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Wiglaf

Dreamer
Hi gang,

Well, I’ve been working on a trilogy of fantasy novels since … (wait for it) …

1993

Ouch!

Yeah, it’s been a bit of a long haul. But it’s not a project I’ve ever been able to work on full time. My notebooks, research files and various versions of assorted manuscripts have been poured over, put up on a shelf, then come back down, gone back up and come down again more times than I can remember over the years.

Why’s it all taken so long? I don’t really know. Having written a couple of plays back in the early 90s I originally set out to write a comic-romp of a reverse fairy tale, and it just sort of … snow-balled. So I’ve got all the maps, the character sheets, the plot diagrams, 3,000 years of history, a pantheon of deities … I just can’t seem to get the damn thing finished!

Over the past year I’ve been giving it a serious go – working every day, and my teenage daughter (whose a way better writer than me with 52,000 reads on her latest fanfic) said I should join a forum to get some help. So here I am.

Really looking forward to getting to know you all, and hoping some positive vibes will inspire me to get the job done.
 
Welcome to the Scribes Wiglaf. And there's no worries about writing taking long. And what sort of reverse fairy tale romp were you writing about?
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
Hail and well met Wiglaf
Good to have you here.
Some tales, like some wines, need time to mature.
Others should be read or drunk as quickly as possible.
 

Wiglaf

Dreamer
Welcome to the Scribes Wiglaf. And there's no worries about writing taking long. And what sort of reverse fairy tale romp were you writing about?
Many thanks for the welcome, Orc Knight, and if a Grandmaster says 'no worries,' then ... that's cool! When it comes to stories I've always loved the ones that open in banal, urban settings, where you know, at some point, someone's going off to Wonderland. But wanting to do things backwards, I started out with a muscle-bound Conan the Barbarian type called Sorl the Axe, who I wanted to bring over to inner city Manchester (UK) - my home town. I did a lot of work on this idea, and much of the world-building I'm still developing came out of it. But eventually, Sorl the Axe became so limited and two dimensional, he bored me to tears. And I think that was my first real lesson in writing fantasy - though the worlds we create are fantastical and sometimes test the bounds of disbelief, we still need rounded, believable characters with properly constructed back-stories to work with. And no matter what amazing landscapes they may travel through, if we don't believe in, and care for the characters we're writing, then it's a dead cert' no one else ever will.
 
Eh, Grandmaster just means I've talked a bit in the forums. My own works take me many years and continue to be unpublished. That does sound pretty good, minus poor Sorl falling a bit flat.
 

Wiglaf

Dreamer
Hail and well met Wiglaf
Good to have you here.
Some tales, like some wines, need time to mature.
Others should be read or drunk as quickly as possible.
Many, many thanks for the greeting, CupofJoe, I am really liking this mature wine metaphor. Must admit, I was a bit nervous about coming out as a tortoise amongst the hares, but so far ... it's been alright. So quaff away all you mercurials, and I'll catch up in my own good time!
 

Wiglaf

Dreamer
Eh, Grandmaster just means I've talked a bit in the forums. My own works take me many years and continue to be unpublished. That does sound pretty good, minus poor Sorl falling a bit flat.
At least you've been talking in forums. This is all new for me. I've tried submitting to a few agents (with no success), and I got short-listed in a competition a few months back, but I've never been involved in any kind of forum before.
 

Wiglaf

Dreamer
Welcome, Wiglaf. What's your story about?
Well, thanks for asking Slip.Knox. My story's called The Other Place, and it's a bit like Coronation St. meets Game of Thrones, with a bit of Spinal Tap sprinkled on the top. On the one hand, it’s about a gang of heavy metal fans growing up in 1980s Stockport, and on the other, it’s the story of a young lad from and iron-age village who follows a white stag into The Other World. So part of it’s all motorcycles, bunking off school and rock festivals, the other’s trolls and dragons and shamanic sorcerers. But, obviously, the best bit’s when the two stories meet up.
 

Wiglaf

Dreamer
Welcome, Wiglaf. What's your story about?
But then I noticed the Altearth link, so had a gander at your website - nice work Mr. Knox! I loved Mani and Ki's encounter with the Carrotfinger Man, perhaps especially because I've been taking summer vacations in Bretagne every year for the past twenty years, and I could really imagine this happening somewhere out in the mountains of Armorique, or maybe somewhere close to the Gulf of Morbihan - very pleased to make your acquaintance.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Cool. Glad you liked that story. The carrotfinger man is actually a Breton legend; not sure how localized it is. I read about it in Eugen Weber's excellent Peasants into Frenchmen and never forgot it. 'Course, the original doesn't have pixies!

Maybe you'll call your story Peasants into Stockport. *chortle*
 

Wiglaf

Dreamer
Cool. Glad you liked that story. The carrotfinger man is actually a Breton legend; not sure how localized it is. I read about it in Eugen Weber's excellent Peasants into Frenchmen and never forgot it. 'Course, the original doesn't have pixies!

Maybe you'll call your story Peasants into Stockport. *chortle*
Peasants of Stockport would probably be more appropriate - ha-ha! Though I'd probably bottle out of using it before anything went to print. It's a small town ... people can be sensitive.
 
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