Inspiration and Fairy Tales

If you are a writer and want to be encouraged and inspired, I recommend you join a writers group. I really believe that I have grown a great deal over this past year as a writer. Plus, it is good to know that I’m not the only crazy person out there who breathes writing and never tires of discussing it as much as I do.
I’m really happy to be a part of this group’s writing project. Everyone’s involvement and creativity is so impressive. If you have read the other post you know that our anthology, Split, is based on dichotomies/opposites. It’s interesting to see how the other writers use this little bit of inspiration, put their unique spin on it, and develop their stories. I am contributing three stories to the book. The first one is part of the trichotomy body/soul/spirit.
When I was first faced with the word body, I panicked. But I thought about what a body is without the soul and spirit...a dead body (duh). That’s how I began my thought process. Next, I asked myself—and anybody else who would listen—Why would someone want to dig up a dead body? Then, I thought it would be fun to see how many body parts I could squeeze into the short story. I believe I am at 27.
After I finished the first draft of body, I fumbled around with a couple more different story ideas, trashing one story altogether, until I settled on another opposite combination: hot and cold. The hot story is a continuation of Body and the cold story was inspired by the Russian fairy tale, Morozko.


Once upon a time...


I had an evil stepmother and three evil stepsisters...
Wait, O.K. that’s not me. My life’s not exactly a fairy tale, although I have been married to my handsome prince for 22 years, but most my writing life does revolve around them.
For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed writing. But I never really sat down and tried to write a true story until I was in my early twenties. At that time, I began writing my first novel, STORMDROPS. Over the next ten years I worked infrequently on my book, and also wrote several short stories. I never finished the book to my satisfaction and have since put it down, but one of the short stories that I wrote during that time, PHONE CALLS AND DRAWFS, sparked nine more fairy tale inspired stories, fourteen poems, and a blog.

Okay, enough about me, let’s talk about my novel.
(I have this cartoon clipping somewhere)

My mom gave me the Steven King book, ON WRITING, for my 35th birthday. One of the things King suggests in his book is that writers should try to write a certain amount of words per day. I think he suggested 2,000 words, but I did like 1,000. And also to write about what you like to read.
I had my first draft/outline of my second novel, JACLYN’S GHOST, written in three months. After 3 ½ years, I have a complete novel that I’m really happy with and might have stopped with, if it wasn't for the Humble Fiction Cafe.

The group introduced me to NaNoWriMo – which basically has the same ideas as King. Last January I completed the 1st draft/outline of my third novel, Isabella’s Dark Night. I didn’t exactly follow their suggested rules, because I was already six chapters into it, but it did get me off my butt to finish it in a month. I haven't finished the editing, but it is there.
This November, I’m going to participate officially in the NaNoWriMo quest with several of the Humble Fiction Cafe members. I’ll be attempting to write my first fairy tale inspired novel. I'm really look forward to writing with the group.



Dorlana