The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Of stuffed birds, peep holes/cricket bats, pints, pubs, and Jags/ deconstructing brains

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Inspired by the Fix It or Deal post ‘zombie, zombie, burning bright’, I decided to write some of my own horror movie and zombie inspired haikus for Halloween!

 

Psycho:

Drip, drip, shower drain
Pretty girl, carving knife, scream
Blood, Mother, blood, blood!

Shaun of the Dead:

Pete is a zombie
Let’s go to the Winchester
Don’t say the zed word!

Philosopher zombies:
Vacant dead gaze
Shuffling gait. Drooling mouths sigh
What does undeath mean?

I’m rather proud of my Psycho haiku.

Haikus are fun to write. There’s something about there being very little space to compose a poem to grab the best words, best lines, twists of phrase. I prefer (when I even attempt to write poetry) to follow a form. I find free verse a little too free. For me, creativity (in poetry) rises out of restrictions.

There’s a bonus haiku in the title.

30 Days of Writing: Day Twenty-nine

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?

I think about writing nearly all the time. I could be watching a movie and think of a turn of phrase, a description, something to get me thinking. I always am. I keep a journal beside my bed, in case I have an idea while sleeping.

In the movie viewing, a couple of nights ago I saw Doctor Zhivago for the first time. I was completely engrossed in the film, but during the scenes at Varynkino, I found myself entranced by the windows coated in frost. How to describe them? I wondered, before the words “fractured ice” came to mind.

I love plots, symbols, ideas, above all, characters. I observe, I report, I create.

Do things in real life remind me of my work?

Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.

People on the street will have my characters’ faces (including one fellow in Edinburgh who not only looked like my character, he played the violin, too). Friends will say things that remind me of my characters, so I write them down for future use. Instances (such as my family going for a swim in the Marriott fountain because the pool was closed post wedding) will end up in stories, too…

30 Days of Writing: Day Twenty-eight

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.

Yes, I have. One of my characters is blind in one eye (following a rather tragic accident that I continually ret-con), and amongst my sailors I know I’ve got a few missing limbs.

For the most part, my characters make do. The character who is missing an eye hasn’t adapted–understandably. He’s a pilot by trade and has been grounded.

30 Days of Writing: Day Twenty-seven

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.

I’d like to say they don’t, but they do. Ish. I don’t devote large amounts of description (at once) to describing how my characters look, but I do have specific mental images for what my characters look like. It’s along the lines of, if someone were to play my character, who would it be? I like to have a mental image of what my character looks like, in order to describe some feature.

While I may know exactly what a character looks like, I don’t describe him or her as though you’re looking at a photograph. I prefer to describe in snippets, say, “rain dripped off of his aquiline nose” or something to that effect. Later I may mention the character’s eye color (if important, in one of my stories it is important to mention that several characters have the same coloring) or general build.

My thought is, we are largely visual beings. We perceive our world through what we see–why should our characters be any different?

30 Days of Writing: Day Twenty-six

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

26. Let’s talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!

Do I draw my characters? Were the Red Sox cursed?

Well, yes, yes I do. I’ve drawn my characters for as long as I can remember. I’ve kept all of my old sketchbooks, and some, like Geoffrey, pop up every so often throughout those.

Fortunately, I don’t have my old sketchbooks with me, so you shan’t have to view any of those atrocious images. I’ll spare you that.

Alas, most of my favorite pictures of characters are in my sketchbooks, so you’ll have to make due with a few that I’ve got stored on my computer. They aren’t my favorites, but I like them nonetheless.

 

 

(C) Beth

 

Peter (2010)

And I’ll add more later…

 

30 Days of Writing: Day Twenty-Five

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.

Not many of my characters do. Some, like Peter, have (severe) allergies, and thus can’t have pets (a trait I stole from myself) whereas others, like Geoffrey, have numerous ones at various points in their lives.

Geoffrey has a hedgehog named Milton. I’m not sure why, one day I just determined that a) he had a pet, b) it wasn’t a normal domesticated animal like a cat, dog or hamster, and c) it had a funny name. It hit me that he ought to have a hedgehog because it’s vaguely ridiculous, like him.

By and large, though, I don’t focus too much on whether or not my characters have pets. I actually think that Milton’s been left by the wayside–the presence of the hedgehog isn’t intrinsic to the plot, nor is it to Geoffrey’s character.