Words. Words. Words.

For any that tire of the content herein, the Reader is to blame. Completely.

Well, no - not completely given that I do tend to ramble on every and anything.

This is....actually, not about Shakespeare! Surprise, surprise! No, this is about writing, research, and who knows what else may turn up as I trek through this......  However, that scene from Tennant's Hamlet is hilarious. and the quote is quite applicable, so....  Voila!

I am a writer. Horrid perhaps, ameteur definitely, imitator at best - but nonetheless, I am yet a writer. As evidenced heretofor, I have the propensity to go one for long whiles on absolutely nothing - and that is without planning or trying. And then I wonder why my books tend to just stretch. on. forever.

HA!!!  Hardly bloody likely!!!  But Tennant is immensely fun to watch so...  why not? I'm supposed to be having fun anyway. And I am. I just shudder to think of inflicting my 'fun' upon everyone else....  (And looky here - I finally got the pictures to stay in the centre.... I need to find a way to make my browser spellcheck in Queen's English....)

Anyway! Back to writing. Still not brilliant. Just obsessive.

The first book I read was Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Not the second, but by far one of the absolute best was then Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. By the time I was able to read LOTR, I had already read all of the books in our house and so had nothing left to read. Acting was of course out of the question, yet there is one medium more of sharing stories: that of writing them.

And I basically copied Tolkien and Lewis.

Especially Tolkien. He created a complete world! With histories and languages and cultures and peoples.....  Something that stands so well on its own - so believably!! And the language especially - I love languages. The language of the Eldar? Of course I want to learn it!! (And I did start, but I've not been able to finish..... *sighs* Someday.)

Speaking of languages - they're so amusing and enthralling! So...beautiful - musical sometimes in their own ways. Russian, French, German, Gaelic, Italian, Romanian, Latin, Greek......  It's even more interesting to learn one language and then learn another. Especially with the romantic languages. I find them quite easy to pronounce and read. Why? Because I've learnt Latin or some other base? No, actually - because I studied Quenyan. Many of the sounds are pronounced the same. I know - it's an utter surprise.....

But High Fantasy! See, I remembered my point.....

My hair smells like apple cider vinegar.....

Sorry - I digress again.

Back on topic!

I love worldbuilding. I failed arithmatic, but aced Algebra. The more complicated something is, the more likely I am to excell at it as long as I learn the basics and work up. But stay in the same thing and never get harder? I die of boredom. Almost literally - or my grades do at least. So worldbuilding - being able to plan a complete world with climate and language and culture and idioms and what else have you - formidable!!

Of course, then I get lost in worldbuilding and planning histories for the characters and weaving all of the plotlines together that I tend to forget to write the actual story. A fault in our stars......  Anyway! Irrelevant. Well, actually relevant - but....  Have I mentioned that I digress?

I have too much fun finding pictures....

Topic? Was ist dis 'topic'?

See, and he wonders why I can't stay on topic. We'll ignore for the moment that I don't exactly HAVE a topic. Well - I'M DOING IT AGAIN!!!

Back on the subject of High Fantasy, I adore writing it. However, It involves me actually immersing myself in the world - which is quite easy to do given that I invented it... - which is not feasible when Real Life demands much of my attention. Much harder to maintain a sense of sameness when there are month-long breaks betwixt chapters or even paragraphs. So, at the moment, my High Fantasy is set aside. I can't stop thinking up ideas - but I can't write them....

However, I also love history.

That obsession started ages ago whenever I wore my first dress. Which was basically when I was born. The longer the dress, the more full the skirt, the better. And then I got sick of trying to find clothes at thrift stores that fit me and looked nice, so I began researching clothes fashions. The silhouettes, the underpinnings, the etiquette - well, much of that I already knew....

I wanted to sew the clothes, except the necessities! The yards of cloth required for simple garments! I could not afford it at this time. So, I went forward. The Forties and Fifties - already dear to me given my love of European history especially in the second World War - were still quite vintages-esque, yet required much less material and notions.

And the patterns were easier to make by eye too.

Pincurls took a bit longer, but still...... It was worth learning.

I avoid writing in reality - in setting stories in recognisable times or places where I must conform to....well, basically, reality. I've never quite understood it and don't even know where to begin in researching for something like that.

And then there was Adam. Manipulative, dark, twisted Adam. Detectives and assassins, heroes and villains.

And the it got stuck in the Forties.

Hamlet is a tragedy - trust me.........
Yes. This is from Hamlet.

Sorry - I refuse to let this post finish without fitting that in somewhere......  I really do love Tennant's portrayal of Hamlet - I wish I could have seen Cumberbatch's.....


But! Book! That one wasn't so much set in the Forties as it was some sort merging of the Golden Era and modern times. Because one paragraph the detectives would be entering reports into the computer - the next, the women would be wearing long Victorian-esque gowns.

And of course I didn't realise this until after the third oneshot.......

But that's fine - I just kind of completely merged the times and left the story as some sort of dystopian thing.....  The only genres I know are mystery, High Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and Sci-fi....  It doesn't quite fit any.

But, then there's the prequel to that story. Or the sequel - haven't quite decided which yet.....  Regardless. It was supposed to be set in the late Forties. And then I realised while writing it that - while I know a lot about the Forties, I don't know enough.

So I binned it as Historical Fiction and dropped it into the same make-up world as Adam's book. It solves the problems of having to keep it completely realistic - although I just can't let it get too...odd?

Not to mention, does anyone happen to know if it is possible to use excerpts from modern songs as chapter titles? That's probably infringement, isn't it....

I remembered the original quote that goes with the picture above the above one!!

POLONIOUS: I will most humbly take my leave of you.

HAMLET: You cannot, sir, take anything that I will more

willingly part withal: except my life. Except my life. Except my life

At which point Polonious questions his own sanity in conferring alone with an insane man, and Hamlet wonders why he's surrounded by fools.

...and I actually found a clip of just that scene too, but unfortunately it's on Youtube and not a gif or picture.....

On a semi-related note, for whatever reason, Falcon in the Dive, The Riddle, and....that other one (yes, great description..... ) always reminds me of Leslie Howard's 'Pimpernel' Smith - and vice versa. I'm not even really sure why.......

I've a story to tell you if any will hear -

It takes place amongst us and so far from here.

There's a heroine and a hero to lead,

And the villain is met and dispatched with all speed.

The pen sets to paper and the story is told,

Filled with characters that never grow old.

There's good and there's evil locked in a war

Just as they have been so often before.

In the end the ones standing gave the hardest fight,

Because in the end all must be made right.

So now I've a story and you have one too -

It's a familiar story, and hardly new.

So set pen to paper and start over again -

One never gets tired of knowing good wins.