Writing A Bit...

I think you all know by now that I tend to write about what I know (which I know, isn't very much - oh be belittled himself again), and as such the world of Palurin came about. For those of you who don't know, Palurin is my fantasy realm where epic adventures happen to all my characters, and not all have happily-ever-afters. They're not that sort of story/plot/narrative. Something things happen to my characters to build them up, and make them seem more normal than fantastical, and somethings happen to them that need to happen to drive the story forward, and the inevitable end I foresee for them all. 

However, there is also one other aspect about my characters that most people don't know. They're all based on real people I know. Some characters I enjoy writing, and I don't get to speak with or see the person they're based on for a very long time, and other characters I don't really like writing even though I know the real person and I know they wouldn't do half the things their character does. But there is one thing I can assure you, you do have a character, and they are living in my world, the world I created when I was eight, and the one I occasionally visit, though not as often as I'd like, and you've only made it there because you're significant to me, or you used to be. I'm sure you can put the pieces together, I've even posted some of them to wearethewritingpeople.co.uk: Apprentice, Lamia, Culling, and Prey being just a few (guess who they're about if you can).

But something in the week got me thinking about a new character. So please bare with me, and let me know what you think. It is only a first draft after all...

Carpe diem...

‘From a seafaring shore, far in the stormy northern waves, a tyrant rides the white horses they say.’ The tavern was a quiet place. A storm raged outside, and all decent folk had retreated to their homes. The odd traveller had sought refuge in the tavern, but not many, and none of them cared to hear a story from a drunken sailor. Though, he had spiked the curiosity of the barmaid who wiped down the table next to him.

‘Do they now?’ she asked, standing upright again. The drunken man turned to face the maid he hadn’t seen before, and threw all his attention on her.

‘Yes they do. The Red Captain sailing his Crimson Tabby, a fearless vessel; plundered a thousand ships, and pillaged a hundred villages, the bane of Elledjhon himself.’

‘One ship the bane of an Empire?’ The maid pressed for more details, allowing the rag in her hand to drip freely on the floor and slowly dry.

‘Oh yes, the Red Captain and his crew, daringly defiant in the face of death. They’ve fought off a dozen ships, some of the Elledjhon’s fleet, and sank them all. No survivors.’

‘So how do you know any of this is there weren’t survivors?’ the girl was quick witted and saw a lie when she was told one. His bloodshot eyes darted from her elegant blue ones like an untouched pool of sapphires caught in the sunlight.

‘Well, some say don’t they?’ the sailor busied himself finishing his pint.

‘They’re just stories you mean?’

‘Stories I’ve heard!’ he raised his voice and slammed his glass down on the table. ‘Stories I’ve had to prepare myself for.’ He grabbed the barmaid by her petticoat and dragged her closer to him. He looked her square in the eyes, baring his yellowing teeth in a menacing grin. ‘The entire fifth fleet has been ordered to search the northern waters and to eliminate the Crimson Tabby, and kill that bastard of a Captain and his crew at all costs,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘I am a crewman of the Strand, the flagship of the fifth, and I am scared.’ There was no fear in his eyes or voice, only distrust and fatigue. His grip didn’t loosen.

‘I’ve got to get back to work,’ she said innocently, but as she pulled away he pulled back. He moved his face closer to hers.

‘Won’t you comfort this sailor, ready to greet death at sea, before his last voyage?’ he forced his lips on hers. He tasted of rot and rum, like a back street dentist. She tried to raise a hand to him, but was stopped by his tanned forearm. There was barely any movement in the struggle, and no one noticed the commotion. All she needed to do was scream, but she didn’t. ‘You forget your place lass, it’s beneath a man.’

‘No sir, you’re wrong,’ she said calmly within his vice-like grip around her throat. Her rosen cheeks turned a redder shade. One arm clenched her fist, and his other started to fondle the folds of her dress.

She jolted, loosening his grip on her arm. Her hair, the shade of a sun sweetened cherry in the height of summer, swayed from its tidy bun until it dangled neatly by her shoulders. The movement was that of an instant, but the man ceased his actions. She had removed the dagger he kept upon his belt, and was pressing it against the soft flesh below his belt. She freed her arms and her dress, and stood above him. ‘You sir, are wrong.’ He looked at her confused. ‘It is you, who is beneath this woman.’ He flinched as she pressed the blade harder into his flesh until a little blood showed. ‘You have options, sir. You can run from here and join your fleet to die at sea, or I can kill you now. Either way, you die.’ She grinned a pleasant smile waiting for his response. It did not take long.

‘The fleet,’ he replied with a quivering voice. She removed the knife from his flesh and cleaned it on her petticoat. The man stood up, and wobbled. There was a thought tingling at the forefront of his mind, the barmaid could see it, working its way to his mouth. The man walked a few steps away from her before turning.

‘What makes you so sure that the fleet will fail?’ The woman sighed, facing him again. She threw the blade at the man and he fell backwards to the floor with a scream. The knife protruded from his right shoulder. The other travellers in the tavern took note of the next encounter. They were her witnesses. And none of them were heroic enough to intervene. The barmaid walked over the man who was shouting profanities at her. A sweat had come over him, and blood oozed onto the floor from his shoulder. She pressed a foot onto his right hand causing more screams and more terror.

‘I am so sure, because I shall take my ship, and my crew, and I shall eradicate the very existence of the fifth fleet from my waters. Understood?’ There was real fear in the man's eyes as he looked back at her. He saw her for who she was, he had seen death, he had seen the Red Captain.

I Like Large Parties. They're So Intimate...

He returned to the hovel he had created himself the morning before, bed sheets upturned and pillows astray. His alarm clock blinked 12:02 with an electric blue. The watch on his wrist was the only sound he could hear, and yet somewhere, in the recesses of his vast imagination, he could hear a voice repeating the events of the day...

Long after dawn, though well before afternoon, he found himself greeting a good friend at the train station, a monument of stone and glass. He blended superbly into a small crowd following his friend to a nearby regular haunt. They both ordered coffees and sat contemplating the lives they were currently in.

He realised that he had lost sight of what he'd wanted to become, and he realised that he needed to do something about it. Encouraged by his friend, he sat looking for inspiration, a hard thing to find in the confines of a coffee cup. Stirring the mess of brown and cream he thought long and hard of what he had done. There was no going back, just moving on forward. You cannot relive the past.

Upon completion of his daily tasks, he found his friend again, parked with the ladies, and awaiting his arrival. He, having dropped his belongings, was later than he expected. Though into the wet surroundings he strode, knowing exactly where they would be. He was greeted and they were on their way.

The roadways looked different in the rain. The vehicle itself was a haven of warmth, a comfort for some. As they arrived at their theatrical destination, they were diverted to the nearest car park, for the amusement of parking attendants. This was a minor annoyance for them, however, they arrived on time and in need of refreshments. The queues were only five or ten minutes long, and they managed to avoid the annoyance of television adverts before their cinema experience.

Glasses were worn in the dark corner they found ourselves in, and the feature began: The Great Gatsby. The musical accompaniments were superb though a lot shorter than expected, and the whole cinematography of the work was wonderfully handled. Having not read the source material, he found it a pity that it was a romance doomed to fail, and tragedies of the heart have a tendency to be the most painful tragedies of all. Though, in a way, as his friend did say, it is a story of unrequited love. Daisy loved and loves Gatsby and Tom, Tom loves and loved Myrtle and Daisy, Gatsby loves Daisy and always has, and Nick loves Gatsby.

The feature ended, drawing on the fragments of screenplay it had left and tied them together in an attempt to complete a narrative and more music played. The four ventured out into the dry night air and discussed their thoughts, staring ever into the sky and at the wonders of the Bay. The glowing colours of red, green, and purple, the dry patches of concrete, the dozen closed eateries, before their feet found the car again. He could have stayed out and explored the quiet Bay a little longer, though his bed was calling and he had had a long day.

Carpe diem...

NaNoWriMo...

Well as some of you have asked me what my story is about - here's my basic plot...

Although, because it involves some people you might know, even by their basic codenames in this blog I'm just going to tell you the characters right now and get it over with: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and Me. Ha, ha, now it's almost really difficult for you to figure out who anyone is, apart from myself. I thought of this idea in my second year, returning to uni on the train, and it occurs between the 1st Novembver and the 30th, for obvious reasons (i.e. NaNoWriMo takes place between those dates). So without further ado, here's the basic premise:

I am returning to uni after a thrilling home where I attended a Halloween party, it's not really relevant, anyway on the train ride I realise my phone doesn't work and then the train stops working a bit. We manage to get to the station and I walk up the hill, in the pouring rain, and get welcomed back into the flat (do you guys remember the flat?) by A and G.

Okay, nothing untoward just yet. Then the power goes out, and we hang out in the kitchen, just chatting, and worrying about our frozen food, and given that it's dark, and we don't actually have any lights we all just go to bed and call that that.

Then my phone works again, and I have missed calls from my Mum, I phone her back. She says stay put we're coming to get you. A bit odd, so I ignored it. We went to the Union to find out the news. There's no one there, everything is locked up. At the Attic Bar we see our first griffin. A bit frightening, but go with it. So we all make it back to the flat, the skies filled with griffins eating starlings. We pass a group of Minotaurs, Ogres and a small Dragon fighting over the field of dead cows. With me so far?

Anyway, hungry, we plan a trip to Tesco in the dark, because we don't think the griffins and other things we encountered work in the dark. We watch the 'Baaing Flat' get eaten by the pride of griffins, and we leave it at that. (It's nice to get your revenge in literature) Getting to Tesco, easy, getting it, medium, getting out, hard. The army have taken over the store, keeping the reserves rationed. Goblin mine collapses, goblins attack with stone tools, the army guns don't work, fight ensues.

C is shot with an arrow in the back, B says that they'll stay with C and for the rest of us to go, G says they'll stay too. I should say at this point that D isn't with us. So, A, E, F, and myself leave them, thanks to our survival instincts. We hide in a church, have the same heavenly prophetic dream and decide to go see D, although it's a dangerous journey across many miles.

We meet a wizard's apprentice named Sanil, and have many more adventures and run-ins with the army and magical things on our way to the final Act - which I haven't written yet, nor will I tell you until it has been.

So, what do you think? I know you Tag, you're trying to figure out who everyone is, unless you've done it already. Just know that this is the U version of events, it's a fanfic of my own life (well, sort of) and as such many details have been left out of this brief synopsis.

Did you like it? If you didn't then by all means comment, if you did then by all means comment. But in either case I think you should check this out - here - it's something I drew, and I'm not proud of it, but I will be working to make it better.

I think that's all I shall speak of right now,

Carpe diem, until next time bloggers...