Have you ever heard of monster wiki? I found a lot of general information about the monsters in Irish folklore here.
Like the Kelpie (aka Waterhorse) who can transform into a beautiful man or woman and lure unsuspecting mortals to their watery graves. It's also thought that the lock ness is a kelpie. When I searched for images of the kelpie, I found this really cool sculpture in Falkirk.
Photo of Kelpie sculpture in Falkirk, Scotland by Natasha Cherkashina Source: Flikr
I also found a lot of information on the website luminarium.org. There are tons of links with everything from Irish food and dance, to a Field Guide to Irish Fairies. This is great site to check out if you every wanted to learn more about Irish traditions.
I also searched for advice in writing short stories and came across a list from Kurt Vonnegut. If you've ever read any Vonnegut, then you know this guy know his stuff.
Here are his top 8 Tips
- Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
- Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
- Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
- Every sentence must do one of two things–reveal character or advance the action.
- Start as close to the end as possible.
- Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them–in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
- Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
- Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
From Openculture.com
He talks about a lot of things here that I hadn't considered and I plan to use a lot of his advice, especially 3, 4, and 6.
Oh my gosh, that Kelpie sculpture is amazing, Kalin: thank you for sharing that! I found a whole website all about those sculptures and pinned it. They are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteAs you can see there are so many great resources for mythology online because these are subjects that people are really passionate about, so they are willing to spend the time and energy to create these resources to share with others.
And I am a HUGE fan of Vonnegut. I have several writing and storytelling tips from him that will be coming up in the announcements for class. My favorite on that list is: "Every sentence must do one of two things–reveal character or advance the action." Such good advice... even if you don't follow it for every sentence, it really helps you to pay attention!
One of my favorite Vonnegut resources is this one: The Shapes of Stories
And thank you for doing this tip: it is so much fun to learn about things person to person online... and I had never seen those amazing Kelpies before. Fabulous!