Merry Wives of Windsor

[watervole]

We're going to see The Merry Wives of Windsor this evening on Brownsea Island, taking the boys and the daughter outlaw. It should be good fun; they do a Shakespeare play there every year to raise money for the National Trust and we've been several times before.

I just hope I can stay awake. I feel so tired all the time. I went to see Rosalie on Saturday and we chatted. Played with my nephews for a while. Taught Alex (age 2 and a half) how to do somersaults, which he thought was great fun. The only catch is that he likes to take it in turns. I'm young enough to be able to turn somersaults and cartwheels, but old enough for the novelty to wear off after a dozen.

Went on a half-day course identifying heathland plants yesterday. Can now do bog asphodel and heath spotted orchid and several others that I didn't know before, but I'll have to revise them asap or they'll slip out of memory. Early revision is crucial in learning.

You can walk over a heathland bog without sinking more than an inch, but if you poke a stick in, it can easily go down a metre.

Wet heath is far prettier and more interesting than dry heath, but you do need to watch where you're treading.

I was so tired when we got back that I went to bed for an hour, but we hadn't actually walked more than a couple of miles. Mostly stress, I guess.

I got the germ of a story idea while sitting in the hospice garden while Rosalie had her afternoon sleep. (Lovely hospice, great staff, lovely garden) I knew she'd need to rest a lot so I came prepared with books, tarot cards and notebook. The hospice had some books for sale as well, so I bought one on British mythology which tied in neatly with a Merlin idea that I'd been stuck on for years. I worked a Tarot layout for plot development (one for theme, three for the plot set-up, three for developoments and three for the conclusion, plus one for an enemy) and got something that looked very promising. The nephews arrived before I'd fully worked it out, but I saved the layout for later. (If anyone ever needs a convention workshop on plot development, just ask. It worked very well the last time I did it.)

If I can get it into a proper plot, then I can start writing again. I need a serious distraction since I finished the Canadian history outline.

Comments

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

The plot development thing sounds interesting. What Tarot do you use?

Gina

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I usually use a Waite deck, but this time I used a Lord of the Rings deck instead. I don't like that deck much for normal readings, but I do find it handy for some plot development work.

Most decks can be used, but I think some are a lot better than others. Very specialist decks tend to be somewhat limiting (eg dragons), and I'm not personally keen on ones that have numerical rather than pictorial representations of things like three of swords.

I've a strong preference for decks that follow the general Waite interpretations - which most do - but that's partly because it's what I'm familiar with and I don't usually have to look anything up unless I run clean out of ideas and need to look at less common interpretations.

Tarot is full of archetypes, and thus works very well for plot outlines.

Using a layout for different parts of the plot forces you to think about the development and progression of the story and you can also do a lot of useful readings when trying to assign logical character motivations. Celtic cross layouts are handy for aims and motivations and there's a good one for developing characters on a layout around the seven of cups.

The cards also have a brainstorming element to them. eg. I did an exercise with a group of fans developing a Stargate story, drew the 'devil' and someone promptly called out 'Sokar' (who is the goa'uld who impersonates the devil).