Giving Birth

This is probably the closest I can ever come to articulating birth in a way that actually makes any sense and draws on the experience of a home birth with the Boy. It is not perfect, one of the greatest issues I had with this little exercise was just how much of birth is communicated through sound effects and feelings that have no words. It really showed the limitations of modern English in describing such an experience. Sadly I lack the knowledge to know if this is different in other linguistic traditions or if older languages were better at it, but it did bring home the problems that I am going to have with a Prehistoric setting.

Namely, the idea that I am trying to put across here is a society that is very alien to our own. There are aspects of that society that I confess I feel are superior to our own and there are aspects that I feel are not. I want it to be a balanced experience for the reader. It is not a preachy thing that I wish to create but something sufficiently different that it becomes curious.

In many ways it has commonalities with the work that I did creating Socialist Britain for Regarding Bakunin in that I want to present a generally positive alternative without it being so uselessly utopian that it can be dismissed. I want to create a realistic world where I am not blinded by my own bias and prejudices but, instead, am free to explore those differences and those positives that I feel are there in a way that other people can make their own mind up. I am fully prepared, for example, in good science fiction to take a positive and paint it negative or vice versa - as it should be - and I want readers to feel the same way with my work. I should not be telling them what to think, merely providing the scenes and the story so that they can decide for themselves.

Analysis courtesy of 750words.com - if you are a writer and not using this site then what are you doing?

Rating: PG-13 for sexual content (maybe) and violence (no, really not seeing this)

Feeling mostly happy (a first) and concerned mostly with eating and drinking (ah ha ha)

Mindset: Extrovert - Positive (75%+) - Certain - Feeling (50%+)

Time: Past (60%) and future (30%); Primary Sense: Touch; Us and Them: Them

36 minutes at 33 words per minute.

I still have no idea how I'm going to name these people or what to do with the dialogue. You'll see what I mean if you read on!

Prehistoric: Stalked

Another night another dream but always this. He is stalked. Still no names, still no plot.

Analysis:

Feeling mostly affectionate and concerned mostly with eating and drinking

Mindset: Introvert - Negative - Uncertain - Thinking

Time: The Past; Primary Sense: Touch; Us and Them: Them

29 minutes at 54 words per minute

Prehistoric: Coming of Age

It appears as though this particular vein is continuing. Tonight I write a scene in which something actually happens. My main character is coming of age.

No, I don't know how it relates to the previous two sections yet, only that I need to know how this all works. It's not finished, he's just about to start his quest but I don't want to force it. The style of this work and the way it's moving are completely, I think, different to my normal style. They may even be different to what I did for NaNo.

Anyway, again the analysis (thank you 750words.com):

Rating: PG-13 (sexual content and swearing[!]) - really not sure where there is swearing.

Feeling mostly affectionate and concerned mostly with religion

Mindset: Extrovert - Positive - Certain - Thinking

Time Orientation: the Past (with a dash of the future)
Primary Sense: Touch
Us and Them: Them (well, it is third person)

42 minutes (37 actually typing) at 38 words per minute

Prehistoric stuff part 2

I still don't have a title for any of this, much less an idea where it is going. I think that someone has to die and then we have a murder mystery style plot going on, but I really have no idea. Also, I don't really want him to be the main character if I can help it. Him going off and doing a murder mystery plot would be... well, a bit patriarchal, no?

Again some stats for you, courtesy of 750words.com:

Rating: PG-13 - sexual content and violence (still not seeing the violence)

Feeling mostly affectionate and concerned mostly about religion (but only just)

Mindset: Extrovert - Positive - Certain - Feeling

Time: Past; Primary Sense: Touch; Us and them: Them

Prehistoric Detective Novel?

I have long toyed with the idea of setting a story in Prehistory, but I am no Jean Auel and I have never even read the series. Equally, my knowledge of Prehistory is small and slim. That doesn't diminish my urge to do it, just make it harder as I lack the time to research and the inclination to really go for it. As I haven't touched my NaNo project since February (and then didn't really do much of use having left it since December) I figured I'd try something that had nothing attached to it.

What follows, then, is a quick exercise to try and get going. Before I share it I shall place the analysis (courtesy of 750words.com, where you should also be going) and then a line break so that it doesn't clutter up the blog any.

Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and violence (not sure about violence)

Feeling mostly affectionate and concerned mostly about religion

Mindset: Extrovert (75%) - Positive - Certain - Thinking

Time Orientation: the Past; Primary Sense: Touch; Us and Them: Them

Time: 28 minutes at 46 words per minute

Fade to Grey

Back to form this evening. Something I knocked up... ooh, must be back in 2005. However, it has the potential to go somewhere at some point if I ever want to write sci-fi action. Thus, I plant it here:

There were about five of them in the coffee shop: all quite clearly ready for business. A female holding a cup of double espresso sat by the entrance to the establishment, to stop me bolting I supposed, and there was a thick-set man by the bar nursing a muffin. The others were slightly less obvious, though it was always difficult to disguise the raw power they had brought with them and commanded at their fingertips. In truth I was quite honoured by all of the attention I was getting, it meant that they considered me at least noteworthy to send out the Interdiction like this.

I stood, mopping my hands with a napkin though there was really no need, and sauntered toward the toilets at the back of the building. They knew as well as I did that there would be a window in one of the stalls, but my game plan rested on the fact that they would not realise I had spotted every single one of them already. I did not have to wait long and no sooner was I safely obscured from view than I felt the breathing on my neck and stopped.

“I wouldn't, if I were you.”

It was the man I had seen near the back corner, keeping his eye on the whole proceedings, this was probably the field commander, his voice carried with it a tone that was used to being obeyed. Everybody had to learn sometime.

“You’re wrong, you know,” I protested as loudly as I could manage without drawing undue attention, “I’m not the one you’re looking for.”

“Heard it all before, the next thing you’ll be claiming is that we’ve made a mistake and how this must all be the result of a misunderstanding.”

He was right of course, and the reason was quite simple. They had made a terrible mistake and there had been a misunderstanding. Something told me that my explanation would neither be welcomed nor even consciously noted, the truth was simply not enough in this case. “Fine.”

“Do we have to read you your rights or will you save us that little pandering?”

“To be honest I’m just flattered there’s so many of you. Five? Plus one in the toilets? I am truly flattered it would take five heavily armed members of the Interdiction to bring down what you consider to be a simple thief.” Reasoning with them had broken down before it had properly begun.

A jolt in my back, I had the man rattled at least. “Your type are always flattered by the strangest things. Still, if that’s the way you want it then I must inform you of your rights under section 4 paragraph 7a of the Codex. You have a right-”

Despite the rough way in which I was being handled and my lack of sympathy at the best of times with those who would employ brute force where subtlety would be better suited to the situation I felt that it was only fair I offered them a warning, a chance to back off and leave me be this time. “If you must persist in this mockery of official business then I am afraid that I shall be forced to retaliate to protect myself and my interests. I hereby serve you fair warning that failure to let me be to continue my interests will result in my no longer being responsible for my actions.”

At first he started and I could imagine him shaking his head. This was clearly not what his combat oriented brain had told him would come next. I suppose I could understand that, they had the advantage of numbers, power and weaponry, there was little that I could do. Added to that, they would have read my profile before and would have been aware that I was unlikely to use force to resolve issues. In the event he began to laugh softly. He was a fool, a weapon jockey sent on an errand for someone else who was unwilling or unable to get their own hands dirty, I had expected no better. “As I was saying, you have a right to-”

Now I confess that my dander was up and that I was angry, to have a fair warning laughed at after all that I had been through was a little too much. Without warning I found myself growling and moving at speed. This took the commander behind me by surprise and he moved far too slowly to block the fist that suddenly appeared in his vision.

I connected. Blood sprayed from the impact, a square blow to the nose. A second blow caught him in the stomach, neatly crushing a kidney and dropping him to the floor. I did not have long now. The toilets were simply not an option.

One of them was moving, people were beginning to realise that something was going on. A staff member was moving to the telephone, no doubt to call in the pitiful excuses for law enforcement officials they had here. I grabbed the top of a table and up-ended it, stopping an attack from one of them to my side. The rest were fumbling to pull weapons.

The woman was close by now, launching herself into a two footed kick designed to take me unawares, the speed was incredible but time slowed as I turned and calmly took hold of her shins. That done I spun as if throwing a hammer and sent her head first into the cooling unit above the counter. Pandemonium had broken loose and at least one of the Interdiction had pulled a gun. They were shouting something but with the roaring in my ears from the effort I could not make out what they were saying. It didn’t matter, a shout in their direction burst their eardrums and prevented them being a factor any more.

Two more between me and the door, though the plate glass windows had shattered due to the shout so how I left was entirely up to preference. Most of the customers were cowering on the floor, a few were crawling toward the exit, who could blame them?

The first gunshots were wide, they were learning, and moved with agonising slowness to aim themselves at my head. Wood splintered and plastic shattered as the projectiles cut their way through the air. Shockwaves pulsed and fire spat from the muzzle, singing some of the fittings closest to the shooter. I threw myself backward and fired a plate in their direction. Pottery smashing and the firing stopped. Direct hit.

I rolled and stood quickly, projectiles impacting where I was a moment before as I made a dash to the door. My peripheral vision registered the final member of the team emerging from the corridor to the toilets, the commander was gradually regaining his composure and no doubt cursing the fact that he had come in too close and without immediate back up. Like I said, weapon jockeys.

It was all too late.

Mood Music

One thing I find very helpful when writing, and I'm sure I've mentioned it before, is music. Maybe it's just the way my mind works but I find it easier to immerse myself in something when I have a soundtrack. It's the same in films, but mainly effective when I get to set the tracks to events in books. It's why Iron Sky was somewhat jarring in places (and why I still haven't bought the otherwise excellent soundtrack) and why I enjoyed Fifth Element so much (and did buy the soundtrack, on a whim).

To this end I have two such soundtracks to share with you.

I think I've already said that my latest bout of contiguous writing, Nothing to Fear, was written to the Pet Shop Boys, for the most part, and structured around the track listing of their Fundamental album. That was because the album was very good for creating a particular kind of political narrative suffused with various love stories, all of them vaguely bittersweet, and that was a good background for what I wanted to do. I got as far as track 4 in terms of plot, partly due to the extended nature of the war that started, and found myself bringing in extra tracks to help various scenes and ideas.

However, these were not writing tracks. They were very specific and helped me do a job. Free writing, the kind I don't have much time for these days, is best done to proper immersive music. I have +Nina Mideast Journal, who is lovely, to thank for introducing me to Wait for her, a poem set to music, that fits the bill for what I'm talking about. But she also recently reminded me of the wonderful Ludovico Einaudi whose Una Mattina and Divenire are just divine and work so well to help the flow of words onto the page.

So, the first soundtrack to share is Divenire, which is just beautiful, and always gives me images that are similarly stunning and uplifting. Except maybe Ascolta, which is just raw emotion and sadness - I still love it of course, but it is a different scene that stems from the playing of the emotions.

Musicals are another good thing to write to for me, because they have to do so much with the voice to express emotion with the lyrics. They are actors, yes, but they are forced to rely on the song to get across their thoughts and must show as well as narrate. This means that the combination of instrument and voice can really crank up the emotions if done well - a double act by singer and composer from the beginning. Even brilliant musicals can be botched and awful lyrics saved by the cast.

My second soundtrack is Closer to Heaven by, you guessed it, the Pet Shop Boys. At the moment the stand out tracks are Closer to Heaven (reprise I) and Positive Role Model, neither of which appear to be on youtube and therefore I can't share them directly. But I do urge you, dear visitor, to seek them out and listen. While the gay love story is not to everyone's taste it is a love story. I'm not gay but I can recognise the power of the lyrics and the emotions contained within them well enough - that crosses boundaries in a way that sometimes I can't quite get. For instance, I love Chess the musical but I can never quite buy the love triangle between Florence, the Russian and Svetlana - they sing well, with emotion, but I never 'get' the love. They are, of course, straight, so I should recognise it from my own life experience. But it is nowhere near as powerful as the love in Closer to Heaven.

I think I may have strayed on a tangent here...