Motivation
Motivation
As I wrote in Intermission, Merchant was conceived to be structurally a romance; a romance patterned on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, in which a man proposes to a woman, she rejects him, circumstances push them together in adversity which allows her to get to know him better, they marry.
On Publishing
On Publishing
The problem with creating narratives — writing stories, essentially, although it is a bit wider than that — is reaching an audience. If your narratives, your stories, are not read, or listened to, or otherwise appreciated by someone else, then creating them in the first place is essentially just masturbation. Or, if that word is too raw for you, then busy-work.
To write stories — to hone your skill at writing stories — you need an audience: you need an audience which does not just consume, but in some sense feeds back — whether that's through reviews, or through money. In a capitalist society, having money is nice of course; but if you've been reading this blog at all, you'll know that I'm not a believer in capitalism. I believe that the world would be a better place if we all just gave stuff away, to those in our communities who needed or wanted it.
Intermission
Intermission
Meta-meta-narrative: this piece is written as an experiment. If it works, it will end up being the first of a series of intermissions into the narrative of a story on which I'm working, which has the work-in-progress title 'Merchant'. These intermissions will collectively describe the process by which the narrative arrived in its final form — if it ever does.
The Hall Fees Issue
The Hall Fees Issue
Auchencairn has a village hall. It's one of the most significant community assets the village has. It's a solidly built stone building on the south side of the Square that isn't a square, in the centre of the village. Its primary purpose, at least as it's been used over my lifetime, is as a general purpose venue for events.
Why not a bicycle?
Why not a bicycle?
This is a new post in a series of essays which, up to now, has been about tricycles. At the start I ruled out a bicycle because
- I'm designing a vehicle for my old age;
- my balance is deteriorating;
- I live at the top of a considerable hill;
- after Covid, I had considerable difficulty getting an unassisted bicycle up the hill;
- I've always been wary of recumbent bicycles because of their alleged poor climbing ability.