Carter Lee McKenzie

I have been spending way too much time in other pursuits like studying and writing papers for a class, trying to figure out what to do after retiring as a college prof, writing a sequel to a book I have online, downsizing from a large home to a smaller condo, and so much more.

I need to take a month off and get my priorities straight again. I’ll be back in a few weeks, and in the meantime, please check out my Author Page and catch up with me.

Do you need to take time off from whatever keeps you from your writing? I strongly encourage this for all “creative” persons.

~ CLMcK ~

Up to this point, I’ve primarily talked about writing fantasy in this blog, but another favorite genre for me is mystery. I’ve written mysteries and I love the puzzles they bring along with the story. Perhaps next week I’ll write a little about the mystery genre.

For instance, in the book I’m writing now, I had the murderer all figured out when I outlined the story. But try as I might, I couldn’t think of a single reason why this person would do such a crime against the victim. Back to the drawing board, as they say!

When I figured out all the signs I’d planted throughout the book, the solution came to me, so now I’m rewriting the final quarter of the book to make it clearer to me as well as to the reader. Now it all makes more sense to me, and I honestly don’t know how I missed seeing it as I wrote.

Isn’t that the way with Life? Too often we think we have it all figured out, only to realize that we have been on a different path all along. In writing a book, we can go back and edit the story. How do we edit our lives when we realize we need to make a few changes in order to keep going?

• Ever since I was a “winner” on NaNoWriMo, I have been editing and adding to the words I continue to write.
  
  Editing isn’t always fun, but I do enjoy it when I find a section of the writing that needs a little propping up. It is so easy for me to get lost in the “story” that I don’t add all the other surrounding aspects of a particular section. Editing for me is when I take a paragraph and expand it into several more, maybe even several pages.
  
  When I write, I seem to hear the conversations first. After that, I look around and check out the place where this is taking place. There is so much to see, and I want the reader to see it all, too. Other writers say they do a lot of description first, then go back to include the conversations, or dialogues.
  
  Another area where writers differ is in their approach. Some are strictly “seat of the pants” writers (“pantsers”) and just let the story go where it will. Others have a lengthy detailed outline of where they want the story to go. I suppose I’m a combination of those (“plantser”). I write a vague outline that is sparse and general. Within that, I let the characters tell the story they want to tell and I go along for the ride.
  
  No matter which kind of writer you are, I encourage you to set aside a time each day to write. This is something I need to remember, too. I find it is too easy to get caught up in all the requirements of my “real” job and not take time to do what nourishes my soul.
  
  TIP: It’s time to plan for NaNoWriMo in 2021! Begin thinking and planning today!

Dragons seem to be synonymous with fantasy. The most famous of fantasy authors rely on at least one wonderful (or dreadful) dragon in the stories.

What do dragons signify? They are one of the signs in the Chinese Zodiac but it doesn’t come up for another couple of years. We are currently in the Year of the Ox, and next year will be the Year of the Tiger. You might check this website to find out where you are in the lineup.

I prefer to think about what the dragon represents in fantastical tales. What are the words you think of when dragons come to mind? Fire? Passion? Mystery? Something primeval? A mythical creature? A dragon is all of that and more, but the dragon will always have meaning for each of us individually.

Ursula LeGuin wrote: People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons –
from within.

I am so intrigued by dragons that I may need to start writing about them.

• TIP: In your idea notebook (you do have one, don’t you?), jot down all the ideas and meanings that come to you about dragons. How can you use these ideas in a story?

~ CLMcK ~

In the truest sense of the word, all fiction is fantasy because it is something that has not actually taken place. My last post talked about the wonderful imaginings that are behind fantasy writing.

Yet the question remains, “where do our fantasies originate?” From childhood we have made up stories. Somewhere along our educational path, we were told to stop making up things. Parents and teachers called them “lies,” but we knew better. We knew we were creating a fantasy world, one that the adults could never enter.

Fantasies are the stuff of our early dreams. If we have not allowed anyone to take those away from us, we have the makings of a terrific fantasy tale right inside us. 

My suggestion is to simply start writing – anything. I believe that if we start writing down our current dreams, we will begin to retrieve those stories that lie buried in our unconscious.

TIP: Pick an image that pops out of your thoughts and write a brief outline of a story. If you put enough of these stories together, you may start to have a viable story line.

~ CLMcK ~

In psychological terms, a fantasy is something that hasn’t happened yet. We might say to a client, “What is your fantasy about this situation?” In other words, “How do you see this event coming about in the future?” or “What do you think is going to happen?”

In literary terms, we might think of fantasy in several different aspects. We may create entirely new worlds, with new financial terms, new ways of preparing and eating food, new vocabulary, new creatures that are not human the way we know humanity. The plants and geography may be totally new creations. 

Our fantasy might occur in an imaginary world of Little People, talking animals, magic and witchcraft, dragons and unicorns, vampires and werewolves. These fantasies take on whatever form our thoughts make of them, and often they are ruined when put on the movie screen.

Time can be suspended, we can be taken on the “way back” machine, or placed on fast forward to a time that hasn’t been revealed to us. We can take humans and project them into another millenium in our imaginations.

TIP: Go back to your favorite fantasy fiction and list everything in it that is new or different from your ordinary world here on Earth. 

~ CLMcK ~