Hi everybody, I would like to thank you for taking some time out of your busy (or not so busy) day to see what is going on here. I apologize that I have not been posting regularly; however, I will try to post more regularly from here on out. In the past, I have posted poems that I have written, either recently, or ones that I dug up from the depths of my collections. Ideally, the Rorrim Compendium will accommodate the various facets that are mentioned throughout the existing blog posts, such as: Poetry, Creative Writing, Fiction, Creative Writing Research, Fiction Writing Exercises, Academic Writing; and more. As the Poetry collection here is growing (and I would like to remind you all that any of your contributions to any of these fields can be submitted to myself and we can start a conversation) I want to start growing other aspects, primarily, Fiction.
I am currently writing two additional stories, one longer, and the second shorter. Occasionally, I will be posting excerpts from what I recently wrote, plan to write, or am currently writing. The purpose of these mid-craft posts is to discuss how writers face choices and overcome obstacles while writing. Most craft writings talk about how a writer should approach writing or how he or she should view the writing after it is written. I may discuss elements that I am employing, choices I am making (risky or safe), how I give freedom and how I limit freedom, and how I think about layers of separation. Because I am currently writing, and try to constantly be writing something, some of what I will discuss may not even address the words on the page that are being forged on my clacking keyboard, but I want to show how Writing is more than merely writing words; it is a near-constant mindset that the writer engages for the length of the work.
I want to address and show you my rough drafts. I want you to see the raw, inner-workings of how beautiful and how disgusting writing can be (You’ll see that clear enough from my notebook). I am aware that many of the practices that I use when writing are not shared with most other writers, by and large. I don’t want to prescribe your craft: I want to show you options and possibilities. I will encourage risks to be made, and help you to pick up the pieces when everything seems to fall apart. This being said, the only way to write well is to write a lot and with each piece, you have to challenge yourself. Some of the most innovative stories are the ones that seem to “shouldn’t” work.
So, right now, as a mini-excercise, I challenge you to think of something impossible, and then to write it down. Next to that impossible thing, I want you to write the two questions: “Why is this impossible?” and “What would need to exist for this to be possible?” If you decide you want to write about that impossible thing, go ahead. All I want you to do is to look at that impossible thing and those two questions a couple times a day. Don’t writing anything else down. Don’t write answers to the questions or a way to work it through. Don’t talk about it. Don’t do any writing or discussing of the impossible thing until you have to, until the thoughts you have about that impossible thing and those questions are bursting to come out. If that “need” to write about it isn’t coming, then look at the impossible thing and the questions more, and think about them more.
The reason I want you to try this is because that very experience of compounding thought and folding it over and over, cycling and revisiting those thoughts is precisely how stories are born. Instead of an contemplating an impossible thing, writers get inspired, and so will you.
As a final note, if there are any questions you have on the crafting process, in any writing form, feel free to ask. I am more than willing to help. If you would like me to address something in a post, or if you would like to send me a copy of something you have written to look over or critique it, simply email me here.
The Rorrim Compendium 