First Official Entry

It is within literature that we come to understand fictional truth. It offers us models,
ideas, borders and boundaries that we can work within and also move away from; it
offers us the capacity to make judgements of ourselves and others without being
judgemental. It is a world of reality that is also a world of fantasy. Thus we meet people
whose attributes we know and don’t know; we hear dialogue that we have never heard
before yet recognise; we commit acts of love, kindness and hatred; and we are
vituperative and even heinous in our nature in way that we could never essay in our own
lives. Thus we meet ourselves and do not meet ourselves. We are extended and
controlled, enacting reality in the imaginative arena. (Arnold, Josie Dr. 2011)[1]

This is my very first official entry for the unit and thought that the quote from Dr Arnold's lecture was a great starting point. I have been writing in one form or another ever since I was a teenager and never really sat down to think of why I write, what I write and how I write it. It has always come naturally to me and I have found that in my writing I can express myself a lot easier than I can in other ways.

I am a visual writer, I write as though I am watching the story play out in front of me, not fluid like a completed movie but in bits and pieces to work into the final piece. If I can't see it then I can't write it.
When I was reading Dr Arnold's lecture for this week she discusses understanding "fictional truth" through literature. This made me stop reading for a moment and to just think about the term, "fictional truth", the truth of the text written no matter how fantastical it is, "enacting reality in the imaginative arena".
It is interesting that we can live another life through literature whether as a reader or as a writer and often as both. I think that's why Dr Arnold's lecture resonates with me so much this week, 

I am dabbling in the magical realism realm at the moment, creating a supernatural setting in a contemporary world. Where it is the norm for supernatural entities to lives amongst humans and interact with them in an everyday way. Vampires for example live openly in society and are more or less accepted as a minority although were-people especially wolves still try to live in secrecy. The more human the preternatural beings are the more accepted they are by society; animalistic creatures are still considered monstrous even though they are more human than most humans.

As well as the basic backstory with relationships developing between characters I really want to explore the way in which those who are different to the norm are treated, why do we have to hide our differences instead of celebrating them. It will be a novel by the time it is finished and though it is not a "literary" novel I am aiming for more than just a quick read.

The author-as-god may be dead, but as a writer I am still striking notes on the
keyboard, as are so many working writers in all genres. It is the record of these that the
readers bring to life through what they bring to individual readings. Understanding this
enables us as writers to understand something of writing that moves it from the
AUTHORitative to the explorative and even speculative.[2]

So I'm gonna leave this post here but I will be back very soon ...

My journey already so long and lived; will once again start with the next moment to come.

References:

[1] Arnold, Josie Dr: LPW700 The Writerly Self - Language and literature and the un-named native informant 2011
[2] ibid