Storytime

It was a long weekend (even if I did have to work on Saturday) and daughter and I had been playing with the idea of travelling to Ballarat for the Begonia Festival. We ummed and aahed and decided no, but then hubby wanted to go up to visit his bees. Win win situation. He drove, dropped us off, visited his bees, picked us up and then we visited Aunt and Uncle that live there. Now I knew I don't like begonias. Yes I know, it was a begonia festival I was going to.  And there were a lot of begonias. So I looked, I observed, I noted...  Took photos of gorgeous daughter and adorable grandson in front of said begonias. But I still don't like them. On a side note, neither does daughter...but....we had a very enjoyable few hours at the festival. It was such a great event. Free entry, so many free activities for kids. If Baby Boy was a bit bigger he could have done so much! There were blackboards to draw on, obstacle courses and monkey bars, a huge sand...

I am writing my first story involving a world I really don't know or understand...YET. I write about people, they are what intrigue and interest me, the setting has usually been the here and now. Sometimes I have gone back in time but usually to a time or place I remember. Or I can remember someone talking about. Verbal social history is a great way to understand the past. Creating a dystopian world(which literally means a community or society that is undesirable or frightening) is very new to me. It leads to a lot of questions. I mean I get to build it, create it from scratch...and the first decision is how different or close to NOW is it going to be? I have an idea of my characters...but everything else is mostly in the ether. Everything from what they eat to the transport they use, where they live, what education (if any) do they have...even down to what they wear. Will it be like The Handmaid's Tale, specified outfits denoting who they are...or would it be like...

I've decided (after handing in my novel MS to a cold reader) to keep busy. Well relatively busy. I could spend the time fretting over whether I've wasted a few years and thousands of words on a piece that no one likes or gets or sees any merit in it....or I could do something constructive. So out comes the junior novel of which I have a first chapter. This novel is very different to what I normally write. The idea came during one of those sleepless 3 am journeys. And of course as we all know, everything that makes sense at 3 am is usually pure gibberish in the cold light of day. Yet I like the notion behind the story. I have no idea where the story is going, what will happen. As we all know I'm a pantser not a planner. But I decided to have a go at brainstorming. I settled down with a huge piece of paper and began to write words...phrases. Trying to put down some key ideas, concepts. Really, I was looking for anything. Aided by my faithful companion...well G...