Ovidia--every other Tuesday
I'm pushing through reworking the (hopefully) final, submittable draft of the next book--already missed first deadline and it looks like I'm going to be missing the second…
but I want to work through all the new wonderful stuff that decided to come to me only now (always happens doesn’t it?)
And the Mid-Autumn Festival is round the corner, so as always in times of pressure I turn to words of wisdom to comfort me—not from Mother Mary but the three wizard Harrys who all impacted me while saving their worlds in their own unique ways: Harry Potter, the boy wizard; Harry Dresden, the professional wizard; and Harry Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's socio-political wizard.
They are something I come back to whenever I need a charge up to keep on going.
I discovered Harry Potter first.
I loved the magic and the message of Harry Potter for years! Yes, you can be a weird misfit but still the chosen one. You can find friends who become family. The monsters are real, and some of them are teachers and parent figures and in the government with power over you and you’re not imagining things, they really hate you and are out to get you…
But you can still make it through by not giving up.
I still love the Harry Potter world—even if the sad truth is that its creator seems to be turning into a Dolores Umbridge.
That helped me to leave Hogwarts behind along with my schooldays and come to Harry Dresden.
Harry Dresden: The Wizard Who Keeps Trying
Harry Dresden, a professional wizard in Chicago, is one of my favourite sleuths. Harry gets exhausted from overwork that pays poorly, doesn’t exercise enough, eats poorly, frequently has trouble with electronics and bills and his longest ongoing relationship is with Bob the talking skull…
This pretty much sums up a working writer’s life doesn’t it!
Harry Dresden has his personal issues, problems and (literal) demons, but he ends up trying to do his best despite feeling like the easiest thing would be to stay in bed. That’s where I am, much of the time—barely able to figure out what’s the right thing to do, let alone to summon up the energy to do it.
I also love Harry Dresden’s needing ‘energy’ to work his magic. This energy can be generated by lust, envy, rage or by joy, ecstasy and love—and the magic that emerges reflects the source of energy that fuelled it. I’ve found the same principle works when I’m trying to write or just live.
The material I absorb via reading, watching stuff online, interacting with people and dogs when I’m out or with my plants and human and animal companions at home all colour my thoughts and my writing.
Even though I feel more like Harry Dresden with his constant struggle to do good or just ‘do’, it’s Michael Carpenter, Dresden’s Knight friend who I envy. Michael, a true knight of faith who wields the holy sword Amoracchius, always acts with conviction. I have friends like that, and I envy them the same way… kind of.
Because Michael and his sword aren’t always right. And maybe a life lived without hesitation or doubt would be a little poorer. For what it’s worth, I’ll stick with Harry Dresden as a role model to keep me going. I don’t have a talking skull, but I do have these two munchkins that I discuss plot twists with.
And then there’s Harry Lee Kuan Yew, who wielded a different kind of magic—the magic of leadership.
Harry Lee Kuan Yew was, in many ways, the real-world wizard. He transformed Singapore from a small, struggling third world country into safe, stable first world nation. He made some tough, unpopular decisions with steely pragmatism, infamously saying, “Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford,” in the 60’s, when Singapore faced poverty, unemployment, racial tensions, and threats to our independence.
Not the best role model for writers?
But once the slums were cleared, canals cleaned up and the people had safe drinking water he read poetry to his wife in her final years.
He did what needed to be done when it needed to be done. I owe it to the pioneering generation that I have access to my worlds of mystery and magic.
In the end, perhaps my biggest takeaway from all three is that the magic of creation often doesn’t look like magic when it’s in process. It looks like you’re plodding on hopelessly, endlessly, out of sheer stubbornness or stupidity.
But then once you’ve brought all the right ingredients to the right place and infused it with the right energy, that’s when the magic happens.
Good luck and Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!
