Don’t touch that! Magical objects – a blessing or a curse

By Sarah Elliott

How many times have you gazed at a mundane object in your environment and longed for it to do or be something magical? An iron that would press all your clothes, keeping them miraculously wrinkle-free? A self-filling coffee cup? Clothes that walked to the washing machine and then hung themselves up to dry. A vacuum cleaner that works without being pushed (wait we have that already!). Does that mean that the tech of our present would have been the magical objects of the past?

 

Maybe, you approach this with caution. After all, so many of us have watched Fantasia. Perhaps we should learn from the apprentice!

 

If magical objects aren’t part of our everyday lives, we can find them in stories. Fairy tales and folk tales are rife with them. Let’s flick through the pages of the magical object encyclopaedia and refamiliarise ourselves with some of the most popular.

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Perfectionism: the monster in the closet

By Sarah Elliott

 

Or, as described by Anne Lamott (1994), “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.”

 

Perfectionism can also be the cause of writer’s block – too scared to start. Petrified to commit to that first word, lest it be less than, not enough or worth nothing at all. Perfectionism truly is a monster, and we are not always cognisant of its influence from the shadowy, damp closets in the recesses of our creative minds. It sends out poisonous waves of discontent, despondency and despair rendering us utterly useless at times. Its bulging luminous eyes sear the creativity from our hearts, and craven claws of chaos shred our courage. Bleak (to say the least).

 

But could Perfectionism become a protagonist? Reimagined as an anti-hero? Or does this shapeshifting entity always elude capture? Like much in life, it depends upon perspective. Oxford languages describe perfectionism as,

 

“refusal to accept any standard short of perfection.”

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Avoid Being Turned into a Toad: what you need to know when you’re writing the Witch 

By Sarah Elliott

From Winnie to Willow to Wanda, women with magical powers feature in films, TV series and stories throughout the ages. Synonyms for the witch rise or wane in popularity over time including enchantress, sorceress, hag, necromancer, wiccan, and crone.

 

I met my first witch in a storybook. I can’t remember which story it was, but I do remember that she was old, hag-like, cruel, crooked-nosed and had an evil cackle. Every witch I ever came across since then was the same, until Glinda, the Witch of the North portrayed in the film musical The Wizard of Oz (inspired by the books by L. Frank Baum). Glinda was a witch with a serious glow-up!

 

(Fun fact: The Wicked Witch of the West was named Elphaba in Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked (1995). Her name was based upon the initials of L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), The initials “L.F.B.” each gave one syllable to the name: El-pha-ba.)

 

Our wonderful writerly imaginations have spawned a whole spectrum of witches. Like many things in society, perceptions and definitions change over time. This is certainly the case with the witch. Look at the definitions below. Which one fits the witch in your story?

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Saving the Endangered Fantastical Creatures: So, what do you call a group of…oh my?! 

By Sarah Elliott

 

Never has it been more relevant to learn some new collective nouns. I mean, what do you call a group of vampires? Or harpies or basilisks? Strange creatures are found in stories, poems, films, architecture, and of course under your bed!

 

Fantastical creatures – a term more recently made popular in film titles but encompassing a whole range of any ‘living’ being that is deemed a little (or a lot) out of the ordinary. For the purposes of this article, we’re going to define them as:

 

An imaginary, strange living thing (not a plant) most likely created in the mind of a wonderful writer!

 

We will peer through our spy glasses and zoom in on distinct types of fantastical creatures: human/animal hybrid and all-out beast modes! But first, let’s secure our foundations and take the DeLorean back to where the earliest fantastical creatures raised their heads (or multiple heads).

 

If we’re thinking of ancient and early beginnings, it’s always a safe bet to go back to Ancient Egypt. Here we can find still standing, evidence of a fantastical creature – the Sphinx! With the head of a human and the body of a lion, the Sphinx stands for wisdom and knowledge. Greek mythology associates it with guarding the entrances to temples and only allowing passage after a riddle is answered. The Greek sphinx also has the wings of a bird! Existing before 2500 BC, it’s evident the Great Sphinx of Giza has a pretty awesome anti-ageing routine! Egyptologists are still trying to work out how old this magnificent monolith actually is.

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