Tag Archives: Dragon

How I Fell in Love with Dragons

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I love dragons. They remain my favorite fantasy creatures.

I don’t remember where I first encountered dragons. It could be on TV or in books. In fact, it was probably TV, because I wasn’t the biggest reader when I was 5. Or 6. Or 7. Or even 8. LOL

But I know the first time I read The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley, that was when I fell in love with dragons. I read the story over and over and over again in 6th grade. It was different somehow. Dragons were different.

I don’t think I’d ever seen them as medium-sized pests before. They’d always been huge menacing beasts in my head. And, yeah, there is a big dragon in the book. But the little ones came first and that made all the difference.

The big one was pretty magnificent, too. But more normal, you know? More what I pictured when someone said dragon.

That same year I discovered the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by  Patricia C. Wrede and it turned every princess story I’d ever watched on its head. I never imagined dragons could be like that!

A couple of years later (when I had my adult library card) I found the Pern books. I’d never seen dragons like that, either. They could talk, they needed to chew something to make fire and they could travel back in time. You could fly on the dragon! They were genetically engineered, but that was a minor detail.

I wanted to fly on my own dragon. I read the dragon rider books and dreamed of what it would be like to ride my own dragon.

Writing is the closest I’ve ever come to that feeling. If that makes sense. Maybe it doesn’t; dragons aren’t real after all.

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Writerly Teaser Tuesday: December 28 2010

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Last writerly teaser Tuesday for this year!

This is the fourth scene. I’ve already posted the first and second. The third – I am still wondering if the third one is necessary.

“Hiss insstinctss are good.” She whirled. The dragon’s large head poked through her doorway; her body was still in the hall outside. Likely because her workshop didn’t have enough space for a full grown dragon. How had the dragon gotten up here?

Even out of the trance, dark violet energy swirled around the dragon like scent clung to a rose. That had interrupted her spell and made it go wrong, she realized. The sudden blast of energy had destroyed the potion.

“What do you want?” she burst out. “Get out!”

Ajani’s whimpers grew louder at the sight of his mother. He wriggled in her arms, begging to be let down, and his claws pricked her skin through her clothes. But she only held him tighter. The dragon would kill him if he got loose.

“Ssuch wordss, princessss.”

Ajani yowled into her ear and a faint ache bloomed in the back of her head. “True words.”

The dragon’s long forked tongue licked out toward her. “Come, princessss. He wantss to come to me. Let him go.”

“No.” She infused the word with as much certainty as she could.

“Princessss, you musst be reassonable -”

She raised herself to her full height. “Ajani is no longer your concern. He will live. I will make certain of it.”

“In two monthss, your potionss have not ssucceeded. He iss sstill ill, sstill dying. The cemetery -”

“- is not where he belongs!”

“Daughter.” From behind the dragon, her father picked his way forward. He stopped in front of her, resplendent in his crown and crimson silks. “Tonight. You will take it-”

“His name is Ajani!”

He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “-to the cemetery. It will be done with all due ceremony.”

“No!” The word erupted from her, like a tree splitting from the cold.

As he walked out, she realized this was a royal decree and that she had little choice but to obey.

“You do nothing wrong here, Princess. The babe cannot -”

“Get out! Out! Out! Out!” Her voice was loud in her ears, loud enough to silence Ajani’s cries.

The dragon stared at her for a long moment, than backed out. She slammed the door shut, than sank to her knees in front of it.

Ajani stared up at her. Her tears rolled down his face and he raised a claw curiously. “Everything will be well,” she whispered to him.

 

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Blizzard and the Fourth Scene

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pic from the Daily News who credits Ruttle/AP

If I took a pic of my car, this is what it would look like.

Blizzard peoples! About a foot and half of snow, maybe two feet in spots, possibly higher. High, high snow drifts. Cars are just a shape under the snow. Not sure how many streets are clear – I doubt any side streets are. There were impassable streets even in the city, which is pretty damn amazing, as snow disappears there so fast you can barely tell it snowed. The subway is barely running, which has pretty much shut down the city. The subway people ought to called emergency workers, just like the police and firefighters and ambulances. Bet nothing is open today. They are trying to defrost the third rail. Lots and lots of blowing snow. Good day to go sledding.

NBC has pictures here.

Back to my regularly scheduled program. ;)

So . . . I spent the blizzard working on the fourth scene for the short dragon story. It is done and it does not look good for the baby dragon. In fact, I am beginning to wonder how much of the third scene is even necessary. Not a lot, I don’t think. I am going to have to cut most, if not all, of it. I am winding down to the end; there is only one or two more scenes left. I am a little depressed now because I have no idea how the girl is going to save the baby dragon.

Do other people have this problem? Wanting to end the story one way, but a different ending makes more sense. A different, more depressing ending. I don’t like depressing endings and I would rather not end this story that way.

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On Defining A Scene

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I have read articles on scenes creation where it tells you to write a sentence stating what is supposed to happen during the scene. I have never done that before. I never thought it would be useful. Until now. I downloaded the beta version of Scrivener for Windows (thank you Lex!) and despite a few crashes, I have used it to actually write my whole dragon short story on it. It is kinda nice.

Anyway, among other things, it inspires me to write a short a description of each scene. The scene’s “index card” shows on a corkboard (the background really does look like a cork board!) and it shows the description. Like so:

Introduce is misspelled on the second index card, but ignore that. I didn’t need the description for the first two scenes, I just liked to see it there. I knew exactly what I wanted and how to go about it. No real doubts.

But the third scene, the one I had so much trouble, my description was a real guide. I kept going back and forth from my scene to the description. My description was: “She makes a potion and something goes wrong.” The most important part about it is the “something goes wrong”. When I wrote that, I didn’t know what was going to go wrong, only that something was. Seeing it right in front of helped me focus on that, helped me figure out what might go wrong.

Otherwise, I would have just meandered, gone here, gone there, but not really ended up anywhere. I did that in the beginning anyway and I am pretty sure my meandering would have been worse if the description hadn’t been there in front of my face.

So lesson learned. Write a short description for each scene.

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Writerly Teaser Tuesdays

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An excerpt from the short story WiP. It is was inspired from two photos. It is fantasy, involves a baby dragon, and a princess-witch. It may have healing magic of sorts – I hope anyway, because otherwise the baby dragon will be dead and I don’t want that. I also don’t have a name yet for the girl. Hopefully that will come soon.

She caressed Ajani. His purple hide was scaly under her fingertips, scaly and rough as tree bark. It should be as dewy as a new leaf, especially since he was still just a baby. He stirred on the window seat, raised his small head to peer up at her. At least his eyes were still a bright, beautiful gold. “You’ll be well again,” she murmured to him. She would make certain of it. She was almost out of the potion, but if she had to, she would stay up all night to make it. He would get well again. He would! He was hers and she was keeping him.

His long, painfully thin tail warped around her arm and he mewled piteously. He lurched toward the window, dragging her arm with him. His claws scrabbled on the glass and she caught her breath.

A dignified, gloriously violet dragon walked under the triple-arched entrance into the courtyard. It was the only entrance large enough to accommodate a full-grown dragon. The females were always bigger and Nneke was bigger than any other. She stood a full seven feet tall from snout to hind-legs, with an additional seven feet of tail. She was also poor Ajani’s dam. When she knew for certain he was gravely ill, she cast him out. Dragons did not suffer weak babes.

“Hush,” she said. “Come along. We will go somewhere else.” Somewhere with no reminders about how his mother had rejected him. She gathered him up in her arms, blanket and all, and made certain her grip on him was secure. He weighed no more than one of her silk dresses.

On Introductions and Hooks

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I encountered the concept of hooks maybe a year ago. Before that I thought hooks were the really catchy part in a song. In stories, the hook is the thing that makes you want to go on reading. At the time, it was a bit of revelation. At the time, I thought it sounded like a trick, but I am not sure now. I can just picture a hook digging into the reader’s belly, urging her to read for just one more chapter. Just one more chapter!

So, anyway, my first page has to do hook the reader, introduce the character and the situation. As I write fantasy, I also need to introduce the world and the magic. It is a tall order for 300 words. Since it is a short story, I figure I will keep it simple – dragons, princesses, witches, very little actual magic. I had only written 20 words before I discovered the dragon was sick, the girl was a princess and a witch. Now I am worried because I don’t like killing characters, but the second picture is of a cemetery and I am scared the dragon will die at the end.

But I don’t think the really sick dragon is the hook. I don’t know what my hook is. I wasn’t thinking about it when I wrote the first 266 words, but I am thinking about it now and I just don’t know. Is it even something I should worry about? Maybe hooks are part of the editing process, not the writing process.

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