COVID DOLDRUMS?

Have you ever been caught in the doldrums while out sailing? It's a hard place to be, isn't it? Waiting for the wind to lift your sails and send you on your way can feel like such a waste.

Surely, I'm not the only person who found herself with time to write but ended up worrying about COVID instead! The doldrums hit, and I just couldn't find the energy to do much writing. All that time spent washing my hands, social distancing, putting on a mask, and sanitizing seemed to destroy any creative streak that was trying to surface.

I have been vaccinated, and I still wash my hands, social distance myself, wear my mask, and sanitize frequently, I'm venturing out more, and I think I caught my creative muse trying to send a little puff of wind around the corner, so maybe she didn't die after all. Resurrection can happen!

There is a fresh breeze blowing offshore, and perhaps we'll have full sailing ability soon. Yesterday, after all this time of COVID and a blank brain, I came up with four or five new ideas and plots for fantasy books. Maybe it's because the past eighteen months allowed space for a breeze to blow through the windows of my mind, but for whatever reason, I'm writing again!

TIP: I've heard that whistling can bring the desired wind, so if you are in the COVID doldrums, go "whistle down the wind!" and get back to your computer.

CLMcK

I did it!

On my previous post, I said I was taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where the only requirement is to complete at least 50,000 words in 30 days during November.

I finished with 55,567 words, and the novel isn't even completed yet! So I'll keep working on it.

If you are a reader of fantasy fiction that takes place in a make-believe world, then you'll enjoy this one when I finish it. If I think it's publishable, I'll put it on Kindle.

In the meantime, if you are looking for something to while away your hours over the holidays, check out my author page on Amazon (see below).

Aloha!
CLMcK
Amazon Author Page

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I normally don’t add photos to my post, but I know a young woman who does glass art and this dragon is one of her creations. I couldn’t resist adding it here because the Chinese Year of the Dragon 4710 begins today!

Dragons seem to be synonymous with fantasy. The most famous of fantasy authors rely on at least one wonderful (or dreadful) dragon in the stories.

What do dragons signify? A good description of each signs in the Chinese Zodiac can be found here. Go here to see if you were born under the Dragon.

I prefer to think about what the dragon represents in fantastical tales. What are the words you think of when dragons come to mind? Fire? Passion? Mystery? Something primeval? A mythical creature? A dragon is all of that and more, but the dragon will always have meaning for each of us individually.

I am so intrigued by dragons that I may need to start writing about them.

TIP: In your idea notebook (you do have one, don’t you?), jot down all the ideas and meanings that come to you about dragons. How can you these ideas in a story?

CLMcK

It's All Fantasy, Isn't It?

It’s been nine long months since I last posted something here. Please know that I have not been sitting around playing with my cat, as much fun as that can be.

If you are looking for my fantasy writing, watch for Darcy de Sahba on Kindle, about a young were-tigress and her journey quest. It has not been put on the market yet, but will be soon. I’ll keep you posted.

Actually, I’ve started writing in a new genre. I love fantasy the way I’ve been writing, and what I’m writing now is still fantasy in the sense that I described in my March 10, 2011 post. In other words, fantasy is something that has not happened – yet.

The new genre I’m exploring is mystery, specifically a genre known as “cozy mystery.” The characters are all fantasies in my mind living ordinary lives, and yet involved in extraordinary mysterious events. You won’t find much in the way of gruesome scenes or explicit XXX-rated material. I may read that kind of stuff written by other authors, but I don’t find myself drawn to write it. As a rule, the mystery is not solved by detectives, but by regular people like you or me.

TIP: Look around you at the everyday people in your life and fantasize about them involved in solving a small mystery. Take one and write a scene.

CLMcK

Where Do Our Fantasies Originate?

In the truest sense of the word, all fiction is fantasy because it is something that has not actually taken place. My last post talked about the wonderful imaginings that are behind fantasy writing.

Yet the question remains, “where do our fantasies originate?” From childhood we have made up stories. Somewhere along our educational path, we were told to stop making up things. Parents and teachers called them “lies,” but we knew better. We knew we were creating a fantasy world, one that the adults could never enter.

Fantasies are the stuff of our early dreams. If we have not allowed anyone to take those away from us, we have the makings of a terrific fantasy tale right inside us. 

My suggestion is to simply start writing - anything. I believe that if we start writing down our current dreams, we will begin to retrieve those stories that lie buried in our unconscious.

TIP: Pick an image that pops out of your thoughts and write a brief outline of a story. If you put enough of these stories together, you may start to have a viable story line.

CLMcK

What Determines Fantasy Writing?

In psychological terms, a fantasy is something that hasn’t happened yet. We might say to a client, “What is your fantasy about this situation?” In other words, “How do you see this event coming about in the future?” or “What do you think is going to happen?”

In literary terms, we might think of fantasy in several different aspects. We may create entirely new worlds, with new financial terms, new ways of preparing and eating food, new vocabulary, new creatures that are not human the way we know humanity. The plants and geography may be totally new creations. 

Our fantasy might occur in an imaginary world of Little People, talking animals, magic and witchcraft, dragons and unicorns, vampires and werewolves. These fantasies take on whatever form our thoughts make of them, and often they are ruined when put on the movie screen.

Time can be suspended, we can be taken on the “way back” machine, or placed on fast forward to a time that hasn’t been revealed to us. We can take humans and project them into another millenium in our imaginations.

TIP: Go back to your favorite fantasy fiction and list everything in it that is new or different from your ordinary world here on Earth. 

CLMcK