A Jewel from a Pack Rat's Treasure Trove

One of the first things any writer will tell you is to never throw away any piece you have ever written. It might prove inspirational or otherwise useful at a later point in time. It's also the perfect excuse not to get rid of precious pieces of writing which didn't make the editing cut ;)

Quick Intro: The croigreach, a triad of three prophecied warriors, - Calynorne is one of them - just arrived in Anat and discovered that the slaves have banded to form an underground resistance against slavery. Their home base is an intricate cavesystem spanning the town of Anat and the adajacent forest. In this scene, Fenella - shrine priestess of the resistance - leads up to the story of the resistance's birth.

Outtake Celtic Forest - Book 2:

“Gaoth an Iar, the Rune of the Western Wind“, Fenella finally intoned quietly, carefully settling a pendant into the palm of her hand, “It is the final rune that binds the seven clans of Anat together.” At the hint of confusion in the croigreachs’ eyes, a small smile tucked at the corner of the priestess’ lips. Slowly, she drew back the sleeve to reveal one of her wrists. The same italic rune as the one engraved on the pendant spanned her pulse point in a black green shimmer. “Seven runes mark the members of the resistance, each announcing the unique talent an individual carries.  These symbols of Old rose from the depth of legend together with our ancestors’ fighting spirit, gifted to us on the day when we faced the first challenge of our new people: the loss of Mhanaidh, the priestess who blew into Anat with the Western Winds and saved us all. The runes are our centre points, an heirloom of the first families to enter a new life. Intermixed, the blood of the seven Western clans of Géobhan Ridge flows in our veins yet the seven clans have risen again uniting each of us under the guidance of a rune gifted to us by Mhanaidh, but I am getting ahead of myself. I shall introduce myself first.”
   
    Lifting her grey gaze to the three strangers opposite her, a proud smile stretched her lips. “I am Fenella, priestess of the shrine of Gaoth an Iar. I, solely, stand apart from the seven clans, bearing the responsibility of fulfilling the teachings that were left to us by the priestess that saved us all: Mhanaidh of Celtic Forest.” Reverence rung in the elder woman’s alto as her fingers softly stroked the curves of the pendant in her palm. Tilting her head to the right, she studied the fabled croigreachs. “I am responsible for watching the western winds and listening to the messages they carry to us. For days they have been whispering of your coming, telling me that I had to prepare for your arrival.” Calynorne felt confusion well at the admission, but Fenella quickly dismissed that titbit of information.
Her grey eyes grew distant. “But as I said, let us start at the beginning: In the time of our great-grandfathers, when our people listlessly waited for death in the barren slums of Anat. We did neither distinguish between winter nor spring nor summer, then. Endless days bled into the next, cold or heat slowly absolving the few lucky ones among us from the hell that was life on this plain. Life was an endless succession of sacrifices, one day bringing little more than the next. But then, one day, upon the wings of a cool western breeze, a silver cloaked stranger blew into the heated streets of the slums. The air stirred with a different kind of energy. Hope…
 

I love the background story this scene reveals. Alas, there is such a thing as too much information in a sequence which causes the story to slow down. Well, my writer's heart is still bleeding everytime I have to cut out a fascinating new insight I gained on the world I created. Tough luck, I guess.

Writer’s Anatomy: My Brain and Story Crafting

Have you ever had a moment when you felt like you were working on two tasks at once? Operating on two different levels to accomplish separate tasks? A moment where the two halves of your brain work parallel yet in perfect synchronicity?

Those moments are actually some of my most productive in terms of story crafting. When I’m not writing, my creative cells are busily at work rounding out characters, moulding worlds, testing dialogues and running scenarios. It’s as if a separate tape is running parallel to the train of thoughts plugged into the real world, a perpetual news reel passing my mind’s eye with occasional inspirational memos when reality bleeds into my creative thinking. I could be riding the train, find myself in the middle of a discussion on sustainable energy use or be jotting down my grocery list, yet at the same time I’m involved in questioning the motives of my main character or contemplating a hole in the fabric of my story. Writers tend to have a two-track mind when they are crafting. One part of our brain is charged with mastering life, while the other part is forever tuned into story town. Normally, my fantastic adventures become background noise, only gaining focus in moments when my fingers are flying over a keyboard or gripping a biro over a piece of paper.

When I’m crafting a new story, I go looking for moments of clarity, instances where the elements of my plot and character actions just fall into place. Sometimes story crafting is like solving a rubic cube. You try out different avenues and possibilities, scramble the variables and wait for them to align in a row of homogenously coloured tiles. Actually, colour-coding or tagging your plotlines can be very helpful in keeping track of the greater picture you want to draw. I usually tag a plot line by assigning it to the character that leads the action in the narrative thread. For example, I usually have the MC threat and the villain threat. That doesn’t necessarily mean that both threads will end up on the page, but it will give me insight into the motives of my characters and keep me on track in building the suspense. As a personal quirk of mine, I also like to employ a backstory thread where I include poetry, narratives and excerpts at the beginning of chapters to foreshadow the action or give backstory too lengthy to be introduced by dialogue.

Plot structure - reallyrelative.blogspot.com

Finally, I layer and mould my plotlines against the basic plot structure: Introduction – inciting plot point – build up – climax – resolution. Since I usually tinker with my story line and characters throughout the day and hit breakthroughs at any point in time whether I am in the middle of browsing bookshelves or at work, I always have a notebook handy. First sketches of scenes, plotlines, settings, language quirks and characters are usually jotted down in a stream of consciousness. I then come back to these notes in structuring sessions. There I go over the ideas and impressions I collected and group them into more concrete strands. When I have a grasp on the corner stones and characters involved in a scene, I sit down and start to write, developing the narrative voice in the course of the first few paragraphs. I usually do not go back and edit scenes until I have finished the manuscript. Sometimes the writing flow takes you in a direction that your original crafting did not premeditate, but which actually fits the plot line better than the initial idea. For me, the first editing run is an opportunity to fill in the gaps in story and character action which opened up in the course of writing

Since my stories usually takes shape parallel to my personal life, experiences in the “real world” tend to spark insights into how characters tick, what makes them special, what situations they are confronted with and how they react. Yet it is unlikely that a character’s journey reflects my personal journey during the crafting stages. I hope this little insight into my mind gives you an idea of how many writer’s tick while expanding upon a new story idea.

Stars, Monks and Grown Men in Bee Suits

Crab Nebula - NASA

How does that fit together? Well, I had a whirlwind weekend in terms of entertainment. Fulfilling another of my New Year’s Resolutions – this year, I am on a roll, it seems – I visited a show at our local planetarium and loved it! Seeing 5000 stars projected on a dark dome makes you feel like you could just reach up and touch them. Over lit cities, you can usually just spy between 1000 and 2000 of the brighter stars, but the farther away you get from man-made light sources the more you actually discover of the universe. The greatest experience I ever had stargazing was on Fraser Island in Australia. We were lying on blankets on the beach, the sea was rushing in our ears and a halo of stars twinkled above our heads. The feeling was magical! It felt as if the universe was just flowing by our fingertips. 

China Daily

Floating back from the outer reaches of our galaxy, I became a witness of impossible feats by Shaolin Monks. Beyond their amazing flexibility, discipline and technique, I saw a ten-year-old walk a staircase of knives with two bails of water on his shoulders, without pain. Through sheer concentration a hard qi gong master threw a sowing needle through a pane of glass to pop a balloon. The needle had to be thrown with all his might at a perfect 90° angle. It was amazing! The secret of the Shaolin monks: Inner peace transformed into physical strength. Even today their knowledge is passed down in an oral fashion from master to shamin (pupil). The life of a monk of the Songshan monastery follows the rules of austerity and discipline. From two hours before dawn until the sun breaks the horizon the monks meditate, followed by climbing the 800 steps carved into the Songshan only to return back to the foot of the mountain on all fours with their head facing down. They are allowed two meals a day, the last taken at midday and sleep without any heating in all seasons. Ten hours a day, they hone their kung fu and meditation skills before the cycle starts anew the next morning. An intriguing and amazing way of life, far removed from western ideas of success and achievement.  

Humbled by the awe-inspiring show of talent by the monks my weekend ended on a humorous note, as I watched two grown men in bee suits buzzing around the stage of our town hall. The Blues Brothers – The West End show was in town. For two hours Jake and Elwood Blues delivered a blues and soul review where body gags, sarcasm and comic relief added to the eclectic mix of songs. It was a blast!

What about your weekend adventures?