Greetings and Hello

[It's a Squirrel...Moose?]

Howdy,

I'm a long term scribbler and some-times writer, who has experienced a bit of the whole post-uni blues - where my muse has decided to take a brief holiday to Jupiter and has left me high and dry. After some thoughts, I've decided that the main reason behind it is that I have no one to really talk to about my writing, so the desire to actually write has left.

So... here I am! I saw the ad on facebook and thought why the hell not I'm actually a MA student - with a wide range of tastes including fantasy, sci-fi and historical. My main inspirations for fantasy are Game of Thrones, Farseer/Tawny Man, Wheel of Time and Neil Gaiman - whilst for Sci Fi i adore Dan Simmons, Alastair Reynolds and Kevin J Anderson.

For historical I mainly enjoy stuff like Umberto Eco - but I won't bore you with that . I'm also a great fan of lovecraftian mythos and the work of Fritz Lieber.

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way: lets discuss my writing! Or... the complete lack of it. In essence, this past year and a half has been painful for my work: i've managed to complete precisely zero stories, despite having multiple plans. The only writing groups in my area are quite considerable NOT like my university group; with a focus on stories concerning nans in cottages... where the most exciting thing that might occur is an inpromtu visit to a health spa. My writing has mainly been small flash pieces, ranging from the surreal to the downright horrific (both in genre and quality).

I am hoping that getting involved in this community might change all that, and I can get down to some serious writing of fiction that can hopefully form the basis of a portfolio of published stories and blog.

In terms of fantasy, I massively (massively!!!) dislike the cliche ('I'm a farmer... no... I'm a wizard!!' or 'I say, is that the dark lord amassing his army just over there, let's go over there and give him a good thrashing!' ) plotline - I love lord of the rings and wheel of time (who doesn't?) but I dislike reading stories that just end up repeating the story for infinity. I also dislike elves, goblins and martial-art monks - as I've played enough DnD games and read enough fantasy to be utterly sick of anything that might just have an ' in it's name (for example, Dis'en'thal = elf lord who is a wizard, lord of a high tower and friend to suspiciously bearded old man who is also a wizard = me throwing book across the room).

I also enjoy playing warhammer - but, as you might guess - I hate the background.

Major inspirations for me that are not books: Planescape Torment, Bastion, Bjork, Mars Volta, Kate Bush, V for Vendetta (both versions)

I am a bit of a cynic and a slight perfectionist - which might explain why my muse left me. But I will try and be fair in any comments and I like to think I can take criticism well (I did a MA, trust me on this, you can't get any more scathing then my tutor). I dislike poetry (but not writing it), massively dislike songs in pieces of prose and overly obvious real-world references (mainly the crusades).

But, despite the fact I must sound like a bit of a grumpy old man, I am actually quite nice

I look forward to posting on this fine looking site.

Many thanks,

Moose.

 

[Ireth]

Welcome here, Moose! You sound like a well-read gentleman. Exactly how can you dislike poetry but not dislike writing it?

 

[It's a Squirrel...Moose?]

Poetry is in my mind good for the person writing it but a pain in the rear for anyone else. I enjoy the physical act of writing, but any attempt to sit down, read and comment on poetry hits the brick wall of the art's annoying (yet, completely unavoidable) focus on personal and cryptic experience. I find no pleasure in sitting down and reading a piece of poetry - and in the writers groups I do go to whenever someone produces a poem the inevitable comment is 'but what does it mean!?' - and I am a firm believer that prose must be clear and clean, and that any attempt to be clever to a point where the meaning is hidden is leaning towards bad writing.

Of course, when I write poetry it is just for myself, so I can feel the warm glow of being a smart**** without the need of actually having to explain it to the annoying person in the corner (normally me) yabbering away about clarity and utterly forced rhyme schemes.

 

[Ireth]

and in the writers groups I do go to whenever someone produces a poem the inevitable comment is 'but what does it mean!?'

What about poetry that tells a clear story with little to no ambiguity or the like, such as Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" or Yeats' "The Highwayman", or any of the poems Tolkien wrote about his characters and their histories?

 

[It's a Squirrel...Moose?]

Of course, when discussing the greats like Yeats one must be careful in criticism. Yeats is not my personal taste - I much prefer the modern development of the Haiku or the poetry that one finds in music. My problem with poetry is more one of transmission and the habit for poets to believe that the only path to poetry lies in mysticism. I believe that not only should a poem be spoken rather then read - but that the same rules that govern prose - i.e. crispness of text and the focus of meaning and clarity must also apply to the poetical forms.

But then, I trained as a historian (albeit a bad one) before I moved over to Creative Writing and undertook all my tasks in Historical point-of-view writing... so my views on objectivity and neatness might be unfashionable. But, in my mind - the perfect poem is three lines focusing on a single moment or image.

 

[Ghost]

Hi, Mr. Squirrel Moose!

The only writing groups in my area are quite considerable NOT like my university group; with a focus on stories concerning nans in cottages... where the most exciting thing that might occur is an inpromtu visit to a health spa. My writing has mainly been small flash pieces, ranging from the surreal to the downright horrific (both in genre and quality).[/

Haha! I have a story in the works about an old lady who visits the salon. In my defense, she is brainwashed. Oh, that sounds wrong... My goal is to write fantasy, but my stories come out as surreal and/or horror stories. I won't even talk about the quality.

I dislike poetry (but not writing it), massively dislike songs in pieces of prose

I hear you. I can't relate to most poetry. 1 in 50 poems might be relateable or enjoyable for me. A good chunk of it seems too self-indulgent or too autobiographical for me to get into. I don't mind if I'm the one being self-indulgent. I don't expect other people to enjoy it.

Songs/poems in prose are hard to do well, and they're often unnecessary. A song tucked in the prose has to be important to the main character for me to go along with it, and even then I'll skip a few verses if it's not my cup of tea.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of your posts. Welcome to the forum!

 

[Rikilamaro]

Welcome to the Scribes, Moose!

Sounds like you have a lot to offer us. Thanks for the long intro - it made me smile. --> See?

Let us know how we can help your inspiration be kick started!