Inspiration Can Be Weird

A couple of days ago, I posted about the short story I’d recently published that had been held up (for more than a decade!) because I meant to turn it into a novel.

Well, the truth is that I had written that novel–years ago. But that first version somehow, without my intending it, turned out to be a middle grade novel. I have absolutely nothing against middle grade novels. I just know that trying to market them is a nightmare. And, since marketing is already the aspect of writing that I do least well (to put it mildly), I decided that was not something I wanted to publish.

Then I decided I could take that story and write it as epic fantasy, but that wasn’t working out. Which is about the time I started having trouble writing at all. Well, after that last post, it suddenly struck me WHY that last attempt to rewrite Mage Storm had failed. I was doing it trying just to expand that story, not really add more story.

Thing is, I have more story. I’d come up with ideas for three sequels. And, you know what, I could just combine the first sequel into that original story to make a bigger story. And, possibly do the same with the other two sequel ideas. Two books instead of four, but, you know, potentially at least actual finished books at some point.

I’m not going to abandon my Arthurian story, but I will start reading through that earlier version of Mage Storm and see what the possibilities are.

Plus, I’ve started doing some world building on that other idea I mentioned in my Goals post. It’s inspired by another bit of British history, but this time I definitely don’t want to go down the research rabbit holes I’ve explored for the Arthur story, so I need to create a sufficiently different world for it.

Multi-tasking.

(Heh! I’ve already posted here more than I did all of last year.)

New Story

So, I did accomplish one thing around New Year’s. I published another story. It’s not exactly a new story. It’s one I wrote several years ago. In fact, it earned an Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future in 2011, so it’s arguably the best short story I’ve ever written. (I’ve always been more comfortable at novel-length.) But I’d never published it, partly, I think, because I’ve always intended to turn the idea into a novel. I still do . . . someday. But the last attempt at that foundered. It just needs more time to develop. And that’s no reason not to put the short story out there.

So, here it is. “Infected By Magic”.

2023 Goals Outcome and 2024 Goals

Wow. I only set myself two goals last year, neither of them had to do with writing. And I managed to fail at both of them, anyway.

I said I would do better about sweets. Well, right now really isn’t the time to talk about that. I was given far too many for the holidays. But I wasn’t doing as well as I should have been earlier in the year, either.

And I said I’d hold myself accountable with monthly posts. Yeah, that didn’t work out either.

Okay, well, it’s a new year. Last one, especially the last couple of months, did not go according to any plan I made. Frankly, I’m a little afraid to try planning anything, so many of the plans I did have blew up in my face recently.

Still . . . . I have made some progress on my Arthurian story. Not as much as I should have, but slow is better than none at all. If I can just stop finding new research rabbit holes to fall down, maybe I can get somewhere. We’ll see.

And, I have another story idea on the back burner. I real one, not the fluffy little thing I was playing with last year. Though, who knows, some other year that fluffy story may meet up with another idea that will give it enough substance to be worthwhile. This other idea already has that, what it really needs is the world building to suit the story, and that hasn’t come to me yet.

At this point, I make no promises on either, other than I will keep trying. Sometime, hopefully, the log jam will break and words will start to flow again.

Here’s hoping.

Last Year’s Goals Outcome and Next Year’s Goals

Well, that was an epic fail. The truth is, I’ve been struggling with creativity for a couple of years now. And I don’t know the answer–yet. But I will keep trying.

Part, at least, of my more recent struggles has been due to my aging computer. Sometimes, it’s just too s-l-o-w. I’ll type a sentence and only the first three words–or so–will actually appear on the screen. It’s impossible to actually write a book that way. But, I’ve got a new laptop, now. So, once I get fully comfortable with that, I may be able to make more progress. Let’s hope. Then I’ll try some ideas to try to get this old desktop to work better. I do prefer the ergonomic keyboard and larger screen–but those things can be plugged into the laptop, if I choose to do that.

I did start playing around with a new story, along with trying to make some progress on my Arthurian series. The new one is kind of fluffy–an experiment in subverting a trope. It might not actually ever be published, but, if I can at least establish a habit of writing on it, the time will have been well worth it.

I’ve been a bit better about my health resolutions, making healthy changes to my diet. But the last few months–and especially the last couple of weeks–I’ve been slacking off and allowing myself more treats. I’m going to have to put a stop to that.

So, this is a twofer post. Both how badly I did on last year’s goals and at least a little bit of what I hope to improve on next year.

2022 Goals

Okay, so it’s time to set some goals for the year ahead.

As far as writing goes, I’m going to try the same one I failed at last year. Dedicate time every day to writing, even if, at first, all I’m doing is staring at a blinking cursor. Since I did fail at it last year (and yesterday, but . . . I claim a holiday exception for that one) I’m dialing it back a bit. Let’s start with fifteen minutes and gradually build up. More is, of course, just fine–but it doesn’t mean I don’t owe the same fifteen minutes the next day.

For diet and health, well, the last couple of weeks excepted (there’s that holiday exception again), what I’ve done so far has worked fairly well. For diet, my plan has been and will continue to be to make small changes that I can turn into habits. Once those habits are established, I can then make a few more small changes. My first targets are:

• Changing from 2% milk to 1%. This change was suggested by a dietician.

• Changing my afternoon snack to something healthier. Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out what this will be. It may take a little trial and error.

• Cutting back on hard candies with the goal of eliminating them altogether.

I generally get plenty of exercise walking, but down the road I may want to look into adding something else to the mix. I need to give that some thought.

And, one more. Since annual accountability failed last year. I’m going to report on progress monthly this year. We’ll see.

Last Year’s Goals

Wow, it’s been pretty quiet around here, lately, hasn’t it? Mostly, I haven’t had a lot to say, unfortunately. Nevertheless, that’s no reason to skip accountability. So . . . how did I do with my goals for last year?

My first and main goal was to re-establish some sort of regular writing habit, even just half an hour to start–everyday. No diversions allowed. Half an hour where I have to either write or stare at a blinking cursor. No skipping over to play a game of solitaire. No checking the internet–unless it’s for legit research. Then, gradually increase that time to a whole hour, and so on.

It was a good plan. And an epic fail. I did try to use NaNoWriMo to re-establish the habit, with mixed success. Still, I think I may make this the goal again for next year. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. That’s for next week’s post.

My second goal was to continue improving my diet and general fitness.

I believe I’ve made some progress there, at least.

My third goal was to read more widely. Try new authors and subjects. And to continue learning new things.

Again, at least some success, though perhaps less than I hoped.

And have faith that the world will settle into a new normal, probably not exactly the same as before. But less fraught. More comfortable. And next year’s holiday season will be different.

Well, apart from having faith, this one was really out of my control. And it’s clearly still a work in progress, both for me and the world in general. May next year see a more significant change. We all need it.

Rebuilding Good Habits

Wow! It’s been awhile since I last posted. Well, things do get busy around the start of the school year, but that’s no excuse. It’s one of the habits I’ve allowed myself to slip out of. And that’s the problem.

A couple of years ago, after I published BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM, I got stuck on what was supposed to be my next project. I called it writer’s block. Maybe it was. I suspect that my gut instinct told me that there was something wrong with the story or the way I was approaching it. And, so I didn’t write for a while.

And so, I lost the good habit of writing just about every day and replaced it with other–much less productive–habits, like mindless computer games.

And that’s why I haven’t been making much progress on my current project. I’ve tried several things to get back on track. But I’ve finally come to the conclusion that nothing is going to work but just doing it. So, while I’ve never done NaNoWriMo (NAtional NOvel WRiting MOnth)–and I’m not officially going to do it, now, either. I’m not going to try for 50,000 words (which is what it takes to “win” NaNoWriMo). But I am going to force myself to write every day. Even if it’s just a paragraph or two. Even if it’s not very good, because I can always edit it later, but not if I don’t write it first.

Start rebuilding that habit. It’s the only path forward that I can see.

I may try a couple of other things, too. But . . . we’ll see. First I have to replace this keyboard, because a couple of keys stopped working a few days ago. One of them is the question mark. And that just is not going to make things any easier.

On the subject of restarting good habits, I will also try to make regular blog posts about my progress.

How Do Magic Users Acquire Magic in This Story?

This may not be applicable if everyone has magic. Then again . . . .

Is it something they’re born with? If so, is it strictly hereditary or is something else at play? For example, in J. K. Rowlings’s Harry Potter series, magical families seem to pretty reliably produce offspring with magic. But muggle-born witches and wizards, like Hermione or Harry’s mother, Lily, aren’t uncommon either.

Or, is magic something invested by some ritual or acquired or awakened in some other way? If so, is there a cost to gaining magical abilities? In Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, magic users must “Snap” to awaken their latent magic. This requires an emotional or physical trauma, often a near-death experience. While, some of the nobles in Mistborn are ruthless enough to submit their children to a severe beating to try to make them “Snap”, even then, not everyone will. And, of course, the nobility have no monopoly on trauma; the farmer trampled by his own oxen or the convict beaten by the prison guards may “Snap” when a noble youth does not.

However, if the process needed to awaken the magic can be controlled—well, then you have the possibility of one group, the elites, monopolizing the process and excluding everyone else. And the question of what those others might do to create their own ritual so they could get magic of their own and use it against their overlords.

In my Arthurian story, there won’t be many humans who can do actual magic. Those few will have a natural gift, but . . . I don’t think I’m going to be able to—or want to—ignore those two springs at the base of Glastonbury Tor: the Red Spring (now called the Chalice Well) and the White Spring. And that tantalizing (possibly) maze-like path up to the tor. Yeah, there’s going to have to be some sort of initiation to improve access to natural magic.

Who Can Do Magic in This Story?

Some examples might be helpful here.

• In Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, everyone has one magical talent. In fact, if you don’t demonstrate a magical talent by a certain age, you’re exiled to Mundania.
• Likewise, in Patricia Wrede’s Frontier Magic series, everyone learns at least basic magic in school.
• But, in the Harry Potter series, only a fraction of the population is able to become a witch or a wizard.
• In Lindsay Buroker’s Dragon’s Blood and Heritage of Power series, the only ones who can perform magic are descended from dragons.

If everyone can do magic, then there’s not likely to be much in the way of a torches-and-pitchforks, burn-them-at-the-stake response to magic users. Though, there still may be some distrust of the powerful magicians.

But, if it’s limited to a few . . . well, that raises some other questions. Is it essential for those who use magic to hide it from their non-magical neighbors, as in Harry Potter? What happens if the muggles find out about them?

Or are magicians accepted as useful members of society as in Patricia Wrede’s and Elizabeth Stevermer’s Cecilia and Kate novels? If so, are the magic users automatically part of the elite? Or are ordinary folk magic users, too?

Or do the magic users use their abilities to make themselves the rulers of the non-magical population? And, if so, what’s the reaction to that? And how much (if at all) do the non-magic users resent that?

Do the religious institutions employ/conscript magic users? How do they use them? And how do they feel about magic users who aren’t under their control?

Or, as with the Lakewalkers in Lois McMaster Bujold’s Sharing Knife series, do the magic users feel a responsibility to spend their lives fighting the things that regular people can’t fight?

Or, of course, any combination of the above.

In the Arthurian story I’m working on, there may still be a fair number of people keeping alive the knowledge of herb lore and methods of divination, but those with actual magic will be few. Between the antipathy of the Romans and the Christian church, they will be isolated and at least somewhat secret. I have yet to work out exactly how they’ll defend their space, but I suspect part of it will depend on rumors and tales of the danger of breaching its boundaries. Fortunately, some such stories did actually circulate about the high ground around Glastonbury Tor, which may have been considered a boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead—ant therefore dangerous—at one time.

Creating Magic Systems

I’ve reached a point in my Arthurian story where I’m going to have to start writing something about the (very limited) human magic systems. Merlin’s magic is based on draconic abilities and I can do anything I please with that. But any purely human magic systems in fifth-century Britain would be based—at least somewhat—on the original Druidic practices. Somewhat, because the Romans appear, uncharacteristically, to have done their best to squelch the Druids. (The Romans were usually fairly lenient toward local religious customs.) And, of course, because Christianity would have come to Britain sometime in the fourth century and that would have had some effect on how—and by who—the ancient practices were carried on.

So, I have tried to do some research on the Druids. Unfortunately, the only really reliable answer I’ve been able to arrive at is: Nobody knows. The bare handful of ancient writings by Greeks or Romans contemporary with the Druids barely say anything about their practices. And most of those are phrased by comparison, always unfavorably, to Greek or Roman practices, which actually says more about the attitudes of the writers than about the Druids themselves. Later writers appear to have made up a lot of what they say they know.

About the only thing that seems reasonably certain is that the Druids did have some methods of divination and might have also had some knowledge of healing and herbs.

So, it looks like I’m going to have to make up whatever magic system I use for the few humans who will have the ability. And, in this case, try to make it fit into a fifth-century context. Fortunately, I intend for any real magic (as opposed to herb lore, for example) to be fairly rare and somewhat limited.

Nevertheless, I thought now might be a good time to go into some of the questions I might ask myself in developing a magic system for one of my stories. These questions don’t always need to be answered in the story, but I may need to know the answers, even if my characters don’t. Also, some of the answers can be fodder for more conflict or obstacles for my story.

1. Who can do magic?
2. How do they acquire magic?
3. Where does the magic come from?
4. What is needed to perform magic?
5. What can magic do?
6. Are magic users organized in some way? How?