Mirror, Mirror, the Complete Story

The final version of my first short story. I deliberately let it finish abruptly, a device I have seen before now in the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Not sure if I have made a good job of this but for now I am intending to let it stand and maybe come back to it in the near future with an explanation for the mystery.

I am having problems getting the embedded article sized to be read on the blog page, which I know I have done before. However please click the FULL PAGE icon and it will open in another tab.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall by John Dyhouse on Scribd

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Short Story

My first ever short story, I have reported progress in the last couple of posts on this blog and now it is complete. An abrupt ending but it leaves room for a little imagination.

Find a downloadable version on Scribd, along with several other non-fiction books/booklets.

Read the full story (approx 2000 words) on Scribd.com

Day 3 - Completion of chapter two

Another day another little bit of my short story. I have used YWriter to plan out the basics of this piece of writing, but although I have a plan in my head I find that I just am not sticking to the plan - should I be worried? Not a problem with poetry of a story of such short length, but would it matter if I tried to get back on board with my novel?

Anyway, here are a few more "scenes" which complete chapter 2. I have now written nearly 1400 words. Not a major new tome but plenty for me to have spent the time on.
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Part 3 - Mirror, mirror on the wall.

Well, first things first. I decided that a visit to the kitchen was next on my itinerary. I needed time and another coffee to determine was this real. Or was I having some kind of nervous breakdown. How on earth could what I think I saw, be real and happening to me. I could barely begin to comprehend what this meant. I literally had no idea what I had seen. All I could think of was that book about Alice somebody or other and her adventures through the looking glass. Did somebody else have a similar vision and does that make my experience real? I reached the kitchen, where I had begun my day by taking my first coffee such a short time ago. In fact, such a short time that the kettle still contained hot water, ready for a second cup of caffeine; I needed to clear my head and sort things out. Twice the sufficient amount of instant coffee, hot water to fill the cup, and no milk or sugar to dilute that hit which I needed to clear my head.

And then, "Oh my god!" I looked up and in the glass door of the kitchen cabinets, my worst fears were confirmed. I was looking at an image of the way that my kitchen looked some months ago, before I had had the renovation carried out by a friend of mine who was a builder, working in the domestic market - and making a blooming good cut of the national gross income for himself. He was supposed to have given me  a discount for the sake of our friendship but it did not feel like it when I saw his bill. Anyway, it was so clear in a diminished and greyed out way, and there I was - MISSING! Completely out of the picture. I do not know how long I stared at the reflection in front of me but my coffee was almost cold as I started to imbibe the almost forgotten liquid.

I couldn't leave things in this state. I went from room to room looking into anything which showed a reflection, and there I was missing in all of them. I was panicking and did not know what to do. I was totally unable to decide how to cope with this phenomenon. the only thing I could find to do was to remove myself from the immediate location and try to find a more normal view of the world. I dressed myself in a manner which owed more to my panic than to the fashionable style of the day, which I usually followed minutely. I went to the front door and there in the mirror, as I went out into the world at large with a final glimpse of that frightening "other world".

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More to come tomorrow, hop you will join me on this journey of discovery.

Day two - the second chapter of my new short story

Well at least I have decided on what I am writing. In the last post I explained that accidentally I had started to write a story - I have decided and planned for a short story of possibly 2000 words. It will take me a few days, but I have not set myself a schedule, I will be leaving it to happenstance. Unless it drags on too long.

This second part of the story, not sure whether it is a second chapter, or indeed if it might not be all one long chapter. It is a new departure for me and I will sort things out as I progress.

I had written the first part two days ago and yesterday I looked at it again and added more content , in fact adding about 30% more. I am not reposting it yet, it makes no difference to the way things will progress, just setting the scene really.

This section describes the discovery of a strange scene which the  lead character sees in a domestic mirror and the immediate effect upon him.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall ( part 2)

I levelled the mug up to my lips, took a long sniff and then a short sip. Heaven is a powerfully strong fresh, hot coffee in the morning as far as I am concerned. I took another longer sip and began to make my way back up the stairs to my bedroom to make myself ready and acceptable for the day ahead. Casually opening the wardrobe, I had a massive shock, nearly throwing that hot beverage over myself as I stepped back. “What the ….”, there in the mirror on the back of the wardrobe door was a sight I had never seen before. In the mirror or indeed anywhere else for that matter.

It was a reflection of my bedroom but then again, it wasn’t my room. And Damnation, I wasn’t in the picture at all. How could I not be! I was simply not in the reflected image which I could clearly see before me. I backed away; slowly but carefully and reached the edge of my bed where I say in a daze. Not knowing what to do, I quickly downed the rest of the coffee with no regard for my delicate tongue and throat; not that I noticed anyway. The coffee went down without hindrance and I tipped the mug up to drain the last of the liquid, to the best of my ability. I was stumped, The bedroom looked familiar, but I still wasn’t there; and by Lord Harry I should have been. This needed thinking about, carefully. I needed more caffeine and a moment or two, or three before I took any untoward actions. I could just imagine dialing 999 and telling the operator I wasn’t myself - not in the mirror in my bedroom anyway. They would be sending the men in the white coats to get me in double quick time.

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OK, we may not have moved very far forward but we are moving at a pace I can be comfortable with. More of the story as it is completed over the next few days.

The start of a new piece of creative writing.

This week my friend Monna's creative writing prompt has given me food for thought. I selected the first of three which was ..............

"You can see through your mirror to another dimension."

photogragh by the blog owner

I thought about my next poem, but in this instance for some silly reason which now eludes me, I decided to write a short piece of prose. maybe not as long as a short story (in fact how long / short does a story need to be to be called a short story?) but enough to tax my grey matter. After a while I soon realised that I had taken on a project which would need rather more than a perfunctory or half-hearted attempt to come to a conclusion. I am now looking at several chapters or episodes or simply a short step forward in measured leaps.

I simply set off writing, without considering where it would take me. A silly idea! With a poem, the rhymes often suggest things to me; this however is going to take a serious bit of thinking about where and why and what is it all about. But here are the opening paragraphs, far away from the prompt. But finding myself stuck for a way forward, I decided to stop and do a little research. Create a plan and decide how to arrive in one piece at a reasonable conclusion.

Oh by the way the title may be familiar - no apologies.

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MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL

The sun coming through the slit in the orange striped curtains struck my face, found my eyes and of course woke me. I edged over into the shadows and tried unsuccessfully to find sleep again. Typically though, once awake my body started to crave its early morning shot of caffeine, and it was not to be denied. Throwing back the remaining covers, and forcing myself to swing my legs over the edge of the bed, my feet found the floor and squared up, ready for a final grand effort from the rest of my body.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" Just stretching, seemed to bring a little life back into my still tired bones and I was able to move. First stop was the bathroom. Opening the door off the landing, I stepped inside and I noticed something strange out of the corner of my eye. The wall mirror seemed to shimmer, as if it was a pool of clear water. I was tempted to think it was nothing more than my half-closed eyes playing trick with my imagination, especially when I looked more closely and the mirror's surface appeared as solid as it ever had been. I moved on and carried on with the morning's ablutions. My body was still crying out for that caffeine shot I had promised it.

Feeling a little more like a human being, I shuffled to the kitchen and the luxury of a coffee became a definite possibility. Taking the kettle and removing the lid, I held it under the tap, splashed in enough water for a cupful. This early the immediacy of a strong instant coffee was the main driving force; it was the caffeine and not the pleasure of a decent cup of coffee which drove me on. I'm not a coffee snob. Well two shakes of a cat's tail and the fast boil kettle had produced a cup of boiling water whilst I had spooned a sufficiency of coffee granules into my mug. A quick pour and a hasty swirl of the contents of the mug and my breakfast was ready. Good morning to me!

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Well there it is, The next step is to plan out where I want to go and how to get around to the main (intended) idea. From there it should be a doddle. All I need is a little free time, not readily available at the moment. However having started I really would like to see it finished. I have a record of starting writing projects ambitiously and not being able to sustain the momentum and finish what originally seemed like good ideas. Maybe it is the ideas and not the subsequent slog which tempt me, who knows. Poems can be as long or short as the time I have available !

Hopefully having made this project public, I shall be shamed into a completion. Wish me luck - please.

Tristolaria Day 4 - Creative Writing

Day 4: “All Hail Anktu”.  This seemed to be the main form of greeting between everybody, whether formal or informal in Tristolaria, - "the greeting of choice".

This caused me to resolve to find out more about Anktu Robircha. As I mentioned in an earlier
posting, Anktu had obtained the methodology of using moss to make bread from Finland. This was
seen as a daring escapade in Tristolanian mythology, perpetrated by a man who had become a
national hero. In truth, I suspect that the Finns were glad to get rid of it. It was only ever used as a last
resort for example during times of great hardship as in a situation such as the second world war.

On the plus side however in Tristolaria, the situation had been dire. Starvation was ever present as
food crops would not grow easily in the climatic conditions and animals were even rarer.

Birds did breed in the country usually nesting on the ground as trees were few and far between. This
later fact meant that arrows were not easily come by (you need fairly long straight branches to make
arrows that hit the target) and as explosives were unreliable due to the weather ( yes you guessed!)
hunting birds was basically done by slingshot. A hit and miss method, unfortunately more miss than
hit in the hands of the Tristolarians.

Gastropods (snails to you) were plentiful, and frogs were everywhere but after a very unsuccessful
trip to France, the eating of snails and frogs legs was banned by  A.T. Zalekiat, whilst he was still
Chief Minister and was never revived. And frankly who could blame the population.

In this situation, the ability to make bread from moss was a real godsend, manna from heaven, you
could say. It was no surprise to find that an image of Anktu had been put slap in the middle of a new
currency note. A decree from on high had introduced a new high denomination note, just to please
the man (and woman and child and - more of this later) in the street and score a political point from the "victory over hunger campaign". This led to a career for Anktu from which followed to the
introduction of several further uses for moss elevating his national popularity to previously unheard
of heights.

The growth of industry and the raising of living standards for the whole population led to his
becoming a legend in his lifetime. His present project is the search for a waterproof fabric
manufactured from moss, or its products. A subsidiary project is the search for a potential candidate
as a food animal i.e. one that could exist on moss, rather than grass. In this latter project, rumour
had it that he has again been in Finland. But more of his life's works in a later posting. For now here is the 1024 bryta note in all its glory:-

I did manage to obtain an old copy of the original image used for the note, I was absolutely sure there was something about this face (that hat, that beard) , that pipe and that shillelagh that I thought that I  recognised ..... but couldn't put my finger on it at all. More to come on this issue I expect.

After a little thought, I pencilled in a little more hair…..which seemed to belong on the face. And did I say that he was only 3feet 11 inches tall (without the hat).

Photographs of Moss -- Tristolaria

Day 3 ( later):

I found some travel brochures with pictures which I feel certain may have come from
Tristolaria, perhaps. (All these photos have been given creative commons licenses
on Flickr their creators Flickr ID is given.)

Thanks to Ecstaticist

Thanks to Greg Hefner

Thanks to Geir Helvorsen

Thanks to Pictoscribe Digitally

Thanks to Martin Labar

thanks to pipistruler


I had always iintended to use the photos as prompts for a little more writing but
I ran out of steam. Included here for completeness

See last few posts for more info

Day 3: 

 On the morning of my first full day in Tristolaria, I looked out of the bedroom window after a relaxing night's sleep, and saw a garden which almost exclusively consisted of moss. There were a few ferns here and there and the odd dead tree trunk in the distance, which of course were covered in moss like all the walls and other features which lay before me, giving the impression of green waves in a green sea. Where moss wasn't growing, there were lichens and liverworts and hornworts.

The whole landscape was a glorious mixture of green, green and bluey-green; punctuated only very rarely with reds and oranges. Glorious in their complementary nature.

I eventually reached the bank and managed to change my high value ( old and reviled) currency for a selection of notes in more useful denominations. I include here a glimpse of these notes. It would appear that the notes were redesigned after the fiasco, and the tradition of using portraits of prominent Tristolarians was discontinued. The main image was now one of the local bird life. This was quite important in Tristolaria, there were no animals to speak of and the off-shore and local flocks of birds were a major, if secondary source of food and other essentials. It was drizzling, just another day in Tristolaria, and the forecast was for rain, drizzle and heavy showers. Following my ablutions, I went down to a breakfast of mossy toast and jam (don't ask!) followed by a bacon mossy sandwhich and something the landlady, bless her heart, called moffee.

I eventually reached the bank and managed to change my high value ( old and reviled) currency for a selection of notes in more useful denominations. I include here a glimpse of these notes. It would appear that the notes were redesigned after the fiasco, and the tradition of using portraits of prominent Tristolarians was discontinued. The main image was now one of the local bird life. This was quite important in Tristolaria, there were no animals to speak of and the off-shore and local flocks of birds were a major, if secondary source of food and other essentials.

Upon stating a requirement to exchange some of my 237 bryta notes, she kindly directed me to the nearest branch of the Royal Bank In passing she did mention that these notes were not in common use because of the so-called fiasco caused by a certain Mr A T Zalekiat, a previous Chief Minister at the treasury, when he decided to design two notes including the 237 bryta note in order to take revenge on his wife. Of course, there was a different story from his wife but I don't intend to include tittle tattle in this serious travel journal.

There was actually no royalty in the dominion of Tristolaria, but the bank along with a number of other institutions had retained its title, for the sake of tradition. In fact, not only was there no royalty but little in the way of government officers any longer. There was at one time a distinct lack of funds to pay for such un-necessary frippery and as very little changed on a day-to-day basis in Tristolaria, life simply carried on as it had for centuries There was little need for new rules and regulations or laws which after all only caused problems when they were not upheld. There was no crime in Tristolaria, because people made up their own rules simply to get by on a daily basis. A very phlegmatic population, were the Tritolarians.

I eventually reached the bank and managed to change my high value ( old and reviled) currency for a selection of notes in more useful denominations. I include here a glimpse of these notes. It would appear that the notes were redesigned after the fiasco, and the tradition of using portraits of prominent Tristolarians was discontinued. The main image was now one of the local bird life. This was quite important in Tristolaria, there were no animals to speak of and the off-shore and local flocks of birds were a major, if secondary source of food and other essentials.

See previous posts for the beginning and explanation of this post

Tristolaria, day 2

Just reviewed the journal ( see last post) and because it is so very short, I am posting this without waiting.

TRISTOLARIA – A TRAVEL JOURNAL

Day Day 2: Managed to change a little of my currency notes this morning. I was struck by the design of the 1 (one) bryta note. Apparently Mr A.T.Zalekiat (a former chief Minister of Banking) was a bit of a joker, and had his wife's picture put on this note closely following the design of the 237 bryta note with his own likeness upon it.

TherThere is no record (known) of the reaction of Mrs A.T.Zalekiat to this design

I will wait a until tomorrow to ((day 3) to continue this journal

.

Just for the sake of posterity

I am aware of the time that has passed since my last post, unfortunately family illness mad it impossible for me to carry on as normal and so this blog was pushed to the sidelines. This is not yet
an attempt to rescue it from the grave, but simply to record a story which I once wrote (or at least
started to write) because of an art challenge. It was a somewhat unusual challenge but was based on
the idea of designing a set of banknotes for a fantasy country of your choice. The person who set the
challenge also mentioned that it might be fun to write about that country.

Well writing was not one of my interests at the time but I took up the challenge and started to write a travel journal based on the country I had imagined. I have just remembered this because of annother WRITING challenge and it took me some time to find it on my computer - actually archived on a external hard disc. So here are three posts which summarise this MY FIRST ATTEMPT at writing something other than song lyrics, which I hope will mean I can find it again should I decide to complete it just for fun.

TRISTOLARIA – A TRAVEL JOURNAL

Day 1: I have only just set out on a voyage of discovery to TRISTOLARIA, where the unit of currency is the BRYTA. I give an example of the 237 bryta note. This is the largest note in common circulation although for special purposes The Royal Bank of Tristolaria has issued a 1024 bryta note but which is rarely used in practice.

Other denominations of paper currency are 1, 4, 9. 16. and 52. I will post photos of these as I discover them. Like most bureau de change offices, I have only been given high denomination notes when I purchased my currency for this visit.


Tristolaria is a little known country in the southern tip of Eire, and it is possibly best known (amongst those who do know it) for its WET weather. It is almost perpetually raining or very damp. The humidity is the highest of any recorded anywhere in the world. Despite the so-called gazetteers claiming this record for tropical or mountainous regions of the world. Because of this persistent weather pattern, its main agricultural crop is moss. It is shipped from here to Japan and many other countries cultivating Japanese style gardens. It is also used in the production of whiskey but the main whiskey producing areas mostly grow enough of their own moss. There is little or no industry in Tristolaria, except sharpening gardening tools because they rust so quickly in the climate here.

Everywhere you go, the land is covered in moss and it is near impossible to grow any other crop. The constant threat of famine was raised when it was learnt that in Finland, peat mosses were used to make bread in famine situations there. A use which was seized upon by the tristolrians with great joy and rejoicing. Moss was hung as decorations on every spare wall and lamp post ( not many of the latter as the electricity fails regularly due to corrosion of the contacts) and then dried and converted into bread with a recipe stolen from the Finns by their great hero Anktu Robircha.

I must go know to claim my "bed" for the night ( stuffed with moss of course) as the dry ones go very quickly due to population pressures. There has never been so much food to go around. All hail Anktu.

Taking A Long Time To Write That First Novel?

Well you and me both, my friend.

I have been getting so frustrated with the target / aim / call it what you will, to write a novel. I have a story inside me that I want to get out but life simply gets in the way.

And today I saw this post on WritersRelief .... Five authors who took 5 years to write their books including JK Rowling and JR Tolkien. So there has to be a chance for me yet.

I have continued to think occasionally about the plot and how the story will unfold. I know I should be doing more but it is not only the novel which is suffering but I have done very little writing for several months. I know, I can hear the comments, "calls himself a writer and isn't writing!" But as I said life is simply too complicated at the moment and my focus is elsewhere. I cannot do the writing any justice and so I find it too hard to move it forward at all.

I know it is a flying visit but I simply had to share the post, and you never know it could give me that little push to get back into the habit of regular writing.

What Happened To That Routine?

In my last post, I stated that I had finally written and published three books of poetry and one on running an art group. I said that I thought I had been procrastinating and that now those books were available, I would be getting on with the novel. Did it happen?

Unfortunately and most definitely not!

Partly because of a total knee replacement, which meant that sitting still to do anything was very uncomfortable - let alone writing creatively. But that was not the only reason. I have been spending a lot more time painting, which you can read about by browsing my painting blog. All my blogs are available from the menu bar above, under the header.

I have also been getting involved with a ukulele group. I have taken the task of learning to play this new (for me) instrument to heart. I am really enjoying the group sessions. My son bought me the Uke for Christmas last year and I feel I owe it to him. In fact this has taken precedence over many other things at home recently. Again, read more on my music blog.

So, the novel has taken a back seat. I have been reading copiously whilst recovering from the operation and I have started to doubt my own abilities to create a novel which I would be proud of. I need to recover the confidence with which I started this project, but in the short term I do not think this will happen. Music and Art have captured my creative side and this leaves little time for writing, even poetry.

I will be planning and noting ideas, etc, for the time when I do again find my writing muse but for now I feel I will have little enough to report on this blog apart from why I am not writing, but I will try to report on progress or not as the case may be.

Getting back into the routine

OK, the poetry books have been published, the decks have been cleared and I am ready to roll - again.

My first action was to read the chapters I have written so far. Ouch, doesn't look too good but I am assured that this is par for the course for a first draft. The story itself still excites me, so I guess I just pick up where I left off and leave improving it until later.

One of the first things which I have been making notes about is to fill in the structure of the story, the outline. I am preparing a list of "titles" for the scenes in the next part of the story. To this end I am trying to put a little flesh on the bones of the story by preparing some visualisations as discussed in a reccent post.

So far I have dealt with:-

•  an introduction to the story, 
• the magical accident which results in an evil twin of King Eadwyne being "born" as an adult, 
• how this twin (who becomes known as FEAR) begins to explore the castle and
• the discovery of the library of magic by FEAR
• and how Dinbar, Eadwyne's Court Magician is used by FEAR to learn how to use the power of the library for his own evil ends.

I have outlined several other chapters but I am now working on adding the flesh referred to above. As an example, here is a photocollage of a scene where the Castle Commander, Bryssan Firaeus is being warned about FEAR by Dinbar. I am not yet sure who the imp in the background leaning over the wall is supposed to represent but it could yet lead to an interesting side plot.

(check out my photography blog for how I did this, or use the page menu at the top of the page).

Procrastination or clearing the decks?

It has been five weeks since my last post but I have not been idle. I have been converting a number of articles and poetry collections into a format which I can publish on Amazon. I have used their own independent publishing company Createspace. Createspace offers a completely free service including ISBN numbering and an on-line cover designer however a number of professional services are available if you need or desire that help. I chose the free services but found that proof reading is a skill I definitely need to cultivate, LOL.

I have been "clearing the decks" of some material I have had around for some time and decided that I would take a few weeks and then I would have a clear way forward with the novel. I hope I am not simply procrastinating, it would be such a pity since I started "Emcounter with Fear" with such high hopes and expectations.

For your information, the four books published so far are:-

 

You can see them all on my author page on Amazon (Nightmare may take a couple of days to appear due to the Amazon processing).

Depending on how I approach the next couple, there may be another 2 or 3 books to be converted, however I shall not be spending too much time on those and expect to be back to writing the novel very soon.

I have not been completely out of touch with Eadwynne and hiw friends however I have been making notes and scribbling down ideas. I even visited a local castle, Kenilworth Castle,  to take in the atmosphere and take a few photos to help with setting the scenes for my story. Hopefully I will be back to regular postings by the end of this month. Watch out for postings via the usual social networks.

Do You Envision Your Locations, When Writing A Novel?

I have found that creating images of my locations is helping me considerably. All the books and articles say that your characters should be well defined. That you should make them "live" in your mind; they then provide lists / ways of getting to know your characters, their likes and dislikes, their strengths and weaknesses and how they would react to any given situation.

Maybe defining locations is not exactly as exciting as getting to know your characters but I have found that by creating montages of my locations i have a much better way of envisioning them. The images bring them to "life" for me and help inspire the stories which occur in those locations.

For example; in this novel, the "Room of Magik" is a central location. What is it like, what is in the room? I bought together a background and several items which I would expect to be in the room. This has helped me to write from knowledge of that location.

The basic stone table was already in the room  used as the background. I added the books and scrolls, the shelving with books and the document on the wall. Oh, and yes the flame of the torch.

In this image I have used one of my own photos as a background and superimposed a photo of a statue (a monk) who represents the main antagonist in my story. In this way I have really been able to bring the locations (and characters) to life.

I have been writing since the last post but I am going to stop posting drafts of the scenes from the novel. I am not sure if they really do any good. I will see how it goes.

Seeds Of Doubt, The Writers' Enemy

I have been doing too much thinking about my novel over the past week. I am finding too many other uses for my time and too many other reasons for writing. I am beginning to have doubts about my endurance with this project and whether I have the right skills to pull it all together.

For example, I am still reading too much, both fiction and non-fiction as a ratio to time spent writing and especially time spent on the novel. I even took time to take one of my poetry volumes (available on Scribd for free) and published it on Amazon (via CreateSpace). I am waiting for a proof copy at the moment before proceeding with publishing more of the PDF files which are available at Scribd.

This is not boding well for progress on the novel. However, maybe I spent too much time on the novel over those first few weeks and have been catching up; maybe some happy medium will be found.

One of the reasons for the doubts is that I am more concerned with the story at the moment than I am with the descriptions which I read of scenes, characters and all the details which are often included in the #1 best sellers. I know that I am only writing a draft and that it will take a lot of work to produce a decent manuscript but I have nothing to compare with. I have no first drafts to read except my own so I can only compare my work with fully worked on and published copy. Do other writers have this issue, especially when they start writing fiction.

Of course the other aspect is making time for writing. here is a quote from Creative Writing by Adele Ramet:-

MAKING TIME TO WRITE
One of the first rules to remember is that writers write. You should write something every day, even if all you do with the finished piece is tear it up and throw it away.Writing something, anything, every day will enable you to build up the discipline and commitment required to ensure that you can produce a complete manuscript in whatever genre you choose.

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But for now, here is the latest scene from chapter 1. I have now completed the list of 8 scenes which I had  listed for this chapter. Here is a screen shot from yWriter5.

The first and opening scene is when King Taienege hears about the raids on his countries West Coast.

Taienge Dyenth, King of Alendreya, was at that moment sitting in his audience room trembling with anger;  listening to messengers from the Western Coast Protection Force (WCPF) who were describing horrific scenes of carnage and arson on a grand scale.

"Your Majesty, we cannot provide cover to all the coast. We do not have sufficient men to patrol the potential landing sites for these scum and they are coming more and more often. My men are afraid for their families and are deserting their posts so that my force is weakening. We need help from other quarters Sire."
"What is happening that has caused this chaos?" The King enquired. "How many villages, how many people?"
"Sire, we have no realistic numbers but it is too many. The pirates seem to be better armed and stonger than in the past, we feel that they are being helped in some way but we have no suitable reconaissance which helps to inform us of its source."
"OK, first of all, you will get together with my commanders and discuss this latest issue. I will not tolerate these incursions on my sovereign territory causing so much grief and you will plan an immediate campaign to stop these enemies of my people from any further success this time and in the future."
"Thank you my Lord, your people will be thankful and bless you for this help."

The King smiled, almost, and then turned to his Commander-in-Chief, "I imagine the force to be sent will be large and will need much planning. In the meantime we need to do something to stop these carrion. Inform my vassal, King Eadwyne, that we need him to raise a force and make haste to protect our peoples in the west coast area. Give him as much information as you can but impress on him a need for speed in this matter. This is war my friends and we will not be found wanting."

The king left the hall and expected his commanders to do his bidding as quickly as possible. His kingdom had historically had a problem with pirates from The Western Isles who would from time to time cause havoc on his western shores. The Protection Force had been formed from local men to prevent the worst of these pirate raids and maintain security of the area but things had become increasingly serious.

Of course, The pirates had been repelled and followed to sea but they were cunning sea-farers and used local knowledge of the islands and archipelagos, and the surrounding rocks to sail away from the following forces. No one knew exactly where they came from since they appeared to live on the sea, spending their time aboard ship and rarely making landfall except for provisioning. It had been the KIng's strategy that punishing the civil populations of these islands would only provide support for the pirates and had attempted to bring peace to his land by taking steps to help the Islands.

They had been treated like men too often. Now they would be run down and punished like the dogs they

More thoughts and writing from my novel in the next post.

 

Is Reading When I should Be Writing, Simply Procrastination?

Another question about the dreaded curse of procrastination.

All the books and articles I read tell me that a writer should do lots of reading. In the past couple of weeks I have read three novels.

My trouble is I love to read, I can't sit at my computer all day and there is so much I want to do. Not all of it connected with writing my novel. So far I have let things happen as and when I felt like it. But I am not sure this is going to work with something like a novel, which has such a long time span. And there is, as I said, so much to do at the moment.

I am writing my first full-length Squidoo Lens for over a year and I am desperate to get that finished.

I have just published (well just waiting on the proof copy) my first volume of poetry on Amazon (via CreateSpace). An exciting thought, but the first time it did take longer to sort out the details than I thought it would. I had manuscripts for the ebook sorted and posted to Scribd already. CreateSpace needs more detailed photos so I hade to sort out the images which I had used.

But READING? Is it really that important? I guess it gives the writer an opportunity to see how things should look, how other authors create tension and mystery, etc. It is not unusual for me to read three novels over a couple of weeks and I can only ever think of very few books which once started I do not finish. And that does not count the "how to write a novel" books I mentioned in my last post.

In the latter part of February, for instance I read:-

You can see I have been reading Lincoln Rhyme novels by Jeffrey Deaver. I am finding so many series of books which I want to read because I have only just started reading novels other then Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I have lots to catch up with. In fact I have about 21 novels in my bedroom waiting for me to read. the trouble is I keep seeing books I want in charity shops, etc and buy them because they might not be available when I need them. LOL. It is getting on my wife's nerves and something else I will have to take stock of. I have been tidying up my personal library however and recycling some books back to thte charity shops. It does make me feel good.

So the question is, is reading simply procrastinating? I know what I must do. I need to assign a set time each day for my novel. I have tried this before with all my other interests and failed. Picking them up as I felt like it. But this time I feel I must show some discipline or that novel is simply not going to appear at all.

Right, I feel better now I have cleared the air, where's my calendar and to-do list?

Is Wanting To Know More, Simply Procrastination?

I made the mistake of obtaining a couple of books from my local library on "Writing Novels and how to do it". I thought two of them were full of really great advice and actually found copies on Amazon which were very economically priced, second-hand (or pre-read as they aare now called) but good quality. In my opinion a great way of buying books.

However, I have spent so much time reading "how to do it", I have actually stopped writing. In one sense, I can see this is procrastinating but as this is my first time I thought that I should be allowed this one minor bout of self-doubt.

The two books I bought are:
1. A Teach Yourself Book, Writing A Novel by Nigel Watts. The main reason (but not the only one) that I bought this book was the so-called 8-point arc of a good plot. These are, Nigel explains, the phases which a classic plot needs to pass through. He calls them:-

• Stassis
• Trigger
• The Quest
• Surprise
• critical Choice
• The Climax
• Reversal
• resolution

I do not intend to discuss the idea in any more detail, but it seemed to me to be a lot more helpful than the 3-act plot often discussed by other authors and in on-line articles I have read.

2. The Beginners Guide To Writing A Novel byMarina Oliver. A more traditional book but a chapters on "getting ready to start" and ""the overall view" seemed to offer something out of the ordinary run of the mill advice I have read.

Both books do of course cover characterisation and setting the scene and most of the usual advice. despite having downloaded many articles, I do love books and could not help wanting these.

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I do have a number of scenes in hand and am posting a new short piece of the novel ( as usual a first draft) on the blog today to prove that things have not come to a complete stop. 

Let me offer a short recap. Eadwyne has been asked by his Liege Lord to raise an army and set off to stop incursions by pirates and their allies. Dinbar, the court magician was in the midst of giving the force a blessing which was a spell to ensure their safe return when a lightning bolt struck and created a "twin" of Eadwyne. He was not hurt but thrown into his assembled force and in the resulting chaos, the twin escaped undetected. He was afraid and did not know or realise what had happened. He decides to hide in the castle ... This scene finds FEAR, the twin, exploring tunnels in the bowels of the castle.

FEAR did not know that no one ever came to this place. The tunnels were there long before the castle as it is now, was built into the rock face. They were damp and cold and ignored by staff, never  used and so had fallen into disrepute. Rumours of spirits and unknown things kept the castle's servants away from the heavy wooden door which closed off the entrance. FEAR felt safe in these tunnels and passageways despite the dank darkness, and yet he wondered what lay ahead. He somehow knew that he had to explore the tunnels in order to put his mind at rest. For it was in turmoil at the moment. A sudden awakening in the parade ground, all that running around and ... who was that ... man and why did he feel a link between them. A link that gave rise to a massive loathing and fear at the same time.

The tunnels were faced with stones, they must have been important when first built but he could tell they were not used now. He quietly crept back to the cellar entrance and made sure that no one was around. Sure enough he quickly found what he was looking for in the detritus from a working royal residence. Torches; everyone needed light in such a large building, and there were plenty which had not been burned down completely. Some servant looking to save a few coins for his master or maybe even for himself, who knows? FEAR quickly lit one of these partially burned torches from the single flame near the steps back up to the castle's higher floors. He then returned to the tunnels with enough brands to last him for a cursory search, at least.

He started walking into the gloom and soon found that more steps taking him down even further below the castle. He was carefully picking his way down from the staircase with his head down, when he realised that the dust on the steps had been disturbed - recently it seemed! Warning bells rang for him. So he was not completely alone in this inhospitable place, or at least the tunnels were used by someone else. The light from the torch was dim and flickered as he carried it before him, it provided only a small circle of light around him as he moved forward. That was the reason he had not noticed the footsteps in the duct, now that he had, he was swinging to torch around to examine every inch of the floor and walls. Yes, someone else had recently been down here and he came across more torches along the route. Enough to suggest that whoever had been down here came fairly frequently but it had not been over a long time. Many recent sets of footprints, they had not yet begun to fill back in with dust. He could not say for certain exactly what how long ago the tunnels had been used, but he must assume that he was not necessarily safe down her. Although as no torches were lit he could assume that the interloper, for that is how he thought of him, was not in the tunnels at present.

At the lower level, within a short distance, Fear found a wooden door - unlocked. All the earlier worries flooded back, but he knew that he had to search the room as it may contain more clues to the interloper. He looked inside and was disappointed, an empty cell. Nothing at all behind the door, no furniture of any description, no sign of anything. He made his way further down the tunnel and found more doors, all of them hiding nothing but shadows. For him to take refuge and hide here would not be a long term possibility, and even then he would have to forage in the kitchens for food, clothing and bedding along with anything else that he might need.

The Benefits Of Reading Aloud When Reviewing / Editing

I have been reading some of my early scenes in my first novel. I have hardly completed chapter one and already I am becoming twitchy about what I have written. Most of my writing has been of a technical nature and as you might imagine, although the mechanisms I go through are the same, the words and sentence structures are very different. It really makes me nervous.

One thing I have found which helps is to read the text aloud. This obviously slows down the reviewing process but also helps to spot those awkward structures which can be glossed over when reading to yourself.

A feature which I have found valuable in the yWriter5 software is the built-in speech engine feature, as I mentioned in my lasr post. You can set the software to read back each scene at a speed determined by yourself. There are many foibles,we have all heard the automatic repeat of a number we have entered into a telephone, maybe for paying a bill or on-line-banking. But apart from a few strange pronunciations, there are some distinct areas where the machine is just terrible. For example in this case, the speech engine hurries quickly over the word "and". However I am getting use to it like a good friend - maybe I need to get out more?

But it does make me think about some of the sentances I have written, and I have altered quite a few. Having a close look at something can help.

But enough of that, I seem to be repeating myself so will call a halt to that discussion. I include here another first (very rough) draft describing how the alter ego (created by a magical accident of the protagonist (Eadwyne) hides within the castle.

FEAR hides withing the Castle

The pathetic creature crept deeper into the shadows and through the castle door to escape the crowds on the parade ground. he was aware that he needde to hide and get away from what was happening on the parade ground but he did not know why. In fact he had no memory at all of events before he was startled to find himself against the wall of the castle. the more he thought, the harder he questioned himself, the less he realised he knew. Except that for now he simply had to hide and take stock.

Nobody seemed to have noticed him, he had escaped successfullly but what now? There was much activity inside the castle, servants were teeming around seeming to have much to do and little time to do it. There was a staircase to a lower level on his right, not too far away. If he could make it to there he might find things a little quieter downstairs. The level directly entered from the parade ground was in fact the top level, and consisted mainly of the royal apartments and staterooms. The stairway led down to the castle's living quarters and official rooms, but not knowing this the fugitive descended. Slowly and carefully he emerged on the third level and again found many people runnung around. He was not aware of the importance of this day or of Eadwyne's imminent departure.

Before long he was spotted, in his dirty and singed clothing he looked out of place amid the scurrying workers. He was called over by a page to explain himself, "who are you ? What are you doing, don't you have work to do?"

He answered slowly, "I .... fe...fe...fear ...". His first words.

"What, I have no time for this, get back to the kitchens below!"

A military officer came over and asked the page, "Who was that?"

"I am not certain sir, He called himself something which sounded llike Fear, peculiar name really."

Fear, for that became his name, scuttled back to the the stairs and continued on down. At the next level he found the kitchens and they were full of servants busily going about their alloted tasks. He did not want to risk being seen again and so carried on down, eventually reaching the cellars. Finally a place of refuge, a hideaway; a place of safety where he could gather his wits and decide his next move.

By the way, I have deliberately chose to write the name in capitals. In later chapters this will become more evident

A Fantasy Language For My First Novel

We have all had the experience of reading a fantasy novel and found that we don't know how to pronounce the names of the characters and places we are reading. Does it matter since we ARE reading and not trying to speak those words? Well yes, many people do find it an issue, so we should make sure that as writers we are not  giving readers cause to put down our work.

Before I actually started writing my first novel, I did what all writers should do and defined my characters and the locations, etc. I decided that I wanted to use names which would be different enough to indicate their other-world origin but not so different as to be a problem. There are many name generators on the internet, expecially for fantasy writing but everyday and historical novels are also well catered for.

A short list for fantasy name generators is:-

• Fantasy Name Generator by Samuel Stoddard, lots of choice here
• A directory of character name generators
• More adventurous? Try the language construction kit.
• This blog aggregates a number of language construction blogs

I was very picky about the names I chose but once I had a few, I found that I could envisage the way the mix of consonants were looking and how they might sound. OK for me then, but do potential readers see things the same.

One of the features with yWriter5, which is the software I am using to write the novel, is a digital speech engine. Maybe a little eccentric but hearing the words I have written, read out aloud by even a machine is quite different. And does give some idea of the need for punctuation.

But in this context, the speech engine is having difficulty with some of my fantasy names. I will, as requested by a friend on Facebook, be including a pronunciation list so it shouldn't be a problem, But the fact that the speech engine is having problems may indicate one or two rethinks.

Just a couple of issues:

• The protagonist Eadwyne is pronounced (by me) as Ee-ad-win; and has a slightly welsh sound to it. However the maching reads it as Eeed-wine, A very straange sound to my ears
• I have a character called Dinbar, for some reason it is read as 'bar. I.e no first syllable at all
• Taienge has two syllables as far as I am concerned (Tie-enge); but the machine insists on one, Tynge

Of course this will be covered by the pronounciation guide I will include. So I am not getting too uptight but I will be reviewing the names at some stage. I might need the search and replace function in yWriter5 before I am finished.