What I'm Listening To: The Fray - Little House (Interesting note; this song inspired a really important plot point in Eden.)
What I'm Doing: Dying. TAT *headache* and getting ready to go to bed.
I randomly wandered over to blogger while wasting time (haven't written a thing today! DD8 I'm slipping!) and started reading through my watchlist, to see if anything interesting had been posted, and through a series of "So and so posted a fantastic article on such and such over at this blog today!" I found Alexander Field's blog. Two entries in, and I knew I had to follow him; he's very insightful and well spoken.
In the first post I found, he listed ten things NOT to do in your query letter, and while I was commenting on them, I said that when I first saw his list, I was afraid that I had/would commit most of them, but upon actually reading it, I realised that they were mostly common sense.
That's where the title of this post comes from; have you ever really looked around and noticed that these days? Common sense. Good ideas or thoughts or actions that are supposed to be common knowledge, such as looking both ways before crossing a street.
Yet I continually see the kids out front simply run back and forth with no regard to oncoming vehicles.
I'm sorry, I weigh less than three hundred pounds (by quite a large margin; you'll never get my true weight out me, however.) Those cars are upwards of one or two tons or more. They outweigh me by several thousand pounds and while the human body can take quite a lot of trauma, I'm rather inclined to keep it the way it is, thank you very much. I can also maneuver a little bit quicker than they can; if we don't see each other until they're almost on top of me, then it's quite a lot easier for me to fling myself backwards than it is for the car to fling itself backwards. But this may be just the way I was raised, which includes taking your hat off when you enter a building, and holding doors for people, which, while not common sense, belong to the equally rare and endangered category of common decency.
But I see a lot of the same axioms, maxims, and proverbs in my research for writing, as well as a hell of a lot of good advice. Three people tell me that a query letter isn't a post-it to your best friend on the fridge, it is a business letter. I think of it this way; if you won't go to a job interview in ripped jeans and a bikini top, don't be rude to the people you're trying to do business with. Their first impression of you is the query letter, and while there's pressure to make it good, it doesn't have to be a work of literary genius in and of itself. Tell them about your book. That's it. Make it interesting. That's it. Remain formal, and you're cool. The very idea that someone would write a lazy query (as in, "Sup dawg, so I wanchu to check out this piece of shit that I wrote last night when I was high.") is abhorrent to me. As is the fact that these people often send angry letters when they're rejected.
Dear agent,
I would like to submit for your perusing joy my novel A GIRL AND HER DOG.
It's about Little Lucy Lemon and her dog Snoopy.
And of course, any self respecting agent stops there and sends a form rejection, to which Little Lucy Lemon replies
"OMFG YOU SUCK YOU HOR WTF THIS IS GOING TO BE THE NEXT GRATE AMERICAN NOVLE."
ACK. GASP. SLDKGJ. That's like calling up the place you just interviewed with and telling them that you're going to blow the place up because they don't know what sort of fantastic worker they just turned down in favour of someone a little more sane.
Most people wouldn't do that. They wouldn't walk away from an interview in which they were rejected, then call them up and scream profanities at them. So it's completely beyond me why people would do that to agents. I think agents should have BOLOs for these sorts of people. Like, a whole interconnecting agent-link to which they can post "DO NOT ACCEPT A GIRL AND HER DOG FROM LUCY LEMON." and save themselves a whole lot of stress and trouble and angry tweeting.
Wow, I'm off-topic. XD I'm (in)famous for that on certain websites, in which 'off topic chatter' is unaccepted in the forums. This was originally meant to be a post about notable blogs I've found useful.
And this is in my head, so I can't possibly not say anything about it. I don't know who said this (I want to say Janet Reid at the Query Shark, but I don't know for sure.) about agents wanting something a touch personal in their queries and not To Whom It May Concern. They'll even take "Dear Reptilian Agent Standing Between Me And Fame" which just tickles me pink. And horrifies me at the same time.
What sort of maniacs out there saw that, and then promptly rewrote their query letter to say Dear Reptilian Agent...?
Anywho, onto the links!
Alexandra Sokoloff - I know I linked to her in my last post, but now you're honour-bound to check out her blog. She's the author of The Unseen, The Harrowing, and The Price, three horror/suspense novels, one of which won the Bram Stoker Award. I don't even have to know what they're about to be interested in them, just on the covers alone, but what really interests me are her posts on screenwriting tips for authors. Very, extraordinarily helpful collection of information there.
Editorial Anonymous - Editors seem to be more reclusive than agents, or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough. Anyway, the anonymous editor here generally posts helpful questions submitted to her as well as their answers, which can be a great help.
Editorial Ass - That's 'ass-istant', and she goes by the pseudonym Moonrat. Hysterically funny at times, she also posts words of wisdom as well as gems she finds in her inbox, and stories from her homelife. The most astonishing thing about Moonrat is that she's not much older than me; twenty four, twenty five at most. I had assumed she was at least in her thirties, possibly fourties. Very good reads in here, and she's very relatable-to. ... (hush, that's a word because I say it is.)
Miss Snark's First Victim - I'll be frank; she really intimidated me when I first found her blog. I'd heard rumours of Miss Snark, but I came onto the writing scene a couple of years after she stopped blogging, so I was never subjected to her full furious wrath. Not to mention she was posting contest-like things, Drop the Needle and the Secret Agent submissions. But Twitter and Facebook helped me out a lot, and now I recognise her blog for what it really is; a truly helpful tool, whose 'contests' (I realise they're not really, but I have a pounding headache in addition to it being one thirty in the morning, so excuse my lack of brain power for now.) are extraordinarily useful. Okay, so she tells funny stories, too. I may have a blogger-'type'.
The Query Shark - Is there anything more horrifying than the thought of someone ripping your query to pieces? Maybe someone ripping your novel to pieces. But also think about this from the agent's POV; she's got to sit and read through this crap every day. This is a fabulous, brave woman, who clearly has the patience of a saint to not be stark raving mad by now, dealing with the things she does. Some of the comments are amusing, and of course, the whole thing is geared towards helping you to write a better query.
The Blood-Red Pencil - This is one of the blogs I check religiously. I deliberately seek them out in my list, rather than just skimming the whole 'all blogs' thing. Absolutely amazing hints, tips, and tricks, with a healthy smattering of funny stories.
The Literary Lab - Another one I check religiously, for much of the same reasons as the Blood-Red Pencil. They're also full of really cool guest bloggers, who offer insights and insider's knowledge and general opinions not found anywhere else. Absolutely love this blog.
The Mystery and the Magic - Just found this one tonight; he's the one who prompted this whole blog post. I haven't read very far into his archives, but what I've seen so far, he promises to be just as inspiring and helpful as the others that I've listed here.
Okay. Now, I'm going to take seven or eight more aspirin and go to bed. TAT I have a small mouth anyway, and all my normal teeth plus four wisdom teeth (two on each side.) Since I don't have any sort of dental insurance, I have no way of taking care of this problem, and frequently, my teeth start shifting around as the wisdom teeth come in further, or move around, and this causes extreme pain that nothing but aspirin will take care of. Earlier, it hurt in three places; the bottom, near the front, the top near the front, and the top near the back. This meant that not only did my mouth hurt, but my chin, cheek, temple, and forehead hurt as well. Some unknown amount of aspirin later (I take them, they work, the pain comes back, I take more...) and I've got a pounding headache.
Also. We have three bearded dragons. (Really cute little lizards.) We feed them crickets at times.
They do not always eat all of the crickets at once.
There is one. ONE. cricket remaining, and it is silent all day. As soon as everyone else goes to bed, this fscker starts cricking as LOUDLY AS IS FREAKIN' POSSIBLE, and is NOT HELPING MY HEADACHE.
In a funnier story, we always assumed that we had two boys and a girl. They're all in separate terrariums, because the two boys would fight, and obviously, the girl couldn't be kept in with either of the boys because they would mate, and the girl came from the same clutch as one of the boys (making them essentially siblings. Inbred dragons. Can you imagine? XD)
Today, I noticed something strange in one of their cages (they are, in order from biggest to smallest, Draco, a boy, Gizmo, and Saphira, the girl.) It was in Gizmo's cage, and I happened to be walking past to do laundry.
There were several little white things littering the floor of the terrarium, so I waited until my stepmother came out of her room, and asked, "What's in Gizmo's cage?" and proceeded on my duty of laundry-switching.
I came out of the garage (where our dryer is) and she pointed at Gizmo's cage and shouted, "WE THOUGHT YOU WERE A BOY."
Gizmo laid eggs.
They're unfertilized, so we're not having baby dragons (but I still get to say we've got dragon eggs in our house. XD) but still. Our supposedly male dragon laid eggs. She/he acts like a male in all other respects; same mannerisms as Draco, although more mild, less inclined to asshattery (Draco is a pain in the BUTT. If anyone ever tells me 'lizards have no personality' I'm going to laugh in their faces. Our three have more personality than our dogs.)
Okay, anywho. Aspirin. Bed. Good night, all. ♥
Showing posts with label discussion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discussion. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Discussion Post 2
What I'm Listening To: Cold - Cure My Tragedy (A Letter to God)
What I'm Doing: Trying not to kick or otherwise do damage to the infernally whimpering dogs. I've got such a headache right now because it hasn't shut up for the last HOUR and a HALF. I'm ready to do bodily harm to it.
This is a relatively long post, and even then, I'm positive I missed a few comments. Don't worry, I READ them all - they get emailed to me - I just... fail a bit, when it comes to replying. XD
Muses
JessJordan I can almost understand the media thing. I was trying to think about it, and was telling myself that I didn't really use things I've seen... of course, I am a complete geek and don't watch things like American Idol or cartoons and the like; when my television gets turned on at all, I watch something on the Crime channel, or Investigation Discovery, or the History International Channel, or Science, or just History channels. I'm a huge fan of history; it's crossed my mind that while I'm working towards my MFA, (the school I'm thinking of requires a bachelors degree before they'll let you take the MFA course) I'll get teaching credentials as a History teacher, and teach high school history. I also plan on writing at least two different historical romance novels under a pseudonym, as I believe I've mentioned in this blog. (Not sure if it was this one, or my angstdump blog that I said that I could never teach Elementary or Middle school... I really dislike kids, and middle school drama would have me shooting kids with bb guns after the first week.)
No, but here I get off my point so entirely I forget what I was saying. Anyway, I read somewhere that it's... okay... in a way to use other people's ideas, so long as it's not plagiarising them - taking their exact idea and using it for your own. What they said was okay (and I've long since lost whatever it was I read that said this) was taking someone elses idea, and changing it a bit here, and a bit there, and making it your own, until it's unrecognisable as the beginning idea, and is now your own original. I find myself doing that with Eversong; It's damn near impossible to write a fantasy novel of any kind without touching on something that's already been done in one way or another. And anyone who hears 'elves' is going to think of Lord of the Rings, or those Keebler monstrosities. (Sprites, pixies, and faeries, as well as goblins, imps, and the like are tiny little short things. Elves, in my opinion, are relatively people-shaped, and just as tall.)
And as I was reading this, I realised that I don't base my characters off of people. Not yet, anyway. Vicky is the only one; she's based off of myself. A loner, reads a lot, has no friends, not 'skinny', at a point in her life where she's just drifting aimlessly. But that's where the similarities end, and her home life is radically different, and of course, she has fantastic adventures in a different world. (which is, admittedly, something that I've always longed to do, but I don't think I'm alone in it, which is part of what I think will make Eversong so ... appealing.) In my historical romances, those are most certainly based off of real people. I'm unabashedly changing my best friend's name, and sending her spinning through time where she finds her true love. But I think that's as far as it goes. As I write, I'll probably find so-and-so starting to act like my brother, or my stepdad, or so on and so forth, but for the moment, I don't think I've done that. I'm almost envious of people who do, I think, because they've got at least a template for their character.
Ahh, music. I can't think without music, much less function. I've always got either my ipod on or winamp/itunes open, and I'm constantly on the hunt for new music. And sometimes, certain songs are inspiring. There's a song by Stabbing Westward that helped with some of the scenes (not written yet, but they're in my head) for Mischief and Murder. "Sometimes It Hurts" - the lyrics have nothing to do with it at all, but the music itself, and the tone of the lyrics, it has something of an apocalyptic sound to it, and it's going to be my 'writing theme' for M&M.
And most certainly other people's writings. Sometimes when I'm trying to write, and I can't focus on it, I sit down with a book and within ten minutes I'm itching to get back to my own writing.
I think I posted a link to it, but I'm going to post the actual hacks themselves in another entry, with my thoughts and comments added (because you should know by now that I've got an opinion on everything, and can talk writing until I'm blue in the face/my fingers start aching.) I've never heard of morning pages, and it's funny, because I was just talking last night to my friend about this same thing: I'm not functional in the morning until I've had at least a cup of coffee, and an hour of doing nothing but things like checking my email and surfing over the pet sites I've joined. I'm capable of leaping out of bed and getting dressed and getting moving, but usually within a half hour of doing that, I'm zombified again, and am good for nothing without at least an hour of being awake and moving around.
As for your work, that sounds like it would be full of novels in and of itself. And some people just aren't made to be parents. I know myself for one of them; I have no patience for children (although I've been told many times that I'm 'good with them' - it's mostly because I think that if I'm nice to them, without being too nice, they'll respect what I say and leave me alone when I want it. XD) and I've got too much interest in my own life. I understand that kids are a lifetime responsibility, whether you're twenty years old, or eighty. Your life is never your own again after you have kids, and I don't want that. (not to mention I've got incurable wanderlust; I'd never be home, and that's just as bad as not being a good parent while you are there.)
I've never been able to make use of writing prompts. Oh, simple things like 'rubber chicken, carrots, and a giraffe" I can turn into a silly story, but things like "You're walking down a dark road late at night and you see..."
I can use them of course, because all I've got to do is imagine myself walking down a dark road, there's endless possibilities, but it doesn't lend itself to story creation; usually just a paragraph or two.
I make use of your number 8 almost all the time. As a kid, I called them 'dream starters' because I thought that if I went to bed thinking about flying, I'd dream about flying, and the stories built themselves in my head from there. I'm also a seer - I see things in leaves, and in patterns on the wall and such. When I was a teenager, my bed faced a window with an enormous bush outside, and when the wind would blow, the leaves and the light would arrange themselves in such a way as to look like an angry old man, shouting about something, so I used to lie in bed and think about what he was so mad about, and why he was shouting, and what he was saying.
In some of my writers hacks, the guy said that writer's block is a farce, and that he sometimes sits down and writes "I have nothing to say" so many times that he finally gets so pissed off about writing something stupid that he's able to write something decent, and other people have said they get writer's block looking at blank pages. I get artists block looking at blank pages; I've never been able to make much use of sketchbooks because of it, although I doodle endlessly on lined paper (to the utter horror of my artistic friends. XD)
Another thing the writers hack said was when he was talking about his wife, who is a painter, and always has two projects going on at one time, so that when she's stuck on one, she switches to the other until she gets stuck on it, and then goes back to the first. I started M&M when I couldn't bring myself to write anything else for Eversong, and now I've got a good portion of it mapped out, and a little bit of the beginning as well, and now, after a short break from Eversong, I feel the ideas building up for it again, and I'm getting the ball rolling on writing it again, and can't even think of writing for M&M. And I imagine I'll switch back and forth between them until they're both done.
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Don't feel bad about being partially blind. I'm halfway there myself; I feel like an old woman some days, because my hearing's bad (especially right now, I got water in one of my ears a week ago, and now can't hear a thing out of it) and my eyes are getting worse and worse, and I've got back pains and can't hardly walk some days...
And I think I've said somewhere else, that I've got patience for things I like (for the most part.) I like to read other people's stories, and if something I said could help them become a better writer, then I've accomplished something. Granted, my patience started running out towards the end, because it was story after story that was just... terrible. I know the internet is famous for it's 'anonymity' but that didn't occur to me when I was telling people honestly what I thought of their excerpts, until afterwards, when one of the authors of something I'd commented on had asked me questions in return about something I'd said, but I'd also rather speak honestly and tell someone that something's not good enough, than sugar coat it, and get their hopes up. And as much as it'll pain me, I want honest feedback on my own stories (something my friends on LJ couldn't seem to manage. XD I asked them specifically "read over this and tell me why it's wrong/why you don't like it" and all I got was, "this is so great, I love it!")
I was trying to think if I've got anything that's a 'good example' of my writing, without simply copy-pasting bits of my novels (because I've heard that posting your book, or parts of your book online can interfere with the publishing process) but discovered that the only thing I've really ever written aside from starting these books is 'adult' rated, mostly slash fanfiction, for various anime games, and the Harry Potter novels. And I don't know what Eversong looks like right now (haven't reread any of it since I started writing) or I'd post an excerpt of it. Maybe I will anyway. Not my first 250 words, because I know for a fact that the beginning is weak and needs a lot of work, but something... *thinks about it*
All of my friends up until this point have been artists. Really good artists. And I'm ... not bad. I can make vaguely human-shaped drawings, if they're girls, in tight clothes. XD
Such as this, my oldest and favourite RP character, who will be making it into Eversong. Her name's Eshina Darksquall, nicknamed "Phantom"
And here is Phantom and her husband, Manessin Darksquall, aka "Spectre" as drawn by my friend.
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Writing is a Thought In Progress
The 'write what you know' thing stems mostly from the fact that the majority of my books will take place in or around Virginia Beach. I know large cities like New York and Chicago are popular settings (yet another reason for me not to use them) but I've never been there, and couldn't tell you a damn thing about either city. Virginia Beach I've lived in over half my life, and while there are still things that surprise me, I still know my way around, and can picture any of the streets I frequent with ease, as well as give you vague directions on how to get to certain places.
I do think that a murderous rampage can be accomplished while still creating the perfect murder (leave no one alive, touch nothing, that sort of thing) but I'll say it again just so people don't worry - I'm not the least likely to go on a murderous rampage.
Thank you on the title compliment. I hadn't thought about it until you said something, but you're absolutely right. Perfect could be about any number of things. The perfect girl, the perfect body, the perfect score, the perfect murder...
The thing that gets me about my various ideas isn't the number (though there are many, and obviously the horde is growing) it's the diversity. Most people stick to just one genre, and they're good at it, but even for myself (that writer's ego coming out and showing off again) I reread the excerpts I posted, and I was thinking, that if I were reading those books, not writing them myself, they'd all be good. They're all GOING to be good. And now I feel like I have a standard to live up to; I've got fantastic starts with all three of them, and they're as different as different could be.
I don't think people realise that women can be just as coldblooded as men. Women as a gender-role have always been matronly, caring-for-people, child-raising people, whereas it's men - hot-headed, strong, less self-control - who are brought to mind by the thought of a serial killer. And it's true, that more men kill than women, and in male/female partner killings, it's generally the woman is an accomplice while the man is the killer, but that doesn't mean that there aren't women who kill. One of my favourite shows on Oxygen is Snapped and it's exactly that, stories about women who snap, and kill people.
That's another thing. Women generally kill their husbands/children/parents - people close to them. Most of the stories in Snapped are women who've found out their husband was cheating on them/needed the money from the life insurance/had a new lover and wanted the husband out of the way... things like that. Which is why I'm so stoked, personally, about Perfect - it stars a topically stereotypical female lead, who is carrying out actions predominantly manifesting in men. Random victims, really violent killings, and of course, she's pretty much above reproach, being the only daughter of Such-and-Such-Big-Name-Company's CEO. She's like 'the quiet guy who always helps out at church functions and helps little old ladies across the street and takes in stray puppies, and then every third Monday goes out and rips the skin off of hookers' only in girl form.
Also, feel free to get bossy. When people are excited about what I'm doing, it makes ME excited about what I'm doing, and that gets things done faster. XD Also, I'm just as likely to get the same way, and it's about time I got a little of my own back.
I haven't actually decided whether or not she'll 'get away with it' or not. I realise most people probably read crime stories in order to get their happy ending without all the sap and kissing that romance novels present, but at the same time, I'm already breaking all the rules in the first place, why not leave it with 'and she drove away into the sunset, ready to kill again.' instead of 'behind bars for the rest of her life.'
I hadn't actually considered mental issues as a base for the killing. I haven't given it any thought, really, but as of five minutes ago, she was just some bored twenty-something who finds the idea of killing a thrill. And then it turns out that she's good at it (she'll be one that frequents the gym, was a cheerleader in high school; not muscular, per se, but strong, with good control of herself) to boot. Instead of overthinking it, I'm probably just going to write, and see what types of mental problems arise on their own, if there's something deeper at work or if she's just had one too many martinis.
As for the pseudonym thing, Amy K for Eversong and A.N.K for the YA won't be that much of a leap to make, whereas I think I'm going to ruthlessly separate the other genres from those two. As for the crime novel about a female killer written by a woman...
It was the same problem I had with Eversong, when I was first starting out. I actually interviewed my best friend's husband, and asked him if he'd read a fantasy story fronted by a female character. I don't know the audience at all with crime novels; I only know the two or three that I've got, myself, and I haven't the foggiest what people would look for in that genre. I know it'll be good, and it'll be interesting because of the over-riding themes, but I don't know if men would be more or less likely to pick it up if they thought a woman had written it. J.K. Rowling did that to her name (in rumours, at least) so that boys wouldn't feel self-conscious about reading a book written by a woman. Naturally, it shouldn't matter who wrote the book, as long as it's good, but it does. One of the YA girls from Twitter posted about something similar a few days ago; they said something to the effect of the list of the 50, or 100 most influential books of the 20th century was compiled, and only seven of the authors were women. Girls are easier about picking up a book by either gender, but some men might see it as an effront to their masculinity to be seen reading a book written by a woman. And they may not even know that they think that way; I'm just considering how to reach the widest possible audience.
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Just Keep Swimming (The sharks are vegans)
1- I may actually end up rewriting it, then. I've had Phantom (as a character) since my freshman year of high school; going on nine years now. And because she's so old, I've forgotten much of her original back story, but that is, as far as I can tell, a good representation; she was separated from her family at a relatively young age, and grew up 'on the road' as it were, with her mentor. The reason for the confusingly similar names is because they're twins. (Don't know if I made that clear in the actual story, because I can't bring myself to reread it. XD)
And the abrupt shift has more to do with the fact that I couldn't write, than your brain being on lock-down from work. I'm impossibly happy that you liked it overall, however, and it's made it onto the list of 'maybe someday I'll...'
2 - I'm still experimenting with actively writing to hook the readers in, and I must have rewritten the first sentence or two at least fifteen times before I finally settled on whatever you see up there now. She is killing at random, for two reasons: one, it's one less way to connect her to the murders, and two; as I said up there somewhere *waves vaguely in the direction of the top/middle of this post* women tend to kill their family members. There are, of course, exceptions, but I want this to stop being stereotypical after it passes her being the rich heiress type.
And I hadn't considered that, about the last paragraph. I'll go back and do something with that, as I was mostly writing in a hurry in order to get the initial opening out of my head and make it as eye-catching as possible.
3 - I'm not sure, exactly, how I ought to be 'showing' things and not telling them, which is why it's a little sketchy. Eversong was the first novel I started working on, and I've been on the fence about that beginning since I wrote it.
This is also a good a place as any to answer another question I remember you asking (somewhere) about her being in her early twenties, and never having fallen in love. She's very much independent, a sort of 'I'll do it myself' person rather than the 'Oh, help me, I dropped my kerchief!' damsel-in-distress type. And she's also more interested in books than she is in other people, and she's never really had any close close friendships in her life. She's had 'crushes' on people, but never serious, and that's the reason for her finding her true 'first love' while she's in Eversong.
4 - I tried rethinking M&M with human characters, and it simply wouldn't work. That's the reason I see them more like the characters from the Secret of Nimh or Once Upon a Forest. Very clearly animals, but still... upright-walking, clothes-wearing, and English-speaking. At some point, I'll get that across in the writing, but of course, that was only the first two hundred and fifty or so words. I picture Riley as something of a coward; not because he's REALLY a coward, but just because he's so overshadowed by so many other Huge Personalities in his home life that he never really has a chance to share himself.
Also, you've totally made my day with that comment. I'm pretty sure the publisher deals with whatever blurb goes on the back of the cover, but the point of the back cover is to create a story that lends itself well to such a thing, and still gets people interested in it. It made perfect sense, and like I said, it made my day. It's really nice to hear from friends that you've got something kinda good going on there, but it's spine-tingling, stupid-grin-inducing to hear the same thing from new friends that don't know me for the utter (but harmless) lunatic that I am.
What I'm Doing: Trying not to kick or otherwise do damage to the infernally whimpering dogs. I've got such a headache right now because it hasn't shut up for the last HOUR and a HALF. I'm ready to do bodily harm to it.
This is a relatively long post, and even then, I'm positive I missed a few comments. Don't worry, I READ them all - they get emailed to me - I just... fail a bit, when it comes to replying. XD
Muses
JessJordan I can almost understand the media thing. I was trying to think about it, and was telling myself that I didn't really use things I've seen... of course, I am a complete geek and don't watch things like American Idol or cartoons and the like; when my television gets turned on at all, I watch something on the Crime channel, or Investigation Discovery, or the History International Channel, or Science, or just History channels. I'm a huge fan of history; it's crossed my mind that while I'm working towards my MFA, (the school I'm thinking of requires a bachelors degree before they'll let you take the MFA course) I'll get teaching credentials as a History teacher, and teach high school history. I also plan on writing at least two different historical romance novels under a pseudonym, as I believe I've mentioned in this blog. (Not sure if it was this one, or my angstdump blog that I said that I could never teach Elementary or Middle school... I really dislike kids, and middle school drama would have me shooting kids with bb guns after the first week.)
No, but here I get off my point so entirely I forget what I was saying. Anyway, I read somewhere that it's... okay... in a way to use other people's ideas, so long as it's not plagiarising them - taking their exact idea and using it for your own. What they said was okay (and I've long since lost whatever it was I read that said this) was taking someone elses idea, and changing it a bit here, and a bit there, and making it your own, until it's unrecognisable as the beginning idea, and is now your own original. I find myself doing that with Eversong; It's damn near impossible to write a fantasy novel of any kind without touching on something that's already been done in one way or another. And anyone who hears 'elves' is going to think of Lord of the Rings, or those Keebler monstrosities. (Sprites, pixies, and faeries, as well as goblins, imps, and the like are tiny little short things. Elves, in my opinion, are relatively people-shaped, and just as tall.)
And as I was reading this, I realised that I don't base my characters off of people. Not yet, anyway. Vicky is the only one; she's based off of myself. A loner, reads a lot, has no friends, not 'skinny', at a point in her life where she's just drifting aimlessly. But that's where the similarities end, and her home life is radically different, and of course, she has fantastic adventures in a different world. (which is, admittedly, something that I've always longed to do, but I don't think I'm alone in it, which is part of what I think will make Eversong so ... appealing.) In my historical romances, those are most certainly based off of real people. I'm unabashedly changing my best friend's name, and sending her spinning through time where she finds her true love. But I think that's as far as it goes. As I write, I'll probably find so-and-so starting to act like my brother, or my stepdad, or so on and so forth, but for the moment, I don't think I've done that. I'm almost envious of people who do, I think, because they've got at least a template for their character.
Ahh, music. I can't think without music, much less function. I've always got either my ipod on or winamp/itunes open, and I'm constantly on the hunt for new music. And sometimes, certain songs are inspiring. There's a song by Stabbing Westward that helped with some of the scenes (not written yet, but they're in my head) for Mischief and Murder. "Sometimes It Hurts" - the lyrics have nothing to do with it at all, but the music itself, and the tone of the lyrics, it has something of an apocalyptic sound to it, and it's going to be my 'writing theme' for M&M.
And most certainly other people's writings. Sometimes when I'm trying to write, and I can't focus on it, I sit down with a book and within ten minutes I'm itching to get back to my own writing.
I think I posted a link to it, but I'm going to post the actual hacks themselves in another entry, with my thoughts and comments added (because you should know by now that I've got an opinion on everything, and can talk writing until I'm blue in the face/my fingers start aching.) I've never heard of morning pages, and it's funny, because I was just talking last night to my friend about this same thing: I'm not functional in the morning until I've had at least a cup of coffee, and an hour of doing nothing but things like checking my email and surfing over the pet sites I've joined. I'm capable of leaping out of bed and getting dressed and getting moving, but usually within a half hour of doing that, I'm zombified again, and am good for nothing without at least an hour of being awake and moving around.
As for your work, that sounds like it would be full of novels in and of itself. And some people just aren't made to be parents. I know myself for one of them; I have no patience for children (although I've been told many times that I'm 'good with them' - it's mostly because I think that if I'm nice to them, without being too nice, they'll respect what I say and leave me alone when I want it. XD) and I've got too much interest in my own life. I understand that kids are a lifetime responsibility, whether you're twenty years old, or eighty. Your life is never your own again after you have kids, and I don't want that. (not to mention I've got incurable wanderlust; I'd never be home, and that's just as bad as not being a good parent while you are there.)
I've never been able to make use of writing prompts. Oh, simple things like 'rubber chicken, carrots, and a giraffe" I can turn into a silly story, but things like "You're walking down a dark road late at night and you see..."
I can use them of course, because all I've got to do is imagine myself walking down a dark road, there's endless possibilities, but it doesn't lend itself to story creation; usually just a paragraph or two.
I make use of your number 8 almost all the time. As a kid, I called them 'dream starters' because I thought that if I went to bed thinking about flying, I'd dream about flying, and the stories built themselves in my head from there. I'm also a seer - I see things in leaves, and in patterns on the wall and such. When I was a teenager, my bed faced a window with an enormous bush outside, and when the wind would blow, the leaves and the light would arrange themselves in such a way as to look like an angry old man, shouting about something, so I used to lie in bed and think about what he was so mad about, and why he was shouting, and what he was saying.
In some of my writers hacks, the guy said that writer's block is a farce, and that he sometimes sits down and writes "I have nothing to say" so many times that he finally gets so pissed off about writing something stupid that he's able to write something decent, and other people have said they get writer's block looking at blank pages. I get artists block looking at blank pages; I've never been able to make much use of sketchbooks because of it, although I doodle endlessly on lined paper (to the utter horror of my artistic friends. XD)
Another thing the writers hack said was when he was talking about his wife, who is a painter, and always has two projects going on at one time, so that when she's stuck on one, she switches to the other until she gets stuck on it, and then goes back to the first. I started M&M when I couldn't bring myself to write anything else for Eversong, and now I've got a good portion of it mapped out, and a little bit of the beginning as well, and now, after a short break from Eversong, I feel the ideas building up for it again, and I'm getting the ball rolling on writing it again, and can't even think of writing for M&M. And I imagine I'll switch back and forth between them until they're both done.
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Don't feel bad about being partially blind. I'm halfway there myself; I feel like an old woman some days, because my hearing's bad (especially right now, I got water in one of my ears a week ago, and now can't hear a thing out of it) and my eyes are getting worse and worse, and I've got back pains and can't hardly walk some days...
And I think I've said somewhere else, that I've got patience for things I like (for the most part.) I like to read other people's stories, and if something I said could help them become a better writer, then I've accomplished something. Granted, my patience started running out towards the end, because it was story after story that was just... terrible. I know the internet is famous for it's 'anonymity' but that didn't occur to me when I was telling people honestly what I thought of their excerpts, until afterwards, when one of the authors of something I'd commented on had asked me questions in return about something I'd said, but I'd also rather speak honestly and tell someone that something's not good enough, than sugar coat it, and get their hopes up. And as much as it'll pain me, I want honest feedback on my own stories (something my friends on LJ couldn't seem to manage. XD I asked them specifically "read over this and tell me why it's wrong/why you don't like it" and all I got was, "this is so great, I love it!")
I was trying to think if I've got anything that's a 'good example' of my writing, without simply copy-pasting bits of my novels (because I've heard that posting your book, or parts of your book online can interfere with the publishing process) but discovered that the only thing I've really ever written aside from starting these books is 'adult' rated, mostly slash fanfiction, for various anime games, and the Harry Potter novels. And I don't know what Eversong looks like right now (haven't reread any of it since I started writing) or I'd post an excerpt of it. Maybe I will anyway. Not my first 250 words, because I know for a fact that the beginning is weak and needs a lot of work, but something... *thinks about it*
All of my friends up until this point have been artists. Really good artists. And I'm ... not bad. I can make vaguely human-shaped drawings, if they're girls, in tight clothes. XD
Such as this, my oldest and favourite RP character, who will be making it into Eversong. Her name's Eshina Darksquall, nicknamed "Phantom"
And here is Phantom and her husband, Manessin Darksquall, aka "Spectre" as drawn by my friend.
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Writing is a Thought In Progress
The 'write what you know' thing stems mostly from the fact that the majority of my books will take place in or around Virginia Beach. I know large cities like New York and Chicago are popular settings (yet another reason for me not to use them) but I've never been there, and couldn't tell you a damn thing about either city. Virginia Beach I've lived in over half my life, and while there are still things that surprise me, I still know my way around, and can picture any of the streets I frequent with ease, as well as give you vague directions on how to get to certain places.
I do think that a murderous rampage can be accomplished while still creating the perfect murder (leave no one alive, touch nothing, that sort of thing) but I'll say it again just so people don't worry - I'm not the least likely to go on a murderous rampage.
Thank you on the title compliment. I hadn't thought about it until you said something, but you're absolutely right. Perfect could be about any number of things. The perfect girl, the perfect body, the perfect score, the perfect murder...
The thing that gets me about my various ideas isn't the number (though there are many, and obviously the horde is growing) it's the diversity. Most people stick to just one genre, and they're good at it, but even for myself (that writer's ego coming out and showing off again) I reread the excerpts I posted, and I was thinking, that if I were reading those books, not writing them myself, they'd all be good. They're all GOING to be good. And now I feel like I have a standard to live up to; I've got fantastic starts with all three of them, and they're as different as different could be.
I don't think people realise that women can be just as coldblooded as men. Women as a gender-role have always been matronly, caring-for-people, child-raising people, whereas it's men - hot-headed, strong, less self-control - who are brought to mind by the thought of a serial killer. And it's true, that more men kill than women, and in male/female partner killings, it's generally the woman is an accomplice while the man is the killer, but that doesn't mean that there aren't women who kill. One of my favourite shows on Oxygen is Snapped and it's exactly that, stories about women who snap, and kill people.
That's another thing. Women generally kill their husbands/children/parents - people close to them. Most of the stories in Snapped are women who've found out their husband was cheating on them/needed the money from the life insurance/had a new lover and wanted the husband out of the way... things like that. Which is why I'm so stoked, personally, about Perfect - it stars a topically stereotypical female lead, who is carrying out actions predominantly manifesting in men. Random victims, really violent killings, and of course, she's pretty much above reproach, being the only daughter of Such-and-Such-Big-Name-Company's CEO. She's like 'the quiet guy who always helps out at church functions and helps little old ladies across the street and takes in stray puppies, and then every third Monday goes out and rips the skin off of hookers' only in girl form.
Also, feel free to get bossy. When people are excited about what I'm doing, it makes ME excited about what I'm doing, and that gets things done faster. XD Also, I'm just as likely to get the same way, and it's about time I got a little of my own back.
I haven't actually decided whether or not she'll 'get away with it' or not. I realise most people probably read crime stories in order to get their happy ending without all the sap and kissing that romance novels present, but at the same time, I'm already breaking all the rules in the first place, why not leave it with 'and she drove away into the sunset, ready to kill again.' instead of 'behind bars for the rest of her life.'
I hadn't actually considered mental issues as a base for the killing. I haven't given it any thought, really, but as of five minutes ago, she was just some bored twenty-something who finds the idea of killing a thrill. And then it turns out that she's good at it (she'll be one that frequents the gym, was a cheerleader in high school; not muscular, per se, but strong, with good control of herself) to boot. Instead of overthinking it, I'm probably just going to write, and see what types of mental problems arise on their own, if there's something deeper at work or if she's just had one too many martinis.
As for the pseudonym thing, Amy K for Eversong and A.N.K for the YA won't be that much of a leap to make, whereas I think I'm going to ruthlessly separate the other genres from those two. As for the crime novel about a female killer written by a woman...
It was the same problem I had with Eversong, when I was first starting out. I actually interviewed my best friend's husband, and asked him if he'd read a fantasy story fronted by a female character. I don't know the audience at all with crime novels; I only know the two or three that I've got, myself, and I haven't the foggiest what people would look for in that genre. I know it'll be good, and it'll be interesting because of the over-riding themes, but I don't know if men would be more or less likely to pick it up if they thought a woman had written it. J.K. Rowling did that to her name (in rumours, at least) so that boys wouldn't feel self-conscious about reading a book written by a woman. Naturally, it shouldn't matter who wrote the book, as long as it's good, but it does. One of the YA girls from Twitter posted about something similar a few days ago; they said something to the effect of the list of the 50, or 100 most influential books of the 20th century was compiled, and only seven of the authors were women. Girls are easier about picking up a book by either gender, but some men might see it as an effront to their masculinity to be seen reading a book written by a woman. And they may not even know that they think that way; I'm just considering how to reach the widest possible audience.
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Just Keep Swimming (The sharks are vegans)
1- I may actually end up rewriting it, then. I've had Phantom (as a character) since my freshman year of high school; going on nine years now. And because she's so old, I've forgotten much of her original back story, but that is, as far as I can tell, a good representation; she was separated from her family at a relatively young age, and grew up 'on the road' as it were, with her mentor. The reason for the confusingly similar names is because they're twins. (Don't know if I made that clear in the actual story, because I can't bring myself to reread it. XD)
And the abrupt shift has more to do with the fact that I couldn't write, than your brain being on lock-down from work. I'm impossibly happy that you liked it overall, however, and it's made it onto the list of 'maybe someday I'll...'
2 - I'm still experimenting with actively writing to hook the readers in, and I must have rewritten the first sentence or two at least fifteen times before I finally settled on whatever you see up there now. She is killing at random, for two reasons: one, it's one less way to connect her to the murders, and two; as I said up there somewhere *waves vaguely in the direction of the top/middle of this post* women tend to kill their family members. There are, of course, exceptions, but I want this to stop being stereotypical after it passes her being the rich heiress type.
And I hadn't considered that, about the last paragraph. I'll go back and do something with that, as I was mostly writing in a hurry in order to get the initial opening out of my head and make it as eye-catching as possible.
3 - I'm not sure, exactly, how I ought to be 'showing' things and not telling them, which is why it's a little sketchy. Eversong was the first novel I started working on, and I've been on the fence about that beginning since I wrote it.
This is also a good a place as any to answer another question I remember you asking (somewhere) about her being in her early twenties, and never having fallen in love. She's very much independent, a sort of 'I'll do it myself' person rather than the 'Oh, help me, I dropped my kerchief!' damsel-in-distress type. And she's also more interested in books than she is in other people, and she's never really had any close close friendships in her life. She's had 'crushes' on people, but never serious, and that's the reason for her finding her true 'first love' while she's in Eversong.
4 - I tried rethinking M&M with human characters, and it simply wouldn't work. That's the reason I see them more like the characters from the Secret of Nimh or Once Upon a Forest. Very clearly animals, but still... upright-walking, clothes-wearing, and English-speaking. At some point, I'll get that across in the writing, but of course, that was only the first two hundred and fifty or so words. I picture Riley as something of a coward; not because he's REALLY a coward, but just because he's so overshadowed by so many other Huge Personalities in his home life that he never really has a chance to share himself.
Also, you've totally made my day with that comment. I'm pretty sure the publisher deals with whatever blurb goes on the back of the cover, but the point of the back cover is to create a story that lends itself well to such a thing, and still gets people interested in it. It made perfect sense, and like I said, it made my day. It's really nice to hear from friends that you've got something kinda good going on there, but it's spine-tingling, stupid-grin-inducing to hear the same thing from new friends that don't know me for the utter (but harmless) lunatic that I am.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A Discussion Post!
What I'm Listening To: Cinema Bizarre - Escape to the Stars
What I'm Doing: Reading Nightmare by Piers Anthony, and trying to decide between actual food, or more coffee.
Because I can't (or don't know how to) reply to comments, and some of you have left meaningful, interesting, and insightful comments on some of the things I've got to say about writing, and I just can't not start a discussion about them. (Mostly because, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know this already: I like to talk.)
Point of View
tokidoki-muse: I was mostly ranting because I'd just seen thirty plus badly written, first person excerpts. First person isn't as horrible as I seemed to have made it out to be, in my own opinion. Mami said something similar, that once she starts working on a book, it'll tell her what it's going to be written in, and some of them refuse to be written in anything BUT first person, so I'm not going to rag on your book, simply because it's in first person, which would make me a hipocrite in any case, because the vampire-novel idea that I've got kicking around around in my brain is in first person, itself. Also, a bit of a nightmare is a bit of an understatement. XDD Instead of rewriting the whole MS, just try rewriting certain scenes in third person limited, see how they work, and if you could possibly do the whole thing that way, or if it would be better off as is, in first person.
marynoel: That felt weird. I'm so used to calling you Mami... XD Any way, I've already told you about the spine-creasing and whatnot. And I've always thought that I wouldn't be able to write in first person, and obviously, after thirty-fourty first-person, badly written excerpts, I was ready to tear first-person out of the book altogether, but then I found myself building the possible-vampire novel in my head, and the main character immediately started narrating in first person. I was actually tempted to post the first words that came out of his mouth in my own 'are you hooked' post, and find out if it would be decently eye-catching. AND PERHAPS I SHALL SUGGEST THAT TO THE ANONYMOUS AUTHORESS, AND YOU WILL GET ANOTHER CHANCE. ^3^
farfums: I don't think it limits possible dialogue, because I see it as instead of sitting on the shoulder of the main character, you are instead sitting inside the head of the main character; you'd still be hearing the same things that your MC hears, so it doesn't matter if you're outside or inside, if there's two people too far away from the MC to hear what they're saying, you're still getting no dialogue. And I HEARTILY suggest you find The Shadowy Horses and Sunshine, as they are, to me, the pinnacle of first-person, as well as altogether amazing novels.
Story Creation
Valerie Wangnet: Thank you for commenting! I love hearing about how other people write, because it's such a personal process. I've heard fiction described as 'pouring your soul out to complete strangers' but I consider it more like... making a pretty picture. With words, naturally. But I often compare writing to drawing. You're doing the same thing, in my opinion, only instead of presenting people with ready-made images, you're creating the images with words, and then giving people the option of creating their own pictures from those words. No matter how a character is described to me in a book, I form my own image of their appearance based on how they act, and on other characters that I've seen. Prince Josua, from The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Trilogy by Tad Williams, is described as having close-cropped hair (which I initially imagine to look like the stereotyped 'Roman' look) but after that first mention of his hair, when I picture him in my mind, he's got somewhat shaggy, ear-length hair.
And I suppose I lied slightly about creating a story, and then stuffing characters into it. Mostly, my ideas come to me as single-shot images, or ideas - a world where dragons, elves, and unicorns are the norm, a forest ravaged by a nuclear explosion, a 'vampire story' unlike most of the popular vampire novels out there. The stories come to me (I'd be fooling myself and everyone else if I tried to say I create these ideas) based on those initial images or wants, and then the characters to fill those stories arrive.
tokidoki-muse: Gladly taken. They own mine, too, but I refuse to allow myself to fall into the 'vampire romanticism' that has swept the nation with Twilight; if you get right down to the bare bones of it, there's nothing romantic about vampires. Someone said (and I forget who) that vampires are walking corpses who eat people.
No one romanticises zombies.
Inspiration (in the weirdest places)
moonrat: My friend told me about you commenting on my blog, and for a moment, I was terrified. Thank you for taking the time to drop by, though! I'm glad you think so. I'm excited, too.
Some Good Advice and a little more
jessjordan: I read this at nearly three in the morning last night, and it was your comment that sparked the need to create this post, because you raised some interesting points, and I couldn't let it rest without talking to you about it. First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a comment. It was incredibly heartening to know that I'm not just blowing smoke, and actually say things worth thinking about occasionally, and your comment gave me quite a lot to think about, myself.
I'd originally imagined Eversong to be three, self-contained books in which the conflict of each book is resolved at the end of the book, not the end of the trilogy, but what makes it a trilogy, a set, and not just three books in the same 'world' is that they follow Vicky as a person, going from a slightly-lost twenty-something with no aim in life, and few friends, to finding - and losing - her first love, to finding good friends, and growing as a person, to eventually become a powerful, important person with great inner-strength.
I believe what I'm trying to say is character-driven stories, not plot-driven. I use the same example as from my post here, in the LotR trilogy; characters drive the story anyway, I'm aware of that. Someone (my memory feels like a collander at the moment, and all the important bits slipped out through the holes and left me with vague ideas and memories of what people have said, but not who said it in the first place) said that if in LotR, Aragorn had been the one to take the One Ring to the volcano, then the story would have been much different, nigh unrecognisable. It's Frodo's journey to destroy the ring that makes it what it is, but there is no resolution of major conflicts at the end of each book. You've got to read all three, in order, in order to reach a satisfying conclusion, and as I said, the first book is interesting and attention grabbing because it's the introduction; you get to know your characters, get to see them starting out on their massive journey, and become friends with them. The last book is interesting, because you see how their travels have changed these new friends of yours, and you get to see them triumph in the end, but the middle book sags just a bit, because there's nothing really... happening. They're traveling a lot, and having mini-adventures, and fighting battles, but it just put me in mind of a rope-bridge - on either side of the chasm you're crossing, the bridge is tight and balanced, but in the middle, it droops because of gravity. And that's just my own opinion, and what I, personally, took away from them, and it coloured my desire to NOT fall into the same rope-bridge story, to instead make it a suspension bridge - it's solid and bends enough in the wind so as to not break, but without the suspension cables - the characters, in this case - the whole thing would collapse under it's own weight.
Also; longwindedness is a word if you say it is. x3 The stars and spirits know that I've made up enough words in my day (publishment, I think was the one I said in a previous post)
I value people's opinions, because in my own, Eversong can do no wrong, and I wouldn't see it from enough distance to know why people were calling it contrived, and not good enough, or whatever else you can think of to say about it. It's like being on a mountain, versus looking at it from afar. When you're on a mountain, the only thing that matters is what's right in front of you, but if you're standing at a proper distance, you can get a proper look at the whole thing, and make observations about it as a complete unit.
I hadn't thought of it that way, as in your examples of option 1 and option 2, but you made an extremely good point, and I'm going to try to work that in somehow in order to keep it flowing, introducing the conflict of the next book at the end of the one that precedes it. That would also negate the need for a prologue in book two, explaining how the Dragon problem got started in the first place, I can make an epilogue at the end of the first one, showing that despite the defeat of the Mir'naam (what I referred to as 'dark elves' up until the point that I actually started writing) all is not well in the land of Eversong, that someone is climbing a forbidden mountain, and no good will come of it.
That sets up the next book neatly, and gets people's attention, "OMG, what's going to happen next? I can't wait for the next book!"
I just realised that I'm talking my way through this to you, and somewhat apologise. It's just easier for me to talk my way through problems, rather than sit and think about it myself.
As for the characters, I could also begin set-up for the emotional conflict between Jesse and Vicky somehow; I'm glad you pointed that out. You've helped immensely. <3
And I couldn't get that out of my head all last night; "If you make me love Vicky, I'll follow her anywhere." It's reinforced my desire to make Vicky a likable, relatable person, and not just a 'hollow placeholder for fans' in the way Bella Swan of Twilight was described; someone you wouldn't want to BE, but someone you can sympathise with, and become friends with as you read.
Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for your huge comment. <333 You may find yourself mentioned somewhere when I FINALLY get myself to the point of publication, because you've contributed immensely to the way Eversong is going to work.
Pseudonyms
ReNu: Oh thank god. XDD Thank you for commenting! I am absolute pants at naming things (or rather, titling things, as names come to me as easily as breathing.) I was slightly worried that Eversong, despite it's aesthetically pleasing sound (to me), wouldn't grab people's attention, and that's the base of all books. It doesn't matter how well it's written, or how good it is overall, if it's got a bad title, no one's going to pick it up to find out if it's good.
Thank you again to everyone who's taken the time to read and comment so far, and a thank you in advance to anyone who feels the need to comment in the future. I absolutely adore your comments, and every little bit of good advice helps.
What I'm Doing: Reading Nightmare by Piers Anthony, and trying to decide between actual food, or more coffee.
Because I can't (or don't know how to) reply to comments, and some of you have left meaningful, interesting, and insightful comments on some of the things I've got to say about writing, and I just can't not start a discussion about them. (Mostly because, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know this already: I like to talk.)
Point of View
tokidoki-muse: I was mostly ranting because I'd just seen thirty plus badly written, first person excerpts. First person isn't as horrible as I seemed to have made it out to be, in my own opinion. Mami said something similar, that once she starts working on a book, it'll tell her what it's going to be written in, and some of them refuse to be written in anything BUT first person, so I'm not going to rag on your book, simply because it's in first person, which would make me a hipocrite in any case, because the vampire-novel idea that I've got kicking around around in my brain is in first person, itself. Also, a bit of a nightmare is a bit of an understatement. XDD Instead of rewriting the whole MS, just try rewriting certain scenes in third person limited, see how they work, and if you could possibly do the whole thing that way, or if it would be better off as is, in first person.
marynoel: That felt weird. I'm so used to calling you Mami... XD Any way, I've already told you about the spine-creasing and whatnot. And I've always thought that I wouldn't be able to write in first person, and obviously, after thirty-fourty first-person, badly written excerpts, I was ready to tear first-person out of the book altogether, but then I found myself building the possible-vampire novel in my head, and the main character immediately started narrating in first person. I was actually tempted to post the first words that came out of his mouth in my own 'are you hooked' post, and find out if it would be decently eye-catching. AND PERHAPS I SHALL SUGGEST THAT TO THE ANONYMOUS AUTHORESS, AND YOU WILL GET ANOTHER CHANCE. ^3^
farfums: I don't think it limits possible dialogue, because I see it as instead of sitting on the shoulder of the main character, you are instead sitting inside the head of the main character; you'd still be hearing the same things that your MC hears, so it doesn't matter if you're outside or inside, if there's two people too far away from the MC to hear what they're saying, you're still getting no dialogue. And I HEARTILY suggest you find The Shadowy Horses and Sunshine, as they are, to me, the pinnacle of first-person, as well as altogether amazing novels.
Story Creation
Valerie Wangnet: Thank you for commenting! I love hearing about how other people write, because it's such a personal process. I've heard fiction described as 'pouring your soul out to complete strangers' but I consider it more like... making a pretty picture. With words, naturally. But I often compare writing to drawing. You're doing the same thing, in my opinion, only instead of presenting people with ready-made images, you're creating the images with words, and then giving people the option of creating their own pictures from those words. No matter how a character is described to me in a book, I form my own image of their appearance based on how they act, and on other characters that I've seen. Prince Josua, from The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Trilogy by Tad Williams, is described as having close-cropped hair (which I initially imagine to look like the stereotyped 'Roman' look) but after that first mention of his hair, when I picture him in my mind, he's got somewhat shaggy, ear-length hair.
And I suppose I lied slightly about creating a story, and then stuffing characters into it. Mostly, my ideas come to me as single-shot images, or ideas - a world where dragons, elves, and unicorns are the norm, a forest ravaged by a nuclear explosion, a 'vampire story' unlike most of the popular vampire novels out there. The stories come to me (I'd be fooling myself and everyone else if I tried to say I create these ideas) based on those initial images or wants, and then the characters to fill those stories arrive.
tokidoki-muse: Gladly taken. They own mine, too, but I refuse to allow myself to fall into the 'vampire romanticism' that has swept the nation with Twilight; if you get right down to the bare bones of it, there's nothing romantic about vampires. Someone said (and I forget who) that vampires are walking corpses who eat people.
No one romanticises zombies.
Inspiration (in the weirdest places)
moonrat: My friend told me about you commenting on my blog, and for a moment, I was terrified. Thank you for taking the time to drop by, though! I'm glad you think so. I'm excited, too.
Some Good Advice and a little more
jessjordan: I read this at nearly three in the morning last night, and it was your comment that sparked the need to create this post, because you raised some interesting points, and I couldn't let it rest without talking to you about it. First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a comment. It was incredibly heartening to know that I'm not just blowing smoke, and actually say things worth thinking about occasionally, and your comment gave me quite a lot to think about, myself.
I'd originally imagined Eversong to be three, self-contained books in which the conflict of each book is resolved at the end of the book, not the end of the trilogy, but what makes it a trilogy, a set, and not just three books in the same 'world' is that they follow Vicky as a person, going from a slightly-lost twenty-something with no aim in life, and few friends, to finding - and losing - her first love, to finding good friends, and growing as a person, to eventually become a powerful, important person with great inner-strength.
I believe what I'm trying to say is character-driven stories, not plot-driven. I use the same example as from my post here, in the LotR trilogy; characters drive the story anyway, I'm aware of that. Someone (my memory feels like a collander at the moment, and all the important bits slipped out through the holes and left me with vague ideas and memories of what people have said, but not who said it in the first place) said that if in LotR, Aragorn had been the one to take the One Ring to the volcano, then the story would have been much different, nigh unrecognisable. It's Frodo's journey to destroy the ring that makes it what it is, but there is no resolution of major conflicts at the end of each book. You've got to read all three, in order, in order to reach a satisfying conclusion, and as I said, the first book is interesting and attention grabbing because it's the introduction; you get to know your characters, get to see them starting out on their massive journey, and become friends with them. The last book is interesting, because you see how their travels have changed these new friends of yours, and you get to see them triumph in the end, but the middle book sags just a bit, because there's nothing really... happening. They're traveling a lot, and having mini-adventures, and fighting battles, but it just put me in mind of a rope-bridge - on either side of the chasm you're crossing, the bridge is tight and balanced, but in the middle, it droops because of gravity. And that's just my own opinion, and what I, personally, took away from them, and it coloured my desire to NOT fall into the same rope-bridge story, to instead make it a suspension bridge - it's solid and bends enough in the wind so as to not break, but without the suspension cables - the characters, in this case - the whole thing would collapse under it's own weight.
Also; longwindedness is a word if you say it is. x3 The stars and spirits know that I've made up enough words in my day (publishment, I think was the one I said in a previous post)
I value people's opinions, because in my own, Eversong can do no wrong, and I wouldn't see it from enough distance to know why people were calling it contrived, and not good enough, or whatever else you can think of to say about it. It's like being on a mountain, versus looking at it from afar. When you're on a mountain, the only thing that matters is what's right in front of you, but if you're standing at a proper distance, you can get a proper look at the whole thing, and make observations about it as a complete unit.
I hadn't thought of it that way, as in your examples of option 1 and option 2, but you made an extremely good point, and I'm going to try to work that in somehow in order to keep it flowing, introducing the conflict of the next book at the end of the one that precedes it. That would also negate the need for a prologue in book two, explaining how the Dragon problem got started in the first place, I can make an epilogue at the end of the first one, showing that despite the defeat of the Mir'naam (what I referred to as 'dark elves' up until the point that I actually started writing) all is not well in the land of Eversong, that someone is climbing a forbidden mountain, and no good will come of it.
That sets up the next book neatly, and gets people's attention, "OMG, what's going to happen next? I can't wait for the next book!"
I just realised that I'm talking my way through this to you, and somewhat apologise. It's just easier for me to talk my way through problems, rather than sit and think about it myself.
As for the characters, I could also begin set-up for the emotional conflict between Jesse and Vicky somehow; I'm glad you pointed that out. You've helped immensely. <3
And I couldn't get that out of my head all last night; "If you make me love Vicky, I'll follow her anywhere." It's reinforced my desire to make Vicky a likable, relatable person, and not just a 'hollow placeholder for fans' in the way Bella Swan of Twilight was described; someone you wouldn't want to BE, but someone you can sympathise with, and become friends with as you read.
Thank you SO SO SO MUCH for your huge comment. <333 You may find yourself mentioned somewhere when I FINALLY get myself to the point of publication, because you've contributed immensely to the way Eversong is going to work.
Pseudonyms
ReNu: Oh thank god. XDD Thank you for commenting! I am absolute pants at naming things (or rather, titling things, as names come to me as easily as breathing.) I was slightly worried that Eversong, despite it's aesthetically pleasing sound (to me), wouldn't grab people's attention, and that's the base of all books. It doesn't matter how well it's written, or how good it is overall, if it's got a bad title, no one's going to pick it up to find out if it's good.
Thank you again to everyone who's taken the time to read and comment so far, and a thank you in advance to anyone who feels the need to comment in the future. I absolutely adore your comments, and every little bit of good advice helps.
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