I have to say that it is really, really tempting to explain the specifics of what this idea is, because the way it fits in with the story is very satisfying. But, because I think it will make a particular moment in the story even more emotionally powerful, I don't want to spoil the surprise.
But I do want to talk about it generally.
( Read more... )
I'm goofing around with that title. "Underground" because this fragment used to be "buried" in some boxes with ancient papers, and it was also going to be about Hades' abduction of Persephone, taking her to his realm (under ground).
Way back when, sometime after I finished "The Marble Don" (about Don Juan), I got inspired to try tackling more narrative poetry. Well, maybe "inspired" is too big a word for it. "The Marble Don" was inspired. "Hades' Bride" (the following fragment) only got as far as 18 lines. And I suspect, they're rather over-wrought ones. I'm posting the fragment without having even really read through it closely - exposing my "youthful" follies (well, grad school follies) to the world.
I don't even recall if I had a real vision or feel for the story I was launching. Somehow, I think not. The Don Juan poem had bubbled up from an idea that I carried around for me for some time, until I finally had to get it out. The story of Persephone, not so much. I think I just decided that it could make an interesting topic for a narrative poem, and so I launched myself into it. I don't know that I had a sense of the core character, Persephone. That's probably why it never got past the beginning.
Well, here goes, exposing the raw verse. I expect I'm going to cringe over this. But sometimes, writers need that sting of bald revelation.
( Wherein I inflict unfinished poetry on my readers... )
There was some discussion the other day on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
coppervale</lj> 's LJ about those who get discouraged from following their creative impulse. (The discussion can be found HERE ). I'm afraid I posted rather baldly about how no amount of encouragement is going to change the attitude of someone who has given up on his or her own creative impulse. I did not mean to imply that someone cannot change their outlook themselves - because I do believe they can. But I really don't think those who have Decided to Stop can be turned around simply by warm encouragement.
Uncertainty is one thing - "Am I any good at this?" "Will anyone other than me ever want to read or see this work?" "Will I ever get better at this?" Those are all the questions of Uncertainty, and they are not necessarily bad questions, or (even more importantly) crippling ones. The questions acknowledge that one has obstacles of various sorts in front of one, in pursuit of the creative arts. And it is wisdom to acknowledge those. But it is also a very different thing than the Decision to Stop.
Or would it be creative archeology?
The last couple of weeks I've been transferring information from two notebooks into a program on my computer. Now, that might sound rather innocuous at the start, but it is, in fact, nit-picking and time-consuming.
You see, back in the dark ages, when I was in high school, I got inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien. I had been doing some writing prior to reading Tolkien, but his works delivered that extra "umph" that really got me going in writing. I began a fantasy novel -- which I did eventually finish after I had graduated! I even submitted it over the transom to Ballantine Books. Thank God, it was rejected. I believe it is buried somewhere in one of my boxes of papers that have never been unpacked since I moved to California. But I did finish it.
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