So… what happened with Nanowrimo 2014?

The short answer is that I finished Nanowrimo, but the story is not yet finished (not to mention rewrites and editing). As I was writing, I saw where the flaws were in the worldbuilding and parts of the magic system that needed clarification. So, at the moment, I’ve gone back to worldbuilding.

Not really worldbuilder’s disease

Over time I have posted some worldbuilding and snippets of fiction set in Airtha. “A Dragon’s Freedom” also takes place in the same world as my Nanowrimo novel (for now titled Tower of Threads). While working on the worldbuilding, I have had to kill some of my darlings to make the world a coherent whole. But I am very wary of falling into the trap of worldbuilding and not getting around to writing the book. Fortunately for me, the people who know of these darlings are very few, so it is not that I am suddenly changing a whole world which readers have come to know. The part of the world shown in “A Dragon’s Freedom” was at that time already much larger in my mind, but the first stories I wrote in this world will never see the light of day. 

Because they’re that bad.

I am not, however, erasing everything and starting from scratch. The problem with spending so much time on my studies was that the worldbuilding was stretched out over a long time. So parts must be rewritten to bring it up to date with things I wrote later and which – in my mind – have become canon. I have, however, changed some of the maps quite drastically. I also want to explore the way in which the history I have at the moment influenced another part of the world which I realized I need to include in the Nanowrimo novel. I’ll be using what’s left of January to do this and then I’ll move back to actually writing the story.

How I worldbuild

When I refer to writing or rewriting the worldbuilding, I am referring to the way in which I worldbuild – I write short “articles” to explain what happened during a specific era, how the magic works or to describe the peoples, cultures, and fauna and flora. I find this much easier than simply making a list. While most of the later stuff is on a wiki I made, the earlier stuff is mostly still only in handwritten form. I do a lot of pantsing in my writing, so this is also why I need to review some parts to make sure that they really do fit in with the overall mythology. I do have a detailed wiki with all the names though.

I can highly recommend using WikidPad for doing worldbuilding. And it’s free!

But… you’re still planning on finishing it (and getting it published)?

Definitely. And I will post some more worldbuilding posts in the future.

View image | gettyimages.com

Some Writing Recently Published

I’ve had a few new articles published as well as (*throws confetti*) a short story called “Shared Memories in High Definition”.

Fiction

I worked for some time on “SharedMemories”, and I’m really proud of the way it turned out. The story is more sci-fi than fantasy, and came about after I saw a billboard mentioning augmented reality and watching a video about Google Glass. You can read it for free over at Every Day Fiction.

Articles

The published articles cover a variety of subjects. Click on the titles to read them.

See the “Someone” in “Some People”

The Power of your Personal Soundtrack

Make the Most of Your 2015 Goals

Have a Contemplative Christmas this Year

4 tips for surviving an office party

What is Black Friday all about?

Flash Fiction

The stories I’ve written for Flash!Friday are all available over here on A Slip of My Pen. Click here to read my winning story “Merely This and Nothing More”, along with a look behind the scenes.

View image | gettyimages.com

The “Weird” Life of a Bilingual

Or, a Change to the Blog

If you’ve read this blog a few times, you’ll know by now that I am bilingual. Most South Africans speak at least two languages (we don’t have 11 official languages just to show off). I’m not referring to “I can say ‘hello’, ‘please’, and ‘goodbye’”, but “I’m fluent in both”. It’s normal for me to switch between Afrikaans (my mother tongue) and English (my second language) throughout the day, as these two are the only ones in which I am completely fluent. This type of switching isn’t strange in South Africa and it’s not strange in many countries. But I have found that those who speak only English, for example, (because it’s the only language they need in everyday life) don’t always understand how life as a bilingual generally works.

View image | gettyimages.com

A Typical Day
For example, when I get to work, I’ll switch between English and Afrikaans to greet everyone. Most emails are in English, except when I know the person is Afrikaans and they are the only one who will read it (otherwise, English). Because I translate between English and Afrikaans, I’ll switch between them when speaking to clients. If it’s a new client, I’ll speak English. If I know the client and I know they’re Afrikaans, I’ll switch to Afrikaans. If I do not speak their first language, English is mostly the default. Some of my colleagues may ask me to speak to them in Afrikaans in order to practice understanding it (it’s a lot easier to read a language than understand someone when they speak at a normal tempo) or to explain any differences between translated texts (especially where idioms are used). Some of the research I do during the day may also require me to read Dutch. Most of the time you don’t really think about which language you need to use because you do it every day.

A Merge – the New Hersenskim
To make a very long story short, I’ve decided to make a change to this blog by merging Hersenskim and my Afrikaans blog. The reason for this is that, in many instances, the posts for both are the same, especially when I post flash fiction or videos. It will therefore be easier to post once and just translate the necessary parts of the post. While there will still be posts in Afrikaans (for instance book reviews or podcasts), these can just be skipped by readers who do not understand the language.

Why am I doing this?
Except for making my job easier and giving me more time to work on a variety of posts, it is simply a good way to feel that I don’t have to separate what I could call my life in one language to that in another language because some readers will have to skip some of the posts. There are more than 7 000 languages in the world and to use only a dominant language does not contribute to multilingualism or teaching others about different peoples and cultures. This is as true in SA as it is in most countries and, as a language practitioner, I feel that I want to promote the use of all languages. This is one way in which I can do it.

Flash Fiction - Fate's Choice

This story was written for Flash!Friday with the photo as prompt.

Fate’s Choice

She watched the battle play out in her mind’s eye; a reflection of the true events outside the dwelling she shared with her sisters. They, too, were busy weaving a myriad of similar threads into the tapestry. Already the threads of the future were gathering; the seemingly inevitable outcome of the battle and its aftermath. Her tears burned, streamed, dripped with every thread she severed. With every soldier that fell. She spotted him through the swirling veil of past-present-future. The one she had saved at birth by not cutting the thread. The one she had grown to love. This was to be his last battle; she saw it in her sisters’ eyes. She took his thread, and paused.

“There has been enough death today.”

The dark, uncut thread glimmered gold and spread, changing the pattern even as they worked it, flooding it with light. And, for the first time, she saw the beauty of mercy in her work.

Flash Fiction: Between Worlds

This was written for the 2 January Flash!Friday competition, with the photo as prompt.

Between Worlds

People say I’m delusional, but I know faeries took my sister away. Their world remained even after the city spread across the land, blooming in neon, sending trees of glass and metal skywards, the steady heartbeat of electric lights replacing flickering starlight. The other world was banished to cracks between shadows, glimpses in the corner of your eye. But when the moon is full and you know where to look, you can see them dancing on forgotten fields. And if you wait for the right moment and step into the ring of dancers, they’d take you away from the hardships, hurts, and poverty of this world. That is what my sister did. That is what I would do, if I could gather the courage.

I see them dance, hear the music, see my sister.

In a blinding flare of headlights and screaming tyres the dancers disappear, leaving me behind.

And I wonder if knowing is a gift or a curse.

Spying, 1972. CC3 photo by Daniel Teoli Jr.

Flash Fiction: When the Demons Came Knocking

This was the second story I wrote for the Flash!Friday Flashversary (as one of the semifinalists). The photo was the prompt.

When the Demons Came Knocking

The day the knocking started dad said it was demons that wanted to attack us. He said the sky would break and fall. Gran said it’s the old people who stayed outside in the Otherworld when we came to the True World. She said they had realized their folly, but could not find their way to us. But we all knew grandma was crazy.

Not far from our house is one of edge-mountains supporting the skydome. The white expanse, lit by the everlasting sun curved over the True World, locking us safely inside after fire burst from the ground in the Otherworld and covered everything in ash. But that was countless years ago – if it had happened at all.

The knocking became louder and more frequent and soon many heard the sounds emanating from the edge-mountain and the skydome. Dad kept watch. Watching for cracks, waiting for the demons he would burn and send back through the mountain.

But then I found the tunnel in the mountain. It was big enough for me to crawl into and I shivered at the thought of finding a demon lurking in the darkness. As I crept along its length it sloped upwards and a white light, like our skydome, flickered at the end. I rushed back to the safety of my home, but the call of the light would not let me rest. It was not long before I crept back into the darkness. Gran saw me, but she let me go.

The darkness of the tunnel was suffocating. The knocking reverberating through the skydome now seemed far away. The white light turned blue as I neared it. I stepped from the tunnel into blinding light. Vertigo flung me to the ground as I looked up into an impossibly big blue skydome. It did not curve with the reassuring safety of rock, but stretched on and on and on. The world before me was not covered in ash and fire, but with bright grass, trees and flowers. A few houses stood to one side and there were people like me. Women. Children. Men covered in soot and carrying metal tools. Had they been knocking? I picked up a stone, slipped it into my pocket and fled back into the tunnel when a man saw me. I slid and slipped to the bottom where my father, gran, and others were waiting.

“Did you see the demons?” one asked. I shook my head.

“We must destroy it,” father said. “We must break the rock and close it forever.”

Afterwards they acted as if the tunnel had never existed. But gran saw I’d changed. She asked me in front of my father what I had seen at the end of the tunnel. I read his face. Perhaps I am crazy too.

“Nothing,” I lied.

But now when I’m alone I stare at the stone I stole from the Otherworld and wonder how far their skydome stretch. I wonder if they even know we exist.

Didgeridoo. CC2.0 photo by Francois de Halleux.