Bron Rauk-Mitchell's Blog: Bron Rauk-Mitchell - Journal, page 3

ChaBooCha Day 13 – An evil presence is waiting.

I do love when a story practically writes itself, and right now The Lone Gargoyle is proceeding along, nicely. I now know that the gargoyles are not originally from Earth, and I know a little more about the evil presence that has been threatening the gargoyles and humanity. Some details remain hidden from me — specifically behind an intergalatic portal, because where else does an evil presence lie-in-waiting — but that’s ok, I can be patient for a little longer.

It seems the gargoyle is very chatty now – showing me more of his story. But still he hasn’t shared his name or exact location yet; I guess he still has to protect his secret, and I haven’t earned his trust enough yet. And yes, I may have been correct when I said that this story may end up being more of a novella or even a series … but if I can at least introduce the gargoyle in the anthology, I’ll be happy.

It’s funny when some characters blurt out their story, after years of being tight-lipped. It feels, at times, like my characters have their own mind, and I’m just watching them carry on with their day. Oh, does that make me the nosey, gossipy neighbour? Or maybe I just couldn’t understand what the gargoyle was trying to say until now. Regardless of which it is, I’m glad that the silence has been broken, and that the story is shaping up.

ChaBooCha Day 12

Some days, you know in advance, will not be awesome writing days, but you’ve made a commitment to yourself to keep writing. On those days there are several things that you can do. I’ve mentioned some of them this month already, eg research and reading. Today I had an important appointment that I knew had the potential to wipe out the rest of my day, so I sat down with a pen and a notebook, and jotted down a series of points and questions related to The Lone Gargoyle. This way I was still working on the story and the challenge, but in a way that best suited my time and energies today.

No matter what you’ve been led to believe, writing isn’t just about writing a few thousand words per day, and if you are unwell, busy, etc you can get creative with your writing time. Of course, with anything, it’s easy to get caught up and forget to actually write, but these ideas are more for those days when you are stuck or unable to commit to writing. And asking yourself and the character questions is a great way to move the story along, identify some weak spots, allow the character to speak, and realise areas that need additional research – which is exactly what I achieved today.

This is also great for those bad mental health days. And talking to your characters can be a lot of fun

ChaBooCha Day 11 – the Gargoyle’s progress.

Today I jumped back over to The Lone Gargoyle, and the new ideas were flowing freely, some taking me in an unexpected direction, i.e. researching how Gargoyles reproduce. I now have a much clearer idea now of the evil that is facing the Gargoyles, though it’s still somewhat of a shadowy force or presence at this stage. A

It’s often frustrating to watch a story unfold, hitting walls and obstacles, but when the story flows, and the muses take things in that new direction, it’s a wonderful feeling. I enjoy seeing new characters emerge from the mist and hearing them speak for the first time; even if I’m not always prepared for their presence. When this character first came to me a few years ago, I was quite taken with him, but he clung to his story, and so I didn’t push it. So I’m glad that he’s sharing his story with me now.

I think this ChaBooCha is progressing much better than I could have hoped, and my anthology is shaping up well; overall I’m pleased with all the progress, even on the days where I don’t get many words down. I always say that any words down is better than no words down, and that’s certainly true for this month.

ChaBooCha Day 10 – Loki the Faerie

I’m not sure the story is working at this stage, but today I’ve been experimenting with introducing the Faerie Loki character, that I mentioned in yesterday’s update, into the Sunflower Cottage series. But I’m not sure how this faerie would work with the other faeries that flit in and out of Sunflower Cottage, though I’m sure that Sunny the faerie mouse would adore Loki. She’s mischievous, and there’s no other faeries like her in the neighbourhood, so she would be drawn to an unusual faerie like Loki. Loki would have amazing tales and games to share with Sunny. They could be the best of pals … but at this stage, it feels like I’m trying to force the character into the series, so I’ll continue to see where the story and the character takes me.

I love faeries, and I love writing about them, so I have a lot of ideas for stories that feature unusual faeries; both as a part of the Sunflower Cottage series, and as standalone tales, so no matter what I’ll be writing faerie Loki’s tale. I can already picture him and he’s cute, and incredibly mischievous, so I can’t wait to introduce him to my readers, sometime in the near future. But for the purposes of #ChaBooCha, I’ll try to see this story through to the conclusion of a first sloppy draft.

ChaBooCha Day 9 – some fun down the rabbit hole.

No, I wasn’t working on a Wonderland tale, but I was getting lost down the research rabbit hole. Today’s #ChaBooCha adventures saw me brushing up, again, on Norse mythology – specifically brushing up on mythology associated with one of my fav trickster deities, Loki. I do already have some projects involving Loki in the idea’s files, and will include him, somehow, in The Daughters of Artemis comic series, but those ones aren’t suitable for the faerie tale anthology.

However, earlier in the year I came up with an idea for an original faerie tale, featuring Loki as a faerie living or trapped at the bottom of someone’s garden. Loki’s abilities lend themselves well to a faerie tale, especially given that he is a shape shifter, and faeries are very tricky beings anyway. I could almost introduce Loki the Faerie into the world of Sunflower Cottage … I’ll see where the muses lead me.

Of course, today was one of those days where it was easy to get lost down the research rabbit hole, but it wasn’t a waste, and now I have a few more ideas for my cheeky little Loki faerie. And more material for my other Loki tales, too. Oh, it’d be wonderful to write an official Loki story for Marvel one day … it’s one of the things that I have on my *dream big* bucket list.

I have a few items on that bucket list … they’re the kind of items that you keep close to your chest, and whisper to the moon about; because the moon never judges and is wonderful at keeping secrets. Now, why didn’t I send that list up to the moon, as part of Writers on the Moon? Because I keep that listed tucked away in the far recesses of my mind Perhaps I could write them down, and set them as goals, rather than *big dreams*? But that’s a post for another day, I guess

ChaBooCha Day 8 or there’s more to writing than just getting the words down.

It wasn’t a great day for me today on the writing front as my depression and c-ptsd caused me a lot of grief, making it impossible to focus, and making it impossible to move forward. So, I chose to do another task for today’s #ChaBooCha task. Instead, I felt it was best for me to read some fearie tales to get some fresh ideas for new stories to retell, and I also wanted to refresh myself with the pertinent details for The Goose Girl.
There’s more to writing than just writing … and when dealing with fractured faerie tales, it’s always good to go back to the source to make sure that pertinent details aren’t missed. e.g., with The Goose Girl there’s a princess, her maid, a talking horse, a hanky with 3 drops of blood, and other small elements of magick that I want to weave into the tale. There are other elements that could be included, and pieces that I definitely want to drop too. So, re-reading the tale was the best use of my #ChaBooCh time today.

It wasn’t time wasted either. It’s easy to overlook the other elements that are essential to writing. Yes, it can be used to procrastinate, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t vital to telling a good story. And at the end that’s what we are doing, and that’s especially what I’m doing this month. So, while it’s not much of an update … what I did today still counts towards the magick of making a story happen.

And if you have any suggestions of faerie tales for me to re-tell, please drop them in the comments below.

ChaBooCha Day 7: Gargoyles, and pigs, and ravens, oh my!

I put aside The Huntsman and the Hart today, to work on some of the other stories and ideas for the anthology. And I made a bit of a breakthrough on something, that I’ll share later, when I have the idea fully formed.

In 2016 I came up with several ideas for stories to submit to Teapot Tales, Volume 4. Some of the ideas were filed away for another day, as I couldn’t use all of the stories. Some were completed and submitted. And there were those that weren’t finished, for various reasons.

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been working some of those this week, and I’m happy with the progress I’m making. So, I put aside those stories and went digging around in the files for more treasures, and started work on Goldilocks and the 3 Pigs, The Lone Gargoyle, and The Raven and the Wolf.

Goldilocks and the 3 Pigs was only ever just a title and a rough idea; it was not a story that I had started. I had a rough idea of a humorous mash-up between the stories of Goldilocks and The 3 Little Pigs. I still don’t have a clear idea yet of where the story will go but I brainstormed some ideas and I’m sure I’ll have fun writing this one – revelling in being nonsensical.

The Lone Gargoyle was one that I started and put aside once I realised that it wouldn’t fit in the word limit for Teapot Tales, Volume 4. I love gargoyles; the way they look, the history, and their lore. And I was a fan of the Gargoyles cartoon, back in the day. It’s possible that this story, too, will not fit the anthology, and/or may eventually become its own series. But for the purposes of #ChaBooCha, I’m going to attempt completing a sloppy draft this month.

And that brings me to The Raven and The Wolf; I love Ravens – well corvids in general, and I love wolves … so when I saw a meme doing the rounds of a raven and a wolf, I knew I had to write a story featuring both. For Teapot Tales, Volume 4 it was never more than just a few random ideas jotted down, and so tonight I started reading up on the symbiotic relationship of wolves and ravens, hoping to spark some ideas. It makes for interesting reading, and a story is beginning to shape itself.

I’m determined to shrink as many of the drafts folders as I can … and this first week has been a positive step towards that goal.

ChaBooCha Day 6

Much of today’s writing time was devoted to some editing that I’m doing for someone else, but I did get a little time to make some progress with the anthology today. I already knew when I committed to #ChaBooCha that I wouldn’t necessarily get a lot of time each day to spend on the challenge, so any progress is simply fine with me. The purpose of the challenge is to get a draft of a chapter book completed; for me I have some of the chapters already written prior to the start of March, and my purpose is to get as many sloppy drafts as possible of new tales written. Whether it’s one or fifteen, I’ll be happy.

A few years ago, I started to write a retelling of The Goose Girl, for Teapot Tales Volume 3. I ended up not completing this one as the story needed more space than a flash fiction story permitted (am I sensing a repeating theme here?) and because I submitted 6 tales for that volume anyway (what do you know – sometimes I complete what I set out with writing these stories). So, I dove into The Goose Girl today … I didn’t get many words down, but I did get some of the points down that I wanted to cover in the story. My version of the Goose Girl will look closer at the abuse that people can suffer at the hands of their friends. I don’t have a clear ending in mind, even after all of these years, but now I have enough space to work though it so I’m confident that I’ll find the ending sooner rather than later.

I’m also making more progress with The Huntsman and the Hart, and I’ve been able to include some details that I had to scrap when I was trying to write this as a flash fiction tale. I’m still aiming to write this as a short story but prepared to accept that it may end up as a novella. It’s just a great feeling to have the creative juices flowing with these particular faerie tales.

So why the daily blog posts even when there isn’t much to record? Well, I’m getting back into the habit of blogging regularly, and because it helps to keep me on track with my progress. And it may help others that are thinking of doing the challenge themselves. And above all, because I love talking about writing, faeries tales, and the writing process.

ChaBooCha Day 5

Today wasn’t a big day for writing, but even so I was able to make some progress with The Huntsman and the Hart. I haven’t finished the sloppy draft at this stage, and I don’t expect to for a couple of days, but I’m happy with the direction that it’s going, now that I’ve given myself permission to make it larger. At this stage I really can’t see it fitting in this anthology either, but that’s a bridge to cross later.

One of the main reasons that stories such as The Huntsman and the Hart, Yaya and the 3 Bears, and my Hansel and Gretel story have remained unfinished for so long, is because I tend to obsess over the small things and then can’t move forward with the story. So, this time I’m adamant that the details will be sorted out later – for now all that is important is to complete some drafts for ChaBooCha and take it further after that. And so far, that’s working, but then again, it’s only day 5, so maybe no celebrations yet.

With this retelling, originally, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to include the dwarves as any more than background figures, but as I’m now not limited to 1200 words or so, I may be able to include them in a more prominent role; otherwise, they’ll still just appear as background characters at a royal feast. I’m interested to see how this unfolds.

As with other tales, my drafts have the story going off in different directions, and I need to try to knit some of those drafts together … sometimes tales sit there unfinished in the drafts files because I just can’t choose which idea I want to follow through with; although, I’ve been talking for years about writing some Choose Your Own Adventure-type stories for adults … so I guess I could solve that dilemma by writing these as an interactive book. But again, that’s an idea for me to work out after #ChaBooCha.

ChaBooCha – Day 4. The Huntsman and the Hart.

I started to write The Huntsman and the Hart in 2016, for Teapot Tales Vol 4, but while I love the challenge of writing a flash fiction story some stories won’t be confined, and that was the case with The Huntsman and the Hart. This is a retelling of Snow White. The title is a play on words … as a Hart is a red male stag, over 5 years of age, and it is a deer’s heart that the Huntsman offers up to the Wicked Queen. I pictured a great white mystical stag, that has a strong bond with the Huntsman, and during the course of the tale the Huntsman is forced to sacrifice this beautiful creature. Then a simple question came to me: “What if the Queen had only ordered the murder of Snow White, out of genuine fear for her life?” And from there the story grew. I spent a lot of time looking at poisons, and then with a friend, comparing deer hearts to human hearts and looking at how they appear when sliced etc. That led me down an interesting rabbit hole.

The story didn’t want to be contained to about 1200 words, and so put it aside for a while, although I returned to it several times over the years. I visualise this one as a movie, maybe not for the younger kids but a dark, gritty film. It’s definitely a tale that I need to finish. So, when I was planning the stories for the anthology, I wanted to include The Huntsman and the Hart. Except after going back to the start today, and writing out a series of questions, to help me continue in the right direction, I realised that this may be more suited for a Novella.

So, the aim for now is to finally finish the sloppy draft, and then make up my mind about short story vs novella once ChaBooCha is over’ otherwise I’ll just end up stalling on this again. And on that note, I’m doing something similar with My Hansel and Gretel retelling. I was originally writing that in 2019 to submit to a horror anthology (with a tree theme). But the story couldn’t be contained even in the larger word allowance, so it stalled for far too long. After looking at it again today for ChaBooCha, I feel it’ll be more suited to a novella – which will mean I can explore some of the darker themes in more depth. So overall it’s not great progress for ChaBooCha, but at the same time it kinda is.