Rod Duncan's Blog - Posts Tagged "photography"
Visualising, Writing and Photography
Do you see stories in your mind’s eye? Readers have told me that they that have vivid pictures of Elizabeth Barnabus, Julia, Fabulo, Tinker and the rest. This is fascinating to me because picturing things in my head is something I’ve never been able to do.
It’s a quirk of my oddly wired brain that...
The complete article can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
It’s a quirk of my oddly wired brain that...
The complete article can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
Finding Intensity in Writing and in Life
Walking is part of my writing routine. The act of placing one foot in front of another somehow allows my mind to drift. When walking, I can dream up story threads that elude me when I’m sitting in front of a desk.
I often take a camera with me. You may have seen some of the photographs on here or other social media sites. This too, is part of my preparation for writing. I’m not naturally a visually-minded person. Photography helps me to see. Things I notice while carrying a camera often end up in the novels.
But recently I’ve been trying something new. As well as the camera I’ve taken an audio recorder on my walks. This started off as a podcasting experiment. I do naturally notice sounds. But carrying the recorder has enhanced that focus.
It is said that Tolstoy experienced the world with an unusual intensity. This manifested itself in negative and positive aspects of his life. You can certainly see it in his writing. I have no doubt that he was born with that kind of mind. But my guess is he also developed it through the practice of being a novelist. Intensity of experience is one of the gifts that writing can bestow.
Yesterday, I found myself walking down a track into a valley. A fine rain was drifting through the air. I could feel it on my face and arms. There were no people anywhere in sight or within hearing. I’d been walking for some time and my senses were becoming attuned to the quiet of the natural environment.
A dragonfly zipped out across the path and started to zigzag, coming very close then moving away, hunting for smaller insects. I’d never seen such a large dragonfly. It jagged close to my head and I heard the clatter of its wings. It was green and black, iridescent and metallic.
Watching it, brought to mind a remarkable and very wonderful piece of writing by Graham Joyce: ‘A Perfect Day and the Shocking Clarity of Cancer’. Please do read it, if you haven’t yet. For me, it even beats Tolstoy in its intensity and insight.
Writing brings its ups and downs. It doesn’t earn a lot of money. Just enough to justify continuing with it. But I never forget that what I do is a great privilege. I’m constantly grateful to my readers and my publisher. Writing means that I can indulge in thinking and daydreaming and walking and looking and listening and experiencing the world with as much clarity and intensity as I can muster, trying to emulate my literary heroes.
The process of writing fiction changes people. Its gifts are clarity, intensity, insight, emotion and more beyond. I think that’s why so many people press on with it, despite the inevitable rejections and heartache. I’ve written five complete novels that were never published. They were never good enough. But I don’t regret any of them. Writing is never...
The complete article can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
I often take a camera with me. You may have seen some of the photographs on here or other social media sites. This too, is part of my preparation for writing. I’m not naturally a visually-minded person. Photography helps me to see. Things I notice while carrying a camera often end up in the novels.
But recently I’ve been trying something new. As well as the camera I’ve taken an audio recorder on my walks. This started off as a podcasting experiment. I do naturally notice sounds. But carrying the recorder has enhanced that focus.
It is said that Tolstoy experienced the world with an unusual intensity. This manifested itself in negative and positive aspects of his life. You can certainly see it in his writing. I have no doubt that he was born with that kind of mind. But my guess is he also developed it through the practice of being a novelist. Intensity of experience is one of the gifts that writing can bestow.
Yesterday, I found myself walking down a track into a valley. A fine rain was drifting through the air. I could feel it on my face and arms. There were no people anywhere in sight or within hearing. I’d been walking for some time and my senses were becoming attuned to the quiet of the natural environment.
A dragonfly zipped out across the path and started to zigzag, coming very close then moving away, hunting for smaller insects. I’d never seen such a large dragonfly. It jagged close to my head and I heard the clatter of its wings. It was green and black, iridescent and metallic.
Watching it, brought to mind a remarkable and very wonderful piece of writing by Graham Joyce: ‘A Perfect Day and the Shocking Clarity of Cancer’. Please do read it, if you haven’t yet. For me, it even beats Tolstoy in its intensity and insight.
Writing brings its ups and downs. It doesn’t earn a lot of money. Just enough to justify continuing with it. But I never forget that what I do is a great privilege. I’m constantly grateful to my readers and my publisher. Writing means that I can indulge in thinking and daydreaming and walking and looking and listening and experiencing the world with as much clarity and intensity as I can muster, trying to emulate my literary heroes.
The process of writing fiction changes people. Its gifts are clarity, intensity, insight, emotion and more beyond. I think that’s why so many people press on with it, despite the inevitable rejections and heartache. I’ve written five complete novels that were never published. They were never good enough. But I don’t regret any of them. Writing is never...
The complete article can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
Of Stories and Raven Feathers
The final novel in the Map of Unknown Things trilogy has been sent in to the publisher. The name has been fixed. Cover designs are being created. The process of structural editing will soon be underway. But for a time it is out of my hands. And to some extent out of my mind.
After a couple of months of frenetic and focused work on that one story, I find myself with a few weeks in which I am able to drift. I have been walking a lot. And taking photographs. As I have mentioned before, this is just as much part of the creative process as the actual writing.
Yesterday, I paused in Jubilee Woods, near Loughborough, to take some photographs. Then the photographs were taken and I was walking away and I realised that I had, for the duration of that process, 'disappeared' from my own conscious awareness. That state of unawareness is something I hope to achieve when I am writing also. It seems to be an important part of the creative process.
As I walked in that dreamy state, I was playing with the threads of a story that has been in the back of my mind for some years. It concerns crows. It was the original reason for my watching, feeding and befriending
The full article and photographs can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
After a couple of months of frenetic and focused work on that one story, I find myself with a few weeks in which I am able to drift. I have been walking a lot. And taking photographs. As I have mentioned before, this is just as much part of the creative process as the actual writing.
Yesterday, I paused in Jubilee Woods, near Loughborough, to take some photographs. Then the photographs were taken and I was walking away and I realised that I had, for the duration of that process, 'disappeared' from my own conscious awareness. That state of unawareness is something I hope to achieve when I am writing also. It seems to be an important part of the creative process.
As I walked in that dreamy state, I was playing with the threads of a story that has been in the back of my mind for some years. It concerns crows. It was the original reason for my watching, feeding and befriending
The full article and photographs can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/gaslitempire...
