"Monsters' Legacy" decisions and frustrations

Image description: The words "Writer's Block," with 'Writer's' smashing into a lengthened ascender of the 'k,' as though into a wall.

So: in revisiting Monster's Legacy, I've decided to rearrange the chapter order. From the beginning, I'd been working on the assumption that I'd start with the autobiographical poems in vaguely chronological order, and putting the poems based on "fables and fairy tales" somewhere near the end (like, maybe the penultimate chapter, before I close it up with more personal poems again).

I've now decided that the fairy tale poems should come first, because: 1) that's how people already categorize monsters, so the first (cognitive) step is less of a doozy, and 2) it will set up the context I want for my primary argument that: "Mainstream anxieties about disability are as just as rational as anxieties over the bogeyman."

And because this fables chapter will be my foundation, I've also realized it has to be broader and more substantial than it is now; it currently contains four poems, one of which I'm going to throw out,* one of which is based on a mostly unknown story (in America),** and a third which is based on an unfamiliar version of an 'old favorite'.***

That means: I have more poems to write! ... A-a-and part of me is wondering if this is a legitimate decision, or just a delaying tactic so I can put off finishing the thing, and face up to the risk and terror of actually publishing and selling it. I'm not sure which side of that argument is being voiced by brain weasels, either.


There's the "decision" half of my writer's block.

The "frustration" half comes from not finding the source material I want to link back to for a few of those new poems -- especially the poem I want to write about Hephaestus (yeah -- yet another relatively obscure character, but it'll involve name-dropping the really famous gods). I could swear (By Hermes, naturally) that, back in early 2011, I read that Plato argued that artists should not make images of Hephaestus, because people might take depictions of his physical disability as literally true, rather than a metaphor, and that would tarnish the idea of gods as perfect, and thus, would be blasphemous (This is what inspired me to title my brief folklore blog: "Plato's Nightmare/Aesop's Dream"). Only, now, no matter what keywords I put into search engines, I can't find anything even close to that.

Other stories I want to write (about), and now cannot find anywhere: An e-text of the 14th C. romance of Aesop, which spells out how he was physically disabled black African ex-slave (I can buy a book of the translation from Amazon, but I want to have an online version, durnit!), and the story about the "real" Mother Goose was Charlemagne's grandmother, and how she had one enormous, deformed, (goose-like) foot, and walked with a crutch.****

So I am now appealing to my circles for help with Google-fu. Halp?! Any ideas?

---

*( Footnote One )

**( Footnote Two )

***( Footnote Three (content warning for suggested pedophilia without so much as impaired consent) )

****( Footnote Four )

Signal Boost: 2016's Second Magpie Monday is here!

dialecticdreamer has embarked on her monthly writing marathon called "Magpie Monday," and is seeking prompts on the theme "Disaster? Or Opportunity?" She's named it "Magpie," 'cause she thinks prompts are the shiniest, and she loves to collect and use them. Her post explaining how it all works is here: https://dialecticdreamer.dreamwidth.org/201806.html

(And, once I've thought up my own prompt, this signal boost earns me another 100 words of story).

I recommend her work -- she's adept, especially, and fuzzy, gentle fiction that never descends into twee or schmaltz, so if you're having a bad day, and need some kindness, pop over and give her some suggestions. She's very generous.