I've just uploaded a story I'm working on (another one...). Hope you like and would appreciate any comments.

Nahed

Sorry, that's the first two chapters I've uploaded, not the whole story...you knew what I meant right?

Hi Wordy,
Just a polite enquiry, how many stories do you have on the go at any one time? You're so prolific! Does it ever get confusing, and where do al the ideas come from...and does something ever start out as one thing and end up being something, or part of something, entirely different?
I have fragments of verse stored in a file and some half-scribbled things in my notebook which may or may not see the light of day...but I can't imagine doing it with full length stories/novels! You're amazing!

x
(slightly awed)
tc

tc

Please don't distract her. She's woking on the next one at the moment.

Shel'll speak to you on Sunday - if she get's a moment!

Jumbox

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Another good read, if you can find the time to drag yourself away from all her other stuff!!

Jumblie ("far and few", remember that? How's the seive holding up?)

It's getting so we need a full time Wordy correspondant, like some of the papers have for David Beckham..

I just wish I had so many good ideas...

x
tc

tc - how nice to hear from somebody without the clacking of typing in the background!

Seives? No. Lost me on that one.

A Wordy correspondant? I don't think I could keep up with her!

I wonder if she talks as fast as she writes? And, as you say, all those ideas!! Makes you spit, doesn't it? Well, maybe not you, being a lady, and all that.

Jumblie (apparently)

tc! I'm blushing! Gawd. I read your post and had to gather my thoughts for ten minutes. I'm terrible at handling compliments and praise so if I waffle or sound odd - it's my embarrassment at it all. But thank you so much...

Moving quickly on...

To answer your questions:

At the moment I'm working on three stories at the same time with two complete ones (although one of the complete ones (not On the Map) I think needs a rewrite).

It doesn't get confusing for me because the characters are all so different from each other as are their stories. I've mentioned this before but I live with these characters inside my head. Without sounding too crazy and arty farty, they're very real to me. They each have their own voice, method of talking, behaving, how they interact, act and react i.e they're individual real personalities. I know them too well to confuse them just like you wouldn't confuse real people.

Where do the ideas come from...I'm tempted to say 'my head' but that's a really old and bad joke . It's actually inaccurate too, because of course the heart has a lot to do with ideas too. Okay, now you're going to think me crazy because I'm going to admit to living numerous lives and having met thousands of people. Inside my head, that is. Ever since I can remember, I've disappeared into my own little world in my head. It's not that I had a bad 'real' life that I had to escape - on the contrary - but it was very boring, mundane and far too many rules to strap you in. The world I created was far more exciting and I could do anything without causing harm, disappointment, shock or alarm! This continued on well into my twenties. So perhaps now my head isn't large enough to contain this 'other' world (Jumbo - I can hear you saying...oh yes it is! tsk tsk). So I write now and my ideas come from everything around me, but seen through a different lens and angle. I try not to dismiss the tiniest of ideas because there's always potential to expand and go off at different tangents. It's life and human behaviour and emotion - the sources are endless but as a poet (and a very good one) you know that already right? (all ready?).

Just like your scribbles and random lines for your poetry, tc, do the same for your stories. They may not make much sense or even look like rubbish at first, but learn not to look at the surface of things, the surface that everyone else sees. Delve deeper and twist it, even if it sounds ridiculous. I find that when it does sound ridiculous that you're on to a start of an original story that you can mould into whatever you like. Everything is so much easier after that.

Sorry if I've gone on...(as usual!!).

I bet you wish you never asked!

Nahed x

Interesting insights Wordy...I wonder if that's why I begin to think I'll never make a novelist..I do get characters, but they don't live with me like yours do, don't develop much beyond that instant.. I'll start making notes, though, just like I do with the poems and see if I can get ideas that way.
As I said, I do record little scenes/snapshots - this week I was dazzled by an extraordinarily beautiful black guy holding his daughter who was mixed race and had very light hair. the contrast between them was amazing, and I could almost touch the tenderness in his eyes as he talked to her.
See, that will / might make a peom, but I would have little idea how to expand it, make it grow..

But I'm getting better. One of the exercises for the Beginners Group looks as if it may have legs, and it's set in Paris, so of course I'll need to do extensive research...

Keep 'em comin' girl!

Jumblio: Shame on you! Never read Edward Lear?
"Far and few, far and few
are the lands where the Jumblies live
Their heads are green and their...?..are blue (I forget that line, might be 'hands', or the other way round)
and they went to sea in a seive, they did,
in a seive they went to sea."

(there's more, lots more...)

x
tc

Sorry, tc!

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, `You'll all be drowned!'
They called aloud, `Our Sieve ain't big,
But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!
In a Sieve we'll go to sea!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Read, but not remembered. That's the trouble with having a mind like a ... well, like a sieve!

Hurrah!
Enjoyed that, Jumb!
Friday afternoon poem corner, that's us! End the week wif a Rhyme.

(Do you know, I just KNEW I'd spell sieve wrong! Thought about it for ages, too, before I plumped)

x
tc

Not surprised their heads are green and their hands are blue if they went to sea in a holey thing. (see how I cleverly avoid the use of the word s... se... si... hmmm)

tc...keep at it lady and you'll get there!

Did someone say Paris? I'm just booking a short break there in May for me and a girlfriend...I can't wait! Keep your research for until then tc and we'll meet up there

If you're (Nahed, tc whoever else - the more the merrier) in Paris you must drop in for a cup of tea or something stornger!
Elspeth

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Oh yes, and tc if you need help with research...

Elspeth

That's very kind! I'd love to meet up with you! The trip will be between 10-15 May, I'll let you know as soon as booked. Oohh...my anticipation is twofold!

Nahed

Elspeth, you LUCKY, LUCKY thing! ooh, my head is green and my hands are blue with envy!
To live in Paris is my dream...like when I write my bestseller, it's a cottage on the Yorkshire moors and a flat in Paree, first two things on the list!
We used to go three or four times a year, but didn't go at all last year, so I'm well overdue a visit.
will certainly try to catch up with you when the next trip is planned - maybe May, Wordy! WW hits Paris...will it ever be the same?
Just thinking about it makes me smile....

x
sighing with longing
tc