Tag: Adventure

Stories: Passports without borders

Ink Slaying, Inspiration, Kim Koning, Notes on Wrestling The Muse, Research, Travel&Adventure, WIP, Writing

Stories are passports without borders. Stories are passports without visas. Stories are passports to adventure. Stories are passports into the exotic and the extraordinary. Stories are portal doors into worlds unknown. Stories are magic carpets.

One of the first reasons that made me fall in love with stories is the ability to travel to exotic places, experience exotic cultures all without leaving my chair. I love traveling and often call myself a Gypsy at heart. New places usually mean new people to meet and new adventures to experience. In an unknown place the average and ordinary can suddenly become extraordinary. Having a coffee in my local cafe is very been there, done that. But having a coffee in some little plaza in an Italian village on the Amalfi coast would immediately be extraordinary for me. In the same way, that Italian local may find having coffee in my local cafe an extraordinary event.

For this reason I have always read books that are based in foreign countries and even foreign cultures. I come from South Africa, now live in New Zealand – to me neither of these two places is exotic. They are what I know. They are familiar. But when I have told American friends that I come from South Africa and now live in New Zealand – they are always fascinated. They want to know if I have seen lions in the wild. When I tell them that we had a family of leopard living on one of the farms my father managed, they go: “WOW!”. They want to know all about New Zealand especially since the Lord of the Rings Trilogy that really put NZ on the map. But for me exotic places are in Europe or in Central Africa/Northern Africa or the Amazon in South America. But I doubt those same locals who live in these areas think that they live in an exotic locale.

That is the joy of reading stories and in my case going one step further and creating your own stories. I love writing about places I have not been because I find often what may be fairly ordinary to the locals there becomes extraordinary and special in my fresh eyes. One of my favourite pastimes is searching for fresh inspiration for not just story ideas but setting ideas. Pinterest (new addiction) comes in as a very useful tool in these moments. I also love reading/studying/researching the history of each setting and often finds it seeds an idea in my imagination that I let lie and germinate to see what it could potentially blossom into. Nowadays with the ease of the internet and software like Google Earth/Google Maps your research into a place can become acutely accurate down to the street names and the name of that cafe on the corner in that Italian village on the Italian Amalfi Coast.

But at the end of the day the best research you can do when checking out a setting in an exotic locale (if traveling there is absolutely ruled out) is to talk to the locals on the internet. In this day and age there is an internet group for just about everything and there are blogs for just about every type of subject. So I trawl the blogosphere and see if there are any local-specialised blogs devoted to the locale I want to set my story in. Setting is so much more than just a geographic location or street names. Setting is also about the quirks that make that place unique. Is there a particular smell? Smell is a big one. For instance when I smell oranges and lemons I immediately think of Athens, Greece. One of the strongest memories of my time spent there 12 years ago was the tree-lined streets with trees heavy with oranges and lemons. So the smell of oranges and lemons now sums up Athens for me. Location bloggers will give away a lot of these type of tidbits in their blog posts. And most people are always flattered when you tell them you want to learn more about their home because you find it fascinating.

So while I have begun writing on my next project I have been trawling the internet for setting ideas. So I will leave you with some images from my Pinterest board. Some of them are definite settings in my story and some of just teasing seeds of inspiration right now…Mum’s the word (for now) on which settings I am actually going to be using in both the current WIP and upcoming ones. Perhaps you can guess which settings I have chosen.

Perhaps you have been to these places or live there. I would love to know at least 2 quirks that I could not find out from the internet that is unique to each place. Leave me a comment in the comments.

Tell me>> What exotic places would you like a story to be set in? What places grab your imagination?

Source: weburbanist.com via Kim on Pinterest (Abandoned mountain town in Sardinia, Italy)

Source: worldtopjourneys.com via Kim on Pinterest (Manarolo, Cinque Terre, Italy)

Source: toptenz.net via Kim on Pinterest (The City of the Caesars, Patagonia, South America)

Source: underthesunexperience.blogspot.co.nz via Kim on Pinterest (Carcassonne, Languedoc Roussillon, France)

Source: earmchairtraveler.blogspot.com via Kim on Pinterest (Meteora, Greece)

Source: accommodation-bol.com via Kim on Pinterest (Dubrovnik, Croatia)

Source: une-deuxsenses.blogspot.com via Kim on Pinterest (Swallow’s Nest, Crimea)

Source: toptenz.net via Kim on Pinterest (Angkor-Wat, Cambodia)

Source: weburbanist.com via Kim on Pinterest (Gunkanjima, Japan – “Ghost Island”)

Source: roman-empire.net via Kim on Pinterest (Herculaneum, Italy)

All imaged embedded via My Pinterest boards – Feel free to follow me there…

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Adventure 2010

Kim Koning, NaNoWriMo 2010, Notes on Wrestling The Muse
JUMP oFF
Image by aJ GAZMEN ツ GucciBeaR via Flickr

“The bold adventurer succeeds the best.” – Ovid

adventure |adˈven ch ər; əd-|

noun ~ an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity : her recent adventures in Italy.• daring and exciting activity calling for enterprise and enthusiasm : she traveled the world in search of adventure | a sense of adventure.• archaic a commercial speculation.

verb [ intrans. ] dated ~ engage in hazardous and exciting activity, esp. the exploration of unknown territory : they had adventured into the forest.• [ trans. ] dated put (something, esp. money or one’s life) at risk : he adventured $3,000 in the purchase of land.

ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French aventure (noun), aventurer (verb),

based on Latin adventurus ‘about to happen,’ from advenire ‘arrive.’

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.
Ernest Hemingway

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”

NaNoWriMo is one week away.

1. Are you ready? Are you nervous? Are you cool, calm and collected? Are you filled with trepidation? Are you waiting with anticipation? If you answered yes to any of these questions, that is normal. If you answered yes to all of these questions, that is also normal.

2. Are you writing something completely new? Are you trying out a new genre? Are you changing from plotting to pantsing? Are you changing from pantsing to plotting?

NaNoWriMo is about ADVENTURE. It is about a jump off a mountain top, not quite knowing what might lie at the bottom. It is about learning to fly when you have always been told humans should not fly. NaNoWriMo is about being unsure, uncertain, bold, adventurous. NaNoWriMo should be seen as an adventure not a chore or a task.

Mundane events fill our lives enough that we should not make NaNoWriMo just another chore. How do you feel about boring chores like getting the ironing done or (my secret horror) grocery shopping? These are all things that are done regularly and are therefore normal. Have you jumped out of a plane? Have you explored in a jungle? Have you sailed around the world on a yacht? These are events that are EXTRAORDINARY. These are events that fall in the category of ADVENTURE. So instead of wondering where you are going to find the time in your day for a whole 30 days to write a minimum of 1667 words…wonder instead what will happen if you don’t make the time. Life can be normal and mundane or life can be what we choose it to be.

You might never jump out of a plane with a parachute. You might never explore in a jungle. You might never sail around the world in a yacht.

BUT

If you make time in your day, every day for the 30 days of November, to write 1667 words – you might just write a book. Now surely that was on the ADVENTURE list of your Bucket List? I am sure writing a book does not come under the mundane. If it is not mundane then it cannot be a chore.

This is a reminder for those first time NaNo writers that it is better to seek after adventure and fail then to not. Make this your challenge. Make NaNoWriMo your adventure in 2010. Attempt something new, risky and unchartered.

If you are an experienced NaNo writer, you may have many past NaNo successes or you may have tried and failed to write the minimum due to a common case of life-interruptus or even the infallible procrastinitis. Either way, don’t let NaNoWriM0 2010 be just another NaNoWriMo. Make it the ADVENTURE of 2010. Make this NaNoWriMo different. Pretend it is your first. Look at it with fresh eyes.

Sometimes when traveling, you don’t always have to travel to new places. you just go down different roads and make new adventures. One way to make NaNoWriMo a New ADVENTURE is to write in a style you are not used to write in or write in a different genre. There are a hundred different ways that you could make the 2010 NaNoWriMo novel different from anything else you have written. NaNoWriMo is all about sailing in unchartered waters. You might surprise yourself what island paradises you come across in your adventure.

So how are you going to make NaNoWriMo the ADVENTURE of your 2010? For myself I am trying my hand at a new genre. I plan on Making time every day in November to write at least 1667 words. I want to explore new places. I want to be able to hold a finished book in my hands at the end of it…a book not destined for file 13 but a book destined for publication. That is going to be my adventure for 2010.

One week left to pack the supplies in your writing backpacks. One week left to check your compass is holding to True Creative North. One week left to check you have adequate food and drink ready for your adventure. One week left to get your shots against procrastinitis and that pesky life-interruptus. Are you ready yet?

Enjoy this last week.

Anticipate November 2010.

Bring on the Adventure of NaNoWriMo.


© All rights reserved Kim Koning.

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