Today I've been doing some more detailed outlining because I have some seriously big gaps in the plot at the moment. All the parts which are important to the story are planned, but there are some gaps in between these. For example: how does he get from here to there? how does this problem get resolved? how does he discover this really important thing?
For some extra inspiration, I've been re-reading the 'Conclusion' of Walter Pater's Studies in the History of the Renaissance. If you have any interest in the way the aesthetes thought about beauty and art, then you should definitely read this. It is very wordy, with long descriptions of things which can get tedious. BUT it contains some real gems which give me an insight into how the decadents wanted people to view the world. It is the book which inspired Oscar Wilde while he was at university, and has given me a lot of inspiration too. I wouldn't suggest you read it from cover to cover, but the Conclusion especially reads like a handbook to decadence.
The most important message, I feel, of the 'Conclusion', is that we need to savour every experience. Pater uses the extended metaphor of a fire to describe moments of our lives, saying that we need to view our experiences as impressions which are 'unstable, flickering, inconsistent, which burn and are extinguished with our consciousness of them'. I wonder if it is possible to appreciate each moment of our lives in such a way, and allow ourselves to hold on to moments so they are never extinguished?
I will ponder these, and more, questions as I continue outlining. I hope that soon, things will start to fall into place and I will actually start writing!
Wednesday 28 May 2014
Sunday 25 May 2014
Welcome!
Welcome!
About a month ago I decided that I would love to write a novel, and so I set out to learn as much as I could about the creative process. I am still enjoying learning about how to develop characters, plot, setting etc and I am slowly planning my first novel. I have always wanted to write, but never thought I could write a good enough novel to be read by anyone else. Since finding Brandon Sanderson's lectures on youtube my planning and outlining has come on in leaps and bounds (excuse the cliché) so thank you for that Brandon!
You're probably wondering why I decided to call my blog 'Writings of a 21st Century Aesthete', and it does seem pretty pretentious. I love late Victorian poetry and prose, and feel most inspired by the writings of Oscar Wilde, the art (and poetry) of Aubrey Beardsley, and the poetry of Arthur Symons. So in order to help my planning and eventual writing, I thought I would use a blog to write about these fantastic artists! I feel that they are indeed artists, and I aspire to write prose which evokes a similar beauty. The late Victorian aesthetes and decadents appreciated art in a completely unique way, believing that life should imitate art and not the other way round. They sought beauty almost everywhere, and the protagonist of my (soon to be) novel appreciates art and beauty in the same way.
So in this blog I will write about what inspires me, including: late 19th century art, decadent poetry, prose, fairy tales and pre-raphaelite art. There will probably be a whole lot more too about the writing process I will eventually undertake! So thank you for visiting.
About a month ago I decided that I would love to write a novel, and so I set out to learn as much as I could about the creative process. I am still enjoying learning about how to develop characters, plot, setting etc and I am slowly planning my first novel. I have always wanted to write, but never thought I could write a good enough novel to be read by anyone else. Since finding Brandon Sanderson's lectures on youtube my planning and outlining has come on in leaps and bounds (excuse the cliché) so thank you for that Brandon!
You're probably wondering why I decided to call my blog 'Writings of a 21st Century Aesthete', and it does seem pretty pretentious. I love late Victorian poetry and prose, and feel most inspired by the writings of Oscar Wilde, the art (and poetry) of Aubrey Beardsley, and the poetry of Arthur Symons. So in order to help my planning and eventual writing, I thought I would use a blog to write about these fantastic artists! I feel that they are indeed artists, and I aspire to write prose which evokes a similar beauty. The late Victorian aesthetes and decadents appreciated art in a completely unique way, believing that life should imitate art and not the other way round. They sought beauty almost everywhere, and the protagonist of my (soon to be) novel appreciates art and beauty in the same way.
So in this blog I will write about what inspires me, including: late 19th century art, decadent poetry, prose, fairy tales and pre-raphaelite art. There will probably be a whole lot more too about the writing process I will eventually undertake! So thank you for visiting.
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