Home: The physical place and the emotionally significance of home

Home is where you hang your hat.

Home is where your heart is.

Home sweet home.

 

All of these quotes deal with the signifigance of home as a shelter from the natural elements and of emotional ties. As a writer how important to your characters is home? Samwise in Lord of the Rings often thinks of home and the Shire, in fact this is one of his most important roles. Helping Frodo remember home and the Shire to get to Mt. Doom and get home. Those last pages and those scenes in the movie were important because without Samwise reminding Frodo about home, the ring would have completely corupted him.

So far in both of my stories home hasn’t become much of an issue. In Owl Story (dontcha just love working titles) home is destroyed within the first few pages. In Haydrian the main character is kidnapped from the street. So very little has been revealed of home there. However homesickness and the longing to go home play a big part. 

Owl has been my primary work in progress while Haydrian is the one I chew on and think about. Some seriously uncomfortable issues have cropped up and I want to make sure I handle them accordingly. Sexual slavery and torture are not subjects to be lightly handled but neither do I want them taking over either. So carefully I mull over how much to show and how much to let my reader fill in the blanks. 

As a writer do feel your own personal connection to home being reflected in your writing? I am very much rooted to the county where I grew up, although between third and fifth grade my family moved several times, but home was always where my grandparents were. I feel this belief is refected in my writing, even if it hasn’t made itself known yet in my two current stories. Also the need to explore and ramble ( as my grandfather would say) is reflected in my writing. That belief is a loud, proud, in your face kinda theme. I am hoping to see both of these stories develop and include the ideal of home. Every adventure starts at home and then Good Lord willing that is where it finishes. Unless you happen to be another JRR Tolken and then the sky’s the limit. Of course to be great you have to get started. I forget who said it but it still rings true. Cheers,

Tuna Salad and Creative Writing…. A Connection, Please???

This is the blog post I mentioned in Fire:Part 2.
This nice lady is quite the wordsmith and I hope you enjoy her post. Cheers

Creative Writing with the Crimson League

I made tuna salad today. On the surface, that has no importance at all and certainly no relevance to the topic of my blog: creative writing. Somehow, though, making tuna salad got me thinking about writing: about all that goes into a good piece of fiction.

My tuna salad is pretty standard: canned tuna. Mayo. A mix of diced onions, celery, green and red peppers. Black pepper. Sometimes I’ll throw in a boiled egg. Nothing fancy. Nothing that really requires time or effort. I do like to add:

• SOMETHING SWEET: I like to throw either diced apple or raisins in my tuna salad. You don’t need a lot to make the flavor and texture stand out and really contribute. This is a good analogy for the sweet, tender, and really human moments good fiction holds. Maybe they’re romantic; maybe they’re not at all. But they aren’t overdone and they aren’t…

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Fire: Part 2

Yep I am grilling again and I have come up with more thoughts about fire and writing.

Charcoal or wood fires are very similar to writing. Gas fires as long as there is gas in the bottle or the tank. You light ’em and forget ’em. Charcoal and wood requires you to take an active role in their well being. 

I was playing with my phone ,which is my main blogging tool,  not watching my fire and guess what it was quietly starving for fuel and air. Luckly enough I checked and corrected the situation before it was a dire problem. (My husband is chuckling at me watching the grill and blogging at the same time. I am blessed with a wonderful husband.) Writing is the same, you have to watch it, care for it, be patient with it. You carefully build your world, the way you build the center of your fire. Then you add characters, the way you add fuel. Carefully you craft your conflict and plot, just as you add a glowing ember to the tinder. Increasing the conflict between your characters and their interactions, the way you fan the ember to life. 

Once all the characters, plots, and subplots are in play, its the same as getting the fire good and hot, yellow flames and red hot coals. Rachetting up the story tension, fanning the flames higher. Then once the story has reached its climax and you begin wrapping up, the flames have died back but the coals are still hot. The end of the story and the coals have all died, waiting for the next time.

A fellow blogger The Crimson League found similarities of plot and story creation in the making of tuna salad. See I am not that odd a duck after all. Since writing about it I may reblog the post. 

 

Fire

I built a fire yesterday in the grill and I thought about how fire is used in writing. In fantasy writing, fire and camping out while on your great adventure is a common practice. But how much do you write about it?

I had no end of trouble building my fire yesterday. Normally I have a pretty easy go at getting a fire started. I started thinking of the conflict that can be created by or the lack of fire. Too much fire and it becomes a living breathing hungry enemy. While the lack of fire can be just as dangerous. I have written of only one scene using a fire but did not think much of it.

“Justine built a fire ring of stones, while Rachael gathered twigs and branches for the fire.” 

That’s all I wrote even though it had been raining earlier in the story and the wood would be damp causing the women trouble getting it started in real world situation. I toyed with using fire in the form of a forest fire. However, I don’t feel I controlled it well enough to be believable. I will have to edit and rethink that part of the story action. Part of this comes from not really understanding how a forest fire operates. I need to research more about it and in the western part of the US there have been a plethera of fires lately. 

By the way if you are wondering I got the fire started with the help of my hubby. Mmm the food turned out excellent. That maybe another topic for another day. Cheers,

Random Thoughts

With a sad heart, I must tell you my favorite ink pen has written its last. After numerous pages of notes, two seperate story ideas, several pages on dreams, the ink is gone.  However all hope is not lost because I have its twin within easy reach. And that means a trip to Dollar Tree for writing supplies. Yay! 

I understand most folks never keep up with or use up the ink in their pens so you are going “yep she has flipped her lid. Stick the proverbal fork in her, cause she is done.”

Haha is my response because at least I have known the pleasures of pressing pen tip to paper and watch the ink flowing across the page. Don’t knock it til you try it. Cause you might find you’re enjoying yourself. I think it has been a long week and I could be just a tad punch drunk. Oh well till Sunday night’s post. A most wonderful weekend to you all. 

2nd Amendment

I would like to beg your indulgence and allow me to stand on my soap box for a moment. If law, politics, guns, and the NRA are not your thing then you might wanna catch me next post. 

I read an article yesterday about the NRA and their vice president spouting off about end of the world and guns will save you. I thought it interesting the author was less than thrilled with the conference. However my own personal belief is that every household should own at least two guns: a shotgun and a rifle. The reasoning is a shotgun is a double duty tool; home defense and hunting. The rifle can be pressed into service for defense but is better designed for hunting.

Our forefathers in their infinite wisdom wanted to ensure both the safety and the ability to eat with the second amendment. It would have been impossible for them to fathom a world/society where weapons (guns, knives & swords) would not be a regular everyday tool needed for our survival. I also believe their recent encounters with the threat of tyranny and monarchy made them more aware of the need of giving our citizens a way to ensure revolt would be possible should a tyrannous government should arise. Therefore they included a two-part clause in the second amendment; the right to own and bear arms and the right to a standing militia.

Our forefathers believed in protecting home and hearth as well as our country’s freedoms. A lot of people do not believe in the need of protection, because that is what the police and the government are for. Sadly the police can only pick up the pieces from the aftermath of an emergency situation. The same is true of our government. Anyone who doubts the truth of those statements, remember Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy.

So if you own a gun or two make sure you and your family are properly trained how and When they should be used. And if you don’t own a gun then maybe think about finding a good gun store and learn about them. Guns aren’t nearly as scary when you know a little about them.

Okay I am stepping down from my soap box. Thank you. Oh and those hard working policemen and government folks, please remember they are human too.