you what is so fantastic about a multi-million dollar book and how to do it in your own way.

Then, she gives you approval, where all the other’s will tell what not to do, she tells you to write what you need to write. Do not write to the market. Write to please yourself first. You are a reader after all, or you would not be here.

So, if you want to know what is so good about a book opening, or how to make your reader fall in love with your characters, or why a YA novel can have an adult theme and how to do it, spend a day or, as I have, two years reading her advice.

I just needed a refresher, to remind me where I am going and what step I need to take now to get there. She puts theme and writer’s voice and plotting into perspective for me and so, now, I shall return to my writing.

I will take my first draft, with its multiple edits done already and I will outline the other four books of my proposed series, because how can I know how to end this book (my latest struggle) if I only have a vague idea of where this journey will take me?