Writer’s Inspiration: Birds of Prey

Birds are often the inspiration behind much of my writings. Birds of Prey are great for striking horror into the hearts of man.

Blackbird (Esmerald Muddsburg) is of course written with birds in mind. The Veurox, in his case. The Veurox of Black African Eagle is an awe inspiring bird, cruel and merciless, it is the species of eagle known for attacking and carrying away small children, once one was caught on camera, attacking and lifting off the ground one of National Geographic ’s research writer’s and her photographer. These birds are noted for their cruelty even to their young…while they may hatch out 3 or 4 eggs, only the largest and strongest chick well survive to adulthood, eating the smaller ones in order to survive. Yet in spite of their fierceness, their cruelty, their utter merciless modes of hunting, the Veurox is an amazingly beautiful bird. Blackest jewels for feathers, gleaming like sequins in the sunlight, glint black eyes, tremendous gunmetal black talons, and the ability to soar over the highest mountains of Africa, they are an inspiring bird to write about. To write about Blackbird, the villainous morphic Phooka, without writing about the Veurox would be impossible, for they are one.

Spring…

Today it is Spring, well Spring came a while ago, but we didn’t feel it or see it before today.

How do I know it is Spring? Easy. Let me count the ways for you:

There were 4 robins on the lawn today.

The lilac bushes have tiny buds on them and thier boughs are filled with Chickadees and Titmouse.

A pair of Downey Woodpeckers and several Nuthatches are bounceing up and down the trees.

Most of the ice in the brook is gone.

Snowdrops, crocuses, and Daffolis are peeking up through the dry brown leaves.

The warm breeze of salt air is coming in off the ocean, filling the air with the sweet sent of seaweed.

The bantams are starting to lose their warm winter down, and the Silver Penciled and Silver Birchin breeds are changeing from white to grey.

The dirt are the rich scent of freshness just waiting to be tilled.

Mayflies are swiming in the brook, and waterskippers dance their dainty ballets across the top.

…there is a rainbow trout hiding under the bridge…

??

in the more than 300 year history our family has had with this brook, never before has a fish been in it. Where he came from and how he got there I do not know. Why he is staying or how long he plans to stay, I know not either. But he is welcomed to stay for as long as the water is running. One can never have too many animals in their yard, what with the hundreds here all ready, what’s one more?

And so I go on, happy to rejoice at Spring’s arrival.

And so it goes today in the life of EelKat.

Writing Exercise #3

I’m in a Spring mood today. What with this being the first warm day we’ve had in who knows how long, and than building the Spring skin for the board today. So, I’m gonna continue on with my Spring theme and use it for this weeks exercise.

Today, after work, or maybe before, go outside and take a walk. Take a mental journey through Spring. Nothing fancy, it could be just a walk to your mailbox, or through a park. If you live near a thing of nature (beach, pond, forest, etc.) you could walk there. Or just a simple walk around the outskirts of your home. Whatever.

Point is, go outside, and walk and notice ways in which Spring has announced its arrival. . For a few minutes today, let go of the busy hectic ness of life and just breathe in the world around you. (If you have kids, take them with you.)

While you are walking notice things around you. Notice the sights & sounds. What tells you that Spring has arrived? Is it the warm breeze you feel on your face? The bird you hear singing in the nearby tree? The tiny buds on the dry brown twigs of bushes lining the sidewalk? The flower you see by your neighbor’s walkway? The smell of the freshly tilled earth of the cornfield? The water skippers dancing across the brook now freed from it’s ice bound holds?

When you are done with your walk (& mental journey) though Spring. Write down your thoughts and feelings about Spring. Think about how the things you saw and heard while you were walking. How did they make you feel? How does the coming of Spring affect you? (If you took your children with you, did they notice and point out things you never would have seen on your own? How did that make you feel?) What thoughts and memories does Spring’s arrival bring for you? Write down the things you saw. The things you heard. Describe how you felt as you heard/smelt/touched/saw certain things on your walk.

After you have finished writing this, go back and look at it. How could you use this in a story? Think about ways to use it in different genres. Could you make a romantic love scene for a romance novel? How about a peaceful scene from a horror story, to relax your reader, just before springing a shocking fright on them? Or what if it was an alien’s first view of the Earth in a science fiction book? Try rewriting it to fit a few genres of your choice.

How about this? Go back yet again, look at your original writing, can you see a way to build an entire story based on your thoughts of Spring? What kind of a story could you write? How about a non-fiction about something you saw on your walk. Or even write and slice of life non-fiction of the walk itself.

Here’s another direction you could take your essay on Spring: Children’s stories. What kind of children’s stories could your essay inspire you to write? A picture book maybe about a daddy and daughter walking their dog on a fresh Spring day? How about a fantasy/folk tale about faeries melting the ice off of trees and chasing away Jack Frost and the Snow King?

You see from one little walk on a clear Spring day, you can come up with endless possibilities. Start with an essay about things you saw and felt on your walk, than see how many stories you can make based on that one quick essay.

I hope this’ll help you stretch some writing cells.

~~EK

Writer’s Inspiration: Old Houses in Maine

Big old houses, painted ladies, towering Victorians, sea side bungalows…I love in a Utopia for anyone who like me is inspired by old houses. Old Orchard Beach is a tiny Victorian seaside township, nieghbored by Saco’s historic row of Painted Ladies, just 40 minutes from Greater Portland and it sea captains mansions, and 4 hours from Lewistion/Augusta/Bangor and it’s giant stone anf gothic palace like mansions. The houses in Southern Maine were built from the late 1600’s-the late 1800’s and still stand today strong and proud…a many rumored to be haunted. Maine and it’s acient houses is a horror writer’s haven.

Writing Exercise #3

You are a millionaire…you will never run out of money as long as you live…you have no need for anything, everything has been provided for, and well be for the rest of your life.

So now what? What do you do with your money? Store it up in mounds? Spend it on everything you see? Give it away to charity? Take a world tour? A trip to the moon?

How do you decide what to do with it? Write it down.

Look at what you wrote. How can you turn this into a story?

Like Apples & Oranges???

York county, Maine, winter 2006, prices vary from .50c a piece to $1.50 each, depending on type.How much do oranges cost where you are?

I know there’s alot of hype about gas prices right now, and I keep seeing threads here to talk about it, but has anyone noticed the other prices?

Two years ago milk was $1.97 a gal…yesterday $4.34…I’d say milk prices are going up faster than gas

oranges: 2 years ago 10 for a $1…yesterday $1.50 each

crack corn: 2 years ago $5 per 100lb bag…yesterday $8.37 per 50lb bag

eggs: 2 years ago .99c a dozen, yesterday $3.97 for 6

frankly, speaking as the head shopper of a family of 5 on an income of $20,000 a year, I think gas prices are the least of our worries…you can always walk, but what are you going to eat?

Writing Exercise #2

How do you feel right now, this very minute? Do you know? If someone asked you that right now, what would you say to them?

Would you say something like…”Oh I’m fine”…”I’m doing great!”…or…”I’m so depressed”…etc?

Okay, so the person who asked is probly satisfied with an answer like that, but will your readers accept that kind of an answer from your stories main character? I think not. They want to know everything they can about their hero, they want to know what he knows, feel what he feels, cry when he cries, laugh when he laughs, they want to be a part of the story, they want to know what it feels like to be this person. To accomplish that you will need alot more than a simple…”I’m feeling fine”.

Pick a character, one of your own, a fan fic one, or even you, this need not be fiction, non-fiction is fine. Take your character, and describe how he/she is feeling right now, right this very instant.

Think about what is going through his mind right now.
Why does he feel this emotion?
What has happened to cause it?
How does this emotion feel mentally?
How does it feel physically?
Does it effect the way he sees, feels, and hears things in the room around him?
Do the colors in the room make him feel happier or depressed?
What time of day is it? What time of year? How do these factors affect his mood?

See if you can fill up more than one page, doing nothing but describing this emtional state of mind in which your character now finds himself in.

Writing Exercise #1

Write a scene (1-3 pages) in which the main character is pondering the following question:

“Is my present course in life taken me to where I want to be five years from now?”

Points to consider: Why is he/she asking this question? Is your character unhappy with his/her present state? Has there been a major event in his/her life that has trigered this question? Does he/she plan ways to change the present life course or become depressed and do nothing? Is this a one person monologue or are there other characters present?

If you wish, you may continue beyound the main character pondering the qestion, and flesh out an entire story from it, telling what led to the question being asked, showing how he/she delt with the question, and finally ending five years from now, showing the reader the result of your character’s efferts.

Anybody been to Hell…?

Anybody been to Hell, Michigan?

I haven’t but I’ve been to  Purgatory, Maine and Bull Shit Corner, Maine, just went to both yesterday.

Know of any other places with names like this? Let me know.

As a writer I look at these names and think… ah-huh! story ideas just begging to be written.

Today we visited Stephen King!

Well, almost… we went to Bangor to see his house… here it is:(Picture of Stephen King’s house in Bangor, ME, was taken by Wendy C. Allen on March 10, 2006)