Advice For Writers.

Yes I know he is mainly a comic book writer but writing is writing. All writers will find this beneficial.

Alan Moore... wonderful man.

Over and Out.
ED.

Card Games and How I Get To Know My Characters... Chords Make Me All Fuzzy Inside.

I have a new goal that I am starting next week. I was out doing errands last Thursday and I forgot to take my keys so I couldn't get back into the house for a bit. I decided to ramble around for a bit and happened to go into a shop called 'Crazy Prices'. After browsing for about a minute or two I bought two packs of cards for £1 which in turn has inspired my goal that I have set for this week. My goal is to learn one card game each day a week during my spare time. It won't take too long to learn a card game... so by the end of the week I will know seven more games that will be in my head.

I think that one of the hardest parts of creating characters for stories is the supposedly simple task of naming them. Some of the names that I have given to some of old characters in old stories that I have done are as follows,

• John Watkins.
• Oliver Fendel.
• Howard Walters.
• Lucy Roch.

I have always found it easier to name women characters and I'm not entirely sure why. Women's names just sound nice to my ears. I seem to be writing women that look like nymphs or nature spirits and work at markets.

As for men I've been writing male characters that are academic but have anti hero qualities about them. I also like writing about male characters that have gone mad... or have 'supposedly' gone mad.

At the moment I also like writing about characters you might find if you went to a really dingy low life pub. Just imagine going into a really bad pub Here is what I mean. Imagine this...

You see that the walls are peeling and you hear mournful blues music being played as you enter the pub... there are few people around but as you buy a drink you look and see a figure in a dark corner just sitting there alone, nursing a drink and in deep contemplation.


The shadowy character I have just described are the type of characters I like to write at the moment. What happened in their life?... I want to find out by writing about them. Brilliant stuff. I love fallen or downtrodden characters.

Yesterday I was visited by me 'ole mate Kiran. We both tend to have the same tastes and views about things. The main things we do is talk about music we have bought recently, the stuff we have learnt on guitar since our last meeting, what is happening in our life and stupid people in politics that won't calm the 'eff down and get a grip.

After our talking for a bit we went off into the sunny day and sat in the garden at The White Horse by the canal and talked some more with a coke and a half cider.

... And it's a great day right now. Why am I inside writing this? I'm taking everything outside now.

And as I promised myself the first card game that I shall be learning today shall be Four Card Golf... one down, six to go.

Over and Out.
ED.  

P.S--- The picture was done by Munchy (looks at previous posts), taken ages ago and 'developed' by him.

My Writing Process. Getting Story Ideas When Falling Asleep Doesn't Work Because You're Trying To Fall Asleep At The Time.

I've got four stories that I'm working on at the moment;

The Standing Stone.
He Needed A Body.
The Tale of Brickbrarnack.
The Lady in the Room.

Two of these stories I have been working on for ages. 'The Tale of Brickbrarnack' was an idea that I wrote a first draft for about two years ago but did no more than one draft of. 'The Lady in the Room' is a tale of something that happened in real life when I was young but is written as if it happened hundreds of years ago.
'The Standing Stone' and 'He Needed a Body' are about none of your business...yet (he winks). I both wrote the plan for these stories in those moments when you're not doing much and suddenly you give birth to a story and you think, ''My God Brain, you're a genius.''

I was half asleep, just waking up in my bed this morning and I remember thinking,
"Brakeback Bridge. Breakback Bridge.That would be great inspiration for a story."

I got up out of my bed, wrote 'Brakeback bridge onto a scrap of paper, went back to bed and fell asleep again. After I had actually got up and was fully with it I picked up the paper and wondered why my former sleep brain thought these words would inspire me.

Many people say that it is good to keep a pen and paper on your bedside just in case an idea pops up. I have been doing this for about a week and have not written much down.

Here is my line of thinking as I'm falling asleep and I get an idea...

"That's an amazing idea... 


I'm going to write that down. I bet I wouldn't have thought that up if I was in a fully consciousness state...


 Hmm I'm probably going to have to lean over and grab the pen and paper and then hurt my eyes when I have to turn the light on... 


I could just lie here...


 I can feel myself falling asleep anyway... Blow this, I'll just stay where I am, I'll remember it in the morning anyway."

... and I never remember it when I wake up.
I get most of my inspired stuff when I am awake anyway. Most of what I have tried to write down while I'm falling asleep is absolute nonsense... Breakback bridge...  I'll remember it anyway just on the off chance that it will come to some sort of use in the future.

Over and Out.
ED.

My Personality Type and General Reading About Spectral Manifestations.

"Your stories, gentlemen, are all out of the ordinary, of course, but it seems to me that each one lacks an essential ingredient- I mean authenticity; for I am pretty sure that none of you has seen with his own eyes the fantastic incidents that he has just narrated... As for me, gentlemen, I know only one story of this kind, but it is at once so strange, so horrible, and so authentic that it will suffice to strike even the most jaded of imaginations to terror. Having... been both a witness to these strange events... I will tell the tale..."

In a daze of self reflection I decided to go on the computer and walk through the electronic ether. I wished to find out my personality type, the whole scientific questioning thing that people have. After answering all of the questions as much as I could I was given the results.

I am an INFP personality (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving.) My personality type never lose their sense of wonder and... and then to have imaginary friends when they are children. I was quite contented with what I got... or indeed was given.
This is my personality type...
http://typelogic.com/infp.html

Also in a previous blog (look at the previous blog I suppose) I promised that I would show you Sid. I haven't got  a camera but I promise the day will come that you will see him, probably next blog. I don't know why I wish to show Sid but I've promised that I would and so I shall goddammit.

For entertainment over the past few days I've been Casting the Runes... you know what I mean... I've been looking at the stalls of Barchester Cathedral... I've been a Resident at Whitminster. In other words I've been reading M.R James.

I don't find ghost stories scary any more, not since I was a child, to be honest I'm slightly sceptical about the whole thing... yet it is interesting to me nonetheless and ghost stories are good entertainment. When I was young I thought I saw a ghost though. I was scared to go in my old room for ages. Back in the day my brother and I used to share a room. Opposite my brothers bed and parallel to mine was a cupboard. Anyway, one night I was lying in bed and I couldn't get to sleep so for some reason I opened my eyes and happened to look at the cupboard. What I thought I saw was a young woman. She was standing there looking forward but her eyes were closed and her right hand was held up as if she was trying to feel something. No one believed me but I always felt weird in that room when I was alone in that room months afterwards. Now I just think it was a trick of the mind.

I have also began to contemplate the idea that living dolls are scary. The old story of dolls coming to life and trying to go about their devilish way. Why are living dolls scary? If I happened to have a doll that came to life I would capture it, calls all types of media people from tv and newspapers and let everyone know that I have a living doll. Scientists would be fascinated that such a thing could be possible. Perhaps it could be some sort of missing link between the knowable and human to the unknown, the apparant unknowable forces of the universe. Living dolls don't exist in any form anyway... but if they did...

Over and Out.
ED.