The Tower in the Woods
Peer into my fantasy world...
At several points in my life, I have wanted to be a writer. I have abandoned notebooks and folders full of unfinished ideas, plans or scraps of narrative. I never finish them, because I don’t think it is something that I have a talent for. I can build wonderfully detailed paracosms - and I have done all my life, especially as a coping mechanism for insomnia - but I don’t have that special skill of constructing a tale that would make it remotely readable. I get stuck on scenes, or moments, and retell them with different agents and settings rather than letting them truly be part of a bigger story.
One such setting that I have included in almost every imagined world is the tower in the woods. I imagine that a psychological evaluation could draw conclusions on why this is, but I’m not particularly fussed about the whys of my imagination. It’s just as likely to be a preoccupation with folk and fairy tales as anything more meaningful.
Sometimes, the tower is an ominous place. Still and silent, abandoned, maybe with signs of previous habitation quickly ended, like the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles - a mystery to solve. Sometimes it is a prison, cold and lonely, or a cosier jail like Rapunzel’s. More often than not, though, my tower is a hideaway, surrounded by the scent of tall pines, with moss and ivy crawling around its doors, and plenty of things to amuse you.
I’ve drawn a number of versions of this in attempts at cathartic creativity. Some of them have gone on to belong elsewhere, to different tales than the ones they started as in my mind. But as a personal project, I’ve been drawing my own little illustrations around the theme of my tower, and its been such an enjoyable thing to calm my mind between working on more challenging projects.
This tower is more like a tower house, in the medieval sense, based quite closely on a small home that sits on a quiet road not far from where I live. It was up for sale not too long ago, and there was much daydreaming about the kind of studio I could have made there, among a sea of snowdrops in spring. This illustrated version is in a deeper wood, with a little stable adjoining (I am a stickler for practicalities) and in my mind, surrounded by a mossy wall to keep some of the wild out.
Inside, it is cosy and comfortable, with a couple of window nooks to sit in and stained glass panes. I went as far as to draw inhabitants in this second illustration, but they don’t have much of a story, at least not one I would share. I would love to know what you think their tale could be…
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you are interested in more of my secret worlds that I’ve drawn, just for me.
A
It is funny how our minds go to those places - but I love that idea of a Tower in the Woods. Because of fantasy games I do instantly think of a dark and scary place, where something has been locked away. But then it could be a sanctuary and a place of calm. And it also makes me think of the song Towers Of The Void from Red Riding Hood!
Interesting to hear about your tower, Anna...It's nice to have these comforting places to go to inside our minds. Also interesting about your paracosms to help with sleep. I have often come up with little vignettes of stories to help with just that, almost like I am telling myself a bedtime story but written on the go in my head, like it's part of a longer tale. Maybe one day I'll take it further...!