Deadmedia shares monthly updates on writing, research, and the evolving creative threads behind my work, from SF/F author Samantha Garner. Learn more here.
Hi everyone,
There are themes that keep following me from project to project. Outsiders in history. Small scale acts of rebellion by everyday people. Liminal space of identity and belonging. The mutability of memory. Subtle magic woven through the mundane. Folkloric beliefs that shift and adapt. They might seem discrete at first glance but they’re all facets of the same idea, I feel.
I’ve finished editing one novel MS and am continuing to draft another, and in this in-between place (and since I’ve been sharing my research on Patreon) I’m seeing the ideas that sit behind my work even more clearly.
One example of this that took me by surprise: the importance of song and poetry in both Finnish and Filipino culture.
Runes & riddles
Finnish runolaulu, or rune-singing. In Finland, “runes” are poems rather than the Scandinavian/Germanic writing system the word usually refers to. Rune-singing is ancient oral folk poetry and storytelling in Baltic Finnic culture. Often supported by the kantele, runes were passed from person to person, by ear and oral tradition. They sang both in collaboration and in competition. Runolaulu shows up magically in the national epic Kalevala, used more actively, in creation and in battle. I incorporated this “spell-song” aspect in one of my recent novels.
Then old Väinämöinen sang:
Shook the earth, the lakes splashed over,
And the copper mountains quivered;
Cliffs were cracking, boulders breaking,
On the shore the stones were splitting.
He enchanted Joukahainen
Filipino poems, riddles, and proverbs. The culture of one of my novels is highly ritualized in their speech, and I found a lot to inspire me in Filipino tanaga poems, bugtong riddles, and proverbs. The riddles especially are interesting because they could really only be answered by someone with community knowledge and experience. For example:
I am brave against two,
coward against one.
The answer is a bamboo bridge. When the bridge is made of one bamboo only, it is difficult to pass over; but when it’s made of two or more, it’s easier. I love how riddles like this encourage people to value the features of their everyday life.
The common threads that linger
These two elements show up in just one book, but they touch on a secondary theme that tends to show up in my work: the commonalities between my two cultures.
It’s not something that I’d necessarily put in marketing material because it’s actually personal to me and my own life. But I can’t help but notice it.
Before both of my cultures were taken over by others, certain elements and beliefs were similar. Like the poetry. Like the animistic respect and partnership with nature spirits. And some of these beliefs linger even now. In my research, syncretism seems to come up whether I go looking for it or not. I’m struck by the way people maintained their old beliefs, wove them into the ones imposed upon them. They endured.
I feel like these are manifestations of the forever-themes of mine I listed at the start of this letter. I rely on these foundations so heavily in my writing because they feel familiar in a very old way. They lead to questions I can never answer, but have fun exploring.
PS, Angry (and chill) summer creativity:
Summer’s not quite here yet but I’m finding myself getting annoyed. Summer is the season where I slow down against my will, sluggish and angry. It’s the season I’m most adversarial about, but when I’m feeling generous I think of positive traits like transformation and illumination and even cleansing fire — traits that also underpin my forever-themes.
Those same traits appear in a lot of summer folklore and ritual traditions. A while ago I put together a guide exploring a couple of those stories along with reflection prompts and seasonal rituals. I've been revisiting it as the solstice approaches, to remind myself that summer heat and spikiness can be folded quite well into my creative life. One ritual I’ve been returning to is enduring the sun for as long as I can while my morning coffee brews, before scurrying back indoors to quiet shadow and my writing. I wouldn’t say summer helps me write angry, but I want to practice harnessing that heat and fire to keep my creative momentum going when the heat squashes me.
One thing I’m excited for to help kickstart my summer creativity is my friend Corinne Cunningham’s Write into Summer guided journalling workshop. Her journalling workshops always so chill and low-pressure, which really helps me ease up on self-judgement and just let my curiosity go nuts. If you’re interested, there are a few days left before the June 20 session - learn more here!
I want to hear from you!
Thanks for reading Deadmedia today. I’d love to hear what you thought — leave me a comment or hit Reply to send me an email!
Talk soon,
-Sg.
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