progress of a kind

I have broken ye tedious writer's block by finishing a new thing of merely 1,000 words, "Your Gift of Alchemy."  Looking at that title now, I have a vague feeling that I've used it before.  S. T. Joshi and David Schultz once chided me for beginning too many of my tales with "The"--and so I have, over these past few years, tried not to do so.  Thus, instead of "The Inhabitants of Wraithwood," the "The" is missing.  In my new chapbook, instead of "The Black Winged Ones," I have "These Black Winged Ones."  Now S. T. has said that I am overdoing avoiding "The" in my titles.  Some people are never satisfy'd.  When the new story is reprinted in my next volume from Centipede Press, its title will be "The Black Winged Ones."

The photo is me at one of my favourite burying grounds, St. John's Churchyard in Providence, a place haunted by Poe and Lovecraft when they lived.  I held a picnic there last year, on ye first day of NecronomiCon.  To-day I am going to try again to begin writing a story for S. T.'s forthcoming anthology, Gothic Lovecraft.  I have the story all imagined in my mind, but the three times I have try'd to begin writing it didn't work.  The opening sentence, originally, was something like, "I awakened to soft sunlight and removed the pennies from my eyelids."  Now I am debating whether to have the thing told in first or third person.   I prefer what I consider the "personal touch" of first person narrative.  I want this new story to combine the influence of Poe and Lovecraft.  I want to have mimes.  I see them dragging a cart of bones along the road of some antient town, pulling ye cart to some distant tower or abbey or some such thing.  There, they will assemble the bones as a kind of throne for the story's narrator, Madame Death.  Or some such thing.

Let's see if I can make any real progress on the story before ye end of day.


Comments

  1. Every time I read about writing from someone who is supposed to know about writing, I am told that I ought to write in third person, past tense. I am told that if I write in first person, present tense and then switch it to third person past tense, I'll be shocked and amazed at how much better it sounds.

    I haven't been shocked or amazed when I've tried that, though. So I'll give up good writing for something that hits me harder personally.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly. Writing, for me, is pure self-expression--so I'm gonna "say it" the way I feel it.

      Delete
    2. Good Deed for today:
      Step I-
      Look up college or university on internet or in college catalogs and similar publications
      Step II-
      Copy names,mail and e-mail addresses of university administrators with say about admitting students or hiring workers.
      Step III-
      Pass on info to college applicants and job seekers and those interested in helping such people eg unemployment office bureaucrats,high school counselors,social workers,ect.
      While you're at it you might want to do yourself a favor by winning a Bicentennial Eisenhower Silver Dollar.
      How?
      Print or type ten (10) such addresses mentioned above on an index card with your name and address on the other side.
      Place with an unmarked,stamped business envelope in a business envelope with your return address on it and send it to;
      J F
      PO Box 146
      Center St
      Lewiston,NY 14092
      by contest deadline:Dec 20,2014
      SEND NO MONEY!
      This is not a commercial enterprise or an organised charity of any sort-just a friendly game comparable to a host giving away door prizes at a party , holding a grab bag at a Christmas party or giving away prizes for pin the tail on the donkey at a birthday party.

      Delete

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