My graphic is a photo taken at a point along the Mosel River in Germany. Not surprisingly there is a bridge featured which is why I decided it best reflected one of the main focus areas in the disappearance section of the story. The story is set in Sweden but I think this picture works.
The Mosel
The crime novel, ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ by Stieg Larsson has been in circulation for a couple of years now but never tempted me until it was recommended recently by a friend. The intro to the story sounded intriguing but was then followed by a detailed analysis of high finance which I felt took some concentration to get through. I persevered to find myself totally immersed in the story and taking a shine to the two leading characters, Mikael and Lisbeth (The Girl).
The story of a young girl’s mysterious disappearance alone is not a sufficiently interesting plot but when sub-plots are interwoven into the tale it becomes a gripping suspense story. An unlikely alliance is formed when discredited freelance journalist, Mikael Blomkwist finds himself teamed up with a young, self-employed Private Investigator, Lisbeth Salander.
Murder, sex, violence and moral dilemmas abound in this story where I only had two criticisms; too much detail in certain areas and an excessive list of characters, further complicated by their tongue twisting Swedish names. I understand that to create a good mystery a reasonable cast is required but I do believe in this case it could have been trimmed and still worked well.
Criticisms aside, it’s a well told tale with a surprising conclusion. Having now read this, the first of the Millenium Trilogy I now look forward to reading the other two. Due to my other current projects I’m planning to leave the next Millenium story until the end of March. My main competition piece (Hawk), will be out of my hands by then.
I’ve added another poem, ‘Mutual Satisfaction’ to my list at Starlite Cafe today which carries the tag of ‘mild adult concepts’. To be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys their poetry with a hint of titillation.
In my opinion it’s always good to keep things in perspective and an important time is when you feel as an individual that you’re under pressure. It doesn’t matter if it’s self-imposed, just as it can be a lot of the time being a writer – it’s still there bearing down on you. For many years I’ve dealt with pressure by imagining how my case would match up to the circumstances that somebody else is dealing with. I know it’s extreme, but if we go back to the days of gladiators I think we find a time where pressure on the individual was as real as it can get.
The Collisseum - Rome
My photo above shows the Collisseum as it looks now with it’s representative piece of rebuilt staging at one end. Yes, it’s nice to get some idea of what it might have looked like, but the key area for me when I took the picture was the area below, where all those waiting to fight or be sacrificed would be spending some time. Now that for me represents real pressure.
What’s my point, apart from stating the obvious? I don’t believe that those of us who like to call ourselves writers produce a good result unless we put ourselves under some pressure. Okay, I’m not suggesting I strip off, grab a trident, a net and go looking for a fully grown lion. I apply my own pressure by keeping more than one project on the go. Invariably it’s three short stories but at the moment things are a little different.
I have the novel writing competition I mentioned in my previous post, of which I’m now pleased to report I’m in control. I’ve completely re-worked Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of my chosen entry, ‘Hawk, A Human Hunter’. For the first time I’ve now also written a synopsis, which I found more difficult than rewriting the story. Those two chapters and the synopsis are saved and stored for a week before I revisit them. I’ve decided to get my mind focused deeper into the plot by continuing with the next logical chapters. That should keep the story uppermost in my mind even if it’s not the competition chapters.
I’m also working on a short story for a web-based competition and a sci-fi short story and synopsis for another web-based competiton. I wrote a poem yesterday about emotions and one today about the changing seasons. I haven’t written poetry regularly since December. I may ration myself to one or two verses a week so I can concentrate on my storytelling. Apart from being creative writing in it’s own right I’ve found that writing poetry serves two other purposes for me. First and foremost, it gets the brain cells warmed up and working. Secondly the practical aspect of typing out the work gets me settled onto the keyboard in preparation for my other projects.
Apart from writing I’m delighted to report that Carmen, the fellow writer I’m mentoring is doing particularly well. Her own writing has improved considerably in just a couple of months but her proof-reading of my work is demonstrating that she has that all important eye for detail we all wish we had. I must admit that I sometimes find things like figures slip through the editing net. Those occasions when in my haste to write or rewrite I overlook ‘3’ when it should be ‘three’ or ‘four thousand’ when it should be ‘4,000’. I’m getting better, but Carmen is proving to me I am still careless on occasion. So I’ll take this opportunity to say a big public ‘thank you’ to my distant friend.
In between all the other activities, like any writer worth his (or her) salt, I’m also reading. I’m about half way through ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,’ which I downloaded onto my Kindle a few days ago.
tombensoncreative.com 