The Wayfaring Wordhack

in which there is no snippet.

But I felt like I needed to report in about creativity, even if I have a lack of creation to share.

That is not to say that I've done nothing--I've sketched some--but I have spent more time thinking and being and accepting. A while back, I posted about my frustration with how stories come to me, wishing I could change the way my brain works.  Thanks to everyone who commented on that entry. I fell down a rabbithole and didn't follow up with people. I regret that. It seems silly to go back to it now, but I appreciate that people chimed in.

Anyhow, I haven't had new revelations, per se, but I've decided I need to be more flexible. I need to accept that sometimes the plan must be ditched; I have to roll with what I'm capable of when a hole swallows me whole or Some Big Thing knocks me off track.  I may not have the brain cells to write at certain times, but I can draw. So instead of clinging to some idea that I must write Just Because, I need to quickly (gracefully) switch gears.  It will save me time, guilt, and needless waffly-wallowing.

We are looking at a move, which means lots of packing, running around, planning and executing plans, in addition to vet visits, renewing my passport, attending a plethora of social engagements, and baking for charities. This is not the time to come down hard on myself for not being able to produce some tangible evidence of my creative spirit.

And this is enough of that. G'night, LJ. :P 

I feel like I had a pretty mediocre week. I have been brainstorming, but not very efficiently it would seem, about the religious beliefs of my island dwellers. I think they tend toward an animistic worldview, but I don't want to copy existing practices and ideas. There must be some overlap, of course, but I haven't found what makes the beliefs unique to this people.

I have also been pondering whether or not to give more info on how the magic in this world works. One of my POV characters is actually attending a class, but I had previously written it in a way where she got in trouble and kicked out of class before any real information was exchanged. I then got to thinking that a) this messes up my timing [something else is happening simultaneously, and if she gets kicked out too early, it can't plausibly effect the other event]; b) I was not taking advantage of an opportunity to bring the world more fully to life.

What are your thoughts? Do you like to see/learn how magic works in fantasy stories?

Anyhow, this is a rough little snippet that assumes Lelo stays in class long enough to learn a little something:

“One piece of feldspar is not necessarily like another. Your eye may not see these differences, but your ear must hear them. With your songsacs will come this ability. When you sing to the land, it is best to have some idea of what will answer you. This shows respect to the earth’s spirit, but it also keeps you safe.”

Here it comes, Lelo thought, another lecture about the dangers of sresoqo. But instead of telling her favorite story of how an iasree had sung a chasm open beneath her own feet and plummeted into the bowels of the earth, never to be found again, Elamie pulled something out of a pouch tied at her waist.

So, snippet.  Yes, I got a bit of writing done while we were gone.

It was so nice to creep out of bed at dawn, walk through the muggy fog* to a secluded spot and just think words and story. One morning I sat beneath eucalyptus trees, with all sorts of birds disappearing into the thick haze around me. The next day, Junebug woke up early, so I took him with me by the pool and wrote under date palms, heavy with fruit, while he pranced around with his shorts on his head. The last day I retreated to a worker's shelter in an olive grove.

Every time we go to Anafora, J says the kids and I should live full-time there, and for such lovely mornings, I would almost consider it.

Anyhow, a snippet to prove I didn't just go lounge around in the pool and sit under date palms sipping fresh juices:

Elamie nodded once. “Precisely. Iasrees have a gift, but not a gift free of cost. Not a gift that can be used without learning and application. The bite of a sresree may confer upon us the power of extraordinary song, but it does not give the ability to master the elements. Control is not innate. It must be aquired.”

Lelo clenched her fists in her lap. That, that was what Elamie had said? The same thing she said at least ten times per class, every class?  “About time you teach us mastery, then,” she muttered under her breath.  “Start simple, something like waking earthstars, and work your way to simili creation.”

Looking at this out of context makes it seem very heavy on the invented word side, but this is something like chapter 5 of the book, so the reader should either know or have a good inkling by now of what these words mean.

And I also had a great** idea of giving some parts of a scene to another POV character. This will give me a chance to show things from a fresh perspective, hopefully adding to the reader's understanding of both the characters and the world. My brain is truly and finally tiptoeing into Storyworld.

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* Anafora is on the desert road to Alexandria and not that close to the river or the greenness of the delta, but misty mornings are not rare.

** This was also sort of a "d'oh!" thought, something that could have occurred to me a loooooong time ago. That just doesn't seem to be the way my brain works, though. It's very hard for me to move beyond an initial way of seeing things. And I don't like that. It is a very rigid and frustration-making way to be. I wonder if I could do some kind of exercises to loosen up the mind and teach it to shuffle things and try out possibilities before latching so strongly on to one. Anyone have any ideas?

...on a Monday morning, not a first and certainly not a last.

I spent yesterday with friends that Sprout and I made during her dance classes last year. I taught the moms to make sourdough bread while the girls played, then we all supped on Egyptian moussaka and Indian curry potatoes and Indian bread.* Between all the baking and tidying and visiting, I didn't have the oomph to post last night.

So! This was a good week, overall. I got my Baron Frankenstein** groove on and hacked and stitched until I have a chapter three that pretty much does what I want it to.

( Snippet this way )

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*One mom is Egyptian and the other Indian, and they brought the food so I wouldn't have to cook.

**"Frankenstein" is the name of the game for this chapter. Depressingly, I found an entry about it, dating back to April 14...2013!

Hold on to your hats, folks. You are going to get an actual writing snippet this Sunday.

Thanks to excessive prodding and no little abuse encourgagement from frigg, I have dusted off my Witherwilds file, as you may have gathered from my post on insomnia.

About two years have lapsed since I worked on this project, so there is quite a bit of dust to clear off files and out of the corners of my mind.

My plan is to proceed with the rewriting of the opening of book 1, hopefully reach a stage where old stuff can still stand, and then turn my attention to completing book 2.  But more than anything, more than setting goals, lofty or otherwise, the plan is to keep working on it.

Sola’li slipped out of the courtesy lodge before dawn and smiled to find Open City engulfed in mist. She could not have planned a more perfect help to her morning’s business. Patting the low bun she wore in hopes of being mistaken for a songless woman, she peered up and down the street. Overly cautious was better than caught. Movement across the way made her pause, hand still to her hair. She shifted deeper into the shadow of the lintel.

I also finished draft two of my nonfiction picture book.

Oh, and I made Junebug a pair of shorts. 

I did it: I progressed from Zero Draft to a decent First Draft.  Woot.

I also did some sketching. Sprout drew in the teeth on this one, as well as an earring. I can't express how much I love her toothy touch. :P

Then I found this mini-tutorial for drawing cartoonish faces in profile, so I did quite a few:

I kind of cheated this week.

I only sketched once and that was today because I remembered it was Snippet Sunday. Oh, wait, not true; I did another tiny sketch the other night.  Just fiddling and poking at my illustrated book project. Not really anywhere near it in my head. I'd like to get there, but I have to take care of the broken stroller complaint first (finally got a certificate of irreparability that we've been needing) and get the icky Stolen Car Angst out of my system.*

In other "creative" news, I've been spending a lot of time helping my MIL clear land for and plan a chicken coop. I've drawn up building plans. That counts right? Oh, and I've dismantled shipping pallets. Not so easy and makes me think twice about all those pallet projects I've pinned. :P

Finished the sweater!  Woot!

No photos yet because the model is in bed, but hopefully I can post a couple tomorrow.  The pattern, as I've stated many times, needs serious work, and I don't know that I have the time or energy to put into "fixing"* it and making a tutorial to help out any other people who might like to try their crochet hooks at it.  I would have loved to, though. Priorities, priorities.

Glad to have that project off my hands.

Come Sunday I hope to have writing progress to post here.

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* By fixing it, I mean not only make the directions clearer but adjust measurements to fit kids as I know (have) them.  I made the 18-24 month size, and it is understandably a bit long for Junebug, but Sprout, who is 4.5 can wear it. I can barely button it around Junebug's waist, even after adding rows to the buttonband. The sleeves were also too narrow at the wrists. I upped the size to the one for 36 month-olds and STILL had to add rows up the sides to make the sleeves big enough...

I accomplished zero draft of my children's book this week. Some of the entries are fairly polished and may make it into the next draft, but many need tweaking.

Revision and further research are in my future.

This week, however, I need to focus on getting Junebug's sweater finished.  I know he will need it in France. I really need quiet and time alone to make progress, two commodities in short supply around here. :P

I'm posting early today because I actually thought about photographing my sketchbook while the sun was still in my slice of the sky.  Wonders will never cease.

This week I went off on a bit of tangent and sketched skads of lions.  I started doing a cat head and then got an idea for a story about a lion, so I drew a bunch of variations on a lion's face and ways the mane could be.

So for a snippet, the cat and some of the lions:
Annnnnd, wouldn't you know. The photo upload is not playing nicely. Not going to waste my time with it.

Suffice it to say, I had stuff to share today, and for that I am content.


Ha!  Posted then hit "edit," and it let me post the photos. Go figure.