Posted by Mistress of Feathers on Mar 15, 2010 in Daily, News, Writing
Eli has been out of school with a cold since last Friday (which is only actually two days: Friday and today), which means that my ability to get anything done is hampered by various mommy duties. The cold is getting better, finally…it was one of those that gets into the eyes and makes them produce copious amounts of green gunk. I did a lot of nighttime eye un-gluing this weekend. I think he’ll be able to go back to school Wednesday.
Then of course, there’s the “I’m still recovering from the hard drive crash” excuse, but at this point, I think I’ve exhausted that one. I did a once-over of the first book of Shades, and did a little writing today.
Mostly, I’ve not updated because I really haven’t felt like it. Not from a lack of exciting or interesting things to report…in fact, I think it might be due to too many things to talk about. I’ve read several books since Wednesday, all of which were good enough to merit a blog-nod, at least. But…meh. I don’t feel so much like reviewing anything right now.
I’ve actually felt like sitting down and writing some erotic Shades fanfiction. (I suppose I can hope Shades will be enough of a hit someday to merit fanfiction…and it can be fun to anticipate what people are going to come up with. Dear gods, the slash will probably be awful).
One, to see if I can actually bring myself to write an erotic scene…what words I can/cannot get on the page, where evocative turns into gross/cheesy/unrealistic/just plain bad, etc. Shades does not need such scenes, and won’t contain any, but I can think of a couple of places in my Tindaari epic that might. (Celeste is a whore, by profession. Nuatha’s relationship with her is intimately *cough* tied to both his own sexual awakening and to his character arc. Some of that growth is going to take place in the bedroom…and I’m just going to have to get over it.)
Two, Saeli and Raphel’s relationship is grating on me right now. Not on a writerly level…I’ve just reread the whole manuscript so far, and I think I’ve got the level of sexual/antagonistic/partnership tension about where it needs to be. But I think it’s safe to say that I’m more emotionally attached to these characters than anyone else could possibly be. I want them to get together because I like Raphel and I’m a lot like Saeli, in some ways. Pure wish fulfillment. Something I know I can’t do in the story itself without destroying it, but something I *want*, nonetheless. (Hey, that’s what fanfiction is for, IMO. Pairing off characters just because the fans want it, not because it’s in any way hinted at in the canon.) This is actually a sign to me that I’ve Saeli’s and Raphel’s relationship right in the story, because part of the tension lies in the fact that they are, in some ways, perfect for each other…and yet, it just can’t work. I want the reader to hate that. I know this probably sounds ridiculous, but I want the reader to fall in love with Raphel and despair. It’s the major underlying problem Saeli has to overcome.
So, but okay, writer-me is satisfied, but fan-me is still grinding her teeth.
I may do it, just because. Maybe in between the actual finishing of the last chapters, in that time when I’d normally be checking Facebook or something. This is not something I’d be posting here, by the way. I know too many people that read this that I probably wouldn’t be able to face again, if I did. ;D No erotica on Nightphoenix’s blog, sorry.
I’ve decided I need to go back and read The Society of S by Susan Hubbard. I think, out of all the YA books I’ve read recently, that story’s pacing most closely resembles mine; a bit less action, bam-bam-wham, a bit more literary. (This is only compared to today’s popular YA, which tends to read very, very fast.) Since I enjoyed Society of S, despite its slower pace (or maybe because of it), I should go back and pay attention to how that was done.
Not much else to report. The spring forward thing is killing me. We didn’t eat supper tonight until like 8:30, ’cause I just couldn’t get my act together. Now it’s nearly midnight, and we have to go to bed soon. *sigh*
Posted by Mistress of Feathers on Mar 10, 2010 in News, Writing
Getting back into the writing groove is, well…mostly not really happening this week. I’ve been irritated at myself, which doesn’t help my productivity level at all. But I think I’ve finally put my finger on what the problem is.
I’m reluctant to produce any new writing right now, because I think I’m afraid of it disappearing in another drive crash, or some other technical crisis I haven’t thought of. Part of my mind is sitting there going, “What’s the point if you’re just going to lose it again, and have to rewrite it over and over?” Then there’s another part of my mind that is still hoping there’s a chance of rescuing the stuff I lost. I feel like I’m stuck in stasis, unable to mentally move on because I’m still hoping for a computer miracle. Moving on in my writing would be tantamount to officially declaring that hard drive as a loss…and I just don’t want to do that. But I really need to, because the chances of coming up with an affordable way to save that drive are next to nil.
I discovered that among the stuff that hadn’t been backed up was all my conference notes. Including the names given to me as potential agents and editors that might be interested in my stuff, once I’m ready to query. That’s probably the biggest overall loss I’m looking at right now, and it bothers me more than the missing chapter. There’s no way I can get all those notes back, and there was a lot of good information. Also all my GMC work I’d done on the Mask of Eldarmarch is gone, though honestly I’ll probably be able to put that back together without much difficulty. It’s still a pain, though, you know? To redo something you know you’ve already done.
So I’ve been doing what I tend to do when I can’t write, which is read. I picked up several YA books and have proceeded to gobble my way through them in a matter of days. Yeah, I can tell myself that’s at least semi-productive, but it’s not what I need to be doing right now.
It is times like these when I wonder if I’m really cut out to be a professional writer. I don’t deal with setbacks very well, for one thing. Also, I cannot seem to keep my nose to the grindstone for more than a few weeks at a time. After that, I will inevitably hit a point where I just cannot work on my current writing project for several days. I haven’t found a working rhythm yet, because inevitably once I do start to establish one, something happens and I am thrown off. And I know that once I have editorial deadlines to contend with, I won’t be able to take days and weeks to get back on track. I need to figure out something that works for me, NOW, while I still have the luxury of flexible time.
The hubby and I discussed this a little during supper. I decided that I needed to find some sort of ritual, something I can do when disruptions happen, that will allow my mind to get past the setback and move on. The “just get over it” school of coping obviously doesn’t work very well on its own, as I’ve been trying to “get over it” for a week now. The hubby suggested that maybe what I’m dealing with here is a kind of grief, and that going through the stages of grieving would benefit me.
I think he’s right. My stories are my babies; even losing a chapter is hard for me. I cannot even begin to imagine what my reaction would be if I lost all of Shades, for example. *shudder* At least I know I have the ability to recreate what I lose. I guess the next step for me, at this point, is to do a little research on the stages of grieving, and see if I can find some tips on how to get my creativity back on track.
I have a computer again. I’m back to using the much smaller hard drive that came with the computer, and it’s pretty much stuffed to the brim. The hubby has ordered a case that will let him try to boot the messed-up hard drive outside of the laptop…that’s pretty much going to be our last ditch effort to rescue what’s on it. Getting a new head put on the drive would only be worth the money if it contained information vital to the survival of the Rebel Alliance…or something.
I think I’m going to skip the chapter that got eaten, and go ahead and write the next one. If by the time I get to the end of the story we haven’t rescued that chapter, then I’ll rewrite it. However, I am going to outline how the chapter goes, while it’s still fresh in my mind. I’d just go ahead and rewrite the damn thing, except the thought of doing that makes me so irritated that I just don’t think I can, right now.
Hmm, what is it, Friday? Been doing some reading this week, especially in the wake of Nevermore’s Wednesday digital disaster. (Nevermore is my computer’s name. Bleached Nevermore, actually, is her full name). I finished The Gathering Storm…all 800 something pages of it. I’d say it’s possibly the best one since Crown of Swords, or at least the most enjoyable. The problem with the Wheel of Time series is that it takes so long to set up some of these major events…and thus, you have books like Path of Daggers, where you get all the way to the end and realize that although pawns, knights, rooks, bishops, queens, and kings have all been moved about on the chessboard, nothing of major significance has happened. So when you get an installment like The Gathering Storm, where several elaborate sets of dominoes all come toppling down at the same time, you get a really exciting book.
The prose is all still very Robert Jordan…Sanderson did a good job with blending his voice into the established one. He’s all but invisible most of the time. However, and maybe I noticed this because I had just finished Warbreaker…but there were a couple of passages and exchanges by the characters that I would stop and think, “That was Sanderson humor. Jordan probably would have written that differently.” This is not a bad thing, by any means. I can’t recall any other Wheel of Time books that actually made me snort out loud in amusement over something a character says. Jordan’s humor has more to do with stereotypes, and the misunderstandings these cause…which are sometimes very, very funny…but in a shake-your-head-in-pity sort of funny, not lol funny. But I think Mat, in particular, could have done all along with a little more of the snarky, sardonic type of humor Sanderson is injecting into his character in this book.
Rand’s character got a whole lot darker than I expected in this book. He’s been getting more dark and distant for about four books now, and I thought they’d pushed that about as far as it could go. And I was actually beginning to be annoyed that they stretched the transformation out for so long. Thankfully, finally, that subplot got started on its resolution at the end of this book.
Egwene has turned out to be an awesome character. She really impressed me in Knife of Dreams, and she has impressed me further in this book. Perrin didn’t get much screen time this time around, which was disappointing in the sense that, now that he’s rescued his wife, he desperately needs a direction, a focus, a reason to remain in the story. He really didn’t get one…they were still tying up the Faile abduction subplot that was already pretty much over with. Perrin’s presence felt a little purposeless this time around. I hope that gets fixed. I really don’t think he came all this way just to end up as someone who stands beside Rand in the Last Battle and calls in the wolves.
I loved the part where Cadsuane starts seeing herself in Semirhage; she needed that. I wished they hadn’t killed off Semirhage the way they did…seemed a little abrupt, and anti-climactic. I actually kind of liked Semirhage, as far as villains go…of all the female Forsaken, she reminds me the most of Nasira (Raphel’s ras, from the prequel I’m planning). The way Graendal was taken care of also felt contrived, as though the author really didn’t know what to do with her and decided to just get rid of her. She really hasn’t done anything (that I can recall off the top of my head.) (Granted, we’re not absolutely sure she’s dead, and Forsaken have this knack for reappearing when they are most unexpected. But, balefire…?)
What else. I finished Elantris today, and wow. That was his debut?? I liked it better than Warbreaker. I may have to procure a copy of my own, simply to have a really good reference on how to pace a fantasy novel. And how to make each POV character and his/her entourage interesting enough that you actually want to follow all the subplots (and not just slog through them in order to get back to the interesting storyline). Sanderson also appears to construct magical systems the same way I do…less mystical, more scientific in nature. I tend to like those better, as part of the fun is figuring out how the whole system works together.
Posted by nightphoenix on Mar 2, 2010 in Novels, Writing
Brendan kissed Saeli today.
And there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop him.
I think the only reason he didn’t do it in the first draft is because Scisaxar was borrowing his body, and then he was preoccupied with Geris and then Raphel. Well, I moved Scisaxar over to the HP’s body…a necessary consequence of leaving her alive…and moved Brendan onto the scene earlier. Of course the first thing he did was run up and hug Saeli, and I didn’t anticipate that, either. I was going to have him interrogate her about the portal, about why she’s working with Raphel…but when he actually got there, he didn’t give a rip about any of that. The only thing in his head was throwing his arms around the girl he loved and assuring himself that she was really, truly there. I mean, she’s been with the enemy for a month, leaving him stewing over the fact that she may or may not be in love with her captor. Then he survives the attack on Aschamon, and hears that she’s the one who betrayed the school. And then he sees her on the balcony, alone.
I should have known.
I actually did not want him to kiss her, because of some lofty thematic reasons and because it makes his downfall more tragic if he never gets the chance to even touch Saeli. But, unfortunately, I gave him the opportunity and he ran with it. He had to kiss her, once, not because he thinks that will change her mind, but actually because he knows she doesn’t love him like that. He isn’t going to get another chance, no matter what goes down, and he knows that. (If Saeli had displayed any spark of romantic interest in that first moment when she spotted him, he wouldn’t have done it.) It’s quite possibly the most selfish action Brendan ever takes in the story, and I can’t say I didn’t push him to it.
And I can’t say I’m sorry for it. I’ve actually been in Brendan’s place, in that same moment…gods, with that same opportunity…and I never had the courage to do what he did. Maybe his character needed that brief show of strength, because Brendan has to be at least a semi-legitimate rival for Saeli’s affection. He can’t compete with Raphel (hell, nobody can), but I have to make him strong enough and sympathetic enough that the reader knows he would have been worthy of Saeli’s love, had Raphel never entered the picture. I think that’s what makes his character tragic…not because he never took the chance, but because he never stood a chance against someone like Raphel. He deserved a fair shot and circumstance took it away from him.
Also, Saeli should have chosen Brendan and she didn’t. She couldn’t have chosen him, else there’d be no story…but she should have. Brendan plays the part of the Wrong Guy in this particular dark romance…but Raphel is the Wrong Guy for Saeli, personally, and for any gal, in general. He doesn’t know how to love…doesn’t know how to even deal with the possibility. And by the end of the story, Saeli knows it.
Brandon Sanderson has officially impressed me. I just finished Warbreaker, which I grabbed because the library had it sitting on their new book shelf. I said, “Oh, that’s the guy that’s finishing the Wheel of Time series, and does Writing Excuses (my favorite writing podcast).” And the inside cover blurb actually looked interesting, in a genre where very little catches my eye anymore.
Honestly, it wasn’t the most impressive or enthralling piece of fiction I’ve ever read, but it was good. I never had the urge to put it down and go do something else. The magic premise, BioChroma, was fascinating, and one I’m tempted to steal from. And he managed to successfully fool me into thinking the good guys were the bad guys and vice versa, which I enjoyed. I’ve seen funnier snark…but not much funnier, and not in the adult genre. YA tends to have more snark, and characters who snip at each other. Sanderson’s snark is sophisticated (which you won’t really find in YA), and I like that.
I picked up his debut, Elantris, from the library the other day, and also I finally got my hands on a copy of The Gathering Storm, which is the next Wheel of Time book. I’ll be reading those over the next couple of days.
Shades is coming along…slowly. Last night I went through the whole second draft, formatting it to send to my critique group. Well, of course, I can’t go through my writing without editing, and thus it took a lot longer than it should have. But I made some good changes…mostly tightening scenes, making them as clear as I can. I’ve been a little stuck at my current spot because I’m about to introduce Scisaxar as a character for the first time, and I really don’t know him very well.
The problem is, I haven’t found a way to relate Scisaxar directly to Raphel, or even to Saeli. He’s still drifting around on the periphery of my main characters, and is thus distant to me. Yuril is much easier to write now because she’s had some stage time, and she’s in love with Raphel. I don’t know how Scisaxar feels about Raphel, or Saeli, or any of the main characters. I’m going to drop him into the scene just after Yuril breaks Raphel’s fingers, and I know that Scisaxar is going to be pissed that Yuril has been blasting holes in his Temple. We’ll start with that, and see where he takes it.
Another thing that I’ve been pondering, and something that might help me with Scisaxar’s character, is that I’ve been trying to determine what the “inciting incident” between the two gods was. Why do they hate each other? What started the war in the first place?
Things I know: 1) On a much deeper level, the war has to do with Yuril’s and Scisaxar’s frustration over the Oath. They pit their followers against each other when in truth, both of them would prefer a direct confrontation. It frustrates them to have to work through mortals, and thus each blames the other even more for forcing them to sacrifice followers. This leads them both to be cruel and distant with their peoples. Cruel, because they don’t understand the source of their anger, and thus they take it out on their people. Distant, because they cannot afford to get emotionally attached to people they are sending out to die for them.
2) Both gods helped curse the Midplains. Raphel is right about that. What Raphel doesn’t know is that they did it as a desperate measure, to stop a certain secret society of people. These were the original gray mages, who knew how to build inter-world portals, who could summon both light and dark angelics, and who were delving into angelic and spirit lore that would have been better left alone. These experiments actually drew the attention of the Keeper of the Oath, who paid a short visit to Verre just before the Cursing. Well, that scared the you-know-what out of Yuril and Scisaxar. The Cursing was both a desperate measure and a panic reaction, and was perhaps overdone.
Now, I have a choice to make. Was the Cursing itself the two gods’ inciting incident, leading them to go to war for more than a hundred years…or did the disagreement start before that, and the gods temporarily put it aside for the Cursing?
If the Cursing was the inciting incident, then the resulting war is genuine. Both gods think that the other handled their part of the Cursing badly, or they blame the other for having to do such a thing, or whatever. They have a legitimate, relatively recent grievance against one another. However, if the gods put aside their conflict temporarily for the Cursing, then the resulting war would have to be a farce. In fact, it’s even possible that the gods were never truly at war in the first place, and their “hatred” is a cover-up to keep the world from discovering the truth.
I honestly like the second option better, because it makes the ending to Shades more plausible. Having Saeli single-handedly convince two gods who genuinely hate each other to stop a war they’ve been at for over a hundred years seems unlikely. But if their conflict isn’t real, her job is much easier. However, it dangerously reduces any empathy one might have for these gods…because that means they’ve been sacrificing their followers for a lie. It makes it look like Raphel was right about them, which will make it difficult for the readers to empathize with them towards the end. It works for the overall story of Verre, because the gods really were preventing something that would be ultimately worse than a hundred year war. But Raphel doesn’t know that, and Saeli doesn’t know that, and so the gods are, to them, going to look like monsters. And the only way I can prove that they aren’t monsters is to reveal a whole lot of information and backstory that I don’t want to cover in this trilogy. That’s what the sequel is for.
Perhaps the war began as a farce, but then got personal for the gods. Scisaxar is winning, after all, when the story opens. Maybe he started to press his military advantage and broke the unspoken understanding between him and Yuril. But why would he do that? I have to pull this back to the Cursing somehow. He would have to have some sort of grudge, if not against Yuril herself, then against her followers. Several possibilities present themselves. The most obvious is that Yuril attracts more followers and Scisaxar is jealous. Or he honestly feels that her followers are degenerates, and despises/feels sorry for them. Or they did something that got a lot of his people killed. No, that’s too general. They did something that got one certain person that Scisaxar really cared about killed. That would be a very strong motivation for wanting to win a farcical war.
Ah, an idea. Scisaxar loved a pre-Cursing gray mage, one of the ones in the thick of the angel experiments. The gods decided, together, that the order of gray mages had to be destroyed and the knowledge buried. They devised the Curse between them and set it loose on the Midplains. Afraid for his love, Scisaxar pursued her and pursued her, and finally brought her around to his point of view. He made her a White Mantle, and thus thought she’d be protected. Then, while the Curse was still spreading, she and a whole mess of her cohorts got caught by Cowls. Both gods’ followers had orders to kill or convert any gray mage. Scisaxar’s love refused to become a Cowl, so they killed her. Scisaxar demanded retribution, but Yuril refused, saying that even though the girl had repented of what she’d done, she still had the knowledge. The knowledge had to die. Scisaxar’s grief leaked into the still-spreading Curse, and it devoured the land as well. Once they contained it, followers from both sides were shocked and confused over why the gods would do such a thing. Yuril suggested that they stage a war, and let each side blame the other. The true reason for the Cursing would surely be buried. Scisaxar, afraid of losing all his followers, agreed. The war began, both as a farce and as revenge, on the white god’s part.
That’s very vague, and I can probably tweak it. But it could have a number of ramifications. One, Scisaxar is going to hold a severe grudge against Cowls, and against Yuril for letting them do what they did. It’s not really her fault; Yuril probably wouldn’t have sanctioned killing the girl, but the Cowls didn’t ask beforehand. Scisaxar is going to make sure his own people follow a strict hierarchy that leads directly to him, and he’s going to make sure they never act outside of his jurisdiction. He’s going to be jealous that Yuril manages to attract more followers, but at the same time, he’s not going to take any pains to make himself likable. Something like how a grieving widower would feel about a sibling who gets a lot of attention…jealous, but unwilling to compete. That jealousy is going to be manifested specifically in how he feels about the Raphel problem…because he can see that Yuril loves Raphel the way he loved ____. But Scisaxar’s also the one who will be suffering the most remorse over the Cursing, because he essentially screwed it up. He’ll possibly be the one who is more willing to listen to Saeli in the end.
So the war is both a farce, and personal, but more personal on Scisaxar’s end. Scisaxar’s pain amuses Yuril, but she doesn’t allow herself to think about it too deeply…lest she be reminded of how she really feels about Raphel. And worse, Raphel is exactly the kind of Cowl the white god hates, because he’s a wild card. He does what he wants, and the gods can go screw themselves. It was those kind of Cowls who killed Scisaxar’s love. He’ll hate Raphel, and hate that a Cowl managed to steal yet another follower away from him (first Kaladan, then Saeli), and he’ll hate Yuril for wanting to spare Raphel, and he’ll hate that were the tides turned, he would do exactly the same thing as his sister. No wonder the gods have to abandon the scene…neither of them can act. Their hands are tied by their pasts, and by the Oath. And we’re back to the Oath again.
I think I have a handle on the white god now. Enough to start writing him, anyway.
Wow. Scisaxar is walking into this conflict with some seriously complicated crap in his past.
Posted by nightphoenix on Feb 24, 2010 in Novels, Writing
Sorry, all you over on Facebook, but this is going under the user-only cut. Go visit the actual blog if you’re really interested. http://nightphoenix.com
Eh, why not? I actually do have certain things I keep in mind while writing.
1.) Symbolic details. You can’t describe everything in every room a character walks into, nor do you need to. Nobody notices everything all at once. They notice the things that call to what they are feeling. Someone who is down is more likely to notice the drowned weed in the asphalt, while a cheerful person might notice the freshness in the air. Every detail = chaos. Certain details = mood. I usually try to pick a single color, or smell, or temperature of the air for a scene, and all my details call back to that. The scene I’m currently working on in Shades is near the climax, where Saeli is in the middle of trying to get this portal built. My color is indigo. The whole mood and feeling of that scene is in shades of shadow and indigo, and height. Open space. (They are in a tower that’s had a wall blasted away.) This particular scene takes place over the course of a sunrise, so my ambiance will follow the sun. The sunrise is even symbolic. Nobody up to this point except Saeli, Raphel, Mora, and Kaladan know about the portal, but by the end of the scene when the sun rises, everyone will know the secret.
2) Be a pair of eyes. Or a camera. Instead of describing the room to a reader, I try to describe the room as the character sees it. I can’t always do this, and I don’t think you have to for every description, but it can provide a focus for the longer, milieu descriptions that are a pain to write and boring to read. Otherwise, I pretend I am filming a certain space. How would I light the set? How would I arrange the props? Where would I start the shot? End it? What would I zoom in on? At what point does the character enter the set? Etc. A picture is worth a thousand words. Those words had better be coherent.
3) Pave the clouds. In other words, replace abstract details with concrete ones.Don’t just spit out general details about the world and its history. (My first draft is full of this ) Weave that history into snapshots in your characters’ lives, and let the character relate them to each other (with their own spin, of course). Example:
Raphel is giving Saeli the same information both times, but the second time around, he’s also giving specific details about his own life. Telling the reader that the legend exists is not enough: tying it to a character the reader cares about is what makes that information relevant and interesting. A random legend from Verre, though relevant to the story and necessary information for the reader, is just not as interesting as Raphel relating a tiny slice of his past.
4) Walk, talk, and chew gum. My characters talk. A lot. A good half, if not more, of the major conflict in my story is played out through verbal sparring. In my first draft, my characters did a lot of sitting around and talking, which is kind of boring. This time around, I’m making them get up and do things. Move the talk around. Make it relate to what’s going on around them. Quite honestly, there’s still a lot of characters sitting around talking in Shades…but I try to break it up. Saeli might hang onto every word Raphel says for a few beats, but then she’ll pull back for a moment. Or something happens. Even if the characters are sitting in one place talking, I try to make it so that other characters are moving around them, and other things are happening in the same space.
5) Sharpen those stakes. Add characters with conflicting agendas. Add an audience. Add crappy circumstances. Make it so that the only possible solution to one problem is going to cause five other problems. Give characters choices, and make them all bad choices. Make everyone in the story an antagonist to at least one person. The whole Geris subplot evolved because I needed to give Raphel a major problem to deal with. I’m bringing in the whole Mantle remnant to watch Saeli finish the portal in the Temple. That means her caving into Raphel when he kisses her has witnesses…the very people she’d rather die than have them see that.
Just don’t make the problem impossible to solve, and write yourself in a deus ex mechina ending. Or one where you have to kill everyone.
6) Destroy the set. Any scene where a character is physically damaged, the environment had better reflect that. Make messes. Knock tapestries off the wall. Bring the roof down. Blow things up. Start fires. Peril, peril, peril. Peril is fun. It imposes time constraints on characters already under pressure. This is mostly a function of raising stakes, and partially a function of using symbolic details. I had Yuril blow a hole in the city Temple and knock down half the western tower, where Saeli is busy trying to build a portal. (Why? Because she hates anything connected to Scisaxar, and she’s pissed at Raphel, but mostly, because she’s a goddess and she can.) It raises the stakes on Saeli because 1) now the tower is a treacherous space; 2) Yuril and Raphel are now fighting on the Temple roof, which is far more treacherous ground than the balcony would have been; and 3) everyone in the whole freaking city can see what she’s doing. And…the Temple is the most sacred space in the city, and the city is Saeli’s home. Yuril’s action on the Temple mirrors what Raphel is doing to her heart.
7) Kill somebody. Okay, not really. Not every story needs a body count, but every story needs an element of sacrifice. Stories where characters are killed off in pointless and arbitrary ways drive me crazy. That’s not sacrifice; that’s slaughter. The point is that the main character needs to lose something precious to them in order to accomplish the story goal, and it needs to be something that they cannot fully recover. It can be something as ephemeral as innocence, or as concrete as their best friend. Any person “lost” by the protagonist does not always have to die, either…distance and circumstance can separate people as surely as death can. Saeli will lose both of her best friends by the end of the story. Brendan is killed. Cara lives to the end, but the friendship that she and Saeli shared just cannot fully recover from the events of the story. Both are too changed.
(If you write childrens and middle grade fiction, for the most part, disregard this. I think kids up to a certain age like it better if the ending is nice and neat, the good guys all win, and the bad guys all get what they deserve.)
8 ) Give the hardworking hero a treat. This becomes vitally necessary when the protagonist must make a giant sacrifice to win. Give the poor guy/girl something nice for making it through hell alive. Saeli sacrifices the life she knows, her best friends, her innocence, and very nearly her own life to save Verre (first from the war, and then from Raphel). Not to mention that she brings down Raphel by her own hands, and stupid or not, she did love him. Seeing the war end is just not going to be enough for her at this point, which is why I had to bring Naeth back from the dead. He is her unexpected reward. Another example would be in Star Wars. Luke accomplishes the story goal of bringing down the Emperor. He loses his aunt, his uncle, his mentor, his hand, a good chunk of the rebel fleet, and finally his father in the process. His unexpected reward is that his father repented before the end, and is at peace.
That’s all I have for now. If I come up with any others, I’ll post them.
So, let’s see. I think I hunted around for some art to post in here last Thursday, but realized that the one thing I’d been working on was something I hadn’t taken pictures of yet. In cleaning the apartment, I found an unfinished mail-holder, and remembered that I’d once intended to use that to replace the little plastic drawers we’d been using for the purpose of collecting mail. So I drug it out again, and started working on it. Some of it is painted, and some of it I’m going to woodburn. I got to distress a paint finish for the first time, which was fun. I may take some pictures of it so far, and post those. I just haven’t gotten around to it.
Last week was good, in terms of writing, which is really why I’ve been neglecting the blog. Also, I gave myself a half hour in Books-a-Million last week to go through the YA section and pick out all the books I think I *need* to read, eventually.
Here’s the list I made:
Going Bovine ~ Libba Bray
I read her Gemma Doyle trilogy and loved it. She’s actually won some awards for the above, so it must be a pretty decent read.
The Demon’s Lexicon ~ Sarah Rees Brennan
I got lucky, and the West Melbourne library had a copy of this, which I snagged. I finished it last night, actually. I like her writing style and the way she characterizes her people. Sometimes the interactions between characters were a little hard to figure out, but I don’t know if that was just me not understanding teen angst, or what.
Hush, Hush ~ Becca Fitzpatrick
Beautiful Creatures ~ Kami Garcia/Margaret Stohl
The Host ~ Stephanie Meyer
Yes, that Stephanie Meyer. I did enjoy the Twilight series, even if I take issue with some of the characters’ actions and lack of real literary flair. They were enjoyable. I decided to put the above on my list simply from the back cover blurb, which looked interesting.
Wake Fade Gone ~ Lisa McMann
I read Wake last week. Actually, I finished it the same day I checked it out of the library. It is yet another novel I’ve found recently that is written in the present tense…is that becoming a trend in YA literature? Present tense sounds odd in my head when I think about it, but when I’m actually reading the story, my brain just ignores it after a while. The story was well-crafted and the premise was interesting, so I definitely want to get my hands on the next two at some point.
Vampire Academy books ~ Richelle Mead
Blue Moon Evermore Shadowland ~ Alyson Noel
Sabriel Lirael Abhorsen~ Garth Nix
I’ve heard nothing but good things about this trilogy. I think it’s time I discovered why.
Vampire Diaries books ~ L. J. Smith
This is almost the same kind of story that Twilight is, but these actually came out before Twilight (and may have been an influence). The moral, conflicted vampire boy falls for a human girl and the problems that result therein.
Shiver ~ Maggie Stiefvater
I think she even has another book out after this one, but I can’t remember what it’s called. The bookstore didn’t have it, at any rate.
Leviathan ~ Scott Westerfeld
Westerfeld is becoming one of my favorite YA authors. I just recently happened across a book called The Last Days in the library, which I discovered is a sequel to Peeps. (I didn’t know Peeps had a sequel.) I’m in the middle of The Last Days right now. Leviathan is the first of a new trilogy he’s working on, and I hear it’s as good as his others.
Some literary books it’s probably time I read, or read again:
Lord of the Flies ~ William Golding
One I managed to avoid reading during high school, but since it is the most classic and popular use of the kids-alone premise, I should probably give it a shot.
To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee
Another one I wriggled out of in high school. I think I even attempted it on my own once, and found it boring. Time for another try.
Catcher in the Rye ~ J. D. Salinger
Now, this one I did have to read in high school, and all I remember about it was that I really didn’t like it much. But as a writer, I might find it more interesting. It’s kind of one of the original YA stories.
Wicked ~ Gregory Maguire
Not literary exactly, but I’ve heard his Wicked Witch books are good. Plus, I’d like to find out how he makes the witch a sympathetic character.
When they come out:
White Cat ~ Holly Black
I liked Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside…and I hear that Jace from Claire’s Mortal Instruments series makes a cameo appearance. (These gals all know each other, and their characters sometimes slip into each others’ books for fun.)
A Clockwork Angel City of Fallen Angels ~ Cassandra Claire
Carries on some of the characters from her Mortal Instruments trilogy, which I am a fan of.
The Season of Risks ~ Susan Hubbard
The next book in the Society of S vampire story, which is probably the most different and interesting take on vampires I’ve seen yet.
Lies ~ Michael Grant
The next book in his Gone series, which uses a premise not unlike that of Lord of the Flies. I have a story in the queue that also uses the idea of a bunch of kids with superpowers surviving on their own without adults…so I remain curious as to where Grant will take his story.
Yeah, it’s a long list. But it will keep me busy for a while, I hope. I also intend on finishing the Wheel of Time series as the last books come out. Speaking of, while I was at the library, I checked out a book by Brandon Sanderson, who has been entrusted with finishing the Wheel of Time since the original author, Jordan, died. (I do not envy him that project. At all. If you’ve read the Wheel of Time, you’ll understand why.) Sanderson also does a very informative and entertaining podcast called Writing Excuses with two other guys (took me a while to put two and two together, and realize that Writing Excuses’ Brandon was THAT Brandon). The premise of the book I picked up sounded fascinating (and keep in mind, very little in the fantasy genre sounds fascinating to me anymore), so I decided to find out if he’s as good a writer as he seems to be.
I also checked out a book called Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry, who wrote The Giver and Number the Stars, two books I enjoyed from my childhood. Apparently Gathering Blue is a pseudo-continuation of The Giver, and in the last book, the two main characters from each meet. And yeah, I totally just looked that up online…I didn’t know the two were related when I was at the library. Lowry is a prolific and well-respected childrens’ and YA author…so it would behoove me, as a writer, to read the best in my genre, right?
Today I head back to Books-a-Million when they open at 10AM, and continue writing on Shades.
Posted by nightphoenix on Feb 18, 2010 in Daily, Writing
Today I managed to write a pretty good chunk of Shades. I got Saeli started in the portal form, and brought the first of my obstacles, Geris, onto the scene. Today I almost managed to write myself into a corner, when the established rules of magic in my world prevented me from doing something the simple way. Please Login or Register to view this.
Anyway, that’s why we’ve taken a break from our regular schedule of bloggish activities. I’ve actually been, you know, productive.
And the apartment is clean! It’s great! I can actually concentrate on clearing up some areas that always get ignored because I’m too busy trying to catch up with a backload of dishes and laundry.
) Weave that history into snapshots in your characters’ lives, and let the character relate them to each other (with their own spin, of course). Example: