Over the last few weeks, my husband and I have been watching a series of motivational talks on TED.com. We've watched all kinds of things, including a fascinating talk on statistics. Yeah, I know. Go figure.
The TED site has heaps of great content and is well worth a browse. A lot more than a browse, actually. This is a site you could lose yourself in for days if you have time!
Here's today's (for us) by James Cameron, good not just for the Avatar-mad lot (like me), but all those of us who are creative, artistic or imaginative in our endeavours. It's called James Cameron: Before Avatar . . . a curious boy.
I'm going to pin his parting quote near my computer, so I can look at it when I'm wrestling with my novel: "Failure is an option, but fear is not." Go listen to the talk for the context. It's well worth the seventeen minutes that it takes.
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inspiration. Show all posts
06 March 2010
04 March 2009
Casting my novel/Computer games
One thing I've sometimes talked about with my writing group friends is who we'd cast if we were in a position of casting the screenplays of our novels. For me, it's particularly important because I'm not visual. I don't carry an image in my head of what my characters look like; I carry the ideas of them, and so it is really important to see the embodiment of these ideas.
I know I've had this discussion with several groups of friends, and we get excited when we see an actor who fills the part. I first saw Arinka, the protagonist of my novel, when I was going to a poetry reading at Montsalvat. I don't know who he was -- he wasn't an actor -- he was just someone in the crowd, someone whose looks stopped me in my tracks because I thought: that's him. That's Arinka.
Well, okay, obviously it wasn't him. But it was the right look. The right hair colour, the right eyes, the right shaped face, the build, a certain way of moving.
In my one storyline, I have three characters I've always wanted to cast: Arinka, his sidekick, Millyon, and the thorn in his side, Lieselle.
Arinka has been through a series of actors since I first saw that unknown young man. First was Keanu Reeves, but then I spent too long writing and rewriting and he became too old. Then, for a while I thought about James Franco, more as he appeared in Tristan and Isolde than in Spiderman. But he was a bit too sulky in the film, and a bit too well built. Then I thought about Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian), but he was too good looking. Finally, I've settled on Tom Ward ("Silent witness"), and he's just got the best voice...
Millyon has been easier: Rupert Penry-Jones ("Spooks" and Persuasion), though he should have hazel eyes, not blue. No-one is ever quite perfect for their roles -- and how funny that I'm assembling a cast of BBC actors.
Lieselle. Hmm? Who? Jennifer Connelly is too old, but is the right sort of look.
Then the other day, I was watching You Tube videos of various songs my daughter wants to sing, including clips of "Don't cry for me Argentina", when I noticed a Karen Carpenter version. As most versions were sopranos, and she has a rich, dark voice, I thought it might be an interesting contrast. How strange then to find myself watching an anime film clip from a computer game called Final Fantasy VIII. How much stranger to find Lieselle there -- as the character of Rinoa. And, even, in a way Arinka in Rinoa's lover Squall. Well, Squall has the wrong eye colour and is too good looking, but the build's right -- the comparison to her is right. And funnily a photo of a real person, modelling a Squall outfit could be Arinka. I'll have to get the game! (Though it's disturbing that in this game is a dance sequence that could come out of my second book. Still, there's still a rewrite of that one coming up...)
Actually, buying the game could be disastrous. I do remember my addiction to The Sims, and how I made it much worse by buying an expansion pack (Living Large) that allowed me to build castles. Then I modelled my sims on my characters, and that was the worst thing, as all I wanted to do was play with them all day, and playing is not writing.
I've had students who've told me they can't write because they're busy playing World of Warcraft. For days on end. Or friends who distract themselves with Solitaire. I do still play computer games, but more the Solitaire-type that aren't too addictive. I'll play them when I'm blocked, a game or two, no more, and then return to the white page. While I'm playing, I'm thinking. What I won't do is spend hours playing, days. Such distractions do not help me as a writer.
In the meantime, I now have printouts of my newest cast members -- something to look at, to inspire me -- and they will inspire me much more successfully than any computer game ever will. Computer games are stalling tactics, nothing more.
12 March 2008
In the zone
Is there anything as wonderful as writing in the zone. You sit down to your computer -- you may or may not feel inspired, and you stare at the blank page, bring up the novel that you've been working on, read over the last few pages, make a few changes, fix a comma, take out that apostrophe in "it's" that shouldn't be there, add a bit more setting, and then suddenly your fingers are alive and trying to keep up with that zinging going on in your brain. You're in the zone. In your character's head. The ideas are coming thick and fast, and you're struggling to keep up. You go, go, go. And keep going. An hour later there are 1500 words on the page, and you know what? They're not too damned bad. You know, though, that in the morning, when the heat has passed, you may look back on them and think they're crap. There's a high probability that this may happen. You expect it. But you know what else? You get up in the morning and look at those words and think, hey, they're not too damned bad!
Inspiration's like that. It can hit at any time. And when it hits writing is magical. At times like that you know that writing is the best thing in the whole world. That's not how you feel when a rejection comes in. Or when you realise you still haven't been paid for that award-winning story that was published twelve months ago, and that the reality is you're not going to be paid for it. Contract or not. Not unless you go and do some serious chasing.
Sometimes writing as a profession sucks! The endless waiting. The heart-dropping parcel on your doorstep. The no, thank yous -- great story, but we've recently accepted one just like it. Or the no, thank yous -- I just didn't fall in love with your story. How could they not, with a hero like yours?
But you plug away at it because you have to.
You plug away at it because you're driven.
You plug away at it because you've got no choice.
Sometimes it's the hardest profession in the world. You have a deadline, and no time. After all, you have a real job -- one that pays you money. You have to make work deadlines because they're your bread and butter. And you're not feeling inspired to write.
The gut-wrenching truth is that professional writers write whether they feel inspired or not. They sit on their chairs and sweat blood, trying to distill words from thin air. This is their alchemy. And they do it: that's the real magic of writing. They do it. Day after day after day.
Sometimes, lightning hits, frazzles the locks on their brains and unleashes their creativity. Not very often, but sometimes it does. Then they're in the zone. They take those days and they know that such days are gifts. The stories that come out of such writing are gifts.
Many newcomers to the craft are out searching for the great secret of how to write. Books tell them there are no secrets. Published writers tell them there are not secrets. No secrets, only words on the page, long hours of practise, practise, practise.
But there is one great secret. Shh, don't tell anyone, because I'm going to share it with you. The great secret is that professional writers look at the writing they've done and they can't tell whether they wrote it while in the zone or not. Those hardwon words are just as precious, just as polished, as those rarer ones that come as gifts.
It's something you need to remember when you're not feeling inspired. Something I need to remember too. Something we all do, because, really, lack of inspiration is no excuse not to write. You know it. I know it.
We just have to keep at it.
Deadlines are great. NaNoWriMo is great. Writing contracts are great.
This is your passion so take it seriously. Professionally. Back yourself in. And when those gifts arrive, celebrate them, for no doubt if you're plugging away daily, you've earnt those gifts, and they are rightfully yours.
Inspiration's like that. It can hit at any time. And when it hits writing is magical. At times like that you know that writing is the best thing in the whole world. That's not how you feel when a rejection comes in. Or when you realise you still haven't been paid for that award-winning story that was published twelve months ago, and that the reality is you're not going to be paid for it. Contract or not. Not unless you go and do some serious chasing.
Sometimes writing as a profession sucks! The endless waiting. The heart-dropping parcel on your doorstep. The no, thank yous -- great story, but we've recently accepted one just like it. Or the no, thank yous -- I just didn't fall in love with your story. How could they not, with a hero like yours?
But you plug away at it because you have to.
You plug away at it because you're driven.
You plug away at it because you've got no choice.
Sometimes it's the hardest profession in the world. You have a deadline, and no time. After all, you have a real job -- one that pays you money. You have to make work deadlines because they're your bread and butter. And you're not feeling inspired to write.
The gut-wrenching truth is that professional writers write whether they feel inspired or not. They sit on their chairs and sweat blood, trying to distill words from thin air. This is their alchemy. And they do it: that's the real magic of writing. They do it. Day after day after day.
Sometimes, lightning hits, frazzles the locks on their brains and unleashes their creativity. Not very often, but sometimes it does. Then they're in the zone. They take those days and they know that such days are gifts. The stories that come out of such writing are gifts.
Many newcomers to the craft are out searching for the great secret of how to write. Books tell them there are no secrets. Published writers tell them there are not secrets. No secrets, only words on the page, long hours of practise, practise, practise.
But there is one great secret. Shh, don't tell anyone, because I'm going to share it with you. The great secret is that professional writers look at the writing they've done and they can't tell whether they wrote it while in the zone or not. Those hardwon words are just as precious, just as polished, as those rarer ones that come as gifts.
It's something you need to remember when you're not feeling inspired. Something I need to remember too. Something we all do, because, really, lack of inspiration is no excuse not to write. You know it. I know it.
We just have to keep at it.
Deadlines are great. NaNoWriMo is great. Writing contracts are great.
This is your passion so take it seriously. Professionally. Back yourself in. And when those gifts arrive, celebrate them, for no doubt if you're plugging away daily, you've earnt those gifts, and they are rightfully yours.
01 October 2007
Walking out the novel
Today, I was out walking my dogs on the dog beach. My son had come along and had found a piece of pipe and was busy constructing a sandwall with the pipe embedded to stop flooding of the imaginary city he was going to build. He was in fantasy land and so was I. While he did that, I walked along the beach for a while, turning over my characters in my mind. I became one character, and had an imaginary conversation with another, which resulted in me going home and belting out a scene, though it wasn't for the novel I'm currently writing and probably won't make it into the final cut because it's too inconsequential. I'm rather loving the idea of one day having my website with links to the chapters that have been culled, rather like the deleted scenes on a DVD. I love the deleted scenes.
I also love walking along and being with my characters, being inside their heads, being them. Doesn't mean I pick up a sword and slash away -- rather I'm thinking about their personal lives, the stuff of subplots, the romance elements (yes, I do have a romantic thread, though it isn't so apparent in the first book). All of this helps me enrich the characters -- helps me believe in them as people, living in my created world.
So, it was interesting to read my friend's blog (Forge and Brew) and find she was blogging about the exact same thing, though in a different way. And then to read a comment that Snail had posted about what she's thinking about during staff meetings. And also that when our past student came to talk to my students about her novel, she talked about holding conversations with people when you're really thinking about your characters. Quite funny really, if you then consider a conversation between two writers. Who knows what they're thinking? (Unless they're talking writing, of course -- in which case they're fully focused.)
I also love walking along and being with my characters, being inside their heads, being them. Doesn't mean I pick up a sword and slash away -- rather I'm thinking about their personal lives, the stuff of subplots, the romance elements (yes, I do have a romantic thread, though it isn't so apparent in the first book). All of this helps me enrich the characters -- helps me believe in them as people, living in my created world.
So, it was interesting to read my friend's blog (Forge and Brew) and find she was blogging about the exact same thing, though in a different way. And then to read a comment that Snail had posted about what she's thinking about during staff meetings. And also that when our past student came to talk to my students about her novel, she talked about holding conversations with people when you're really thinking about your characters. Quite funny really, if you then consider a conversation between two writers. Who knows what they're thinking? (Unless they're talking writing, of course -- in which case they're fully focused.)
24 August 2007
Seven things that inspire me: seven: read on!
Yes, read on because I really can't rap it up in one.
I would like to say the blank page, but truly that doesn't inspire me. Dedication and commitment are required to overcome the blank page. I like having written more than I like writing. Not that the blank page terrifies me as it seems to terrify some... What inspires me to start writing is reading over the previous day's writing, and editing it. Nothing like it for getting me in the mood.
The draft. A finished draft -- that's inspiring. After all, you can fix a crappy page; you can't "fix" a blank one -- not as an editor.
Plotting time -- I don't get it often enough. At least a whole day without interruptions, with a clear table, big sheet of paper and pens. The question: what if?. And using that to explore possibilities -- that can get me truly excited. My fingers itching for the keybaord. The headspace that only comes at the end of semester, not when I'm reading student work and trying to hold all their stories in my head.
The night sky. In my younger days this would've been number one. I loved astronomy, and read books and books on it. Didn't have a telescope, and remember a humiliating incident when I met a government astronomer in America. His friends had said I had an interest in astronomy, and he was talking to me and then asked me the latitude of Melbourne and when I couldn't say with any certainty, he dissed me, told me not to waste his time as I clearly wasn't interested in astronomy at all. And he stalked off. I felt so low. All those books I was reading... Yes, clearly no interest at all. Taught me something about mankind though.
Talking to writers, spending time with them, especially my WWW and SuperNOVA friends. Talking plotting. Talking characters. Listening to them discuss their problems and offering up tactics. Listening to them offer me tactics too. Every writer needs that kind of support.
Enthusiasm -- hearing it at cons, when you get someone who's really on topic. Russell Kirkpatrick, for example, on maps. How can you not be infected? It's a virus -- one we all want to catch.
Swords and swordsmen in action. That long piece of steel -- not going to go into any phallic symbolism here, just that there's something about swords that makes me go gooey inside. Yeah, second post I've used that word in -- it's a worry.
Feeling part of a community -- whether it's my teaching fraternity at VU who have to be the greatest bunch of teachers ever -- or the SF community when I'm at a con, or the poetry community or whatever. Hearing the goss, marvelling at the bad behaviour of some. We all need to belong to something, and it's just fantastic that there is a community out there that we're all part of. The writing community may have its inner circles -- ones I don't yet belong too and, frankly, I must say I abhor the whole idea of it -- but it is still something terrific to be part of. Daunting when you're just starting out, but as time goes on and you network and know more and more people, it gets easier, and it really is very special.
So number seven is a series of seven smaller things. Okay, it isn't maths so it doesn't matter. Next we'll talk the theory of relativity and how if two people are moving in opposite directions at the speed of light after one hour they will be only one light-hour apart and not two as you would otherwise expect. Fascinating stuff. Does that mean I should have included science in there? No, I'm not nearly a rigorous enough reader of science anymore. I'm more interested in the heart than the cerebrum when it comes to writing.
I would like to say the blank page, but truly that doesn't inspire me. Dedication and commitment are required to overcome the blank page. I like having written more than I like writing. Not that the blank page terrifies me as it seems to terrify some... What inspires me to start writing is reading over the previous day's writing, and editing it. Nothing like it for getting me in the mood.
The draft. A finished draft -- that's inspiring. After all, you can fix a crappy page; you can't "fix" a blank one -- not as an editor.
Plotting time -- I don't get it often enough. At least a whole day without interruptions, with a clear table, big sheet of paper and pens. The question: what if?. And using that to explore possibilities -- that can get me truly excited. My fingers itching for the keybaord. The headspace that only comes at the end of semester, not when I'm reading student work and trying to hold all their stories in my head.
The night sky. In my younger days this would've been number one. I loved astronomy, and read books and books on it. Didn't have a telescope, and remember a humiliating incident when I met a government astronomer in America. His friends had said I had an interest in astronomy, and he was talking to me and then asked me the latitude of Melbourne and when I couldn't say with any certainty, he dissed me, told me not to waste his time as I clearly wasn't interested in astronomy at all. And he stalked off. I felt so low. All those books I was reading... Yes, clearly no interest at all. Taught me something about mankind though.
Talking to writers, spending time with them, especially my WWW and SuperNOVA friends. Talking plotting. Talking characters. Listening to them discuss their problems and offering up tactics. Listening to them offer me tactics too. Every writer needs that kind of support.
Enthusiasm -- hearing it at cons, when you get someone who's really on topic. Russell Kirkpatrick, for example, on maps. How can you not be infected? It's a virus -- one we all want to catch.
Swords and swordsmen in action. That long piece of steel -- not going to go into any phallic symbolism here, just that there's something about swords that makes me go gooey inside. Yeah, second post I've used that word in -- it's a worry.
Feeling part of a community -- whether it's my teaching fraternity at VU who have to be the greatest bunch of teachers ever -- or the SF community when I'm at a con, or the poetry community or whatever. Hearing the goss, marvelling at the bad behaviour of some. We all need to belong to something, and it's just fantastic that there is a community out there that we're all part of. The writing community may have its inner circles -- ones I don't yet belong too and, frankly, I must say I abhor the whole idea of it -- but it is still something terrific to be part of. Daunting when you're just starting out, but as time goes on and you network and know more and more people, it gets easier, and it really is very special.
So number seven is a series of seven smaller things. Okay, it isn't maths so it doesn't matter. Next we'll talk the theory of relativity and how if two people are moving in opposite directions at the speed of light after one hour they will be only one light-hour apart and not two as you would otherwise expect. Fascinating stuff. Does that mean I should have included science in there? No, I'm not nearly a rigorous enough reader of science anymore. I'm more interested in the heart than the cerebrum when it comes to writing.
Seven things that inspire me: six: films and tv shows
Films like Lord of the rings help me to get into the mood, especially as I'm not visual. I don't make pictures in my head -- don't picture the characters I read or write about (though I know what those I write about look like). I think now this explains why I like to see movies more than once. Why I saw Star Wars (later known as A new hope over thirty times at the cinema. I'm trying to imprint the pictures in my head. I used to be able to recite the whole movie, line by line.
But movies and well-made TV shows are perfect for writers of fantasy or historical fiction, because they help set the mood. When I watch them I get a feel for setting. I see details that I might otherwise not have thought of -- and am sent scurrying back to my textbooks with new visions, new ideas. Perhaps it's because when I watch a movie I am in the movie, just as I am the protagonist of whatever book I am reading, whether that character is male or female. I don't care -- I'll go inside any head.
Something else movies and TV shows are good for are helping find that actor who can play your main character. I've had lots of close matches with Arinka. A young Keanu Reeves -- he was perhaps the closest for a long time. Then there was Viggo, ah, beautiful Viggo, but apart from being way too old, his eyes are the wrong colour. Nice, but not Arinka's. And his face isn't thin enough. Then there was Ioan Gruffudd (especially as Hornblower), but he was just a tad too good looking. I toyed with Spider-man's James Franco, and then even more when I saw him as Tristan, but again he was just that little bit too good looking, almost pretty, which Arinka is not. None of them were the perfect fit. Finally, I've found him -- an actor I've been acquainted with on the small screen for several years, but I've only just seen the match. As Hoddel would say (er, forgive the Fiddler on the Roof reference), he's a perfect match, fits like a glove.
Wanna see Arinka? He's the one on the left. Excuse me while I go a bit gooey. Here's another. You just have to imagine him with longer hair, tied back, often plaited.
Tom Ward is the first actor who fulfils all the criteria -- right body, right colour hair, right colour eyes, straight nose, thin face, and as Dr Harry Cunningham, he even moves the right way. (Interestingly, the actor fences and rides horses. Honestly, he's perfect, though admittedly ten years too old.) And, even more exciting, for the first time I have the timbre of Arinka's voice in my head. It's always been there, elusive as a gnat flitting around just out of reach, but now I have it, and it's gorgeous and deep and sexy -- and excuse me while I go a bit gooey again! Yes, my friends, this is Arinka. When are the later episodes of "Silent Witness" coming out on DVD? Hurry them up, please! Perhaps in the meantime I need to get another hold of the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice", which won't be any great labour to sit through!
But movies and well-made TV shows are perfect for writers of fantasy or historical fiction, because they help set the mood. When I watch them I get a feel for setting. I see details that I might otherwise not have thought of -- and am sent scurrying back to my textbooks with new visions, new ideas. Perhaps it's because when I watch a movie I am in the movie, just as I am the protagonist of whatever book I am reading, whether that character is male or female. I don't care -- I'll go inside any head.
Something else movies and TV shows are good for are helping find that actor who can play your main character. I've had lots of close matches with Arinka. A young Keanu Reeves -- he was perhaps the closest for a long time. Then there was Viggo, ah, beautiful Viggo, but apart from being way too old, his eyes are the wrong colour. Nice, but not Arinka's. And his face isn't thin enough. Then there was Ioan Gruffudd (especially as Hornblower), but he was just a tad too good looking. I toyed with Spider-man's James Franco, and then even more when I saw him as Tristan, but again he was just that little bit too good looking, almost pretty, which Arinka is not. None of them were the perfect fit. Finally, I've found him -- an actor I've been acquainted with on the small screen for several years, but I've only just seen the match. As Hoddel would say (er, forgive the Fiddler on the Roof reference), he's a perfect match, fits like a glove.
Wanna see Arinka? He's the one on the left. Excuse me while I go a bit gooey. Here's another. You just have to imagine him with longer hair, tied back, often plaited.
Tom Ward is the first actor who fulfils all the criteria -- right body, right colour hair, right colour eyes, straight nose, thin face, and as Dr Harry Cunningham, he even moves the right way. (Interestingly, the actor fences and rides horses. Honestly, he's perfect, though admittedly ten years too old.) And, even more exciting, for the first time I have the timbre of Arinka's voice in my head. It's always been there, elusive as a gnat flitting around just out of reach, but now I have it, and it's gorgeous and deep and sexy -- and excuse me while I go a bit gooey again! Yes, my friends, this is Arinka. When are the later episodes of "Silent Witness" coming out on DVD? Hurry them up, please! Perhaps in the meantime I need to get another hold of the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice", which won't be any great labour to sit through!
23 August 2007
Seven things that inspire me: five: books
What writer could not include these? Whether they're textbooks on how to write, textbooks on how to fight with swords (my newest acquisition, and how exciting is that?), or whether their literary novels with language that sings, a poetry journal with images that startle, how could I not love them. Of course my favourite of all is the sprawling fat fantasy novel, preferably in a set of at least three, that will transport me to another world.
Books could be my number one inspiration -- but sometimes I'll read something that is so wondrous that I'll wonder why I am doing this. It's not so much a point about whether I am capable of writing such a thing as much as it is a point about feeling the need to write, when I have clearly found a book someone else has written that fills that same need in me. Strange, isn't it?
We say to our students that they must read widely -- both inside the genre they're writing in and outside. It astounds me how little some of these kids read. I sometimes feel, because I studied science instead of arts, that I'm very underread. And in my years at high school we never once studied the bard, though I did read Romeo and Juliet of my own accord. Would love to read MacBeth and King Lear. These kids, some of them, haven't even heard of Dostoevski, another writer I read for pleasure. So even though I feel underread compared to some of my teaching peers, I find I talk books with them and realise I have actually read a lot. But no matter how much you do read, there's always so much more that you can't. Oh, how I'd like to be a faster reader, because compared to some of my friends I am quite slow. And I do read *every* word -- after all, as a writer I craft every word, so I'm not expecting people to be skipping over them. And I suppose I'm always dipping into technical manuals and magazines and reading Poetrix submissions, and student manuscripts, but I'd like more time to read for pleasure. Because pleasure it is. I often now feel guilty when I curl up with a book because I put everything: the kids, emails, my writing, my pets, the whole world, on hold. But I try to tell myself I'm not indulging myself -- I am working, learning how to hone my own writing, drawing on the techniques that other writers use, but that knowledge doesn't stop the experience from feeling self-indulgent, purely because it is so pleasurable.
Books could be my number one inspiration -- but sometimes I'll read something that is so wondrous that I'll wonder why I am doing this. It's not so much a point about whether I am capable of writing such a thing as much as it is a point about feeling the need to write, when I have clearly found a book someone else has written that fills that same need in me. Strange, isn't it?
We say to our students that they must read widely -- both inside the genre they're writing in and outside. It astounds me how little some of these kids read. I sometimes feel, because I studied science instead of arts, that I'm very underread. And in my years at high school we never once studied the bard, though I did read Romeo and Juliet of my own accord. Would love to read MacBeth and King Lear. These kids, some of them, haven't even heard of Dostoevski, another writer I read for pleasure. So even though I feel underread compared to some of my teaching peers, I find I talk books with them and realise I have actually read a lot. But no matter how much you do read, there's always so much more that you can't. Oh, how I'd like to be a faster reader, because compared to some of my friends I am quite slow. And I do read *every* word -- after all, as a writer I craft every word, so I'm not expecting people to be skipping over them. And I suppose I'm always dipping into technical manuals and magazines and reading Poetrix submissions, and student manuscripts, but I'd like more time to read for pleasure. Because pleasure it is. I often now feel guilty when I curl up with a book because I put everything: the kids, emails, my writing, my pets, the whole world, on hold. But I try to tell myself I'm not indulging myself -- I am working, learning how to hone my own writing, drawing on the techniques that other writers use, but that knowledge doesn't stop the experience from feeling self-indulgent, purely because it is so pleasurable.
22 August 2007
Seven things that inspire me: four: horses
I'm a girl. I love horses. Isn't that all that's necessary? I remember someone saying girls have three stages in life: dolls, horses and boys. Some of us -- most fantasy writers I suspect -- got somehow stuck on number two.
What I love about horses: their nobility, whiskery lips, muscles beneath their skins, sad but intelligent eyes, the way they lip you, smell of hay breath, nickers, how they rub their heads on you after a ride to scratch their heads, smell of leather tack, thick manes, personalities, kindness -- oh, the list could go on and on.
I've fallen in love with a horse, but never owned one. In Year 10, we had to keep a diary and I kept a diary of a horse. Years later I saw my Year 10 English teacher, and she remembered me from that diary. My main character now owns that horse -- a sixteen hand skewbald called Big Patch (or Patch in the novel). But horses are definitely one of the appeals of fantasy for me -- both as a reader and writer. You won't see my characters on the quests on feet or on any kind of otherworldly beasts. Has to be a horse.
What I love about horses: their nobility, whiskery lips, muscles beneath their skins, sad but intelligent eyes, the way they lip you, smell of hay breath, nickers, how they rub their heads on you after a ride to scratch their heads, smell of leather tack, thick manes, personalities, kindness -- oh, the list could go on and on.
I've fallen in love with a horse, but never owned one. In Year 10, we had to keep a diary and I kept a diary of a horse. Years later I saw my Year 10 English teacher, and she remembered me from that diary. My main character now owns that horse -- a sixteen hand skewbald called Big Patch (or Patch in the novel). But horses are definitely one of the appeals of fantasy for me -- both as a reader and writer. You won't see my characters on the quests on feet or on any kind of otherworldly beasts. Has to be a horse.
18 August 2007
Seven things that inspire me: three: gum trees/the bush
Gum trees -- how can you not love these? The smell of Australian summer. I remember being in the Greek islands on a forty degree day, and the breeze bringing the scent of eucalypt, and a wave of homesickness washing over me. What I love about them is that they're all individuals. No two trees look alike, unlike those pine clones (not cones!). Or elms or oaks. I love evergreens. Who cares about autumn colours? Give me green, green, green. Verdant canopies. The taste of eucalypt -- my dad throwing a few bark strips on the barbie and all the hamburgers coming out smoked. Yum.
Yes, the Australian bush is another important part of my psyche, so perhaps it's no surprise it features heavily in my fiction. Not for me the European forests, but the gums, the tea-trees, the bottlebrushes, the black boys, something about Australian plants. So how does this all fit into a medieval, feudal type society? Terraformers, of course. My world has been seeded by terraformers, which gives me freedoms that other fantasy writers don't have. So you could well see a wallaby or two. But I wonder if that's not part of the appeal of fantasy -- the quest journey and all that time to have my characters out in the open air. I know I love reading about the journey in other people's work. I loved the ents in Lord of the rings for example -- even if it meant leaving my beloved Aragorn behind. Yes, I was having a relationship with him well before Viggo put flesh on his bones (and that was some flesh!).
Being city grounded (I was going to say "bound" -- in terms of being bonded, but it seemed like it meant "on the way to"), I don't get to sit in the country often to just contemplate the bush, but I love the sense of peace and stillness, and at the same time, the sense of activity in all the wildlife -- the insects, the birds, the animals, just the movement of wind through grasses. Occasionally, when our writers' group has had a retreat up in Mansfield, it's almost as if my characters are at my shoulders the whole time. Just being in the kind of atmosphere I'm writing about makes me want to bring out the computer and get typing. Or is it just that time, alone with writers, spending a few days talking writing? I don't know, but whatever it is, it works!
Yes, the Australian bush is another important part of my psyche, so perhaps it's no surprise it features heavily in my fiction. Not for me the European forests, but the gums, the tea-trees, the bottlebrushes, the black boys, something about Australian plants. So how does this all fit into a medieval, feudal type society? Terraformers, of course. My world has been seeded by terraformers, which gives me freedoms that other fantasy writers don't have. So you could well see a wallaby or two. But I wonder if that's not part of the appeal of fantasy -- the quest journey and all that time to have my characters out in the open air. I know I love reading about the journey in other people's work. I loved the ents in Lord of the rings for example -- even if it meant leaving my beloved Aragorn behind. Yes, I was having a relationship with him well before Viggo put flesh on his bones (and that was some flesh!).
Being city grounded (I was going to say "bound" -- in terms of being bonded, but it seemed like it meant "on the way to"), I don't get to sit in the country often to just contemplate the bush, but I love the sense of peace and stillness, and at the same time, the sense of activity in all the wildlife -- the insects, the birds, the animals, just the movement of wind through grasses. Occasionally, when our writers' group has had a retreat up in Mansfield, it's almost as if my characters are at my shoulders the whole time. Just being in the kind of atmosphere I'm writing about makes me want to bring out the computer and get typing. Or is it just that time, alone with writers, spending a few days talking writing? I don't know, but whatever it is, it works!
16 August 2007
Seven things that inspire me: two: the sea
I grew up by the ocean. I've always joked that I learnt how to swim before I could walk but, although I was a late walker, the statement is not true, of course. But sometimes it feels like it's almost true. I did learn to swim young, and my father, one year, took me swimming in the beach every day of the year. The hardest thing about swimming in winter isn't getting into the water but getting out. That wind chill factor ... brrrr. And, yes, although it's true that ocean temperatures don't vary much between winter and summer, that's not quite true of the shallow waters in the bay. It's cold. Not the kind of water you ease into, but the kind you plunge into and feel the shock of a vise closing around your head.
Perhaps it's no surprise then that the sea has such a profound effect on me. I grew up in a seaside suburb, and I live in a neighbouring seaside suburb. I love taking my dogs swimming, though our newest pup has yet to learn the joys of the water. When I was troubled as a teenager I would take myself off to the beach and sit and stare broodily at the water. Often, I found clarity this way.
Sometimes, now, when I'm stuck, I'll walk the water's edge, or just take the dogs there for a frolick and, again, the calm of the water's movement, the whispering rush of water on sand, will help clear my mind. This week I've been rewriting a scene where my characters are on the beach and enjoy a "submersal". It's a writing exercise I did as a student and one I get my students to do -- to get their characters really wet. It amazes me that some of them choose to do this with rain. Not me. For me it had to be the ocean. I never considered otherwise.
For one part of my novel, my characters have to negotiate a beach in absolute darkness. To research this, I blindfolded myself and walked the beach near Tidal River at Wilson's Prom to see if it could be done -- navigating by the depth of water on my ankles -- and was happy to find that it could.
I've been surprised to find it's not just the sea but water in general that's a creative inspiration. This was brought home to me when I was flicking through the photos on my creative blog, Playing with words. There were pictures of reflections in the sea, reflections in a canal, frozen water, water droplets, swamp water -- water was the most common theme, which surprised me till I really thought about it. But the sea is a great love, and it's been and continues to be such a big part of my life that it's inevitable that it will find its way into my writing.
There's the turquoise waters of the Meditteranean, the black-sanded beaches of Santorini, the grey, wintry waters of Port Phillip Bay, the swell of Bass Strait -- but most spectacular, the beach at the bottom of the Gibson Steps, where the twelve apostles break their way to the sky, and the sandstone arches and sentinels to the sea all along the shipwreck coast. Manna for writers everywhere!
Of course too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. When we first moved into this house, I envisioned sitting out the back and gazing at the tidal swamp with its assortment of birds, but I found their was too much gazing and not enough writing, so I soon scotched that idea. The best view for me is ... but that is perhaps the topic of another post.
Seven things that inspire me: one: music
Some of my writer friends recently have blogged about seven things that inspire them, and I wanted to follow this up with an analysis of what my inspirations are for my writing, but I wanted to do so when I had some distance between reading their posts and composing my own, just because I knew there was some commonality, and I wanted time to be sure that what I was putting up was really coming from me.
My first inspiration is music. I know I've blogged about this before, so forgive me the indulgence, but I really can't look at my writing inspirations without starting here. Music is so important to me. Other friends listen to the radio while they drive, or to audio books (I should do this, I know), but for me it has to be music. My series working title "The oracle of the mountain king" is directly drawn from music -- from Grieg's "In the hall of the mountain king" from his Peer Gynt Suite. I wanted to capture the frantic frenetic build up of energy and pace in a fantasy setting. For a reader to feel the tension, to be flipping pages so fast that they would get paper-burn on their fingertips.
If I'm really stuck and facing down writer's block, music will often unblock me -- especially a good soundtrack like Gladiator and its sequel, or any of the Lord of the rings films. (I recently found a little handmade autograph book that Kaz, one of my Clarion buddies, gave me at the end of Clarion, and I had everyone sign it. My friend Cat wrote that she never wanted to hear Return of the king again -- because I played it everyday. I had meant to take up two soundtracks (I was travelling light), but when I opened the other, the case was empty. Repetition for me is a good thing, though it drives my husband bananas, particularly because he thinks there's no such thing as a good soundtrack.)
I've seen the powerful effect music has on writers through getting students to do writing exercises to music. Music helps establish a mood to write in, and helps bring out the mood in a piece. What I've done for these exercises is pick out several songs from different albums with the same feel to them. Interestingly, I had one student complain that each song felt so different they couldn't possibly get a consistent feel to their writing -- so perhaps one person's "feel" is quite different from another's.
Recently, I've found another musical source of inspiration: the Victorian State Singers. Yes, my daughter's one of them so maybe I'm biased, but choral music is new to me, and I can't tell you how much I love listening to them. The voice of youth is so pure. At their most recent performance, where they were the guest performers with a lot of local school groups, someone not attached to these singers gave them a standing ovation, so I'm not alone in my admiration. I listen to some of their songs and feel my throat close up and my eyes well. I have four short films taken on my el-cheapo digital camera, and the sound is just exquisite, even if the picture quality is pretty crappy. Blogger won't let me upload AVIs, so instead I'll post a still of them rehearsing for the schools' concert. They're not all there, not all in their black yet, nor wearing their coloured scarves. If only they would cut a CD, I'd be able to write to that -- if I could keep just the tears from my eyes.
My first inspiration is music. I know I've blogged about this before, so forgive me the indulgence, but I really can't look at my writing inspirations without starting here. Music is so important to me. Other friends listen to the radio while they drive, or to audio books (I should do this, I know), but for me it has to be music. My series working title "The oracle of the mountain king" is directly drawn from music -- from Grieg's "In the hall of the mountain king" from his Peer Gynt Suite. I wanted to capture the frantic frenetic build up of energy and pace in a fantasy setting. For a reader to feel the tension, to be flipping pages so fast that they would get paper-burn on their fingertips.
If I'm really stuck and facing down writer's block, music will often unblock me -- especially a good soundtrack like Gladiator and its sequel, or any of the Lord of the rings films. (I recently found a little handmade autograph book that Kaz, one of my Clarion buddies, gave me at the end of Clarion, and I had everyone sign it. My friend Cat wrote that she never wanted to hear Return of the king again -- because I played it everyday. I had meant to take up two soundtracks (I was travelling light), but when I opened the other, the case was empty. Repetition for me is a good thing, though it drives my husband bananas, particularly because he thinks there's no such thing as a good soundtrack.)
I've seen the powerful effect music has on writers through getting students to do writing exercises to music. Music helps establish a mood to write in, and helps bring out the mood in a piece. What I've done for these exercises is pick out several songs from different albums with the same feel to them. Interestingly, I had one student complain that each song felt so different they couldn't possibly get a consistent feel to their writing -- so perhaps one person's "feel" is quite different from another's.
Recently, I've found another musical source of inspiration: the Victorian State Singers. Yes, my daughter's one of them so maybe I'm biased, but choral music is new to me, and I can't tell you how much I love listening to them. The voice of youth is so pure. At their most recent performance, where they were the guest performers with a lot of local school groups, someone not attached to these singers gave them a standing ovation, so I'm not alone in my admiration. I listen to some of their songs and feel my throat close up and my eyes well. I have four short films taken on my el-cheapo digital camera, and the sound is just exquisite, even if the picture quality is pretty crappy. Blogger won't let me upload AVIs, so instead I'll post a still of them rehearsing for the schools' concert. They're not all there, not all in their black yet, nor wearing their coloured scarves. If only they would cut a CD, I'd be able to write to that -- if I could keep just the tears from my eyes.
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