Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts

Sunday, June 18, 2023

No Artificial Intelligence Used in the Creation of Art or Books by DL Mullan

It is a sad day when technology becomes such a crutch that a writer has to draw a line in the sand.

Readers as well as other writers are questioning the usage of applications and programs that take control away from human integrity. 

For those readers in our audience who are interested in this topic, Undawnted does not utilize artificial intelligence, or A.I. in the creation of the art, poetry, or prose. If other writers wish to use this technology, that is for them to decide and let the readers know. As for the artist, author, and audio/visual creator, DL Mullan, she does not use products besides grammar and spell check applications. 

Rest assured that when you purchase a chapbook, book, art item, you are buying a human created product from history, mythology, human imagination/ingenuity, and the craft of storytelling.

Thank you for your continued support, 

Team Undawnted

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Thursday, March 17, 2022

Mythology is an Oral Tradition for Many Cultures in Our World, Not Just for Humans

Before there were tablets and parchment, humans passed down history in an oral fashion through storytelling (mythology) and music (poetry/bards). 

In our haste to be the top apex predator and maintain that crown, we forgot that humans are not the only intelligent life on the planet. To illustrate, Mother Earth is the most obvious intelligent life that we live on. Our own living guardian spaceship careening through a galaxy. Some people rant and rave about how people are the cause of this and that, but fail to give Mother Earth any credit whatsoever. She has survived cataclysmic events: asteroids that have cracked her crust, magnetic pole reversals, and hot magma on her surface for millions of years. Mother Earth gave us this bounty to use for our survival. If we screw it up, she will continue on. Promise. 

From what I understand, 500 nuclear detonations have been carried out after World War II. The Earth is still here. You are still here.

So why do humans keep running around screaming: me, Me, ME! Humans did this! Humans did that! It's the end of the world as we know it! Stop everything. We need to tax the air!

Well, immaturity. Without knowledge, wisdom, and discernment, a person cannot see beyond themselves and that is the true tragedy of living in a psychological bubble. That is why we must always seek out information. Most un-researched, un-studied, and un-sung data is often just gibber-jabber fed to us for our entertainment. Knowledge is messy. Wisdom is experiencing the world through that knowledge. Discernment is taking that knowledge and wisdom to create a better way to live. 

In humanity's quest to find their own discernment, we come to remember that we share this planet with other beings. I have lived with birds, dogs, and cats. Many humans have shared their lives with Mother Nature and her creatures. 

Have you ever thought how you are incorporated into an animal's life story? 

On March 16th, 2014, I became a part of a hummingbird's family story. A hummingbird made a nest high up in my gazebo to sit on her two little eggs. April 3rd, the eggs hatched. April 21st, baby hummingbird graduation day as they learned how to fly.

That is the data. The story is something different. The hummingbirds knew I existed and watched me every day. I interacted with my felines and greeted them. For over a month, I was this giant walking around the front patio. 

Graduation day turned into one for both of us to remember. I walked out of the house, and the babies were flying with their mother. One zoomed over to me. I offered my outstretched hand and open palm. The baby greeted me: see what I can do? I was so happy to see the babies hovering, but the one who came to me turned and zoomed too fast away. The baby hummingbird hit the patio wall and bounced around until the baby slammed onto the concrete floor.

I was stunned. I was, but not my feral cat, Irene. She snatched that baby into her mouth without hesitation. I stepped to Irene, pointed at her, and said: no, three times. She released the baby. I then grabbed the baby into my hand. The baby hummingbird was scared and confused. I petted the baby's head and spoke softly. I pushed over a chair, stood on it, and placed the baby back into the nest. 

I waited. After the coast was clear, the mother hummingbird returned and calmed her frightened baby down. I watched, but the two birds did not move until the next day. 

Without fanfare, the hummingbirds departed, never to return to their nest. The nest still sits empty. It awaits another fearless mother.

A nice story... for me to retell, but what about the hummingbirds? These small creatures can live 5 to 7 years. So 2014 plus 7, and the mother hummingbird is most likely deceased and so are her babies, who I befriended. The grand babies and their babies, well that is a different story. 

Every year from springtime through autumn, I hear hummingbird calls in my yard, especially by my kitchen window. I still receive visits. So the babies have communicated to their offspring about the giant who lives in the huge mushroom. 

To them, I am a character in their storytelling. Their oral tradition has passed down graduation day and how one of theirs was saved. I am now a living myth. 

How long will the story be passed down? Who knows? 

All I know is that every turn to the warmer seasons, I am greeted by the sweet tweets of hummingbirds, who are telling me as part of their ongoing living history.

The lesson here is that we must turn off the noise and get back to what is real. Turn off the news, sports, and entertainment. Is that real? 

Or, are we being fed a pseudo-reality in order to convince us of a mythology that someone else would like us to believe? What myths are being passed down to you?  What is being re-tolded? Re-imagined?

Not all mythology is taught to better humanity. Some stories we are told are created to control how we think. Do you know of any stories that we are not allowed to tell? Who we are not allowed to follow? Are these stories, fact and figures, relegated to the realm of forbidden knowledge? If so, why? And who determined what information, stories, and people are harmful to our mythology?

Maybe without the noise, we can read the classics and discern for ourselves which mythological stories makes us stronger. And which mythology creates the illusion of reality...

The hummingbirds can visit me anytime and see that I am real. 

Do you know what is real?

 

Have a great and wonderful day. 

 

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Saturday, January 27, 2018

Art Imitates Life... but is it good Storytelling?

When does a writer and storyteller imbue their creations with a social, political, or economic reality? When does the intrusion become a spectacle instead of mood and setting to a story? 

As a writer, I have been struggling with this balance of fantasy and reality in my fiction stories for quite some time. I watched television shows that blur the lines too much and I am unable to be their viewer any longer. 

I want to be entertained not dictated or sermonized or shamed. 

I feel this way about my writing. When a character comes forth, I write that character as I am shown. I don't create circumstances in order to further a social, political, or economic agenda. I have done my research through my editorial days at the Villa de Paz Gazette to understand what is real and not real. I tend to stick to those points more than what I see on other newscasts or sites. 

Hode: The Legend Lives Again is a great example of using facts instead of the constructed false reality that pervades on the television and in movies. 

In the second installment of Hode, the character of Will Scarlet has come to me in two divergent modalities. One way has been that of a straight man. The other way was of a gay man. Which do I choose? 

I am not a Social Justice Warrior, but I am also not going to shy away from the topic either. 

Since there is so much in your face political correctness, I am heedful of using any triggering facts, figures, or events... then Saint in Communion and Saintuary comes along and my character finds herself on an old Louisiana Plantation. It is a long story. I guess you will have to read the three book series when they come out this summer.

So when is using real situations considered storytelling and when is it labeled: social justice? 

Inquiring minds want to know how to mirror reality without falling prey to its shortcomings.

Have a great and wonderful day!


Sunday, July 30, 2017

Reimagining Robin Hood for the 21st Century

That is a tall order!

I have always wanted to write a Robin Hood inspired story. There are a few revisions I would like to make to the old, tried and true mythologies of our modern age. Robin Hood is just one of them. 

I want to do some reimaging to the likes of Dorian Gray, The Raven, Pride and Prejudice, and Taming The Shrew to keep me busy for the next decade. 

This year the muse descended on Robin Hood. I have to take modern themes and ideas to formulate a new and exciting version no one has ever seen before.

So what is out there?

I do love the Kevin Costner version from the early 1990's. Funny how I took a noncredit script writing course through a community college at the same time that the film was released. The Hollywood screenwriter helped my classmates and I breakdown the scenes, characters, and story lines. I learned so much about storytelling during those six weeks than in any creative writing class I have ever taken.

So do not pass on noncredit courses! You might be happily surprised the knowledge you receive. 

When I was sketching out some dialogue for my take on the classic tale, the main character pretty much told me his story. Scene after scene, I could tell that this type of Robin Hood was going to be a mesh-mash of elements from the original story and a few others from external sources. 

I cannot wait to get it all finished. 

I hope I can keep up the momentum and get this origin story edited for an autumn release. 

As long as the characters keep writing the story themselves, I do not see why not. Stranger things have happened.   

Have a great and wonderful day.



Thursday, July 13, 2017

Storytelling: Character Development

When I am in writer's forums and groups, I see concerns about how to write believable characters. 

One of the exercises I like to employ is writing in fanfiction. Every once and awhile, another person's universe intrigues me. I have written for Babylon 5, which is online. It needs a good polishing but I can still live with it. 

In that universe, I can play with characters. I can use the already made universe to stretch my writing muscles without having to do all the heavy lifting. I can see how close I can come to recreating the characters of someone else. 

I make note of my thought processes. What do I need? What am I missing? How close can I get? 

I then take what I learned trying to mimic and apply those lessons to my own creative world building. 

I implement the same brainstorming ideas to develop original characters in a universe I created from scratch.

Writers can use any character out of literature or film they wish to try their hand in character development. 

That is one exercise, but character development is a more involved process than one exercise. To make three-dimensional characters, a writer has to take the time. Write a description. Give your character some real life quirks. Don't make your characters perfect. 

And, have fun with your characters. Show their sense of humor, pet peeves, phobias. A character should reflect the time and place s/he is being written for. So take different aspects of people and a little of yourself, a character needs to be built for the task at hand... make your character worth the read.

Character development does not have to be a dirty job. Create exercises that appeal to you and brainstorm a new character. When a writer takes the time, characters can virtually write the novel themselves. 

I actually prefer a feisty and spirited protagonist... it makes writing less complicated. 

Have a great and wonderful day!



Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Non Fiction Update

I updated the Non Fiction page.

Apples to Oranges is now represented as well as Believe Feel Know Do It. Complete opposites of each other as one is a philosophical view of the universe and the other is a recipe/storytelling book. 

I brainstorm and everything appears to be on track. 

2016 will see the culmination of many new projects. Here's to a great year! 

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