Where History and Fiction Meet...

Does history and fiction meet? Very often! In books, in theatre, in films, puts a hole in every pocket which is why its wonderful.

There is history, and there is a story. It shouldn't be his story. And the past should not be used as thousand island salad dressing where the salad is your plot. It won't hide the fact that the cucumber (read the human condition) has not been worked on and is left plain bitter. You can always take facts and make a fantasy. Or you can use fantasy to state facts.

Why do thrive in duality. Its the virtue of a write. The quote in the prior post really seems to have inspired me.

Times have changed enough and the world has turn too many times to have any accuracy free of bias and prejudice. No matter how many books by n number of intellectuals would end up shaping your perspective in a narrow parallel than having a free mind or endow a semblance of an imagination.

Stories of the past can be put to modern times, just as well as modern times can be put to the past. Think of those nuances which still lie common to the society of today and that of an era past. No, I would suggest you much on that. Work on it. Use your imagination. Chances are you might just peep into the souls of legends like Alexander Dumas, Charles Dickers, Jane Austen, Maria Corelli and ever Poe. My personal favorites. More? Alright, Oscar Wilde and Rudyard Kipling. Hunting tigers in exotic India turned them to poets and story tellers. Location, Location, Location? Or soul?

What is the brightest fact about the characters mentioned above? Instead of writing about characters idolized by them as I do now, they wrote on characters that were original, with a rich back story and nuances, and set in a highly richly researched atmosphere with a vivid background. Those dates and years that you hates most during History 101 would only play to tell the story and give room to conflict. Either which allowing freedom to the writer, and exploration as well as rhetoric knowledge to the reader. Works!

I'm not saying don't write about Mata Hari if you want to, because she exists and you might stumble for facts. I'm saying be wise and care and know when to juxtapose facts with fiction.

If you are a stranger to those fat books as me, a simple google search works, a light read of wiki and not to mention those ever so good children's books that make the most boring detail of history fun and learning. I did that with sci fi too. I don't know how nuclear power works, nor did I wanted to pose as an authority. A simple children's book titles "Tell Me Why?" sorted me out. If you get interested and desire to take a bigger challenge, move for journals, bios, letters, paintings, portraits, pictures, antiques or worse, choose a word peculiar to that era and cherche and recherché all you like. On Various concepts even. Read books by other writers on the similar timelines of your choosing and there is the prize.

Congratulations.

You have just time travelled with your mind.

Writing on Writing to Remember

Alright. What really makes a character? His trait or his aspirations. All of them true. All of them false. In my view, its the goal and the obstacles that are strategically strewn ahead of him.

Is it plot driven character? Or a character driven plot? Could be either. Could be both. Experiment. As long as the content and the matter really matters. To you, and then to your intended audience. Be free to ask questions. Who, What, Why, Where, When and How!!! This is will at least make sure there is a solution to every problem and your character won't walk away leaving you in a block where you might scream "fudge, fudge, fudge". Yes, I'm sentimental to chocolate and the erstwhile whisky. Both...

Ante up and RAISE! En guard and raise hell.

Andy, can be normal or extreme depending on the circumstance. He could be moral or ethical. But does he really need heroic qualities? Would it really help your audience identify with him, knowing that everyone wants to save the day. Sometimes it works, sometimes it won't. Seeing that scenario, why not ante up.

Why think of heroes when there are antiheroes or byronic heroes. Google search that! Why think in the lines of a protagonist against an antagonist when you can have an entire range of characters in the likes of deuteragonist and tritagonists. Wiki that. Before you lose that site forever. Please donate...

So Andy is a film director, but he has no cash on him. After making a few short films he's been lost for a while and the debts are piling up. Should he rob a bank, risk arrest and charge and be behind bars forever? Cliche! Should he have a cancer ridden lover to make it justified. Double cliche. I'd rather him stealing credit cards from family and friends alike, putting all and nothing on that film he keeps talking about; have him turn tyrannical and conflict with every individual there is on the set (because he's inwardly scared of success) including getting caught by those he stole from and getting burnt or worse ostracized until the film turns to be a stupendous journey and the reels and cans are burnt in a disastrous fire. But whatever he salvages still wins him an award with enough respect to have a chance again; alongside atonement. Could be the same film with a bigger budget, or a whole new dimension. I'd avoid stereotypes and caricatures. In my perspective, it is not only close to reality but beyond it and works evermore. The range of motivations and emotions alone keeps it compelling.

Do you ever sit on a chair and rock it back, even though you know with the weight there is a good chance the chair might tip back and chance you a nasty fall? Especially that very moment when it does happen and its hanging midway, nor forward nor back and you have your arms flailing, blood pounding and prepared for that fall! But suddenly you come back relieved. I like that feeling. I'd hold on to that. Hard. Hurts. Cruel. Fate. But. Return

Equilibrium!!!

Quote of the Day

Double living

Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.

Catherine Drinker Bowen

Pick Up Line

We should have a 3some,
You, me and the mirror,
Chances are you might be ignored.

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R A W

Stay put, more one liners coming right up. I'm just getting ready to write so just a few exercises. Review please, don't be a silent audience...

Creed

Swallow your pride,
Eat your shame,
Shit your ego out!

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Sorry, I had to write that. Just made sense to me for sometime now...

Coffee and Cigarettes

Driving on and making miles
No care nor no heed of these times
Even the needle has forgotten numero zero
for the auburn horizon, new worlds;
Staring at the many monuments and
the ever wandering citizens,
Burning cigarettes and coffee brewing
Sugared with the rays of the sun,
Meshed with the songs and the howls
Of them ever faithful prairie dogs,
Never like any other soul,
Each and all spitting against the wind,
Call me a gypsy or caste me bohemian,
For a man lives free only and if,
He lives far from his memories,
Wandering forever simply for his bereft love
In search forever and more,
For the very voice, the call of his soul.

Rust / Mire of my Dreams

Bit by bit, the years go by
Moments fade, each in its own tide,
I have known fate and tasted of its blade,
Rust against the blood on my tongue,
Walking on the thin spire of my dreams
My feet tread heavy, blistered and beat
In a single naked moment of insanity,
This world has reigned in my very spirit
And raked right through my soul,
For I know not happiness,
or misery even,
But bit through my heart,
And turned it to stone.
Living for the last, committed to die,
Where did it go? Where do I hide?