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 |   A tentative blog to test the temperature. |
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Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end. So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.     |
| Recent Concerns Sometimes I worry about the quantity I produce in WdC. It’s not like me to be so productive. Since joining the group, I have written far more (and more varied) stuff than ever before in my lifetime. Just as an example, in the year so far, I have written thirty-eight short stories. That’s unheard of for me - Before I joined WdC, I’d have been lucky to produce as many as ten of them in a year. I’m not saying they’re all good. In fact, that’s what is worrying me. Since I write now under tremendous pressure to produce something, it seems to me that the quality suffers. Not so much in the writing - I don’t have a concern about that, apart from the occasional typo slipping through (and that’s irritating enough). But in the ideas department. I just cannot force original and interesting ideas from the old brain on demand. Sometimes I get so desperate at the lack of ideas that I start without any notion of where the story will take me. The number of unfinished stories mounts in my storehouse. On occasion that method will work and I’ll have a good idea while I’m writing. But, too often, I finish the thing and it turns out to be, if I’m honest, pedestrian. By which I mean that it lacks that zing, that special shine that denotes something fresh and different. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself - others seem to find my stuff reasonably good. But maybe they’re just being polite. Not that I’d like the output to slow down or be limited to good stuff only in the portfolio. This abundance of writing is so new to me that I enjoy it even with the worries. If I can produce the occasional gem, I don’t mind if it’s surrounded by mediocrity. Let ‘em dig for the good stuff, I say. Anyway, that’s my moan for the day. Word count: 320 |
| The Contest Well, I’m just about ready for "The WDC Birthday Bash Blog Relay"  . The team has been formed:He’s Brian K Compton Ned Beholden And I’ve created my blog for the relay: "Time let me play and be" .Into the great blog yonder! Word count: 44 |
| A Blog Post! Seems like I’ve been answering questions all morning. First there was Lilli’s QOTD of course, and then I became interested in how other people were dealing with the question. Started to see all sorts of ramifications and continuations from the thoughts prompted in my head. Had to write them down quickly before they disappeared, and that meant Lilli had a whole bunch of extra responses to get to (she answers every response). Sorry about that, Lilli. Anyway, then I found a link to a contest I’ve never heard of. It looked interesting, so I went there and started to read. It led me on to another forum where I was asked a great big wad of personal questions. Normally, I’d have taken that as my cue to exit stage left but today seems to be my day for shoving my foot in my mouth. I started to answer. And kept going in great detail, even wandering off into asides when I thought an answer needed a bit more explaining. Ended up with a long screed that may prove to be the latest weapon for boring people to death. My only consolation is that no one will ever read it. Probably. Which leaves me in the afternoon, still with nothing to show for the day (except now I have this blog post). Pardon me while I post this and try to write at least an 8-line poem. Word count: 236 |
| Invitation Here’s something interesting: the WDC Angel Army and 30-Day Bloggers Group are running an event to celebrate WDC’s 21st Birthday. To be called The WDC Birthday Blog Relay (https://www.writing.com/main/forums/item_id/1803384-The-WDC-Birthday-Bash-Blog-R...), it not only looks like fun but is offering substantial prizes as well. It is definitely worth a look and consideration. The event runs from September 1st to 9th so there are a few days to think about it. It does require teams of three to enter, however and that means, if I decide to give it a go, I’m going to need a couple of compadres to share the burden. I think I have one name I can persuade but, if you’re interested, throw me a comment and we’ll see if we’re compatible. If you’re concerned about my ability as a blogger, take a read of a few entries below. I’ll be doing the same to you! Word Count: 154 |
| Genres and All That One thing WdC does to you, it makes you think about genre. It’s not something I’ve taken much notice of in the past as I normally write a piece and then decide what genre it should be assigned to. Not so easy to do when you’re writing to a contest’s specifications! This became particularly relevant when I started trying to write for SCREAMS!!! Not having read a lot of horror, I had to work my way to a definition of the genre. One of the most horrific books I’ve read was the first in a series that probably was never classified as horror in the first place. It was about a company of civil war (the American) soldiers who fall through a portal leading to a planet remote from Earth. There are other communities on this world, all comprising groups of humans who fell through various portals in other regions and at different times. So one little town might be a microcosm of China in the Ming dynasty, another might be full of Romans from the time of their empire and the next could be a bunch of Maoris from New Zealand. All these people lived in reasonable peace with each other but told terrifying tales of the large aliens that ruled the roost on the planet. These overgrown lizard creatures were nomadic and spent their days in wandering around from settlement to settlement, culling the populations and then moving on. They were farming the communities for food. Everyone had tried fighting them but, thanks to the aliens’ size and prowess in war, the humans were easily crushed. The civil war guys reckon that their technology seemed a little ahead of the aliens and that they might stand a better chance against them as a result. They make preparations to receive the next visitation by the aliens in a somewhat hotter (and gunpowder-driven) reception than they were used to. The rest of the book and those that followed in the series are concerned with the war between the aliens and the alliance of Earth peoples created by the civil war guys.* But the really horrific aspect of the book comes in when an alien feast is described. It is too scary and frightening for me to go into here but, if horror is your bag, it’s a good place to start. When I can write short stories as terrifying as that feast, I will accept that I’ve nailed the genre. And now I’ve joined a fantasy/science-fiction group. This should be much easier for me since I’ve been writing in those two genres most of my life. But there are still difficulties, particularly with fantasy. At times I see in WdC the statement or assumption that fantasy has to include magic, mythical creatures, wizards, etc. There’s none of that in my world. It’s fantasy because it’s set in a world that isn’t this one and has its own geography, history, weather, all the aspects that go into our real world, in fact. But it’s peopled by humans. I admit I’ve bowed slightly to the WdC idea of fantasy in that I’ve written about dragons, wyverns and ogres for contests. And I have an ongoing series about trolls which I’ve decided are much nicer creatures than their reputation would allow. But none of these are getting into my world. It’s intended to be fantasy for grown ups and deals with humans only. After all, what are all those creatures but people in silly costumes? The dragon is just a big geezer in a dragon outfit, the elf in a smaller one. It’s heresy to fantasy exponents, of course. But I’ll endeavour to stand my ground in the group. Maybe I’ll have to get a cadre of troll bodyguards formed to protect me. I know one or two that would make a fine job of a thing like that. Word count: 633 *If anyone knows the name and/or author of this series, I’d be really grateful to be advised. Just can’t remember what it was called. |
| Psst, Buddy - Wanna Badge? Lately, there seems to be an outbreak of selling MBs and Awardicons for various favours or payments. Maybe I’m reading these things incorrectly, but it seems that. if you enter this or that contest, pay a certain amount of GPs, or perform specified actions, you get one of the awards. Not wishing to buck the system or complain, but isn’t this defeating the object of awards? I thought they were indications of some merit (hence their names) but this must erode any value they have. The powers that be have certain systems (called CR) to prevent the mismanagement of awards, obviously with a view to preserving their value as indicators of achievement and merit, but selling them seems the most direct route to their devaluation in terms of worth. Obviously, I’m missing something somewhere. I must be. Otherwise how can the two SMs stand by and see their award system undermined in this way? And don’t be fooled - this is what lies at the end of the sale of awards. Why else do you think the Quill Awards are already held in higher esteem than the number of MBs and Awardicons collected? You can’t buy a Quill, no matter how flawed it’s valuation system may be. Okay, rant over. Now you can explain to me where I’m going wrong. Word count: 222 |
| A Recommendation I’ve just completed the third of three short stories in less than a week. Not that I’m bragging but it was required by a contest, Thrice Prompted, included in Schnujo’s Contest Challenge this month. I didn’t really fancy the other two contests on offer (although I have a lot of respect for the Paranormal Short Story Contest, this month’s prompt failed to inspire me). Thrice Prompted is unusual in that there is no deadline. You write three stories to the prompts you choose from their extensive list and finish when you can. It was one of those things that I thought over for a long time before deciding that I could do it. And, once the decision was made, I went at it like a bull at a gate (I’m not sure how bulls go at a gate but I’m pretty sure it’s much like me bulldozing my way through a task so I can get it finished) I was persuaded in the end by the excellence of the prompts. There are some very interesting suggestions in there and I picked out six before deciding finally which three I would write to. Then I discovered a whole world of forums (appropriately enough) behind this contest. There’s a poetry contest as well and a forum for members into fantasy and science fiction, plus other forums for assistance to writers. Well worth a look if that’s your bag. But don’t be afraid of those three stories required by Thrice Prompted. If you’re into fantasy and SF, it’s not that hard (my good friend, Bob, has six stories entered already) and the rewards are guaranteed. Word count: 272 |
| The Reviewing Rant It’s a complex matter, reviewing. So difficult, in fact, that we all work out our own method to deal with it. In my case, I limit myself to reviewing only those pieces that I think pretty good. So of course the ratings I hand out are high on average. There are a few around who will give an honest review wherever they land but I’m unsure how much good they do. Not everyone wants to be published, after all. And we’re not editors so can be expected to approach things differently from the purely commercial viewpoint. Our personal taste matters. You won’t find me reviewing Romance, for instance; it’s not an area I would claim any expertise on. Equally, I tend to disregard reviews from those who think poetry has to rhyme. We need to face the fact that we’re all different and write from different motives. I don’t write for publication, although I’m prepared to state that I write better than some I’ve seen published. Others write as a hobby or because they can’t stop themselves. And yes, there are those who desire to be published but they’re thinner on the ground than you’d think. Trumpeting a publishing record is no guarantee of a shoe-in to the position of perfect reviewer. To many of us, it’s irrelevant. We just want to know whether you enjoyed the piece or not. I would even go so far as to say that professional grade reviewing is destructive to good art, whether it be painting, writing or any other. Consider the fool’s game the critics have made modern art, poetry and classical music, and you’ll see what I mean. The best advice I can give to those wanting to review in WdC is go ahead, do it and work out your own special technique as you go. It’s like writing in that way; you learn what suits you best and then get on with it without bothering what the next reviewer’s up to. Word count: 332 |
| Goodbye Nanci Today I learned, purely by chance, that Nanci Griffith died three days ago. This was a bit of a shock to me, particularly as I only discovered her recently. I suppose that was because her music is usually classified as country, whereas my interest lies mainly in the rock area. During her long career through the seventies to the early 2000s, I was listening elsewhere. But what a revelation she was when I stumbled across her videos in YouTube. The clear, bright quality of her voice, her flawless guitar playing, the quality of her song writing and the joy in her eyes was irresistible. It did not even occur to me to wonder about the genre of her music until I’d heard most of what YouTube had to offer. There are many tributes on the net, giving due recognition to her influence on music, but few mention how accomplished a guitarist she was. I was never more than a beginner at playing the guitar so that, although I could recognise the skill of her finger style, I could never understand or explain what made her virtuosity so special. The tribute below, from an English guitarist (who, unfortunately, spells his name Fil), reveals just how much her ability in this area will be missed. Word count: 213 |
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