Dichotomy is Garlic Bread on Jelly

Think the roller coaster will make you sick?

Check out Matilda's lunch!

 

Today I was provided a clear example of dichotomy. It was not from literature. Clarity came via my daughter's lunch.

Took the kids to Movieworld on the Goldcoast. They had a great day, going on rides, seeing shows, and, I had a great day - sitting under a tree with a book. For lunch, I took them to the buffet restaurant. They love to fill their plates with foods of their choice. Matilda's desert was particularly interesting: Garlic bread and jelly.

You gonna eat that Matilda?

I thought this might be a good opportunity to repost about dichotomy as a writing device:

Dichotomy is a writing device popular in fiction (it is the process of grouping themes or characters into binary oppositional groups). In order for opposites to reveal as dichotomies they must belong to one of the two opposing groups and never cross over. These days most writers using a dichotomy will have it strong to begin with but then start to blur the boundaries, showing that themes are rarely 'black and white'. Some popular uses are to show the dichotomy of:

• good and evil
• rich and poor
• human and alien
• life and death

In Warracknabeal Kids I will have a protagonist (12yr. old boy) begin with assumptions of the dichotomy of right and wrong. These will be supported by his father's view that the law decides and by the church's view that the soul decides. As the narrative progresses the boy will see the conflicts of defining right and wrong by actions, outcomes or intentions. The purpose of this is to support my novel's premise: Sometimes it takes a wrong action to make things right.

And, how did the garlic bread on jelly go down?

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Inspiration - Finding it on the Map

The Foggy Road North

This trip would be a chance for me to work on my novel, find some direction for my next WIP. Find direction? At one point I could barely find the road! Above is a pic taken during the day, the fog was so thick, I couldn't see the cars in front. How eerie is this scene? Wouldn't it make a great setting for a murder mystery?

Most travellers take the coast route to Queensland, but I like the inland one. There's the cutest little towns, pubs and gardens. I like quirky, and I found one region chocca with it. For a couple of hours, we would drive through towns, villages and past farms that all hosted... old bikes.

I first noticed it when I started seeing old children's bicycles hanging from trees like christmas ornaments or posted to the tree like a sign:

Before long, I saw animals fancied from bike bits and other 'junk', our favourite was the dinosaur:

 This got my brain whirling. How did the bike art come about? Was it just one guy who created these sculptures and travelled through his entire county distributing them? Or did one person try it and everyone followed their lead? Was it a council decision to distribute the old bikes? What happens if a town beyond the border decides to go ahead and put up bikes as well, if I hang a bike from a tree in my front yard, will I be slapped with a copyright infringement notice?

This got me to thinking how our stories begin, or where in my travels I might locate the town hosting my inspiration. Everywhere. It begins with us questioning and imagining. I immediately wondered what kind of man created this bike art and, was the entire community happy about it? Perhaps someone disliked the idea enough to kill him? (Not really I hope, just pondering some book ideas).

I also heard of a town nearby called 'Welcome' - and immediately I thought, great location for a murder, especially if the victim is a newcomer to the town, 'cause I don't think they'd be feeling the welcome.

So what happens after you start questioning, how does it become a story plot? For me, it comes with play. I play with the ideas and mix them up. I look at all the possibilities and one will latch onto me, make me need to write it. And darn it, somehow I'm gonna work that weird bike art man into my WIP. :-)

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Write and Drive

Still school holidays and I'm on a driving trip with the girls to visit my Dad in Brisbane. Right now I'm blogging from MacDonalds in the country town of Warrick (thanks to their free WiFi).
 In my suitcase I have, not only clothes, undies and pyjamas for me and the kids, but a whole stack of books to attack during this short trip. Amongst them are books on editing your novel, writing mystery novels and the one I'm excited to finally try: 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'. There are also an endless number of e-books and PDF files I have on hand on writing and editing.
 You'd think this would be enough to keep me busy for 4-5 days in the sunshine state, but yesterday (while at another country MacDonalds), I managed to sign up for Holly Lisle's 'How To Revise Your Novel' course (check out my friend Inky's page for a link to the course - she offers a discount). I've been doing Holly's 'How to Think Sideways' course on novel writing and have found many parts extremely helpful to get me started writing. Thanks to that course, and NaNoWriMo, I now have two manuscripts to edit (and yes they are also in my suitcase).
 Although I don't expect to get through even half of what I've packed, the best part of the holiday is not having the day to day distractions, or guilt (I can't sit down and write in my messy house, but I'm pretty sure I can happily write in someone else's mess).
 Travelling also provides lots of anecdotal opportunities to record for inspiration or straight-out life plagiarism for future novels. Will I write about the pub food in Goondiwindi (isn't that the best sounding town name?), that it was so slow, pretty ordinary tasting, but at least it was expensive? Maybe not, but it's recorded in my notebook - just in case.  :-)  Or maybe I'll want to capture the feeling of being in a town where most people are wearing Akubras (our cowboy hats), or how it felt to notice for the first time ever that Akubras are pretty sexy, when I always thought I was attracted to suits and ties?
 Plus the drive is even time spent wisely now with the wonderful invention of iPods, I listen to podcasts and audiobooks on writing and writers and when I need a break from that, I've got the audiobook 'The Thief Lord' playing.
 Have notebook, pen, laptop, iPod and imagination - will travel! Now I think I should pick up one of those Akubra hats to take back for my husband ;-).

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