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The longhand experiment – saying goodbye to distractions

Kylie Fennell
I sat down three times this week to write this blog. Three times. Each of which was unsuccessful.
The problem is that every time I sat down at the computer, I found something more urgent or more tempting to devote my time to.
Whether it’s emails, funny cat videos or a seemingly important business matter that comes to your attention, it’s hard to keep focused when you are on the computer.
And this is where my larger problem lies. 

The pen (or quill) is mightier than the keyboard

I have great intentions of sitting down and working on my novels, but the moment I put fingers to keyboard I find a thousand other things I “need” to do on the computer.
Without fail, it doesn’t take me long to abandon my writing in favour of other distractions.
It’s hard enough staying motivated throughout the extended drafting, revision and editing process, without having pop-ups and alerts enticing you to wish someone happy birthday or guilting you into checking your mail every two minutes – just in case something urgent pops up.
For someone like me, who loves information and learning new things, a computer can be an addictive place. I can disappear down Google’s rabbithole for hours on end, and in the meantime that book just doesn’t get edited.
This brings me to a shocking conclusion. When it comes to creative writing, I just can’t afford distractions.
Call me crazy, but I’m going to start using good old fashioned notepads from now on…well I definitely will try on the next novel. In the meantime I am going to print out my existing drafts and revise in long hand.
Yes it will probably take me a long time and I’m going to have to type it in anyway at some stage, but I’m in good company. 

JK Rowling favours longhand.
Image from http://jamesruncie.com/

Plenty of famed writers favoured old school pen and paper including Truman Capote, JK Rowling and Joan Collins. 

And if that isn’t enough of a good reason, let me give you some more benefits of writing in longhand.
  1.  Notepads are portable and don’t need batteries
  2. It is free of internet distractions
  3. It will make you a better writer. At least that’s what plenty of authors say, because it encourages you to give more thought to your words. Many will do their first drafts and revisions in longhand and then edit as they type up their notes
  4. You will retain more because putting ink to paper stimulates a part of the brain, the Reticular Activating Centre, or the RAS that enables you to focus on the information you are writing.
  5. It’s a good brain exercise as writing engages your motor-skills and memory. 

For now I will continue writing my blogs and attending to business matters via the computer, but I’ll be picking up the pen and paper for the creative longhand writing experiment.  And maybe, just maybe I will see some of the above benefits and if I’m very fortunate, I might actually finish my first manuscript. So here it goes…

Find out more about me and my writing at www.kyliefennell.com 

Dragons and other (un)truths and legends

Kylie Fennell

Fact or fiction. So often it seems that urban myths become widely accepted facts. It’s a growing phenomenon only bolstered by the prolific use and sharing capabilities of the internet. A little faux pas or a ground-breaking celebrity rumour can reach millions of people with one innocent (or not so innocent) click of a button.

Whether it is intentional or an accidental slip-up, many of us are guilty to some extent of not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. I do wonder sometimes though if there is a grain of truth in some urban myths – in this case I desperately hope so.
Fact or fiction, mythical stories and creatures have existed in every culture for centuries. Subject of countless urban myths are dragons, the mythical creatures’ mascot.
I, like many others, am fascinated with dragons. Where did the idea of dragons come from? Could dragons have been real at one time? Do they still exist now?
Confession time. I for one believe in dragons, or at least the idea of dragons. To date, I haven’t featured this mythical creature in my own writing, but I do find them pretty darn fascinating. They are the ultimate fantasy creature.
I saw a pin recently incorrectly attributing the following quote to J.R.R. Tolkien: “Always remember, it’s simply not an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons.”
I love the sentiment of this quote, but it turns out this little gem is actually another urban myth. It is believed to have come from author Sarah Ban Breathnach who coined this statement when talking about personal adventures and challenges. She likened dragons to our personal fears and happened to reference an actual Tolkien quote: “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”
Someone, somewhere, picked out the two quotes, put two and two together and got Tolkien, inspiring thousands of memes and pins around the world. But hey why let the truth get in the way of a good story.
What is true, is that great adventures DO feature dragons.
My first recollection of a love of dragons goes back to being a small child listening to an LP record by popular children’s entertainer of the 70s and 80s, Patsy Biscoe.
My favourite song was her cover of ‘Puff the MagicDragon’. Now many will tell you that the song (originally recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary) contained veiled references to smoking marijuana. Not so says Peter Yarrow from the band who maintains it is about the hardships of growing older. Another urban myth!?
The lyrics for ‘Puff, the Magic Dragon’ were based on a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton, a 19-year-old Cornell University student and was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem titled ‘Custard the Dragon’, about a “realio, trulio little pet dragon”.
The lyrics tell a story of the ageless dragon Puff and his playmate Jackie Paper, a little boy who grows up and loses interest in the imaginary adventures of childhood and leaves Puff alone and depressed.
To be honest, all of the meaning was lost on me as a child. I just liked the tune and the idea of a dragon, who lived by the sea (in the land of Honalee) and had a human boy as a friend.
My picture of the friendly dragon was only reinforced by the film versions of Pete’s Dragon, where a young orphan named Pete is befriended by a dragon named Elliott, who also acts as his protector.
As I got older I realised that dragons were not always cute, green and loveable creatures, but it only increased my fascination.
The Hobbit is centred around outwitting and slaying Smaug the dragon; Merlin in the recent TV series featured a crafty, talking Great Dragon; and Daenerys Targaryen is the ultimate Mother of Dragons in the wildly successful Game of Thrones.
Some dragons live in caves hoarding treasure and breathing fire down on innocent villagers, others are a symbol of wisdom and strength. Regardless dragons hold a special significance in fantasy writing and history. Real or not they are the stuff of legends.

There is conjecture that the belief in dragons stems from early travellers who came across Komodo dragons, the world’s heaviest living lizards, in Indonesia. Huge fearsome looking lizards yes, but dragons…hardly.
Others track the origins of dragon stories back to the discovery of dinosaur bones. Big reptilian creatures yes, but dragons…probably not.
The lack of substantive proof though hasn’t prevented cultures all over the globe believing in dragons while simultaneously worshiping and fearing them.
Generally speaking, dragons in Asian culture (particularly Chinese) represent wisdom, luck and blessings. The dragons were seen as central to agricultural life since the dragons controlled the weather and the seasons.
Those born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon (like moi) are considered the luckiest.
Scandinavian dragons were the true fire and earth dragons, living in deep subterranean caves and vikings had dragons on the prows of their ships to strike fear into enemies.
The versions of dragons across different cultures are almost infinite, as are the descriptions. Some dragons have wings, some don’t. Some can breathe fire, others can’t. Almost always they are huge reptilian or lizard-like with scales and claws but the similarities usually end there.
I don’t have a preference for any type of dragon. Fact or fiction I don’t care. Most of the fun is in believing. Regardless of the facts, this is one case where I would never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

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10 awesome words to use in everyday conversation

Kylie Fennell
As a writer I have a natural passion for words.
I’ve also claimed, rather cheekily, to be a purveyor of fine words. Maybe a more accurate description is that I’m a word collector.
Just like someone who collects stamps or Star Wars figurines, I find extreme pleasure in discovering unusual, underused or just interesting words. I then file that word away for later reference and an appropriate time to use them.
I tend to fall in love with certain words and look for any opportunity to use them in my writing and everyday conversation.
I don’t intend to sound impressive or elicit a certain response from my audience (most of the time). My motivations are entirely selfish. I find joy in using overlooked and sometimes unusual words.
So this blog post is clearly just an excuse to share some of my favourite words.
 

 1. Flummoxed – adjective. Confused and turbulent; baffling or baffled
Many years ago I was watching a popular comedy series on Australian TV (the Late Show made by the same people that brought us The Castle). One skit featured the word ‘flummoxed’ repeatedly and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Somehow I convinced my newspaper editor to let me use it once in a police brief. The story was about a crime spree involving a gang of youths turning up at unsuspecting businesses and ‘chucking brown-eyes’ before disappearing. Understandably the victims of these crimes were ‘flummoxed’.  Brown-eye is another unusual word or phrase Australians like to use but is best left for the Urban Dictionary to define. Most of the other definitions below come from www.dictionary.com
2. Skullduggery – noun – shady behaviour; dirty work, hanky-panky. What a fabulous word. A dodgy sounding word for dodgy situations. It sounds downright underhanded and it is.
3. Debacle – noun – a complete collapse or failure. A journalist’s favourite, often used in conjunction with fiasco. Eg. The government’s plan to [insert initiative name] is a debacle. The Minister has distanced himself from the fiasco.
4. Saturnine – adjective – sluggish in temperament; gloomy; taciturn. Eg. He wore a saturnine expression.
The word even sounds a little depressing.
5. Cerulean – adjective, noun – deep blue; sky blue; azure. Eg. Her eyes were the same cerulean as the summer sky.
So much prettier sounding than sky-blue.
6. Dragoon – verb – to force by oppressive measures; coerce. This word sounds like dragon, which makes it immediately attractive to me, and evokes feelings of power. Eg. ‘The King’s men dragooned the farmers to hand over their crops’.
7. Vex – verb (used with object) – to irritate; annoy; provoke. vexing, adjective Eg. She is always late. It is most vexing.
I can’t use this word enough. It’s the most accurate way to portray how annoyed you are without swearing. Thank you Jane Austen for introducing this word to me.
8. Beseech – verb (used without object), besought or beseeched, beseeching. To make urgent appeal. Eg. Earnestly did I beseech, but to no avail.
This word sounds as dramatic as its meaning. A great word for my medieval fantasy novels but more fun to use in everyday conversation. ‘Don’t play cricket in the house, I beseeched’.
9. Genki – a Japanese word that roughly translates to happy, enthusiastic, energetic, lively, full of health and happiness. A common exchange in Japanese: ‘O genki desu ka?’, ‘Hai, genki desu’. A little like ‘how are you?’ And ‘I am good’, but good just doesn’t cut it when there is a word like ‘genki’.
10. Ganbatte – Another Japanese word. I lived in Japan a while back, and I love the fact there are some words that don’t have a direct translation in English. My writing also has some Japanese themes so I’m naturally drawn to this language. Ganbatte roughly translates as keep at it, be courageous, do your best, work hard and good luck. It is used everyday in the workplace to encourage each other to do a good job. It is also used to wish people ‘Good luck’. However it also suggests you should word hard as well as wish for good fortune.
When it comes to my writing and editing projects I live by the mantra ‘ganbatte’.
So there it is. Some of my favourite words. What words do you love? What great words do you think should be used more?
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Making Merry at the Medieval Festival

Kylie Fennell

Inspiration can come from the most unlikely places.

Caboolture is an urban centre, on the outskirts of Brisbane, or the Sunshine Coast (depending on where you come from). A great spot. You’re a hop, skip and a jump away from the city, beach and Bribie Island, but also surrounded by paddocks, rolling hills and mountains in the distance.

It’s also home to the Urban Country Music Festival and was Keith Urban’s hometown for most of his childhood.

I have to admit I love (more than) a bit of country music but this isn’t why I’m suddenly talking about Caboolture.

The reason I’m feeling the love for Caboolture is because it hosts the Abbey Medieval Festival, which I visited last weekend.

The festival goes over a couple of weekends and features everything from jousting, banqueting, and fencing to medieval music, food and dancing.

The Abbey Festival is a delight for the medieval enthusiast, like me, as well as the hardcore re-enactors who live on-site in tents: dressing, eating and sleeping as if they were in medieval times.

Thanks to the festival I am feeling re-energised about my writing and editing.

This is the kind of place you will find a 6 ft 5″ Gandalf walking around casual-like, Game of Thrones inspired merchandise and delicious mulled wine.

The Festival boasts way too many attractions for me to list them all here. For me personally, I loved the archery and the joust. Before you ask, the horses were real, the armour was real and the jousting lances were as real as you can get without the possibility of causing a gruesome death.

It was a heck of a lot of fun and will help inform some of my medieval fantasy writing.

So after some making merry of my own at the festival, I am tackling my editing with new vigour.

Thanks to the wonderful people who run the festival each year and a shout out to Caboolture. You’ll see me again next year!

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