On a golden dawn in the dawn sublime
Of years ere the stars had ceased to sing,
Beautiful out of the sea-deeps cold
Aphrodite arose—the Flower of Time.
by Victor James Daley
Research is always fun. Sometimes you come across tidbits of information that you long to use one way or another, even if they don’t fit into your story at the moment. For this week’s Tuesday Tales blog where the group shared excerpts of our works in progress, the word prompt was ROSE. We could use it as a noun or verb. The plan was for my heroine to come across an atrium of wild roses in ancient Crete. The plan went awry, and the snippet turned out entirely different, but the research I came across is worth sharing. Today I want to give you a glimpse inside a writer’s mind as she prepares to add a simple snippet to a story.
Here were my brainstorming thoughts:
My heroine is the goddess Aphrodite.
Roses are an important symbol for her.
Ancient Crete housed the Minoan civilization, the earliest Greek culture we know.
Although Aphrodite was born near Cyprus, linking her with ancient Crete and the goddess worshipping Minoans would be fitting and cool.
Research showed that wild roses did indeed grow in ancient Crete, as many of their frescoes attest.
As I mentioned, it turned out that the excerpt developed entirely differently. Aphrodite was in an atrium in Crete, but no wild roses showed up. Instead a dark demigod appeared, played the lyre, and she danced her head off. ROSE was used as a verb, not a noun describing fragrant flowers. That’s the way it goes in writing. Sometimes the muse has other ideas. I still want to share with you a few traces of my research.
This Minoan Language Blog posted all about the varieties of flowers in ancient Crete, including wild roses.
This Flower Blog shows how the wild rose is the ancestor of all the rose varieties we know today.
Derek and Brandon Fiechter create wonderfully haunting music based on how ancient Cretan music might sound.
I hope you enjoyed the glimpse inside a writer’s mind as she set about working on a short, simple snippet.
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic in Romance
Interesting post and I loved that snippet.
Thanks, Cathy– glad you found it interesting!