April A-Z: Yes!

I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some blogs I've read recently that've made me go "yes" - either in agreement, or simple appreciation of the writing. Some I've discovered through the A-Z challenge, others are by people I follow on Twitter, or whose blogs I already followed.

Firstly, Rebecca Brown's "Little Notepad" is a fabulous showcase for her writing. It was on her blog that I first heard of the A-Z Challenge. It's hard to pick just one, so I'm going to link to a couple of her posts (and I also want to show you the different kinds of stuff she does!)
Her P post - Pier Pressure - was an excellent short story.
Her Wedding Fever post was a lively reminiscence piece about her own wedding, prompted (of course) by yesterday's Royal Wedding.

Lucy Coat's Blog, Scribble City Central, is one I've followed for a while. Last week, over a series of three posts, she treated us to a fantastic set of "Royal Wedding Revelations", which were her memories of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981. She was actually there (being a schoolfriend of Diana's), which impressed my 7yr old no end!

A blog which I have discovered and enjoyed through this challenge is Shannon Lawrence's "The Warrior Muse", in which she posts mostly writing-related material. Her Y post focused on her plans for and achievements (so far!) this year.

Another discovery for the challenge is Sarah Makela's blog. She's another writer, who's used the challenge to present an alphabet's worth of mythological and legendary beasts. I particularly enjoyed S is for Selkie.

Finally, I'm offering you a blog of beauty. Joanna Cannon's blog provides beautiful and touching writing, mostly inspired by her day job as a doctor. The piece I'm linking to, A Beautiful Game, moved me to tears (and this is not a common thing - be warned), as did "Elephants" a couple of months ago. She deals with 'big' stories - birth, death, loss - but in a very understated and truly beautiful way.

April A-Z: Xenophobia

Tough one today! When I plumped for 'xenophobia', I was thinking of exploring how traditional legends, particularly of human and near-human creatures like vampires, werewolves and so on can sometimes be seen as an expression of xenophobia via fear of 'the other'. I was thinking also of how these (and other) 'races' of creatures from fantasy novels - trolls, dwarves etc - have been used by Sir Terry Pratchett in some of his Discworld novels to represent human races and to therefore play out issues of racism and xenophobia. I am sure this device has been used in other books also, but Pratchett's is the example I am familiar with.

Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because -- what with trolls and dwarfs and so on -- speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.-- (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad)

It occurred to me in preparing for this post, though, the xenophobia is perhaps more of a problem in the modern world, as we recognise diversity more and more, and live in increasingly mixed communities. This is perhaps why traditional beliefs and folklore show less obvious strands of xenophobia than more recently-occurring urban legends. In many developed countries, beliefs emerge about immigrants from poorer areas, often including some or all of the following:

• they eat inappropriate animals (often pets)
• they are unable to cope with technology
• they refuse to learn the language or customs of the land they are in
• they are incapable of appreciating the gifts of their host country, e.g. they are housed in a comfortable house but live only in one room, or wreck the house
• they are unable to adopt manners seen as basic in their new country, such as eating with cutlery
• they have poor hygiene

This xenophobia is also seen in national and racial stereotypes played out in jokes, and the use of a particular race in urban legends demonstrating extreme stupidity or incompetence - such as the one where someone assumes "cruise control" in their vehicle means they don't have to steer*.

*Of course, legends such as this might also feature other muted groups like a woman, a homosexual, an old person, a teenager, a transgendered person or someone in a job stereotypically believed to indicate low intelligence like a fast food worker or model.

April A-Z: Walpurgisnacht

Walpurgisnacht bonfire 

The first time I heard of this festival was in reading Goethe's Faust. It seems to me to be a cross between May Day and Hallowe'en: it falls on the night of April 30th into May 1st and is when witches are 'abroad'. It's celebrated in various European countries including Germany, Finland and Sweden.

It's interesting (to me, at least) that in many places, this night is celebrated with a large bonfire, which also forms part of traditional Beltane (or May Day) celebrations. Walpurgisnacht bonfires seem to be about scaring away spirits and witches while the people celebrate, while the Beltane bonfires seem to be more a symbol of purity and of fertility. Cattle would be driven between two fires at Beltane to purify them, and newlyweds would jump over a bonfire to bless their union and make it fertile.

Another similarity is in the decoration of the house with greenery or fresh flowers. This is (or was) practised in some European Walpurgisnacht celebrations and is often part of Beltane practice. Of course, greenery is used in many pagan-originating festivals, as both these clearly are. It's also significant that the 'may', or hawthorn is usually blossoming at this time, and it seems natural that there is a sense of the world re-awakening with the spring. Clearly, such a feeling is manifest in the new-blossoming trees and hedgerows, so the use of such natural decorations isn't greatly surprising. In some parts of Sweden, it used to be common for the young people of the village to collect greenery to decorate the exteriors of all the village houses. In an interesting cross-over to another festival, the payment for this greenery-collection was eggs!

The big difference between these two festivals is the belief that the devil, and/or witches, and/or evil spirits wander the world on this night. This is part of the Walpurgisnacht tradition, but is not associated with Beltane. In the system that includes Beltane, this belief is clearly part of the festival of Samhain (Hallowe'en), Beltane's opposite (since they are six months apart, at opposite sides of the wheel of the year). In both cases, people traditionally dress up in scary costumes - possibly to confuse the real scary things into leaving them alone, or simply to celebrate the spookiness of the occasion.

Have you seen or taken part in any Walpurgisnacht celebrations?

April A-Z: Variation

This letter had me stumped for most of today. For folklore, I thought: Vampires, I've nothing to add; Valkyries - Sarah Makela (sorry about the lack of umlauts!) did a lovely job on those already today. So I thought about writing and came up with virtue (an old-fashioned idea still prevalent in some kids' writing) and violence (how much in ok in kids' books?). THEN my 7 yr old wandered in to tell me how proud she was of herself for reading the bits that are 'said funny' in Stunt Bunny: Showbiz Sensation (which she's loving generally). The character in question has an accent - they are "ze best in ze world", that kind of thing. And then I knew what I could write about: Variation.

In my day job teaching English Language at A Level, the topic of 'Variation' is basically accent and dialect. The students need to be able to linguistically describe differences between different varieties of English (e.g. Geordie, West Country or US versus UK Standard varieties). It's a lot to ask of teenagers who frequently need to learn where these places are as well as what might be typical. It's no good teaching a class what's typically 'northern' or 'southern' in English accents if they think Norwich must be 'up north' and fail to realise that London is classed as southern! Anyway, all that aside, it's one of my favourite parts of the course. It's often the point where students realise the classist issues that we Brits have with accent, particularly since there are usually parts of their own usage that they've never realised are non-standard. For example, when I first started teaching in Nuneaton, I made the mistake of using the verb 'run' to teach the difference between the present perfective and simple past, not realising that 'I have ran' would be perfectly acceptable to most of the class. Issues like this help them to see how 'unfair' it is to make judgements about people based on usage, but also how ingrained it is for us to do that.

Anyway, I wanted to also link this to writing. Clearly, my little one was thrilled at being able to read and pronounce a non-standard accent, and it really helped the characterisation for her. This is exactly what using non-standard varieties in fiction should do: enhance characterisation. It shouldn't (I think) be a gimmick. I appreciate dialect literature as an attempt to strongly locate a story in a particular place, or as a way of validating non-standard speech. I know only too well that non-standard varieties are used because we value them as part of our identity. I don't appreciate the character who speaks in awkwardly-produced 'bumpkin' dialect that doesn't ring true to any particular place, used as a shorthand for 'uneducated' or 'simple'.

I think if you want to produce a piece of dialect literature, that's a specific undertaking, and worthwhile to preserve or raise the profile of a particular variety. Of course, you'd better get that dialect absolutely right!

On the other hand, giving just one character 'an accent' (i.e. spelling words phonetically only for them) often fails to ring true, or separates them markedly from everyone else. Sometimes, there's a reason for this - and if you are doing this, and know why, then fair enough. But dialect usage is arguably at least as effective when lightly drawn, i.e. the odd dialect word features, and Standard English words are spelt as standard. Or, as in the "Stunt Bunny" example above, you focus on one particular non-standard pronunciation and render only that phonetically.

Otherwise, to take things to their logical (if absurd) extreme, you'd need a different way of spelling 'grass' down South than up North. Grarss versus grass perhaps?

April A-Z: Unfinished Projects

All writers have unfinished work knocking around; it's an occupational hazard. Maybe something bigger or flashier whispered itself in the twilight, or maybe a project was deemed a 'no-go-er' by an agent, an editor, a crit partner. Or perhaps those unfinished pieces are more accurately unstarted pieces: fragments of ideas, brief jottings that haven't (yet) had their turn.

It's possible for these scraps to contribute to an evil time suck for the unwary procrastinating writer. Hours can be wasted in agonising over precisely which projects deserve the attention and nurturing which will develop them fully.

In fact, there are those who never actually finish any projects. "Oh, yeah, I was writing that book about (insert half-thought-through idea here) but it wasn't really going anywhere, so I started working on (half-thought-through idea B) instead." If this pattern continues ad infinitem, with nothing ever finished, this is not a writer. Perhaps worse (certainly for my sanity!) are those with half an idea but "no time" to write: "I'm going to write a book in the holidays/when I retire/if I win the lottery".  Trust me, if you wanted to do it, you'd find the time. Many of us who do write are really quite busy (again, I ask you to take my word for it); many published writers have a 'day job' as well. And, incidentally, it's quite rude to downplay our commitment like that, not to mention oh-so-safe to never actually take the risk and try producing a book...

Anyway, I digress. My point was intended to be this: the existence of unfinished projects (or some version of an 'ideas queue')  is pretty much a given if you are writing. The trick is not to get too bogged down in guilt for the occasional abandonment, as long as there are also finished projects in the mix. If you're never seeing anything through, ask yourself why. Are the ideas not fully developed before you start? Are you attempting to write in the wrong genre (e.g. are you aiming for novels with ideas that suit short stories more)? Are you more attracted to the idea of 'being a writer' than the actual writing?

April A-Z: Taliesin

From TreeCarving.co.uk 

Just a quick thought today!

I have always found the story of Taliesin fascinating. I'm referring here to the all-knowing bard created by magic (as related in the Mabinogion), rather than the historical bard. People of legend are often more exciting than those of history, aren't they?

What I find interesting now is the part of the story where Ceridwen is pursuing Taliesin, and they're turning into different creatures to escape from or catch each other. It's a motif found elsewhere in British folklore - in ballads like "The Two Magicians" (Child ballad 44), folktales like the Grimms' Foundling-Bird (Aarne-Thompson type 313a). It is also used later in children's books such as T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone and Julia Donaldson's The Princess and the Wizard, although in the latter the Princess is allowed to transform in order to hide from the Wizard, while the Wizard doesn't transform and chase her - he just has to find her.

April A-Z: Succubus

The succubus is a female demon who visits men in the night and traps them in lurid dreams. In some versions of the myth, this is in order to gather semen, so that other demons (incubi) may use it to impregnate women, since demons are (obviously) sterile themselves. In other tellings, this temptation of men is an end in itself, or it may be a way of harvesting souls.

The succubus is a motif I've seen used in various ways. Sometimes the night time 'excitement' is enough to prevent a man from having normal relationships, or to destroy his existing relationship. Sometimes it's used as a kind of morality tale, leaving the man physically weak, due to his, er, energy being spent with the succubus. Clearly, succubi have been used as an excuse for wet dreams ('but the demon visited me ...'). On occasion, a man visited regularly by a succubus is being gradually killed.

Interestingly, there is a kabbalistic legend about Lilith (first wife of Adam) being a succubus who uses human men to reproduce (in some versions) or simply seeks to waste the seed of men. This legend, being so old, has diversified into different strands: Lilith may be a succubus and/or a vampire; she may seek to steal or kill children (especially boys); she consorts with demons/fallen angels; her offspring may be generic demons, succubi, djinns or other evil beings.

In searching for an image to accompany this post, I discovered an urban fantasy series featuring a succubus was Richelle Mead's first series. Book 1 is "Succubus Blues" - covers from two different US editions shown right. From her website:

Succubus (n) - An alluring, shape-shifting demon who seduces and pleasures mortal men.

Pathetic (adj.) - A succubus with great shoes and no social life. See: Georgina Kincaid.

April A-Z: Romanticism and Folklore

Today's topic may seem a bit contrived, but please do bear with me! I find Romanticism very interesting, but it's clearly too big a topic to tackle in a single blog post. However, having turned to folklore and the theory of storytelling for several of these 'A to Z challenge' posts, I thought I'd look at how the Romantic drive to celebrate the simple, the pastoral and the 'natural' leads to a resurgence of interest in folk and oral tradition.

Our current knowledge of fairy and folk tales owes much to the Grimms' collection undertaken in the nineteenth century. True, this was an attempt to catalogue and characterise a living oral culture which, naturally, changed it in the process, but without the Grimms' work, much of our current understanding of folk and fairy tale wouldn't exist.  Perrault, of course, had begun this work almost two centuries earlier, but his work was more focused on using the existing tales to moralise, while the Grimms' concerns seem to have been more about preservation. Later, this cataloguing drive would manifest in Propp's narrative theory of folk tale, which has resonance with Campbell's 'monomyth' theory discussed in yesterday's "Quest" post.

Similarly, our repertoire of folk songs is largely due to Child's work in the same century: a cataloguing exercise which describes 'types' and 'variants' and identifies many familiar tropes in the traditional folk songs of Britain.

Without interest in such 'original' and 'natural' forms blossoming in the Romantic period, the essentially analytical, Enlightenment-style undertakings would not have been possible. The Romantic interest in 'folk' art is also apparent in music, with peasant dances influencing Romantic composers such as Dvorak and Liszt, while the first attention to traditional story - which would eventually lead to the Grimms' massive project - can be traced back to Goethe and Schiller in the Sturm und Drang pre-Romantic period.

April A-Z: Quest

The quest is central to narrative. I nearly put 'most' narrative, or tried to qualify it with genre, but actually that's not true: good storytelling features the quest. We sometimes think of this as a fantasy trope (get the sword/ magic jewel/ amulet or defeat the wicked wizard/ giant/ faery queen), but it can be found in romance, crime, family saga, whatever.

Many writers on writing ask the following key questions:

• what does your main character want?
• who or what stands in their way?
• what do they need to do to achieve their goal?

Surely this is just another version of the quest (or hero's journey)?

There is a wealth of material available on the hero's journey/quest structure online and in books for writers, so I won't rehash it all here. The version I follow is greatly simplified from the concept's very academic origins, but it is a working version for the material I'm working on:

1. Hero's world is introduced
• This is often very brief in writing for kids and YA, but it is important to gain some sense of the MC in their normal setting. 
2. Call to adventure
• This is the MC's first opportunity to act, to take on the quest or battle ahead. At this point, it is an option. 
3. Hero ignores call
• This step allows us to see the MC as normal (we wouldn't take up the quest either, probably!) and vulnerable. Often this refusal is due to self-doubt; that 'but what can I do about it?' moment.
4. Hero crosses the threshold
• At this point, something happens to force the MC's hand. Now we need to believe that there is no other way; the MC has to set forth on the adventure. Something needs to be at stake that is too big a risk for the MC to ignore.
5. A mentor appears 
• This doesn't always happen. In a folktale, we'd meet a magical character of some sort with a gift for the hero. Sometimes the mentor doubles as a romantic interest.
6. Encounters with negative forces
• At this stage, we don't always encounter the 'big bad', but perhaps their underlings. This can be quite a long stage, with many setbacks.
7. Hero's self-doubt
• This part is crucial. There must be a point where the MC almost gives up, or even almost joins the dark forces. 
8. A sign
• This is sometimes about a talisman or amulet which magically helps the MC to win a battle. It may also be a message they somehow receive which reassures them they're on the right path.
9. Final battle
• This needs to be inevitable, and is usually the MC's first chance to fight the Big Bad head-on.
10. Return to normal world
• This is another stage which is often shorter in kids' and YA fiction. In classical myth, the return home could take up a large part of the story, often with further encounters and dangers. In some more recent kids' books, this part includes characters piecing everything together and finally understanding how their separate experiences make sense as a whole (or Dumbledore explaining everything to Harry Potter, of course). There must be a sense that the MC's quest has made a difference in their normal world, not just to themselves.

If this is new to you and you want to read further, I'd recommend:

Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (for a scholarly explanation of the 'monomyth' theory)

Christopher Vogler, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (for a discussion of how the monomyth concept can help writers)

James Scott Bell, [Write Great Fiction] Plot & Structure (for a more recent version giving many examples from books and films)

This blog series from Terell Mims explores each stage in a different post. His follow-up series on archetypes is well worth a read too.

April A-Z: Protection

OK, in case you're all spooked out by some of yesterday's omens, here are some things you can use to protect yourself from evil:

• crossed fingers
• touching wood (or knocking on wood outside the UK) 
• a horseshoe nailed outside your house (I believe pointing upwards, but some would say pointing down...)
• salt - just sprinkle it around your house, or in the doorways and windows
• hawthorn, holly or ivy planted around the home (there are many other protective plants and herbs too)
• an amulet such as a rabbit's foot, a four-leaved clover or lucky coin
• a witch's bottle: a glass or ceramic jar or bottle filled with various things, often including pins/needles and thread/string to trap evil and sometimes a drop of the owner's blood (or a sample of their urine) to make it their own