fiction

Separating the Artist from the Art

~ tinaaltman ~ 1 Comment

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Its taken a while but I have learned to separate the art from the artist.  When it comes to artist’s work – its not about you and your perceptions of the creator but the work itself.

I used to project all my expectations on artists due to how I perceived them through their work, which ultimately they didn’t live up to because humans are fallible and not perfect (same goes for the rest of us).

I’m making this in reference to some of my favourite writers whose life choices, behaviours and personal feelings I do not agree with yet their artistry speaks to me.

For eg.  Lord Byron, a chronicled misogynist whose poems touch me, yet as a feminist his behaviour and comments towards women…not so much!

So next time you judge someone’s work because of their character – step back and separate yourself from it.  View it from a completely neutral perspective and who knows? You might like it!

Book Inspiration: Aesop’s Fables

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The first book I recall from my earliest memories as a child, is learning to read using Aesop’s Fables.  I loved the simple story telling full of allegory and re-read them over and over again.  Filled with moral and ethical lessons I feel this is the book which shaped me the most.

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Write something every day…

~ tinaaltman ~ Leave a comment

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The only way to write regularly is to make it a habit.

The only way to make it a habit, is to set yourself a daily goal.

Set yourself a target of several hundred words a day and build from there.

It doesn’t matter what you write – as long as you do it everyday!

Make sure you always have your writing tools on hand whether it be a pen and notebook, smartphone or ipad/laptop/desktop.

Most importantly I suggest you pick a time of the day you prefer and schedule it into your diary.

I’ve set myself a target of 500-1000 words a day and I have been following through with it….granted my subject tends to jump from fiction to non-fiction but I am still writing every day and that was my goal 🙂

 

 

What Inspires Me: Poem by Wordsworth

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Love Wordsworth and this sonnet which to me sings of a writers freedom yet being trapped…

Nuns fret not

Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room; 
And hermits are contented with their cells;
And students with their pensive citadels; 
Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom, 
Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom, 
High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells, 
Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells: 
In truth the prison, into which we doom 
Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me, 
In sundry moods, ’twas pastime to be bound 
Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground; 
Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) 
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, 
Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

W. Wordsworth 

What Inspires Me: Antiques

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I have a slight obsession with some antiques – usually the ones which are from early to mid last century.

Looking and touching these items, I ponder who bought it, why they bought it and what they did with it.

It enables my imagination to run wild and imagine the various time periods and the kinds of lives these items touched.

 

Feminist Fairy Tales

~ tinaaltman ~ 1 Comment

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I am working on a short story retelling of a classic fairy-tale, but from an ancient world mythological point of view and a woman’s perspective.

Therefore, I have been re-familiarizing myself with Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales for inspiration.

After rereading a few volumes of said fairy tales I was reminded why I became a feminist at age 4.

Those tales are full of so much sexism that it hurts my brain.

If I was one of the female fairy tale characters set in the 17th -19th century I would of ended up like this:

Once upon a time in a land far far away there lived…

An outspoken girl with no titles yet was educated and self assured regarding her own opinion.

She didn’t live happily ever after, as she was promptly executed (or excommunicated) for being a feminist.

The End

Suffice to say my re imagined fairy tale is going to come from a feminist point of view…or so I envision it that way…lets see how she fairs 😉