What ideas or circumstances have strongly influenced you to write?
I was influenced by Arthurian Legend. Gawain and the Green Knight is a particular favourite tale amongst those of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere.
My interest in Chivalry led me to: Greek Mythology, Homer, The Illiad and The Odyssesy. Chaucer, A Knights Tale. Tennyson, The Idylls of the King.
The Romans, Hannibal, The Spartans, and Alexander the Great were also of much interest.
Arthur King of The Britons, by Michael Morpurgo had a profound affect.
You can guess what my first as yet unpublished novel is about. Historical fact combined with historical fiction with a touch of Merlin fantasy in a surprise form. This includes a Prophecy.
After I have finished editing my novel, I will start book two. I intend to write a series of books based on my main character. I have roughly outlined three more books in the series.
I am alaways influenced to write by real life issues. I also have a pretty unique style of writing which seems to be a 'no no' with publishers. I write stories in Verse. This style of writing has been something I have done naturally since as far back as I can remember. As a child I loved writing stories, but for some reason the only way I could transfer things from my head onto paper was in Verse form (or Rhyme), I still dont really know the difference between poetry, Rhyme, Verse or Prose, and to be honest I don't really feel I need to know because I write as I think. I don't expect that educating myself on the difference between them all will make any difference to how I write :-)
The work I have shared on here is called 'Go to Hell', and I refer to it as 'fact fiction'. I don't eve know if there is any such thing in the writing world! 'Go to Hell' is not a personal story, therefore it is fiction I suppose. However it is 'fact' because it is about a youngster who decides to experiment with Heroin. Told through the voice of a youngster it follows the decline of the youngsters life into the dark side of addiciton. It goes on to warn other youngsters not to go down the road of experimenting.
I suppose I am a bit of a rebel when it comes to writing. I am sure there are rules and if I was to go along with them I 'may' stand a chance of writing something that would be acceptable to publishers. I do wish though that we rebel writers whould be given a break, My writing may not be a heart stopping , exciting novel that can't be put down, but it is something I believe does have a place in the world of books :-) Good luck to all my fellow writers/authors! Keep enjoying what you do and I hope many others get to enjoy the fruit of your hard work!
I was inspired to write by an English teacher. I would like to say she was passionate and a great teacher, but actually she marked down every piece of work I ever wrote for her just so she could drop me down into a lower class and not teach me anymore. My grades improved from Ds to Bs with no effort at all as soon as she wasn't marking me. But it was too late; she had already prevented me taking literature. It changed the entire course of my future.
It was my short stories she took most umbrage with so I continued writing them, trying to improve them for a teacher who would neither see them or mark them higher if she did. I suppose I was just annoyed, at first that I seemed so bad at something I thought I was ok at and then at my more limited future. Not taking literature GCSE limited my choices at A-level. In the end I dropped out all together because I couldn't take the courses I'd really wanted. Mum had said we should have challenged her decision at the time but I really didn't think it would be that important. Besides, if I had won the challenge she would have hated me more and she still would have been teaching me and marking me down.
And what did I do to so offend this teacher? I had a panic attack after she sent me to the head of year unfairly. The whole class turned against her for the rest of the year. (She was also our form tutor.) It wasn't really my fault. I genuinely couldn't control those attacks back then. When I arrived back in the form room the blackboard was covered in criticism for the teacher from the whole form. She walked in a few seconds later. From then on my card was marked and I was failing English Language.
I didn't fail. I easily acheived a B and my lowest grade in anything was a C. There's no way I would have failed literature.
Jon I don't know what Historians you read, or how well respected they were. But my understanding is that the british cavalry were vital in the defeat of Napolean at Waterloo in 1815. I read that English cavalry officers led many vital charges against the french. However, we are familiar with the disastrous Charge of The Light Brigade in the Crimean War of 1854.