Cliched Characters

Writerly Fantasy Review:

Lee Child: Worth Dying For.   Yeah, I consider Lee Child a fantasy writer ... with thriller elements ... but really, just how realistic is the series?  Reacher dodges bullets better than Superman.

In this book Reacher is creaking [badly in need of aspirin] along after escaping from the inferno at the end of the last book.  Found this book disappointing, though.  I thought he was moving towards more emotional involvement with people, but this book was just more of the same: Reacher seeking justice for a girl that had disappeared years before -- with help of the gang who controls the town.

Child trots his well-drawn complications [villains] across the canvas.  The brutalized citizens cower convincingly -- with good reasons.  There's even a cowardly drunken doctor with a heart of gold.  Did I mention cliches here?  Doesn't matter, really.  The book's a good, fast-moving read with well-drawn characters worth studying how he places the details ... if somewhat unsatisfying.

Is there such a thing as internal cliches.  Of course, there is.  I think writers get into habits ... not always bad, but human brains tend to run in ruts.  It takes concentrated effort to jump on the verge and go wandering.  The more bushes concealing things, the better.  No, I won't demand my money back because of the recycled plot pattern. 

Social Networking Web Stuff:

I'm beginning to understand social networking.  [I'm a slow learner.]  It's simple.  You're damn if you do ... and damned if you don't.  I think Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware lifted my lid and looked inside my head.  She posted about how she spent too much time on the web even though lots of it was work related.  Ditto here even though I don't have the excuse.  She does.

Then there's the other side of argument with a critique contest.

Which side of the coin do you fall on? Pro or anti or in-between?

Do you remember the brouhaha the Wall Street Journal article raised about distopian YA books?  Well, Rob Brunner in his blog EW Shelf Life gives support to the opposite position.  He interviews author Jay Asher about how his book, Thirteen Reasons Why, is saving lives.

Thought I'd give another person a chance to wade in on effective social media.  Connor Dempsey does just that at on his blog.  Of course, I mostly agree with him.  --  I think I'm looking for support on cutting back on social media.  Still, he makes some good points.  What do you think?

I'm looking at the first pages for two of the WIPs sitting in my files as I snatch revising time here and there.  Brooke Favero writing about what happened last week in the writing world for The Writing Bug linked to Katia Lief's discussion of the 3 "Cs" of Writing which gives the basics of what your first pages should do.  If your manuscript isn't hooking anyone, you might take a look.

Thought I had this wrapped up when I discovered Eric's blog, "The Long and Short of It",  at Pimp My Novel.  He gives a nice strategy for getting published.  Great ... unless your ideas always metathesizes into something longer ... and longer. 

Writing Lesson:

Writing a series has other pitfalls than cliched characters.  How about keeping everything straight?  This problem has been nagging me since last week when I started creating seriously again.  

Backstory:  Once I wrote a 400,000+ word story about the Far Isle Half-Elven.  Somewhere around 200,000 words, I had a harder and harder time keeping everything straight.  I solved the problem by keeping a log of features, personality traits, place names, special terms, etc.  Later, I discovered many writers call this a bible.  Not the Bible, but the go to source when you try not to make mistakes in your own writing.  Like being able to edit the mistakes before anyone else notices them.

Then, Taking Vengeance was published, and I find I need to write more in the Half-Elven world to support the ebook's sales.  [Thus, the reason why I self-published Cavern Between Worlds.]  

Now, I'm writing a subsequential of Vengeance.  It's an idea that's been bubbling to the surface of my mind for at least two-three years, but always sank again.  Now, I'm 2000 words into the thing, and I'm rather intrigued by the unfolding plot since the main villain isn't one of the Felds.  I think they'll end up being the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend this time around.  It'll be interesting to see how the story develops after having taken some fiction writing classes and doing critiques.

Main change:  I'm having to revise the chaotic Half-Elven bible. [Watch Kay's eyes cross.... especially since she's trying to keep her characters from becoming cliches.]

Do you have a bible for your world, series, or whatever you're writing?  Have you found that one helps if you only plan to write one book in your world?

Trivia:

My cheapness bit me ... again.  Thought I'd try to save money on toilet paper by buying it at Big Lots.  Not only was the roll short by an inch, but the paper was so thin you can almost see through it.  Back to the supermarket.

Golden Oldies: The Wool-Pack

The Read ...

My reading enabler son has an oldie fetish, especially paper back cover art.  In one of his haunts of used book stores, he discovered the British, Carnegie Medal winning writer, Cynthia Harnett.  One of the unexpected Christmas presents he left was The Wool-Pack from the 1950s, billed as "deception and intrigue in the fifteenth century." 

How styles have changed.  Would your first sentence be:  "Nicholas Fetterlock lay on his back on the hillside, gazing up into the young leaves of an oak tree."?  If you did, would an agent and/or publisher be likely to take it if the subsequent two paragraphs were mainly description of the bucolic surroundings?  The first hint of a problem comes on the second page when we learn that Nicholas is playing truant, aka hookie.

Historical fiction, beyond bodice rippers, seem to be in disfavor, the Tudors not withstanding.  At least, I don't see many reviews for them, especially for juvenile fiction.  Part of this is fad.  Part of this may also be lack of scholarship.  How many writers understand post-War of the Roses Europe enough to be able to incorporate how the Lombard banking system, the English wool trade, early betrothals, obedience to superiors, the rising mercantile system, and other social changes following a peace after years of civil war can impact the life of a well intentioned boy who solves the mystery of why his father's wool packs are being contaminated in time to save him from the dungeons.

The Wool-Pack does all this in under 250 pages complete with many line drawings depicting 15th century British life.  No.  The book was not a heavy slog even though the paragraphs and sentences were rather longer while presenting lots of historical detail.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Travel Alert:  Granted not all people are as amused by bed bugs as my old man ... but you might be interested in this Bed Bug Alert site.  Not that I think you can do anything about them.  Does anyone know if borax works on them?

Writer Beware included a link on Facebook to the Shelf Awareness blog that discussed e-pub vs print sales.  I thought it interesting even though they don't mention my reason for preferring print.  After looking a screen for much of the day, I rather not look at a screen when I relax.

Want an example on how publishing has consolidated after the couple decades? And, the ways they still need to change?  Eric at Pimp My Novel has an interesting discussion of branding and the publishing: "A Lesson in Brand Management".  Writers are urged to build their platform.  Seems publishers are facing the same chore.

Back to general living.  Have gas prices been rising in your area?  I recently found a site that lets you find the lowest gas prices in your area.  

Progress ...

After nibbling my fingernails over Spectra Magazine's hiatus ... I got another email from them.  Once they get their ap problems settled, they do plan to publish since they have the next issue laid out. ....  No one seems to know how long the delay will be.

Got two more short stories rewritten [ a great achievement since I seem to go through each one at least 20 times after I first think it's finished ] and sent out.  I won't hold my breath as I wait for the rejections.  

At the same time, my notes for Maren are growing.  I'll be interested in seeing how many of the ideas I use when I put my fingers to the keyboard.

Trivia ...

After a week of cold, snow, and ice, I'm going to enjoy the week of 40 degree weather until the next storm comes blasting through.  One good thing.  Since it's the middle of January, the time between storms will get longer and longer ...  until we get one last arctic blast in April ... or May ... or June ... or even July.  It has snowed on the Fourth of July in our town in the past.

Starting a New Series

The Read ...

My "cockles" were nicely warmed by the opening of Yasmine Galenorn's new series about the Indigo Court of vampiric fae -- Night Myst.  Frankly, I'm a little tired of her D'Artigo sisters.  [I'd still read them, but the competition for my time is too great at the moment.]  

The book set up might be considered a cliche -- a roaming family member (Cicely) being called home because of a death.  When Cicely returns home, she's discovers she's inherited the position of head witch in the town, and all hell's breaking  out.  Yeah, it gets off the blocks fast and keeps racing from one disaster to another.

That said, watching Galenorn set up the coming books in the series is a writing lesson in itself.  The end of the book leaves the reader anticipating several threads:

--Cecily inheriting responsibility for the safety of humans and witches in the town threatened by the Indigo Court, 

--The MC lover a captive of the Indigo Court queen, 

--A battle between two tribes of fae, one of which was supposedly destroyed by the Indigo Court,

--Not only can Cicely talk to a wind elemental by can turn into an owl which is the enemy of the queen of the Indigo Court,
--The Indigo Court of Vampiric fae out to destroy the Red Court of normal vampires, which are wickedly delicious and self-centered, the poster-people for unreliable allies. 
-- Cicely discovers her father is a fae from yet a different tribe, and

--There's a reincarnation thing going on.

 

Oh, there are some mild sex scenes and reserve partners in the wings to complicate future plots.

 

That's just what I remember from the top of my head.  I'll close my comments by thanking Galenorn for not sanitizing her vampires.

Media Buzz ...

Promoting Your Book:  The web has been busy catching my interest.  Maybe one of the most important posts I've read lately comes from Eric at Pimp My Novel -- an author's 12 Step Program.  Yay!  A nice step-by-step list of things you need to do to promote your books -- even if you hit the big time since publishers are publicizing less and less. 

I'm sort of stuck on #5 ... I skipped the agent bit on the list when I sold Taking Vengeance to WolfSinger Publications.  Laughed at the party suggestion.  I just went comatose when I got the email saying WolfSinger had accepted the novelette.  [Remember, this is super small time even if it's occupying enormous amounts of my time.]

Bureaucratic Sillyness:  I start out my day reading the New York Times.  [Actually, it's skimming the NYT.  The old man reads it.]  A recent gem was an article on how print books help avoid the "summer slump" affecting so many low income school kids, all of whom can't afford to forgot what they learned the previous year.  Seems their heads retain more if they have books to read.  Also seems, it works best when the kids pick out their own books.

With school districts cutting summer programs right and left because their tax base has evaporated, research has revealed a cost-effective solution -- give the kids books they pick out for themselves, even if the subject is "frivolous".  Hey, that might even get boys reading.

Progress ...

The site for the Half-Elven of the Far Isles is now up and under construction.  If you're curious, you can visit the site ... or the blog.  Did you guess I've put my other projects on the back burner to start another edit of Dark Solstice -- in spite of coming down with something with a fever?

Trivia ...

Got my desk cleaned off again ... Does that mean I'll start revising Voices??????  Maybe next week.  I'm still cleaning stuff -- both computer and print -- up.   The changes in Dark Solstice are minor -- so maybe I can do both.

Series Fatigue

The Read ...  Have you ever suffered from series fatigue -- as a reader ... or writer?  

There are a number of authors I gave up on when once I bought every new title.  Patricia Cornwall, the best selling mystery writer, is one that quickly comes to mind.  Thousands of people still buy her new books, but I gave up on on Kay Scarpetta several years ago as she wallowed in the same personal problems for several books.  Another example from the net: seems like a lot of Laurell K Hamilton's fans got upset when Anita Blake started "gang banging".

Readers can get tired of series for any number of reasons, but how do authors overcome fatigue with the series they write -- besides setting up another one with different characters? 

That asked, I pulled Kay Hooper's Blood Sins out of the to read pile ... where it's been sitting for awhile.  Kay Hooper books occupy a good two feet high stack on the messy bookshelf, maybe more.  Some of the later titles are stuck in just any old where.  And the book sat, partly because I was afraid to read it.  --  I'm a third of the way through and hooked.

One of the reasons I think Hooper has stayed engrossing is that she's created a world ... and then, populated it with different people.  Sort of like started a new series, but not quite.  Characters from earlier books, especially Noah Bishop of the FBI Special Crimes Unit and his wife, Miranda, keep appearing in subsequent books in roles of various sizes and importance.

Also, instead of concentrating on a long series of books featuring one character, Hooper arranges her books in a series of trilogies.  The result:  a reader returns to a familiar world but meets different people along the way.  I think the format keeps the anticipation for a new story sharp.  [Yeah, I know I let the book sit after I bought it, but I still have loads of interesting books I should read ... without buying or trading for new ones.]

Blog Notes ... Eric, a publisher salesperson at Pimp My Novel, woke me up with a blog on writing effective queries.  It's well worth the click to go there ... though it gives similar info agents repeat often on their blogs. 

I've long considered agents salespeople, so it was nice to see my prejudices reinforced.  Also, a little disheartening.  I rather avoid salespeople -- for you know, the penny pinching thing.

Incidentally, I just learned he joined Twitter (and yes, I'm following).

Progress ...  Am fighting to fill outlined chapters of Voices with scenes rather than tell the readers what should be happening.  Got a whole 500 words saved last night.  We won't mention how many I deleted.

Gave myself an exercise to see how many critique comments I could eliminate from There Be Demons ... before my critique partner for the book pointed out my blind sports.

New Book?  Had this terrific image [while providing my muse with his morning lap] of one of the characters from a short story dancing around her new apartment after she finished unpacking and setting wards ... when a spirit appeared and bitched about being sealed into the place.  Guess I'll set up a new file.  Problem:  it's an adult novel.

Trivia ...  Demonstrated my psychic abilities last night.  The old man was rumpling plastic in the next room, and I asked him for a piece of peanut brittle without looking away from the computer.