Or read anything, please hop over to http://tvtropes.org/ and browse whatever you like. It's fascinating to see how writers aren't really that original (or better yet, seeing how your favorite authors rebel against the status quo). And seriously, writers are going to write something that's already been done, so go there and read how to do it properly and what to avoid. It'll keep you from making rookie mistakes.
Showing posts with label Novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Novel. Show all posts
Monday, May 28, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Guilty Pleasures on POV
Oh My God, I've never laughed so much in my life. This is hilarious! I'll admit, I've started to like romance novels...but these aren't them! These are my mother's romances with the awkwardly named hero's (Dash?!?!) who are too perfectly muscled (okay...can't really hate that part) and who love the girl who doesn't have half a brain to stand on (yeah...I'm going to go with that mis-mash of sayings), and the naked couple on the cover. GAHH!!! Seriously, that English old man narrating at the beginning as he writes down the story (probably under some woman's name) is hilarious.
It's no wonder I'm reading the Dark Hunters series--when Ash is asked what he does while Artemis leaves him for hours on end in her bedroom he quips that he writes romance novels. Hmm...21 year old looking, 11,000 year old sex god (well...I'll leave you to think what you like about that one to not spoil the series for you) GOTH writing romance novels...yeah...not happening. Our real hero plays video games and referees for 8 year old basketball players while wrangling a bunch of whiny immortals all while not being able to get close to anyone. Where the girls stake vampires (and their husbands) and/or throw hammers at them.
Actually...it's the girls that mostly turns me off--the ones who HAVE to have the guy rescue them from their own depressing lives...really?!? If the premise of the story revolves around the girls inability to save herself it's really not worth the paper it's written on (situations where the girl is tied up by the badguy and therefore isn't physically able to rescue herself not included...unless it was her own ineptitude that got her into the situation in the first place).
Watch Guilty Pleasures - Trailer on PBS. See more from POV.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Analogies
Two main points here: Climate Change and Multiple Gods
Okay, so the first analogy I'm sharing from a Fora.tv lecture on the politics of climate change and how poorly it's been discussed in the media (here). The analogy is looking at one snow storm to disprove the existence of Global Warming. The professor explains that it's like trying to determine Willie Mays cumulative batting average by looking at July of 1958. Which is a great way of thinking abou it.
The second analogy is one that I came up with this morning while thinking about where to take the story that I'm writing (link here). The story revolves around a 24 year old woman who is able to take away syptoms of illness and therefore increase the quality of life of the people in the town she lives in. The problem? There's a group of people who apsolutely hate her--and sue me if they look like my idea of demon-spawn: Christians so certain about their own superiority that they spew hatred instead of all the good parts of Christianity--love of your neighbors.
Well, while working through the scene where she confronts the mother of her love interest (I write romances, sue me again), who is a member of the offending church, the mother asks something about whether Scarlet (the main character) believes in God. Scarlet says that it's probably not the same God as the Browns, which, of course, frightens the mother because Christians are notoriously very unhappy with the idea of more than one "True God". Scarlet tries to get out of a theological debate, but the mother's curiosity overwhelms. Scarlet then comes up with this wonderful analogy to the idea of multiple Gods:
"Picture the maple tree outside. Is it the only maple tree in the world? No, of course not. There are maples all over the country and they are all different. They are all affected by the environment where they grow--by the minute differences in nitrogen and phosphorous levels--by whether they are in a city or the country--by whether someone cares for it or not. This is the same for God. The theological being is completely different for everyone--it doesn't matter whether it's two people sitting next to each other in a pew or two people where one goes to a Catholic church and one goes to a Methodist church. I call this multiple Gods. Few people would agree with the Phelps' that their God is your God, and yet they came to their conclusion reading the same book as all other Christians--just as all maples start out with the basic book of "maple-ness" that is then altered by the environment that they grow."
I'm not sure if that debate will make it into the final draft--especially since the story is no where near the point where that discussion is held. I write linearly--I start a story at the beginning and write until it ends--but I imagine the story for months to see how it can get to where it goes. I probably lose a lot of great material because I brainstorm only within my brain, but then again, it's those key events that you know need to go into the story because you keep going back to them.
Okay, so the first analogy I'm sharing from a Fora.tv lecture on the politics of climate change and how poorly it's been discussed in the media (here). The analogy is looking at one snow storm to disprove the existence of Global Warming. The professor explains that it's like trying to determine Willie Mays cumulative batting average by looking at July of 1958. Which is a great way of thinking abou it.
The second analogy is one that I came up with this morning while thinking about where to take the story that I'm writing (link here). The story revolves around a 24 year old woman who is able to take away syptoms of illness and therefore increase the quality of life of the people in the town she lives in. The problem? There's a group of people who apsolutely hate her--and sue me if they look like my idea of demon-spawn: Christians so certain about their own superiority that they spew hatred instead of all the good parts of Christianity--love of your neighbors.
Well, while working through the scene where she confronts the mother of her love interest (I write romances, sue me again), who is a member of the offending church, the mother asks something about whether Scarlet (the main character) believes in God. Scarlet says that it's probably not the same God as the Browns, which, of course, frightens the mother because Christians are notoriously very unhappy with the idea of more than one "True God". Scarlet tries to get out of a theological debate, but the mother's curiosity overwhelms. Scarlet then comes up with this wonderful analogy to the idea of multiple Gods:
"Picture the maple tree outside. Is it the only maple tree in the world? No, of course not. There are maples all over the country and they are all different. They are all affected by the environment where they grow--by the minute differences in nitrogen and phosphorous levels--by whether they are in a city or the country--by whether someone cares for it or not. This is the same for God. The theological being is completely different for everyone--it doesn't matter whether it's two people sitting next to each other in a pew or two people where one goes to a Catholic church and one goes to a Methodist church. I call this multiple Gods. Few people would agree with the Phelps' that their God is your God, and yet they came to their conclusion reading the same book as all other Christians--just as all maples start out with the basic book of "maple-ness" that is then altered by the environment that they grow."
I'm not sure if that debate will make it into the final draft--especially since the story is no where near the point where that discussion is held. I write linearly--I start a story at the beginning and write until it ends--but I imagine the story for months to see how it can get to where it goes. I probably lose a lot of great material because I brainstorm only within my brain, but then again, it's those key events that you know need to go into the story because you keep going back to them.
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