...where was I?

[myz_lilith]

Oh yes. ladybirdintheuk's five things to write about, continued. (First part can be found here.)

3- dragoms

I was trying for AGES to think up of a funny, punny take on the word dragoms, but I can't, so I am just going to write about dragons instead ;-)

I was never the slightest bit interested in unicorns when I was young. I was always crazy about dragons. Maybe this was because I never had a horsey phase, as so many girls do. Maybe it was just that dragons were ancient and armoured and and wise and cruel and predatory and ruled the air and laid waste to all their enemies with glorious searing flame. I don't know. It might be that. (I was always a bit strange, even as a child.) Plus they came in all kinds of dangerous and dramatic colours, whereas your unicorn was only available in the standard white and silver. (Even as a little girl I knew pink unicorns were bad and wrong and had no place on this earth, or anywhere else for that matter.)

(But not quite as bad and wrong as some of these which are probably what put unicorns v dragons in my head to begin with...)

I was happy beyond all imagination when I discovered I was born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon. It kind of made up for being a Wednesday's child. (I have absolutely zero belief in any kind of astrology, but that doesn't mean it can't make me happy.)

There's probably something very deep and significant about the kind of mythological creature you identified with a child. Unfortunately it's probably now been turned into a Facebook quiz and so destroyed forever.

One day I WILL make a pair of dragon wings. And when I finally get round to getting a tattoo (which going by current progress will probably be when I'm 70... but at least that way I'll know which bits have gone wrinkly and be able to design around them) it will involve a dragon. The delay comes because I am designing the piece myself, so perfectionism keeps kicking in, as does indecision. The current plan is dragon wings tattooed across my back, which would kind of combine the two. I just haven't drawn them yet...

4- Gaiman

I love a great deal of what he has written - comics, prose and poetry - very much indeed. He indulges my love of mythology, and myths reinvented, and archetypes, and understands that it all really comes down to stories. Myths are important not because they hint at lost histories, but because we can read in the bits that are remembered what we really want to believe we are. We are formed from the stories we tell about ourselves. Stories carve their way through our minds like water through stone.

Anyway, aside from that, the man is sickeningly talented, and stole several of my best stories through the completely underhand tactics of writing them first, and better. (I know they were mine because they felt like me when I read them.) I would declare a vendetta against him but dedbutdrmng went and did it first. EVERYBODY always did something first. It's enough to make you cut your ear off in despair.

On the other hand, there is a story of his - a twist on the Snow White fairytale - that is identical in theme to one I read years ago by Tanith Lee. It's reassuring... both that even highly talented people end up echoing one another, and that both stories stand alone in spirit, even if they shared the same twist.

5- DIY

Most people think that DIY is a practical and physical pursuit. They couldn't be more wrong. It is in fact a modern day form of arcane and mystic magicks. The secret to good DIY is precisely worded spellcasting. Only the correct sequence of swearing and cursing, punctuated with the ritual dancing in a circle clutching your thumb, and backed up by the correct sacrifice (sometimes the bit you swore was there a second ago, but more usually blood) will cause the component parts to rise up and bond together into the bookcase of your dreams.

(What? You mean you don't dream of bookcases? Strange people...)

---

I am really enjoying writing these. It's the let-your-mind-unwind-ness of writing fiction, but without the terrible perfectionism that always ends up hobbling that. I got some good suggestions of topics to ponder upon earlier today, but I'd really like some more. Go on, throw me a word or two!

And is it just me, or does the cheerful icon look like it's plotting something?

Comments

[ladybirdintheuk.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading it too :)

[sarah-orange.livejournal.com]

I like reading your musings and stories :)

you've written about dragons so what about dinosaurs now?

and dancing?

[myz-lilith.livejournal.com]

Dinosaurs are here! Dancing later...