I write a great deal, and not just my blogs or my stories, but other random stuff; in the olden days such things would have been on scraps of paper, sometimes even the actual back of an envelope or fag packet (before the days of email, when communications came in envelopes with flaps, and when smoking was so common that there were cigarette packets everywhere) These days, I write an odd Word document, save it, and come back to it months, sometimes years later and wonder what on earth it was all about… the beginning of a story, an observation, a dream? Strange lists, quotes, random phrases… who knows, but they obviously meant something, and enough of a something to save.
I wrote some time ago about a book I came across, ‘Stones from the Muse – Runes for the Creative Journey’, Emily Herman and Jennifer Richard Jacobson; they had created their own ‘runes’ to be used as part of the creative process. The copy of the book I had, came with no runes; it was in a second-hand book stall, but I used the idea with my writing groups, when I created a set of items to be used as inspiration – in various different ways. The actual items could be used as themselves, or they could have a significance or meaning which could be the source.
I have just come across the computer doc version of the back of a fag packet… a list of twenty-six things… perhaps they relate to an alphabet, perhaps they are runes… who knows… I have quite forgotten, but here is my mystery list
- Seated bowman
- Bowman
- Bow
- Pattern
- Simple pattern
- Diamond
- Squirl
- Deer
- Buffalo
- Jellyfish
- Scorpion
- Turtle
- Standing man
- Pushing man
- Speaking man
- Crane
- Vulture
- Square
- Tusked creature
- Three diamonds
- Leaf
- Goat
- Frog
- Concentric squirl
- Y
- Nothing
I don’t know why they are in that order, if it is random or specific – and actually, I can’t even remember if I ordered the list in a particular way or why there are twenty-six – maybe a code for the alphabet? … so this list with its odd items , buffalo, jellyfish, three diamonds, is a complete mystery… Maybe it is one that my character Thomas Radwinter should be presented with… and of course, in the end, after much excitement and adventure, he would find the answer!
if you want to see how Thomas finds the answer to the other mysteries he’s set, here is a link to my ebooks:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lois+elsden
Lois Elsden 