Out Wrestling Dragons ... Part II

Greetings, one and all!

*Takes helmet off and wipes blood from her eyes*

So Dippy continues her voyage into the unknown depths of the Lair. The Dragon’s Lair. Specifically the lair that belongs to Dragon Plot. Now, contrary to popular belief, Dragon Plot isn’t being pesky or even mischievous. Dragon Plot is downright mardy. Great word that. Mardy. Northern British English, meaning grumpy, awkward, difficult. Mainly, though, 'mardy' means grumpy. So, how come Dragon Plot is mardy? Is it because Dippy tried to feed it up – and in the process of so doing gave it indigestion? Or did Dippy give the poor thing food poisoning, because she hadn’t cooked its food properly? Either way, the result is the same: mardy, mardy Dragon who refuses to eat, co-operate or play ball. Sad, really. Dippy needs to get Dragon Plot outta this ‘ere funk. And how to do that? Well. Dragon food, it’s a tricksey mixture of the right ingredients:

An oodleplex of character

A dash of motivation for said characters

A massive dollop of conflict

A generous portion of tension

Aaaaaaan’ ... some kind of plan ...

Get the mix wrong and, boy, you will have one seriously sick dragon.

So why’s Dippy all concerned? Well, everything was goin’ well ... until she was writing a scene last night which left Dippy feelin’ cold. She means Outer Space Absolute Zero cold. This wasn’t the ‘Oh, it’s just that pansy, the Inner Editor, having its regularly scheduled Hissy Fit’ type cold. This was a pure bred ‘this really, really ain’t workin’’ type cold. There are many reasons -- characters not wanting to do what they’re meant to do ... not finding the right words ... the scene’s just not ‘big’ or ‘loud’ enough.

It sent Dippy into a mad panic. Like a ‘curl in a ball and shake’ type panic. So ... what’s Dippy doing to get out this funk/mess? First of all, she’s trying hard to beat the panic. Secondly, she’s been making lists and looking over all the information she’s been generating. Dippy hasn’t come up with a solution yet, but she will ... and then ... when Dragon Plot is all bright and healthy, Dippy will be back flyin’ with dragons, rather than wrestling with them!

Dippy would like to know ... what are YOUR personal Writing Dragons? Have you tamed them, and how? 

 *Bangs on her helmet*

Dippy will see you later for more stories from The Dragon's Lair!

Out Wrestling Dragons ... Be Right Back

Welcome back!


*Hauls her kitbag off her shoulders and takes out her armour*


Dippy should apologise for being away from all you lovely bloggers (and bloggettes) for so long ... it's been far and away far too long! So, Dippy has returned to Port Zeugma to rest and recover after wrestling with the aforementioned Dragons of the title.


What be these Dragons?


Dippy's named them Plot and Character. For Dippy the Dragon Tamer, they're usually the fairly quiescent, non-fire-breathy type ... though you might want to put on the flame retardant space suits and breathing apparatus, just in case ... OK? You all settled? Then Dippy'll begin.


Now, Plot and Character usually behave fairly well for Dippy, because Dippy favours adores an outline for her Work in Progress (in fact, she's a total nut for outlines, as apparently, that's the way Dippy's mind insists on operating ... she wishes it was otherwise). Anyway, everything was going swimmingly ... until Dippy realised that the middle was a bit rotund ... and most likely full of indigestible guff. So she went back to her outline. Looked at it – thought, mmm, yeah, OK ... 's not bad ... just ... there's something missing. So Dippy, being completely obsessive (and panicky) about these things, donned her armour and went off on an adventure to seek them out.


And ... there be Dragons ... of the definitely fire breathy and antagonistic sort.


*Hammers the last dent out of her armour*


What happened was Dippy realised that, for Dragon Plot, instead of the middle being guff, the poor thing needed feeding up more, with some sort of protein rich dietary something-or-other. So, Dippy duly did this and the result was ... that Dippy's other Dragon, Character got in a right old huff. This resulted in Dippy having to magically undeadify a character who Dippy assumed had died way before the beginning of the actual story. It turned out that this character was is actually quite important ... and, if truth be told, was is far more forthcoming than one of Dippy's main characters. As to Plot, well ... it has radically changed in the middle. And d'you know what? It's better. You know something else? Dippy can't wait to get stuck into the meat of making it all work!



Dippy's thanks should go to Traci for that awesome word: undeadified.

On that note, Dippy must away, back into the land of Dragons. She'll be back when the Dragons have been thoroughly tamed ... ...

To Be Continued

Welcome!

So the first thing is to say Welcome! Bienvenue! Wilkommen! Bem-venido! Benvenuti! Or any variation thereof!
 
Call me Dippy. Short for DipthongZeugma; the subject of the name, I will return to in another post (briefly).

What to expect?

Please expect the three Rs: Randomness, Rambling and Rough Diamonds (I cannot guarantee the ratio or timing of these), the themes of which will mainly be writing. Or as the case maybe, not.

And now, without further ado, to the theme of today's blog post, my very first:

All about me (sort of)

1. Do you think you're hot?
 
Nuh-uh. Let's just say ... me an' cameras only get along when I'm the one taking the photo.
 
2. Upload a picture of the wallpaper you are using.

Here yah go!

 
3. When is the last time you ate chicken?

I can do better than that: rotisserie chicken last night (chicken sarnie, I was being lazy). Then oh, last Monday? Tuesday? I had Butter Chicken, a Jamie Oliver recipe with mange-tout from my garden. Mmmm.
   
4. What song or songs have you listened to recently?

Uh, I've developed a 70s throwback thing. Whether this is good, or not, I am not at liberty to say. Meatloaf, primarily. I've also been listening to Field's Piano Concerto, some Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Imelda May, Queen, Röyksopp, and Gotan Project. It all helps with my writing. I listen to music that resonates with my characters ... as you can see, they can be a little ... uh ... random.

5. Do you have any nicknames? If so, what are they?

No, I have no nicknames. Unless Dippy counts? I was a Brownie Guider, and the kids decided to call me Jam ... no idea. Alternatively, you COULD post a comment, if you can think of a good nickname!
 

Tag 5 bloggers.

OK, here's where I have a problem! I only know two bloggers! Oh no!

Serendipital Me and Traci

Well, that's all for now - I will be back with posts in the coming weeks. See you then ... ...