Mindful Writing

We have all been bombarded with the advice – ‘Write every day, set aside some time to put pen to paper’ or the converse, ‘Write when you are in the mood – or when you are able to.’ To me, there is nothing worse than the first one. Sitting there, a blank page or screen in front of you, coffee going cold, perspiration dripping from your brow as you try to dredge some ideas from the deep cavern of your mind that is now, suddenly, emptier than a hermit’s address book (thanks to Blackadder for that joke!). Oddly enough the second is annoying as well (warning – 4 letter word ahead….). Work, that’s right, WORK! That thing that pays the bills gets in the way, And I know that most of us writers are odd-ball introverts who would do anything to get out of social interaction (Oh – just me then?) but Family might not be the best thing to ignore either.

So, how can you do that? How can you best make use of that time when you sit down to write? If you have that WIP in progress, all well and good. If not, then writing prompts. A quick question to the all-knowing sage that is Google will give you plenty of sites offering writing prompts for Fantasy Shorts. Not all are brilliant for High Fantasy, Dark Fantasy or out-and-out Sword & Sorcery though:

“Laying back in the not too-comfortable dentist’s chair, you can’t help but notice that the eyes above the mask are definitely not human.”

So, what next? Your blank screen (time to get into the 21st Century, Northwood!) awaits, your Hero or Heroine stand off stage anxious to answer the call to arms. So, oh Scribe – what next?

Use some exercises to get the creative juices flowing. It is just a case of pushing yourself with a little practice. When I joined my local writing group I was flummoxed by writing prompts. Hated them with a vengeance. Countless were the times I ended the exercise with a page covered in scribbled out words as if I was trying to write in Orcish. Now, I still dread them (hey, I have to read it out at the end . . . ) but can finish them.

Instead, open a novel or dictionary and grab the first 3 words that leap out at you. Nouns, Adjectives, Adverbs or Verbs. It doesn’t matter. Decide on your wordcount and off you go. The 3 words need to appear in your work, either as they appear or in another form – or just the idea and premise of them. Here is one I completed for the words Survive Graveyard and Greedy.

“Where’s One got that from?” hissed Olwin the Alchemist. He formed his sentences in the way of the Croc-men, unable to differentiate the perspective.

“One ain’t gonna tell Olwin that, is I?” I countered, falling into the lizardman’s mannerisms straight away. The alchemist stared at me with his one unblinking eye. Through the small hatch in his wall, I could see the clutter in his workshop behind. Amongst the drying weeds and fauna hanging from the mud roof were suspended bits and pieces of various animals.

He flipped the tooth back at me and I fumbled the catch, dropping it to the mud below. Slamming the hatch shut, he half hissed, half snarled.

“Shop shut. Take it.”

My fingers scooped the bone out of the sludge and I hammered away at the doorway to bring him back. I needed him to take it. For Clara’s sake.

“Olwin, mark me. One regrets words. One needs it.” I hoped I sounded contrite. The hatch snapped open and Olwin blew a cloud of blue smoke my way. Damn mashweed addict, but he was good, he was the best.

“Hah. One knows where One got that from, anyway.” I sighed and handed the tooth over, placing it in his thick, scaly claw.

“Deadlord tooth. Only one place to get this. One has been on the Boneyard again.” Boneyard, Graveyard, Necropolis. Different words for the same place. A thousand acres of ground where cultists idolised the dead, and the dead . . . well, the dead wouldn’t stay dead until you turned them dead again. Spend too long in the Boneyard and death would find you. That cursed land would drain the life out of you.

I nodded. Every waking minute that I wasn’t caring for my little sister was spent in the boneyard, searching for treasure and troves to spend on the medicine. Medicine to fight the Big JuJu. It was taking stronger hold, and it wouldn’t be long before she succumbed and went into the darkness.

“One will take it. Thirty pieces of gold. No more, don’t be greedy.”

I shook my head and withdrew my own coin purse.

“No, Olwin. One misunderstands. I am not selling it – I need you to grind it, for Clara. Big JuJu and the darkness are gonna take her soon. Only a Gondu Panacea can keep her with me. She won’t survive without.” I threw my coin purse through the little hatch. 

“That’s thirty crowns, the amount you would have given me for it. Please, One implores you, help me. Help my sister.” The Croc raised the bong to his maw and sucked another breath down, savouring the flavour before exhaling.

“This one will help fight the JuJu.”

I breathed a sigh of relief until the alchemist spoke again.

“But this One needs more.”

“Gold?” I questioned, my heart sinking.

“Both gold and tooth. Not enough!”

I sighed again, hefted my sword to my shoulder and trudged in the direction of the graveyard.

I prayed I would be in time.

This exercise is good practice for the NYC Midnight competitions where they give you a genre, task and word that must appear in your entry.

The next exercise is similar but you make your own list of, say, 20 verbs and 20 nouns. Write each on an individual slip of paper and place nouns in one pot, verbs in another. For added measure, do the same for some word counts – 100, 250, 500 etc. Draw one from each pot and way you go. Remember, Fantasy is a myriad of worlds, creatures and adventures so anything goes:

Dancing Frog – of course! Singing Table – why not? Flying Cutlery – Hell, yeah!

This is also a good exercise to try in groups, that way you get a wider range of items and actions all leading to more manic writing.

To reiterate, the important thing is to write when you sit down to write. The next most important thing is to keep it all, whether you are happy with the first attempt of not. Look back over it a few weeks or months later. Can you do better or write further? Look at the example above – what is the Big JuJu? What else is out there in the Boneyard? What happened to make the Boneyard – a battle, maybe? And how easy is it to kill a Deadlord?

Remember, nothing can be too weird or mad for Fantasy.