Dragons and Portents
Happy New Year dear readers, I wish you a year of joy, adventure and creativity for 2024!
I am really positive going into this year and just know it is full of exciting new adventures and of big things for the wee writing bureau. It is the the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac and, as those of you who have followed my blog will know, I have a real affinity with dragons. Not only do they (in my not very humble opinion) enhance any myth, legend or story they grace but they represent power, honour, luck, talent and success. A most auspicious portent!
Having taken some proper time to rest over the holidays I have found it easier to get back into my creative flow. Space to daydream and start to build the world in which my stories can happen. Mostly this has been scribbling down ideas in little bursts as they come to me and making list of locations I want to visit and explore. The landscapes, oceans and society have their roots in real places but without the constraints and rules of this world anything is possible.
I have been asking myself the two big questions ‘what if…?’ and ‘I wonder…?’. These are dangerous questions. I am sure that at the end of the world there will be a person, slightly singed around the edges, standing bewildered in the wreckage. They will no doubt be protesting innocently that they “only wondered what would happen if I pressed that button”. They are also questions that open up my fictional world to the characters who will inhabit it and the challenges they will face. It is exciting! There will come a point where I need to start to organise these ideas so that I can understand this world and how it operates to bring it life for the characters. That, however, is a problem for future me to deal with because right now I am having fun playing with ideas.
In conversation this week I was asked how I get inspiration for the stories I want to tell. There are lots of answers to that. Sometimes it is things I have read or seen, other times it comes prompts from other people. It can also be a question I want to reflect on or a particular style or technique I want to try. It is something I have fun doing. I would encourage anybody thinking about writing to let go of the memories around creative writing at school and just be curious.
In that vein and if you are so inclined I offer up two questions for you. Why not try writing three sentences in response to these and see what happens?
Following a lightening strike in your garden you find a mysterious egg. Being a curious person you bring the egg inside and leave it in the kitchen. What happens when it hatches?
A young woman is woken from sleep by a noise so loud she can feel the vibration. Alarmed, she rushes to the window. What happens next?
I would love to read your responses so come and find me on Instagram @wee_writing_bureau or email me at weewrtitingbureau@gmail.com
