learning

atthequillsmercy

My Thoughts on the Witch Craze

PicMonkey Collage

Now that American Horror Story: Coven and Witches of East End have been out for awhile, this witch thinks it’s time to address what bothers me about these shows both as a fan and a practicing witch.

Both shows start on the premise that women suddenly come in to powers they didn’t know they had and have to be taught how to use them. They seem to start on that journey but then all of a sudden, they are just slinging spells all over the place and have no freaking clue what they’re doing or what the consequences will be. People die, come back to life, die again, come back as shades and don’t know what they are, portals to places get ripped open, and nobody seems to give a rat’s ass as they do these things. The “I found out I was a witch yesterday so now I’m gonna just do whatever” mentality bugs me because (ESPECIALLY in Coven because they are in what is supposed to be a school and made a big damn deal about what learning witchcraft would entail) there is so much drama going on in the background, it’s seemed to turn into a soap opera with magic.

This isn’t to say the shows aren’t enjoyable. I am hooked. I have to know what happens next. But if I think about how the shows started, I wonder where that plot line went and if they are ever going to bring it back. I enjoy wondering who The Supreme is (Coven) or who is in this other world full of witches (East End) but the character development the first few episodes promised never happened. So, how are these characters supposed to withstand the trials ahead when they’re just as woefully unprepared as they were in the first episode? Are they all of a sudden gonna level up to 9000 just to wrap up the plot? And it certainly doesn’t present a good view of real witches as flighty manipulators who reach for their spell books without thinking.

Now, I certainly didn’t expect anyone to hold hands and sing We Are The World or anything in these shows. There is nothing to watch if there isn’t any conflict. But part of this experience is to see the characters grow and change; and that includes some sort of actual teaching happening on camera. And none of that has happened yet. All the characters have some sort of deus ex machina-esque sudden knowledge of what they’re doing – and it’s rarely complete and frequently blows up in their faces.

As these shows go on, I would like to see some sort of training of the fledgling witches in these shows. It would showcase witchcraft as a CRAFT, a skill which must be honed and practiced, AND it would give the characters a chance to grow their powers through the plot instead of on the fly when its convenient. I don’t want Hogwarts, but I want these witches to learn SOMETHING.

atthequillsmercy

Pagan Blog Project – “U” for “Undefined”

Ahh, the unknowable element. The looming cloud of the incomprehensible. I know this may scare some people but to me, this can also mean potential. Anything undefined leaves space for definition, for discovery.

In a way I envy neopyites since they have so much to discover and to learn. In their search for definition, they will have epiphanies I have to search my tired old brain to remember.

I try to explain to friends and my kid that not knowing, being undefined, isn’t a bad thing; it’s an opportunity. It’s a clear path to discovery and it’s being laid out right before you. Don’t miss the chance and enjoy the journey.

 

atthequillsmercy

Giving up: Knowing When To Throw In The Towel

I have finished the rough draft for one anthology entry and I’m 7 written pages into the second. However, I have come to realize there is no way I will get to finish both of them in time to submit. They are both due on the 24th, one is 1,200 words and needs to be 5,000 and the other needs to be 10,000 and I am no where near that.

So, I give up.

I will write both but instead of submitting two crappy manuscripts which will absolutely get rejected, I can focus on the short one, get it all perty like, and finish the other one at my leisure. And who knows? Maybe the stars will align and I will finish both to submission quality. And maybe the unicorns who live in my closet will cry tears of liquid silver and I will sell it to pay off my mortgage. :p

It is a pretty big closet…

This is a hard lesson for me to learn and it’s one I’ve had to learn more than once: You can’t do EVERYTHING, and you don’t HAVE to. Anything I don’t finish by the deadline, I can polish myself and put together as an anthology. Just because I can’t have them all traditionally published doesn’t mean they will languish unread on my flash drive. Some will even be on my site, as well. ^_^

Are you excited? Because I am. Excited and proud at getting so much done, even if it isn’t all on time. 😉

atthequillsmercy

Admiration: Learning from the masters.

Most of the time, I think I should be spending my time writing rather than reading about writing. Wouldn’t my time be better spent honing my craft than reading the words of someone who’s already done it? In this case it’s a good thing I ignored my own advice because I would have been denied the mental TNT that is Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury.

I plan to buy a copy of my own to deface with a highlighter, but wow… I was alternately cowed and inspired. While I don’t care much for word association, what I took away from this book is:

1: I am not alone in my fierce need to write. It’s write or die a miserable, uncreative death choking on the words which should have been put to paper.

and 2: I will never, EVER be anywhere as good as Bradbury; who wrote most of these inspiring essays before I was even born. 0.0

After giving it a great deal of thought, I’ve decided that in all honesty, I shouldn’t try to be like Bradbury. I shouldn’t try to be like anyone and in doing so, I would have missed the entire point of Bradbury’s book.

Bradbury went into great detail about how, when he was young, his "friends" would try and talk him out of his favorite comics and I can recall getting the same treatment. Especially since I was a girl. "Girls are not supposed to read X-Men." "Comics are for boys. Here, take this Barbie instead."

You know what I did with those Barbies? I played X-Men with them. Endless visits to the Hellfire Club got repetitive (what else was I supposed to do with all those gowns!?) and Cyclops was now a Black woman (not many "Ken" dolls) but I didn’t care. I LOVED it. I loved comics, I loved fantasy, I thought the Crypt Keeper was a genius, and that the Twilight Zone was a temple in which Rod Sterling should be worshiped. As a teenager, Lady Death and Evil Ernie taught me that you can do any damn thing you want when you write and draw and to tell those girls who called you a lesbian for drawing women in superhero uniforms to fucking suck it. Yes, that really happened. The lesbian part, not the actual telling them to suck it. I just looked at them like they were morons and went on with my life.

What does all that senseless rambling mean? I don’t need to try and be like Bradbury. I already am by virtue of being myself and having no fear. You can’t write if you have fear. Am I scared that someone will come up to me and say my book sucked so hard, they wanted to pour bleach in their eyes? Sure. But in that moment when you put pen to paper and you are at the mercy of characters, pouring your soul out on to the page, you are making magic. Let it take you.