Each day the janitor sweeps aside dusts of gold.
A gatekeeper, invisible, omnipotent.
Though the grains glitter, they are harsh and dry,
Coarse and grating against the skin.
Still there’s beauty in the business,
A vastness people by movement.
You may not see it but it’s there,
Moving, changing, and growing.
but never silent or still.

Copyright (C) bardicblogger / a thinker never sleeps / Teri Montague 2012.
All rights reserved.

Fantasy (Photo credit: jaci XIII)

Time is calling me back,

to a place of clashing swords.

I remember drifting through the wasteland but not feeling lost.

I remember adventures as real in my imagination as could be,

An envisaged dream as solid as diamonds.

In a girl’s eyes I see strength and values,

long erased by a poverty of the mind.

Why do the streets reek of disaster?

Why do the shouts of the crowds go unheard age after age?

The history of exploration is just colonization and war,

Yet in just a glimpse of fiction,

I see a spark that means so much more.

Copyright (C) bardicblogger / a thinker never sleeps / Teri Montague 2012.
All rights reserved.

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Phone Boxes (Photo credit: Monster.)

I notice that the majority of my followers are not from England so today I’m posting a few facts about England that you may not know, in the interest of dispelling a lot of the stereotypes I see about England and the English. Please note that as I have not met every person in England I cannot assert that these are true in all cases, only in what I have observed and learned:

• A lot of the English are not necessarily polite. This varies from person to person as I imagine it probably does in other countries too.
  

English: Vindaloo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• The English favourite dish is not English but is Indian and is Vindaloo or Curry. See the popular song Vindaloo by Fat Les. It’s not something I like personally but  overall it is very popular. Most popular foods in the U.K for eating out are Indian, Chinese and Italian.

• Many English people do not know the full words to their own national anthem.

• Many English do not know much of the history of England, including details such as political figures, monarchs, the history of British colonialism, empire culture and famous English writers.

• A lot of the English seem to be migrating to Spain in their retirement, most likely for the more favourable weather.
  

• There is currently a debate about Scotland becoming independent from Britain. However many of the English like Scotland and feel they would be financially better off living up there because in Scotland they get free University education and free medical prescriptions when England does not get these things for free.
  

• Recently the class system of England was reconsidered and now includes seven classes however there has been some suspicion that this is conveniently timed with the governments current welfare `reforms’ and some criticisms over the system in general.
  

• One issue currently being debated at the moment in England is the so-called `bedroom tax‘ whereby people in social houses, which is houses with some financial support from the government will be taxed for having an extra room. This includes people with two children or more who are not getting two children of the same gender to share one bedroom instead. Confused? Many English people are!

Glum Faces (Photo credit: RobW_)

• The English are not always traditional, particularly the current young generation that have grown up with an internet and mobile technology based culture. Don’t be surprised if you meet a young person who doesn’t remember video tapes like VHS or when telephones had cords.
  

• The English hate queuing. Is there anyone who really wants to queue? I don’t know where this stereotype comes from at all. If there’s one thing I could definitely live without it’s queuing.
  

Feel free to share any interesting facts about your country below or to ask any questions about England. Is there anything that you’ve ever wanted to know about the country? Ask away.

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1. Representation through narrative.

The first mistake the majority of writers make, particularly when writing stories is in not understanding the difference between representation through narrative and conversation.  Conversation is like telling a story to your friends and just like with real-life conversations if doesn’t always sound as interesting on the page as it does in your had. Narrative, however creates scenes, perception, emotions, actions, plot etc, the entire story can be told in narrative.

Try again (Photo credit: Grey World)

That’s not to say that all conversation-like writing is bad as it depends what you want to achieve but too much can switch off your reader very quickly.

Example 1 – Conversation style of writing

Example 2 – Narrative/Representation

The first example could work if you were trying to represent a child’s view of the world in which their thoughts may follow this sort of innocent, sequential perspective but the second example has much more details about the event happening. The question you have to consider is whether you want to focus on the inner character more or the event more. Sometimes these overlap. As in all creative writing it depends on what you are trying to do but avoid writing whole novels in conversational style as this tends to sound more like telling you a long story (verbally). After all, how long can you concentrate when listening to one person? It’s just the same for your reader.

2. Scene Transitions – What? Where? Why?

One problem that many will come across when writing is how to represent the character’s movement from one place to another. This problem can occur because of plot difficulties but is often just something that comes up when writing a long story, particularly one with multiple locations or travelling. For example if you end a scene where your character is in one town and you want to show them taking a journey you can show them getting the bus or simply write that they will get the bus. Often you’ll see phrases like, the next day… or a week later… These phrases work well in a lot of cases but sometimes you’ll have a change in scenes that seems a bit confusing when you read it back or that seems to switch to abruptly. The only way to really remedy this is to consider the instances as they crop up. If you get stuck on one of these you might leave it as it is until you think of a way to fix it, or you might decided to rewrite it altogether. The main point to consider when you get this issue is `will the reader understand what’s happening?’. Unless you deliberately want to confuse your reader for some particular reason you should almost always consider this question when moving from one scene to another.

As always, there’s a reason you might want to deliberately jar your reader with confusion, such as if your character is disorientated or something has happened that they don’t understand:

Example:

“How did you say-?”
“It doesn’t matter just give me your cell phone.”

A room. A floor. She groaned.
“What the-?”
“Don’t move. There’s nothing you can do.”

Here the character has been rendered unconscious very quickly and woken, disorientated in a locked room with another captive. More information would need to be given gradually to help the reader understand this but the effect is that we observe the lapse of knowledge that the protagonist has about what’s happened and where she is.

3. Style of Writing and Effect

This relates closely to the previous two tips in that it’s about writing style and choice. When you first set out to write, you will write how you think you ought to based on your previous experience as a reader. The more you write though, the more you’ll realize that there are many different styles of writing that have different effects on the reader. You’ll also inevitably learn that most people have different opinions about what is effective and what isn’t which is why I always stress that my tips are based on my own likely biased opinions about creative writing. Sentence length affects the effects of prose, such as speed and pacing but also word choice and word order can dramatically change your style. The style of your writing relates to you voice as a writer but also how you want to represent things.

English: Graf Writer in a Mural (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One writer might write:
The twisted vines of society wrapped around his soul like bourgeoise critics around a misspelt editorial.

While another might write:
The review was brutal. It hit hard at his remaining pride. Why were people so cruel?

Another might even write:
What an awful review? Wow, she could almost cry if she wasn’t so angry.

Or even: Bad review for the show. Binned it.

Think of how many ways you could write just this scenario. Each one tells you something different about the person receiving the review and how they respond to it just by the choices made in writing style. Which you choose is up to you as the writer.

4. Plots Change

I nearly always start with some basic idea in mind that slowly becomes a plot and develops into a longer novel. However no matter how much planning you do, your plot will likely change as you are writing. This is because your brain will continue working on your project unconsciously when you aren’t thinking about it and will realise that it would be better if scene 1 became more like scene 3 or the character went to stay with a relative instead of to a hotel. Minor details can often crop up that you weren’t expecting and more often than not the direction of your story will change. This is good news though, because it means that you’ll take detours you never expected and sometimes find a hidden gem along the way.

5. There’s No Such Thing as Completely Unbiased.

All writing whether factual, educational or creative has a purpose. Whether the writer is aware of it or not they influence the text if they wrote it, because of course if they wrote it, they must have had to choose what to write. Think about this, if someone writes from a neutral stance it doesn’t mean that they don’t have any biases it just means that they chose to represent the text from a neutral stance. Given that you and your brain are technically inseparable you are not ever going to write without taking a viewpoint, even if that viewpoint is a neutral one. You may decide to portray someone else’s view but it’s still your view of someone else’s view and so is still a representation. All writing is a representation and therefore don’t worry too much about trying to take yourself out of it, because you can’t ever do that completely.

Hopefully, one of these tips helps a writer out there learn something that they didn’t know. If not, the main message I want to get across if that writing is learning. No matter what you try the only way to fix writing problems is to first come across them so always try to think about how your story reads or how others `might’ read it. I stress `might’ because, again there’s a debate whether we could ever know how someone else thinks or experiences something that we don’t but it’s still a good starting point when you encounter a problem with your writing.

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English: View of the ghat at Banganga Tank and ruined temple of Walkeshwar, 1850. (Watercolour) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Ruined Temple

As the house of capital falls,
The temple of wealth turns to ruins.
The richest diamonds stood proud on top,
Overseeing the spade workers below,
They now fall the furthest.

The middle clubs crumple inwards.
While the lowest break their falls.
They’ve always been the underpinnings,
The ignored bottom rungs, without which the structure could not stand.

Playing cards (Photo credit: Sarah G…)

This is what happens when the model is a pyramid.
Society relies on cohesion,
But while Kings and Queens fall,
Those numbered hearts become just as tall,
As they all now stand on the bottom line.
No longer assured of their fixed suits.

Copyright (C) bardicblogger / a thinker never sleeps / Teri Montague 2012.
All rights reserved.

journal… (Photo credit: mscaprikell)

Writing what you know is sensible advice, after all you may write about something which you have no knowledge of and get it all wrong but when it comes to creative writing this doesn’t always apply. What if you are writing fantasy or sci-fi? What if you want to just make it up?

On one side of the debate you could say that fantasy is still usually based upon real issues and therefore may still be related to your own knowledge. However there’s one reason writers should forget this piece of advice and concentrate on what you want to write.

It all comes from you!

You may research, you may make it all up, you may take aspects from your life or another’s life but it’s still all coloured by your interpretation and judgements.

So there’s no need to focus too much on ‘writing what you know’ (unless you are writing your biography).

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Misconception 1: You need to know what you are going to say to start writing.

Writer’s Desk (Photo credit: thezartorialist.com)

This isn’t actually true. You can write anything. Anything at all. You can even write your own thoughts about the writing process and turn it into a story. For example you could write:

I couldn’t think of anything to write. It was bugging me. I wanted to be creative. I wanted to put words to paper and fill up the blankness with noise. But I couldn’t write.

Once you’ve written something like that, you can keep going. All it takes is to find some thread and to follow it and then words will form.

Misconception 2: You Need to Use Flashy/Literary Language

Not true at all. This entirely depends on your choice of style. Write how you want to communicate. Many writers use dialect, slang and not all writers are descriptive. If you want to try descriptive you can do but there are no set rules as to what is acceptable.

Misconception 3: It Needs to Make Absolute Sense

Again, this depends on what your style is. Some writers like to be cryptic and abstract while other go the opposite way.

English: Anxious Athlete Waiting at Starting Line (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Remember, writing is about expression, so just express something. Write whatever’s in your head. If there’s nothing in your head, write, there’s nothing in my head and expand upon it. If you are having doubts about your writing ability write I was having doubts about my writing ability and then build around it. You can start writing with just one word, that’s all you need. For example you could write:

Almost.

and then follow it with,

3. 2. 1. The shot fired. Our legs sprung from the starting block, propelling us forward as if we were panthers firing towards our prey.

You could even start with an ending, a flashback, dialogue, a diary entry or a news article. So remember if you get stuck, write what comes to mind and see where it leads.

A powerful light shines in the dark. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The valley goes down, it winds, with winds of disaster curling around it its edges. The path goes up. It leads to a place you once lived but had forgotten even existed.
In your mind you were once a child, an unformed idealism. Sprung from the unknown animism. You were primitive inside a system, an animal inside a human being. You grew and shaped. You moulded into an identity of sorts. Yet when the path stops you find yourself lost and back to retracing your own steps in the dark. Scratching around. Lost. Then found.

Home.

Copyright (C) bardicblogger / a thinker never sleeps / Teri Montague 2012.
All rights reserved.

As regular readers will notice, the blog hasn’t been updated quite a frequently this month. I’m currently at the time of year when I’m immersed in essays, research and exam revision for my education course. I will still be updating as much as possible but posts may be written less regular than previously. I will be back soon with some new posts about creative writing so do keep checking the blog for updates.

Thanks for your time and your support.

There are five books in this series, all which centre around the young boy Garion, an orphan who grows up with his `Aunt Pol’ in the kitchens of a working farm. Regular visits from the `Old Wolf’ Belgarath provide mischief and insight but as the story progresses we find out that these three characters are far from ordinary.

Belgarath the Sorcerer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The majority of the series is a `coming of age’ story about a young sorcerer who has to face an evil god named Torak. The story is rich and complex with many characters and the world is multi-layered, including politics, religion, mythology, trading, nobility and a rich history. Aunt Pol is really Polgara, a sorceress and Belgarath (her father) is the first disciple of a more benevolent god named Aldur.

This sort of familiar plot may put off non-fantasy readers, for whom the word `magic’ conjures up negative connotations in terms of literature, but this series’ great strength is its believable characters. Garion is just like many boys going through adolescence, confused by girls, by himself and by what is expected of him. Belgarath is a rogue-like character, a shabby storyteller who is too fond of drinking. Even Silk, the trader, the prince and the spy, who uses a secret trading language with his fingers, seems to be multi-layered.

For those who haven’t read it before, it’s a compelling story, playing out familiar concepts of arranged marriages, growing up and battles of good vs. evil but it’s done with a richness of character, history and setting that enhances and expands upon these concepts. 

Cover of Polgara the Sorceress (Voyager)

There is a follow-up series called `The Mallorean‘ which continues from this first series which is just as good as read as the first five books. There’s also two books: Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress, (co-written by the late David Eddings and his late wife Leigh Eddings)  both of which only add to the depth fo this series.

To add to this, there’s a real love between Garion and Polgara, one which isn’t an easy relationship, holding layers of love, anger and feelings of betrayal as Garion realizes his Aunt is really his great Aunt, many times removed. If you do choose to read the series, also look out for Ce’Nedra, a fiery, princess who could have become a simple,`spoilt princess’ character if not for Eddingswonderful storytelling ability. The Belgariad is a great fantasy series, one of the best I’ve read and one which I would recommend to anyone.

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