To fill the void, and in an attempt to create some sort of order out of the all-pervading chaos of life! And because I have to.......blah.

Mike

I write to know I am alive: I write to navigate colourful and infinite worlds and to experience their ambiguities. I write to understand. I write to preserve. For whom? For anyone who is listening. For myself. For anyone who has ever inspired or had faith in me. Perhaps for God...
Nikki.

What interesting and varied responses!

Ste, I'm sure your grandad would have been immensely proud to know that he inspires you like that.

Dee, I now have an image in mind of the top of your head being lifted like a lid and Philly & Co scrambling out. And I sure it's just a matter of time before we can all walk into a bookshop and see your work.

Mike, I believe that wanting to fill a void is a huge creative force.

Nikki, you have a generous approach to writing.

Adele

Adele - ‘Zen like’ - is that bad?

I don't write for one person but I do hope one person likes what I write.

Dee - I agree about the characters. I’ve been talking to characters since I was four, now I listen, write down what they say and do. For me it’s a natural progression.

Great thread Adele.

Dawn,

Dawn, yes!

Our characters exist in another dimension and we’re just bringing their messages through to this side.

Dee
x

Dawn, Dee, they're REAL after all! - I thought it was me just going insane

Ste
x

Dee, I've often suspected as much. Sometimes, do you find when you write, its almost as if certain chatracters have just been sat there waiting for their chance to leap onto the page and therefore into the physical univerese?

It's a mystical business, this writing lark.

JB

I can relate to the characters existing inside the head, but sometimes they'll come out, and other times they won't. In particular, I have in mind a story (which is going to have to be a long one - hard on me, but it just wasn't going to pour into a short story) that's been sitting in my head, with all its people (there could be further players, but I haven't met them yet), but every time I try to birth, I get stymied, so back inside they go. Maybe it's because I don't have ALL of their story, though I do have most of it. It's bits that aren't there, not huge chunks. (Although I am sure that they would pick up even more bits in the process of delivery.) I wish I could just let the story rip, and deal with the question marks as I get to them, but it seems that the characters just don't want to come out halfway!

There. Said it.

Ani

That conjures up some rather graphic and disturbing images Ani!

Seriously though, I'm sure, given a little time, your story will emerge in it's completeness. I always find I never really know what thestory is until it's finished. Then i go back, and rewrite.

JB

Dawn,

Adele - ‘Zen like’ - is that bad?

Definitely not! But it is mysterious...

It must be rather wonderful to being the person written for when the work is beautiful, like Ronsard's Helene, Shakespeare's dark lady, Montale's Clizia (whose reference I borrowed in my poem yesterday - he got it from Ovid) or, in fiction, Zhivago's Lara (Omar Sharif, drool...).



Adele.

My theory is that our stories are actual events happening to people in another dimension. Somehow this filters through to our dimension as creative inspiration and stories. Which means that YOUR life is actually being written about in another plane of existence, as someone else's story.

I really should get off the drugs...

Cea,
That sounds like a wonderful combination of Jungian theory and Plato's cave and Kurt Vonnegut. Nice......

Mike

And it reminds me of Sophie's World!

Ani

Nice idea, Cea.

Thanks!

Mike - forgive my ignorance but what's Plato's cave?