To all the people that love Paris
we stand shoulder to shoulder
our tears will drown out
Notre Dame’s flames.
A beautiful wonder ravished and scarred by such heated wrath.
We stand shoulder to shoulder
Helping hands to remember
To rebuild. Paris that we have loved. We love you still.
On the 4th of July Americans celebrate the nation’s birthday. Yet without the power of fire and ink we wouldn’t have become an independent nation. The fires of rebellion began with unfair governing practices and coruption, those fires in turn led to the ink used to pen the Declaration of Independence, which gave birth to the fires of the American Revolution. So fire and ink are powerful in their own rights but together they can forge new beginnings.
Just a few words to ponder this 4th of July week. Cheers, james
Update: As of Sunday, Sept. 20th my typed word count is 14,812 Yay! I am still twelve handwritten pages away from being completely caught up. So I have broke the 16,000 word count. For me this is huge. I’ve never written this much on a story. Not so great news is it has taken me a year and change to get here.
I have been typing on my main work in progress. Noticed that my font size instead of being 12 point was 10.5. No wonder I had the zoom on 140%, cause I couldn’t see it. I thought it was just me, being blind. I changed it to 12 and my page count jumped from 28 to 32.
Yay! I have typed up from page 86 to page 96, I think. It is a lot slower typing it up vs. writing it up. I’d still be working on it, but the grill was calling me.
So I am tending to fire, grilling a nice chunk o meat. The hubby had to work this afternoon so, I am being wifely?, and making supper. I think he will be pleasantly suprised driving up and seeing smoke from the grill and not his kitchen. Lol!
So cheers to you on a lovely evening, james
Tonight is one of those dreamy spring nights when a gentle breeze blows and the brillant blue sky turns pale waiting for dusk. The azaleas are blooming riots of hot pink, and white. The dogwoods are blooming before the leaves make an explosive entrance.
A perfect evening to enjoy sitting on the driveway watching the fire turn cold raw chicken into golden grilled delight. I should be writing, but I fear getting caught up in that fantasy relam and burn the chicken. Hmm I may burn it for blogging and not watching that sneaky little red man (fire).
Currently my chicken is morphing by fire alchemy into golden fire kissed supper. The little red man is content to follow my instructions but only while paying strict attention to his antics. It is in that moment of inattention that he dances into merry mischief and gets me into trouble. It seems tonight is going to be a great night and supper will not burn. Then later I will pick up my pen and lose myself for a while in that relam we, writers call home.
Cheers, james
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.
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,
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