#art of writing

[logophilist1982]

Old library

[destinedjourneyofwords]

Writing to you feels like a gentle hug,resting my head on your chest feeling at peace; Writing to you feels like a cool breeze carrying the sweet earthy scent of rain soaked soil; Writing to you feels like sipping my tea in my mug,warming my hands and heart; Writing to you feels like smiling on an instinct whenever I see or find something beautiful; Writing to you feels like a favorite habit,I'll happily do but definitely not a duty that I'm assigned with; Writing to you feels like healing my pain and telling you where it hurts me the most,to show you how I endured and survived my worst heartbreaks alone without trying to pretend,without the fear of consequences; Writing to you feels like I am being myself and living my moments in the most genuine way possible; Writing to you feels like giving my whole heart to the loving hands,where I am safely nestled,deeply cared, tenderly nurtured and unconditionally loved; Writing to you feels like a blessing for a lifetime chance to eternally honour you,to express how I am in awe of you and the way you make me feel loved anyway and in every way,my love!

[lunaa-with-sol]

[thecurioustale]

Did you actually publish mate of song? I wanted to check out the adventures of afiach since i was intrigued by the idea of a female bard but i cant find it on your main website

No, it's not published. It's not even finished, yet! 😭

I wrote what felt like two-thirds to three-quarters of it between 2012 and 2014, during my days on the Mountain whence all such moods of life sprang. I solved the "main problem" of the story—that is, drawing it together into a complete narrative whole with all the critical bits figured out—in the years that followed, mostly on the Mountain.

It's that remaining third or so where so much of the magic and pain of birthing a story happens. The easy scenes are a pied piper's deceit, I think, because they come easily and we are (naturally) quite passionate about them, and yet if they were enough in and of themselves they could simply be a collection of vignettes. The essence of the larger story is not fully contained within them.

This is exactly what I've been struggling with in my work on the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel, for almost eight years now! In early 2017 I wrote, in the span of just a few weeks, what was, at the time, "about two-thirds to three-quarters" of the story. All the core ingredients of the story are there. But the story wasn't there. And I have spent such time since then trying to find it, or rather, to make it. (Though I think each of those verbs has something important to offer.)

When I "finished" the Mate of Song story—when I figured out the intricate tapestry of it, the plot and the reasons for things and the ways that the main themes are expressed and the larger relevancy to The Curious Tale, of which Mate of Song is merely an Interlude to After The Hero—that "two-thirds to three-quarters" completion estimate shrank. Mate of Song had originally been on track to be a little bit longer than the length of the Prelude, maybe 70 to 90 thousand words. Now I suspect it's going to be bigger, more like 80 to 130 thousand words. Not nearly as big as the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel, for reference, but my point is that I'm still less than halfway there in terms of scenes that I've actually written down. And since so many of those scenes are going to need serious revisions, the entire writing process for Mate of Song is even less farther along than that!

😵😱🤬😭🤠

I could, if I so chose, be putting my resources into that work instead. I've considered it in the past. But what I kept coming up with is that it would be weird to work so hard on a work that is intended to be situated at a very specific point in ATH, which ATH itself hasn't reached yet. Hell, even Chapter 1 (the book) isn't done yet!

Now, my logical decision has paid unintended consequences, as I worry that I will never again be at a place in my life where I can truly recapture the essence of those days on the Mountain, from which Mate of Song sprang like none of my other fictional works has ever sprung. No other work of mine is so deeply tied to a place and an era of my life like that. And I do worry that what I put onto the page will fail to convey what I really mean. That is always a major worry of mine with my fiction, and it became the major fault line of the glorious and strange mental breakdown I had during the Troubles (perhaps I'll write another post to explain what I'm talking about), and so it is a prominent theme in the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel, this idea of "not conveying what I really mean."

I've mentioned on occasion that I consider Mate of Song to be my personal favorite of my works so far. Unfortunately, only a very modest portion of what I truly love about it has actually made it onto the physical page so far, I think. Superficially, this is just a story about Afiach Bard going places and singing, with an extremely dark plotline for its backbone. And my challenge is twofold: Not only must I do justice to the face-value aspect of "Afiach Bard going places and singing," which is glorious writing when successful but very hard to succeed at, and I have only a few written scenes to my name in that whole book as yet which I feel definitively capture what I am trying to say, but I must also "write down" somehow the story, which is inclusive of the former but fundamentally larger than it. The story is what connects it all together, gives it is meaning.

Ironically, if I could somehow draw on the secret technique of Sourros like Galavar did and conate with other people, to convey to them my meaning with Mate of Song, I would merely end up having erred on the other side of the mark. If the imperfection of physical text deviates in one direction away from the truth, then, on the other side of the truth, the deviation lies in the comprehension of the reader, and this simple fact conceals a delightful and terrifying secret: To be "understood" requires someone who does not understand you. Conation, the "mindwashing" of Galavar, transforms others from "others" into beings who are fundamentally more like Galavar. They gain comprehension of his meaning, but only at the expense of becoming less themselves and more like Galavar. This is the je ne sais quoi that Silence couldn't quite put her finger on in articulating her objection to the mass mindwashing Galavar proposed in the Prelude. To be understood requires aliens, people who are Other. Otherwise we are merely talking about a reflection, and not true communication, true coexistence, true convergence onto the same point of view.

All of which is to say, there isn't even a magical shortcut to the work that lies ahead of me. Putting Mate of Song onto the page is one of the things I am going to try to do really hard in my lifetime. That goal is still highly viable, barring me stroking out or getting hit by a meteor or something. I have become quite pessimistic in recent years that I will live to finish After The Hero in its entirety—which is also one of the reasons why I have been putting so much energy into the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel in the last year. It, too, like Mate of Song, is "highly viable" still, because it is so much smaller.

So I guess the good news / bad news is one and the same: "Hang in there; it's coming; but you're going to have to wait awhile."

Hey! Incidentally, I started reading The Day of the Deer last night (if you can count 2 o'clock in the afternoon as "last night," but it was the end of my day, after all), the first book of the Liliana Bodoc trilogy you had recommend me in response to my efforts to learn more about the stories and folklore surrounding Incan and pre-Incan cultures in the Andes. Very interesting so far. I'm still finding my taste for it, or rather still trying to process its flavor. Still trying to "understand" it, I guess you might say (har har). But it's very readable, and, blessedly, it isn't derivative and degenerate like so much fantasy is. The last book I read was nostalgebraist's, and this is so different from that, yet they are akin in that they both have have a distinct individuality to them that makes them fundamentally non-generic.

I've been meaning to get started on reading it for months now. You know how I am! I actually bought it shortly after you recommend it, as only the first book of the trilogy has been translated into English and I will decide after reading it whether I want to undertake the exciting but daunting prospect of trying to muddle my way through the following two books in Spanish.) But now seemed like the right time to start, because in recent weeks I've been having some seismic slipslide in my efforts to "find the story" of the Galaxy Federal Inaugural Novel, and a significant component of that effort entails the "Andean-inspired stuff," which is such a blasé phrase to write, almost to the point that it sounds insulting, yet I can't think of anything better; the mythology of the peoples of the Andes has captivated me almost my whole life, since I was very small, and this is the book where I am finally going to get to pay an homage to it, and I am genuinely excited); and, also, this has been a good time to start reading The Days of the Deer because you have been in my mind acutely, because I am "horse in the gate" ready to get started reading one of your written works, but have been holding off while all the excitement of Jennyffer Episode 10 plays out. (The triumph of the one would interfere with the triumph of the other, I think, and this way there's something to look forward to after Episode 10 is out in the wild and audience reactions have run their first round.)

What an obnoxiously long answer!! 🤣😅

The short answer to your question is no.

[eloquenthubak1982]

*SOURCE PINTEREST*

[blackswaneuroparedux]

The dramatic writer must understand and sympathise with all classes.

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

There are many reasons why Sherlocks Holmes is as famous as he is. But one of the overlooked things in the writings of Conan Doyle is empathy for people of whatever station in the tumultous times that Conan Doyle was living through.

[mckitterick]

The power of writing

by Sara Gray: X

[composedbyselma]

Traveling home

my heart no longer feels as if it’s travelling here,

here became home

and there became a travel.

-Selma

[too-much-imagination]

I was meant to be a lover.

But I’m so lonely now.

[girlsrangels]

What is it to die?

She asked the fates.

The fates smiled down at their prisoner.

Why ask such a question, dearest?

I want to know what happened to that girl I saw.

The fates share a quick glance, a few hushed words.

For most people, it is a relief.

She thought for a moment.

I wish I could've died with her.

The fates smile at this.

But, dearest.

They say.

You are destined to live here with us.

For how long?

For eternity.

She sighs, and restarts her task of picking up the fallen threads of the lives her fates are stitching together.

Each fallen thread is made of disappointment, of crushed dreams.

She weaves them into her own boring fate.

[nieuwe-secession]

Calligraphy sketches

[logophilist1982]

Franz Kafka & love

[jamiesonwolf]

The Esotoracle Issue Eight!

I’ve been a long-time fan of The Esotoracle magazine. Published in the United Kingdom, it is a wealth of information on Tarot, different decks, ways to read oracle cards and anything under the sun having to do with spirituality and divination. I’ve loved diving into each issue and learning something more about myself and my journey with spirituality. I’m honoured to have an article that I wrote…

[kzlatkova]

Anyone who's ever done anything creative needs to fucking see this.

[eloquenthubak1982]