some thumbnails of my illustrations

some thumbnails of my illustrations
Please click on the links below to view my portfolio ........ Images copyright of Carrie Osborne

Thursday 15 April 2010

Long lost projects of creative writings...

(The Raven is just because a post without a picture seems a bit forlorn!)


The text in my banner says art and creative writing...
I have been wondering whether I would be brave enough to show any of my writing here - the thought is quite a terrifying one!

Over the course of about eight years on and off I slowly taught myself about writing. I have a passion for language and ancient literature, especially the rhythms of anglo-saxon metre and the way they would craft the sounds within the language... So in fits and starts I wrote a fair quantity of my own Tolkien-esque fantasy. I doubt these old projects will ever get finished or see the light of day, I haven't worked on them at all since having children and it would all need serious reworking (or scrapping!)

I would have loved to have done a creative arts course or even just creative writing, but never have, so have never had any real guidance or objective critisism outside of immediate family.
In fact my main source of constructive critism was my poor long suffering husband who doesn't like my writing at all and is dyslexic - he always found it too over descriptive and heavy going!
I think if I do come back to writing for adults, I'm probebly better suited to short stories or prose-poetry. My unfinished 'novels' if I ever dared to call them such a thing, just kept getting bigger and bigger, and the plots too convoluted and it all got beyond me!

Anyway, enough stalling! Although I struggled to rein in my plots, the parts of the writing I loved doing and still love, were the descriptive passages that moved across time and season, transitions of twilight and sunrise, the interactions of elemental forces...
So I thought I'd very tentatively throw a few out there that work out of context to show you how I write and see what thoughts if any you might have...

Here are the first few lines of a prologue...

A breath of time.
The quickening of Skysong, ceaseless, unbound
The long primal earthcry of Mountain, of rock
Storm, the grief of the land, the voice
Unheard through the blizzard’s rage

Twixt earth and sky a green and voiceless wind rides the night, a whisper of all it has known, beckoning the tree that yearns at its roots, meandering through stone, rising to the cold flanks of Mountain that ring with power.

Turning from those grim grey entities of rock and ice, the fickle wind challenges the sky, a moonsome shout beneath the cryptic mazing of stars that splinter their mysteries to darkness...


And here a couple of transitionary passages...


… The forest breathed the snows, the Mountain bore the blizzard, hawk and hare journeyed the darksome shades of winter. The gales perished towards the dawn of summer...

And...


… The bitter winter wrung out its storms, swept back its whirling cloak of ice to relinquish the land to life once more, only to leap roaring from the north as the forest turned to blood, eager to strangle away the green to another season’s sorrows.
Such was the eternal battle and all the land the battleground to suffer the rage of polar blizzard and spring flood, while sun nurtured the land and strove summer long to heal the wounds of winter.
The long turnings of many skies passed, and passed again, revolving around the silently shrieking crater of Modhrin. The Mountain sharpened itself against the sky, unheeding as the forest crept struggling further up its ragged flanks into wind and bitter hardship. The Twin Moons fought and died, fought and died, reborn from starvation again and yet again, as the wild elder clans watched for omens in the night.

That'll do for now! I am feeling rather nervous about this post and whether or not its such a good idea, but if I get brave enough I might post some more complete excerpts next time. I'd be interested in your thoughts, good or bad... Please feel free to comment freely!


(These writings are my personal original work. Please respect my copyright, thankyou!)

4 comments:

  1. I think it's a great idea but can understand your nervousness brave lady!

    Like you I share a passion for ancient texts (and ravens!), and a few years back did an OU module on Creative Writing with a view to perhaps learning the craft of writing more thoroughly. Unfortunately I found it completely smothered my enthusiasm to the point where I didn't write for some time after finishing the course. I'm not sure why exactly; I think perhaps the notion of having to write 'to order' became too much of a chore rather than something to delight in.

    Goodness, this sounds gloomy! I genuinely like what you've written but I think your husband has a point. If I have one criticism it's that it's perhaps a little too 'floral' for a modern reader to take on board. You've crammed a lot of adjectives into the limited confine of the text you've shown. If you're not careful I think you're in danger of overwhelming and bedazzling your reader rather than reeling them in gradually to the crux of the journey you want to take them on.

    Hope this doesn't sound too critical - I for one would love to read more, it has the potential to evolve into a wonderous voyage of discovery :-)

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  2. Lovely to find your blog and than you so much for the comment on the blog! We share some interests especially Peake! I am looking forward to reading more when the bees are a bit further on!Good luck with illustrating and writing... yes you can do it!

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  3. Thank you for your last comment, it was very much appreciated.
    Love your Raven and your pen and ink illustrations on the side bar.
    I am not qualified to comment on your creative writing, but I think you are free to express yourself in any way you choose. We all feel a little nervous when we feel others are seeing or judging our work. I wish you good luck with your writing, good for you for being brave.

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  4. Thanks for your comments everyone!

    Kit & Kaboodle - Thanks for the feedback on the writing, I know you're right and I do need to try hard to go for a 'less is more' approach! This is one of the reasons I think I'd be better with short pieces of prose... I think a bit of self discipline would go a long way (and some ruthless editing!)I really appreciate your thoughts:)

    Sharp Green Pencil - Thankyou so much for visiting and leaving me a comment too! I love Mervyn Peake - he writes like a painter if you know what I mean. I could go on and on about Titus Groan and Gormenghast! Lovely to meet you...

    And Milly - Thanks for your nice comments on my pen and ink... The Raven was done as part of some cover art for one of my husband's bands... (that's husband's not husbands'!!)I hope you're not feeling too bad about the upset with your dragonfly... My husband just found a Japanese website offering downloads of all the songs he ever recorded with another of his bands - how on earth they got hold of them is a mystery!

    Best wishes all...
    Carrie...

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