I’ve spent time blending showing and telling to bring together the tale and the story. The tale being the telling, somewhat like a fairy tale but more as an idea than stylistically. The showing highlights parts of the tale bringing the story to life and shining a spotlight on the working parts of the narrative where things shift and change.
The piece covers a lot of time but the folklore tale that I’m referencing doesn’t specify over what amount of time things took place so I’m inclined to do the same which is why I am dabbling with showing in much the same way. Also the folklore tale exists in prehistory, in more than one culture and time so there’s more than one telling of it. I’m working this in as well by integrating the tales into one narrative by stitching together the parts in such a way that it suits me. Referencing stories told by different peoples makes for an interesting exercise in establishing motives with more fodder to play with to stitch it all into one tale, even without this I would have been guessing at motivation.
Over the past couple of days I created a bridging section to bring my protagonist closer to the next stage of the story. I still have some events to write before moving on, but I needed to create access to this with character and story development. Some of the parts that I’d written previously were stand alone leaving them disjointed within the narrative. It took some time to think through the connecting section to make it all one story but a bit of story tetris can be fun.
Taking my time to develop and write this is giving me the sensation of visiting a place. When I visit places in the real world I get all of my everyday obligations out of the way and make sure that I’m ready to depart, and it’s become the same for my writing. I have a destination, I know where I’m going, I just don’t necessarily know every little thing that will happen when I get there – I have to be present and open to the experience to get the most out of it.
To help my mind wander into the realms of imagination I’m finding it helpful to wander in reality to a degree. Every other day I’m going for a long walk taking the same path each time and letting my mind be free to the experience of just being. Seeing people, watching birds and the sky, hearing the world about me, and feeling the wind on my face. All of it helps me to consider the place that I’m visiting in my imagination as a real-world experience with the elements and the activation on my senses fresh in my mind.