Evening folks!
Just a quickie tonight. After work I had non-writing bits and bobs to do so no words today.
I have just finished Ritualistic Human Sacrifice by C.V. Hunt and damn what a book! Well worth checking out!
Right I’m off to bed! Rock on folks!
Hey folks, how are we all doing today?
Yesterday I wrote 336 words on a short story but also did a lot of research for the same short story, and I’ve come to the decision that I’m just gonna go balls to the walls and yet loose. I’m not going to worry about grounding it in reality. I’m just gonna try and make it batshit crazy.
I’m having trouble letting go when I write recently. Stephen King said in On Writing that you have to write like an orphan, or words to that effect. I was reminded of this when watching the film M.F.A. recently. At the end of the film there’s a line where it basically says art shouldn’t just preserve the beauty of life, but also the brutality. Make art uncomfortable. I love this message. So many of us grow up listening to music about good love, or films where everyone lives happily ever after.
Art is different for everyone. Some people thrive on the uncomfortable while others thrive on a good old romcom. Everyone is different and we embrace different things. For me, what I write, people will find uncomfortable. But some will find it fun. I can watch Saw movies with barely a flinch at the content, but watched The VVitch and The Ritual, made me squirm in my seat. But there are different degrees of being uncomfortable. Listening to the audiobooks of The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum and What Good Girls Do by Jonathan Butcher made me very uncomfortable. Even to the point where I had to stop listening to them. M.F.A. falls into that grouping. Although not as extreme as I Spit On Your Grave, it’s still a content matter that is not pleasant and when done wrong, without the respect the topic deserves it just makes a whole other level of horrific.
For films like The Vvitch and The Ritual, these made me uncomfortable because there’s a witchcraft/cult elements to them. An unknown factor that made me uncomfortable in a way I’d yet to experience. It’s something I’m still trying to put my finger on exactly why I find it uncomfortable.
Another book that made me uncomfortable is The Silence by Tim Lebbon. This one I had to stop listening to three times. It’s got a quiet brutality to it, one which I can see happening. There’s three distinct moments in The Silence which I could see myself being in that situation. Having to make an uncomfortable decision.
Not being scared to write things which people will be uncomfortable with or offended by is something I need to be better with. I’m not going to write something just because it’s shocking. I don’t think that works and people tend to see through things like that. I’ll strive to write what the story is asking for.
Right, speaking of writing it’s time to get a few hours done.
Rock on folks, never give up on that dream. Never let someone take it away or belittle it or you. Just keep going.
I listened to the audiobook version of What Good Girls Do, and it is a brutal listen. But it is so masterfully crafted that you can’t help but keep going with it. There were times that I found myself squirming a little at what the characters are going through but really egging them on.
It deals with a topic that is not comfortable but it’s something that does need talking about in my opinion. Just because something is uncomfortable doesn’t mean we should ignore it, and I imagine it goes on more than we realise.
It really gives some gives some food for thought as well about how trauma and environment have an impact of the psyche.
Narrator Tara Court does a fantastic job with putting the emotion into the characters and what they were going through.
This isn’t extreme for the sake of it, it has a deep message to it that although I really found the subject matter really uncomfortable I’m glad I’ve listened to this book.
Peter Germany's World 