LIFE AND LOVE AND LIES

Life and love and lies just about cover every aspect of the world at the moment. Listening to what a computer tells you is sometimes like listening to politicians or realestate agents or car sales people.,or, sometimes, people who insist they love you. The latter is especially tough when you are young...no wisdom yet of how the world works, which is  is a double edged sword.. While innocence gives that wonderful state of ecstacy, the true joy of life , it also supplies pits into which it is easy to fall. A bit like the colour of this ink. I thought it would look wonderful yet now it is being typed I am not so sure. Do I delete and start over again? Or trust to  the readers liking it, or at least enjoying the difference? aWhin
Whihc brings d re checkingSo, I do what every wise person does and having experimented in colour I go back to what I know best, typing in black. This reminds me of the book I am still reading, The Game of Thrones, a brilliant title. I am as yet only on page 236 but already the games people play, the complexity, the loves and lies that are all a part of life, whether real or fictional,make me realise that humans never change. I am also looking forward to reading a book about the Tudors, from the point of view of the Princess Margaret. Married at thirteen what kind of life would she have had, what love and lies would she have lived through. iIWI shall no doubt find out. What I have yet to find out is exactly where my characters in my own new book are going. I have the basic story in my mind and where it should go but at the moment Holly Day, the protagonist, is not letting me take her anywhere! So I must chug away at writing bits and pieces each day until she lets me into what her plans are for the next book!  It is a cliche that characters take over but in this case she has not let me start...not properly...Maybe she sees that what I want for her is not true to her...lies in a way...or little fibs at least...no matter that I love her...and the life I created for her in my last book in which she starred. Or am I a creative going a little crazy? Surely not!....Oh...a white van has just pulled up and men in white coats are coming this way! I will sign off....get rid of the evidence....Byeeee....
PS THE JOY OF FICTION!

IN AWE OF OTHER WRITERS

I have recently started to read GAME OF THRONES and wow is it a story! I do not generally read this genre of novels but of course with its fame so wide spread I thought I had better. The complexity of characters and their names, so cleverly chosen as a kind of distortion of familiar names, makes me wonder how many threads there will have to be to complete the story. I am only on page 95 and so have just under 700 pages to go. Will I last the distance? I guess time will tell but I expect so. I am finding it best to read a chapter at a time so that I can digest more readily where the characters and the intertwined relationships are heading. Such books, so well written, make me twinge with awe as I am certain I could never write such an epic piece with such enthusiastic joy as the author George R R Martin has done. I do realise of course that no matter what age or what world a fiction novel is written in, if it contains human characters then their basic needs are similar to every other human and it is this that retains the interest of readers. All great writers,whether of classics or modern works have this fundamental principle to their writing. I have an eclectic taste and so can read almost any writer with some joy but do have my favorites. I read different authors for different purposes but always out of curiosity of how stories are revealed, with either brilliance or just in an ok fashion.  It is fascinating to discover how the greats do it but oh so much more difficult to emulate.
As a writer who writes mostly about what I know or know of, it is good to stretch myself beyond what I would usually read and to learn from every piece of story telling I come across, hoping beyond hope that just a tiny fraction of someone else's genius rubs off onto me. How optimistic is that! To live in hope is surely the only way to live. 

HOW TIME FLIES

Each time it is a Monday it makes me consider just how quickly the time has flown since the previous Monday. Yes, it is 'stating the bleedin' obvious' as some of my UK friends are wont to say but almost everyone I know says the same thing. Yet, it is not true that time has flown quicker this year than it did last year. It is our perception only. (I am ignoring the miniscule changes in time in scientific terms) Perceptions are part of what it is to be human and boy do they get us into trouble at times. We are all guilty of perceiving things in a way not exactly good for the soul, or the mental or emotional well being of anyone. Yet, often it is the small as well as the large actions we take, guided, by our perceptions of our world that make the bigger world either a  better or a worse place. Just by making a thoughtless comment about someone we perceive as, say, overweight, or dumb, or ugly or having the wrong colour skin or language, we can hurt and sometimes destroy another person's well being.

I was thinking of this when re reading the first mystery thriller I wrote. (DAY AND KNIGHT-THE CASE OF MISSING THINGS) At the end of the story, out of  love, the protagonist Holly Day, makes a decision on her perceived view of what is best for her close friend,Lucy Knight. It is for my readers to decide whether the character made the correct decision. Some readers have told me they loved it, others are less enthusiastic.It is a judgement I as the author chose to make and no one was harmed by this.  In real life, as opposed to fiction, our perceptions lead to a judgement and so should always be carefully thought through.

In my recent book my characters cause certain things to eventuate by the perceptions they have of their world. In a new film script I am working on with three other writers a similar resolution has to be made about the way the story is revealed. Naturally, the perception, the world view. of the main character has to be consistent and worthy of the story being told but also it has to be true to the kind of person and world in which that character lives and breathes. In this case, because we are writing about someone from a culture different to our own, there is additional complexity. One persons view of the world can be completely different to our own. Is one wrong and one right? That is the problem, Is it simply sufficient to try and walk in another's shoes, Like time seeming to fly faster we have to stop and look inside ourselves to work out exactly what is making us feel the way we do. Is it fear? Arrogance? Laziness? Or just plain not thinking it through.There is no easy answer.

In the meantime, I am off for a nice cup of English Breakfast Tea. The time for a cuppa never seems to alter, or fly faster or slower. Odd that. Could this be in the DNA?