I mentioned a while ago that I had an extraordinary and extremely vivid dream about ja-ja birds – these imagined mythical creatures were wheeling and sailing past me as I climbed up a very steep track along a canyon, high above a racing torrent in a valley below. It’s one of those completely inexplicable dreams, with no known source or cause, and which has haunted me ever since. It was so vivid that it seems like an actual memory, and of course, you won’t be surprised that I want to write about it.
I’ve done a lot of pondering, and not much – but some writing, but it’s been on my mind. I wrote a short piece from my original notes jotted down the morning after as soon as I awoke. Several thoughts came to me as I did these jottings, that the main character had read about these fantastical birds in a seminal work by a great but mysterious author,. She had come to the remote and almost inaccessible valley which was the only known haunt of these maroon birds, somewhat like frigate birds. She has come to see them but also to learn more about the author and his obscure but important work of great literature. I didn’t know how to progress, how to tell the story and from whose point of view. Since I had dreamt it as if I were a character, I felt as if I should tell it from her point of view – but whether as a first person narrative or not, I wasn’t sure. There was a second strand to the dream and story, Other tourists had been on the steep and dangerously narrow track up the side of the gorge, and an American woman had fallen/was pushed by her companion.
I’ve now had another thought about it. I have begun to write something else from a different point of view, but still including all the elements – the steep gorge above the raging stream with its walls of brilliant green rock, the wheeling ja-jas and the American tourist. Supposing this part of the story was contained within a travel book/diary/journal/travelogue/memoir from the woman who saw the ja-jas, and thought she saw the murder of the American tourist? Supposing the actual story was told by someone who was writing about this legendary and possibly untrue story? Supposing she was “investigating” the incident through letters, newspaper reports, and as above, travel book etc? Supposing she isn’t in the canyon, but quotes the memories of those who were?
I now have this possible character – as yet nameless, but probably with some perfectly ordinary and common name for a person of her age. For some reason she has just got off a train, has left the station and is waiting for her transport to somewhere she can research the story, and write her book.
As I mentioned the other day, November is the month associated with the 50,000 words in thirty days challenge, which has served me well in the past when I’ve been trying to write. We’re now on day 3 of the challenge, and I’ve only a few paragraphs and some scrappy ideas. Does this sound promising or even possible? Well, this was how I started my first Radwinter book, and it’s now an eight book series! That was then and so different, the ja-jas are new and so very different… I’m going to accept the challenge, taking up the gauntlet and get writing!
