Writtenwyrdd

Not my usual read, but--

May I recommend to you The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie?  It's an adult novel with a kid protagonist, Flavia, a preternaturally old for her age young lady with a morbid fascination for chemistry, poisons in particular.  And she finds a body in the garden.  Or, I should say, a body just before it becomes one.  Which sets Flavia off on an adventure to discover who killed this man, and in the process drive a police officer crazy, gad about town spying and searching for clues, and nearly becoming a victim herself.  I loved this book. 

If you are a geek, then you might enjoy...

"Working with Ramona is going to be like riding sidesaddle on a black mamba." Charles Stross, The Jennifer Morgue.

 

If you haven't read The Atrocity Archives, which precedes this book--pick it up. "Lovecraftian horror laced with Cold War and high-tech espionage," per Locus. Add in computer geek and nerd humor, a main character named Bob, and great writing, and you have The Atrocity Archives.

 

I'm in the midst of The Jennifer Morgue at the moment and it's just as good. 

In the midst of a reading Frenzy

"...then gravity came down on him like a great soft hand with bones of ancient stone."  A line to describe lift off by William Gibson, Neuromancer, p 102

I've read three books these last three days, the new Ilona Andrews book, Magic Strikes, (very good, but just a tad too much explaining of previous book events and character backgrounds), the new LKH Merry Gentry book Swallowing Darkness (almost no sex--a shocker, I know--and sort of weird with that style change mid series) and Dead to Worse the 8th book in the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. Also working on William Gibson's Neuromancer (still fresh since its debut in 1984.)  I enjoyed them all. 

I've read other books by Gibson in the 80s, but didn't keep them. Can't even recall much about them because I never reread them.  But they left this sense of how a dystopic sort of glittery high tech and lowdown, slum-ridden future world might run.  Like Bladerunner, which gave the visuals, Gibson's prose made cyberpunk a full-blown sub-genre.  A writer creating an entirely new genre is not that common.  And it gives we writers something to strive for--not precisely setting a new standard or creating a new genre, but to strive to create something uniquely our own.

What's that line about copying being the sincerest form of flattery?

A read you might like, with a couple codicils

3 by Julie Hilden
Trade paperback, 298 pages
Category:  literary erotica

I found an interesting book I wanted to talk about.  This isn't a book review per se, especially considering I have not as yet finished the book.  It's one of those ones I pick up and savor a few pages at a time.  But I really like the writing. 

The premise:  A young woman discovers her lover cheating on her, and in order to deal with it and the knowledge that he won't ever be able to be monogamous, she agrees to his affairs--so long as she is always there.  And thus begins a tale of personal development through forward motion and reflective character musing in the first person point of view. 

Now, first let me say this is erotica.  But it is superbly well written, very sensual, and the sex is integral to character development, plot development and the story cannot be told without it.  On the heels of Charles Gramlich's recent post on the topic of how much sex is too much (in a novel), I found this book (I think from a reference on that post) and with it found an example of a sensual book where the sex was seamlessly integrated and not horribly graphic or in your face--something not exactly easy to manage.  And yet, I insist I would call this a literary novel despite the sexual content.

Don't get me wrong, though.  Due to the way sexuality is woven through practically every paragraph, that erotica definition wouldn't be wrong--just incredibly misleading.   But to call this book erotica wouldn't be entirely correct, either.  Because 3 is a very literary, very smoky and dark view of a young woman's discovery of the world and herself.  In a way, it reminds me of Such A Pretty Girl, a dark novel of a teen dealing with the return of her child molesting creep of a father when he gets out of prison.  And, most importantly for me, from the perspective of a writer reading to see how characterization is unfurled, I find this read very intriguing so far.  Luscious prose.  Fascinating character development.

As one reviewer on Amazon states, "This story is about the darkness inside of people, the places that exist beneath the surface, lurking in the shadows, waiting to unfurl."

It's apparently out of print at the moment, but you can get a used copy via amazon.com or elsewhere.

And I think that writers might read this book just because the character development is so damned fascinating I had to practically applaud some of her choices. And the author's rendition of the sex scenes is incredibly graceful, even when it's kink.  Color me impressed.

If you wouldn't be offended by the recommendation, I say you should read it. There are a lot of really great qualities to this novel. 

Twilight, and an interesting point of view

I say this is interesting because it talks about writing for YA girls in a way that resonates.  The reviewer loves the book, by the way.  I admit to enjoying Twilight because it echoed the teen angst I recall as an obsessive little teenager.  (And I was a real twit in that drive-by mooning teen girl manner many of you ladies will no doubt understand!)  But the writing was rather overblown in parts.  Ahem.  You can find the article here.

At any rate, there are some very astute observations here.  So I recommend the read, even if you hated Twilight, and even though this article is so incredibly long.

Versimilitude or Cobbling the other's shoes?

"I'm hoping not to offend anyone who suffers from discrimination by making incorrect presumptions, but I think writing form imaginative projection rather than personal experience can give a kind of purity to the story: it won't have the specific trappings of on minority or another, so it becomes more aboutr minority status in general.  I was very pleased to discover that when people started reading the book, they tended to see their own experiences in it--one person who is gay saw homophobia, for example, whereas another person who's a different race from their partner got very interested in the Lola-Paul relationship.  But more broadly, anyone who's ever been sad knows that there are times when you can feel like a minority of one."  Kit Whitfield, the afterward to "Benighted"

I won't discuss this book too much, but it's a brilliantly written book as well as (for me) a rather difficult read.  I actually bought it from reading Ms. Whitfield's literary agent blog just before it came out, and I laid it down, ignored, for over a year before picking it up to finish it.  My head just didn't want to wedge into the main character Lola's thoughts because she's a literal mess.  Her world is hard and she's in pain emotionally.  But when I felt I could get into the book, I really did enjoy the reading.  Excellent and lush prose documents a woman's struggles to come to grips with her birth defect--that she, like a a slim minority of people, is merely human: She doesn't turn into a wolf at the full moon.  Instead, by nature of her birth defect, she's locked into a violent world where she must police the city on full moon nights against those who do not obey the laws to lock their wolf selves away for the night so they do not endanger the 'barebacks' or others' property. 

Most of the story is about Lola trying to come to terms with the harsh reality of her world and the prejudices against her which also make it difficult to trust another, to open herself to the man whom she comes to love and then to suspect.  And the internal thoughts and how these are conveyed are quite lovely.

Not a book to read if you are depressed or need lighthearted fare; but a book worth reading nevertheless just because it's written so well. 

And while Ms. Whitfield mentions what sounds like a theme of prejudice in the book, it did not feel theme-ish at all.  It felt like damn-all brilliant world building.

Which brings me to the bit about writing.
I think the quote points up a really important idea: That you don't have to literally walk a mile in another's shoes to 'get it'.  And perhaps you shouldn't if you aren't literally trying to portray their lives, but merely use that metaphorical other as a jumping off point.  I believe that the writing of this story Benighted is more powerful for the author's having considered the prejudices of her bareback humans over the lunes.  Because she brings up not a theme of prejudice, but of how sometimes experiences to not translate, with prejudice being only one of them. 

The lunes (werewolves) cannot tell a bareback what it's like; and the barebacks, who have to suffer and fear the wolves prowling the streets, who all are scarred, blinded, missing limbs or fingers due to the lunes and their unthinking violence, cannot relate to walking through a park at night on a non-full-moon evening; because to them it's like walking in front of the armed enemy naked and flipping them the bird.  It just seems like trouble and stupid.  Worlds cannot always collide, and Benighted addresses how people struggle to find the words, or to deal with the lack of them and yet still relate to each other. Lola's burgeoning relationship with a lune exemplifies this, but again not in a theme-ish way.

What I take from the really nice writing of this book is this:  We need to keep some of what Ms. Whitfield says about thinking outside the box, taking a new look at things--and keep that in mind when building a character-driven novel, at any rate.  Because in a character-driven story, the choices are the vital point, are what turns the plot.  [I'm not entirely sure I'm making sense on this point. It's late.  I give up, lol.]

And don't forget my contest to commemorate my 2nd year blogaversary!  Entries were due TODAY but I've extended the deadline until MONDAY, 9/8/08!

People don't have to like your characters; but they do need to empathize with them!

It’s very important to have a protagonist the audience can identify with. This is true even the protagonist is generally unlikeable, an anti-hero, or some other sort of hero one wouldn’t normally sympathize with.  Now, you don’t want a protagonist who has no flaws. Perfect protagnosts are boring and unsympathetic. We need a flawed human being, who faces struggles, as our hero. And you also don’t want characters that have nothing out-of-the-ordinary about them. You want rich characters, with new and different characteristics, people the audience has not met before.  J. Timothy King, Be The Story

Yesterday, I watched Sweeney Todd on DVD.  It had just a "meh" response.  I generally love Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tim Burton, but this movie had me doing a doggie head tilt.  Not that it's bad; but I am left with the feeling of something missing.  (And, I should confess, I'm not really a blood and guts movie fan, and this was a bit over the top for me in that regard.)

I get that way with books or movies sometimes.  You have an interesting world, or as in the case of movies a visually interesting setting.  You have really nice songs/dialog/writing.  You have a story that on the surface should work...

But something keeps the tale from grabbing you.  I think it's empathy in this case.  I do not feel sympathy for anyone in this movie.  All the characters are self-contained little knobs who don't make me feel I can walk in their shoes.  Especially Depp as Sweeney Todd.  The only one that comes close is the workhouse kid, but I lose him too when he's in the basement and discovers what's being added to those pies and he doesn't react.

Empathy is important.  I'm sure we all know what empathy is and what a sympathetic character is supposed to do:  Pull the readers in and make them care about that character and what happens to him or her, make them feel a part of their struggle.  If your characters are not accessible emotionally to the audience, if the audience cannot buy into the characters' actions, then you haven't portrayed them right. 

I think that reading is probably the best teacher about sympathetic characters.  When considering characters who make us root for them, think about the books you've read that make you want to stay.  What characters make you want to be them?  I think the early LKH Anita Blake stories are prime examples.  Also, the character of Jame in God Stalk by PC Hodgell, Tinker by Wen Spencer, and many more.  They dont' have to be likeable, either.  The villian in God Stalk makes me want him to overcome what has made him 'evil' in part because it isn't his fault; but also because he's so sympathetic, even if bad.

One type won't grab everyone, of course.  I, for example, cannot stand and do not sympathize with the characters of Charlotte Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights.  Cathy should be repeatedly slapped for being stupid and Heathcliffe should be beaten about the head and shoulders with that stick jammed up his ass.  However, Austen's Emma, while a spoiled brat, is well meaning and likeable to me.  To each their own tastes. 

Related reading:
"You and Your Characters" by James Patrick Kelley (one of a number of great articles on the SFWA site)
"Why Stories Work" by Mary Lynn Mercer
"Creating Sympathetic Characters" by Amy Padgett
And today's post on OxyJen's blog is also on empathy and characters.

A New Author to Read: Karen Traviss

City of Pearl, by Karen Traviss
Eos publishers, 400 pages, mass market paperback

This is a phenominal read.  Hard sf but character driven-- a favorite combination of mine!  One of the reasons I generally prefer fantasy to sf these days is that it's been difficult to find really good sf reads.  Perhaps I haven't run across them; perhaps I am too picky.  Nevertheless, I just have a difficult time finding sf that I enjoy, that intrigues me and that is thought provoking.  Worse, it's damn near impossible to find ones that are as wildly original as Karen Traviss' Wess'har series looks to be.  I loved this book!

The first in the Wess'har Wars series, the book is an amazingly well done first novel.  I'm ordering the sequels, I liked it so much.  I bought it because I ran across one of the sequels in my Amazon recommendations list, thought it sounded interesting but discovered it was the fifth book of a series.  So I purchased the first.  While I found the first thirty or so pages a bit difficult to get into, once the story got going, it rocked!

The blurb from the back cover doesn't do the book justice, but here it is. 

"Environmental Hazard Enforcement officer Shan Frankland agreed to lead a mission to Cavanagh's Star, knowing that 150 years would elapse before she could finally return home.  But her landing, with a small group of scientists and Marines, has not gone  unnotices by Aras, the planet's designated guardian.  An eternally evolving world himself, this sad, powerful being has already obliterated millions of alien interlopers and their great cities to protect the fragile native population.  Now Shan and her party-- plus the small colony of fundamentalist humans who preceded them-- could face a similar annihilation... or a fate far worse.  Because Aras possesses a secret of the blood that would be disastrous if it fell into human hands-- if the gethes survive the impending war their coming has inadvertently hastened."

In my mental file cabinet for someday use (revised)

Long post warning! 

This post is both a book review and a rant on world building.   But first, so you know what I am talking about, the book report.  NOTE:  I've revised it based on Tyhitia's comment, because I can see that what I was trying to say isn't how this came out. 

Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
Trade paperback, 416 pages
Jove (November 30, 2004)

The blurb from amazon.com:
Buffyesque baker Rae "Sunshine" Seddon meets Count Dracula's hunky Byronic cousin in Newbery-Award-winner McKinley's first adult-and-then-some romp through the darkling streets of a spooky post-Voodoo Wars world. Now that human cities have been decimated, the vampiric elite holds one-fifth of the world's capital, threatening to control all the earth in less than 100 years, unless human SOFs (Special Other Forces) can hold them at bay by recruiting Sunshine, daughter of legendary sorcerer Onyx Blaise. As breathlessly narrated by Sunshine herself, the Cinnamon Roll Queen of Charlie's Coffeehouse, in the inchoate idiom of Britney, J. Lo and the Spice Girls, Sunshine's coming-of-magical-age launches when she is swarmed by noiseless vampires one night and chained in a decrepit ballroom as an entr‚e for mysterious, magnetic, half-starved Constantine, a powerful vampire whose mortal enemy Bo (short for Beauregard) shackled him there to perish slowly from daylight and deprivation. Most of the charm of this long venture into magic maturation derives from McKinley's keen ear and sensitive atmospherics, deft characterizations and clever juxtapositions of reality and the supernatural that might, just might, be lurking out there in "bad spots" right around a creepy urban corner or next to a deserted lake cabin. McKinley knows very well-and makes her readers believe-that "the insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are."

'Stealing' inspiration.
I just finished re-reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley for the fifth or sixth time.  This is one of my favorite books both because the story is well written and because the world building is so wonderfully done.  Lots of common fantasy elements (vampires, magic) but the twists the author puts on them is so fabulously unique that I keep wanting to take her world, steal it, and write a book of my own. 

Which brings me to the main topic:  How to 'steal' someone else's work and make something uniquely your own and (hopefully) unrecognizable as having come from that other writer's world. Easier said than done.  You can't take their work whole cloth; although you can sometimes use the basic ideas...to an extent.  Therein lies the trick. 

So far I haven't been able use Sunshine's brilliant milieu to springboard off and get some cool ideas of my own-- although not for lack of trying.  The basic world is fantasy.  It's leavened with enough humor via the first person narrative that I can't call it dark fantasy; but some might. 

Rae Seddon, aka Sunshine, lives in a world where magic exists and apparently always has.  Society is in the throes of recovery from a war between the vampires and other dark forces and humanity.  The backlash has shaped society in interesting ways.  Since I love this book exceedingly, I had to spend some time considering how the world works and why I like it so much.

What the writer in me liked about this book and why.
I start by asking myself what I liked about the world.  Primarily, I liked Sunshine's sense of completeness, that sense I spoke about recently when I said I liked worlds with breadth.  You cannot feel the edges to this world of Sunshine, like you could walk into the book and explore until you grew old and find new things everywhere. 

Secondmost, I liked the way a pre-existing situation caused situational conflicts adding to the main plot conflict.  Sunshine has become involved with vampires and must work with a vampire to keep alive even as she is trying to keep it quiet.  At the same time she has a diametrically opposed role when she is strongarmed into aiding the Special Other Police to destroy vampires-- a complicated interweaving of social elements via the laws about Others (vampires, demons, etc.) and the expectations of society.

Also, the author's stylistic and plot choices give the book a real-world feel and a hominess and likeability that I would love to accomplish myself.  For example, Rae wants to be normal, to bake food and feed people.  She doesn't want to wield magic, befriend and aid a vampire, or work for the SOF (the paranormal cops).  But she must.  This tension between what she wants and what she must deal with (including the changes in her outlook) is the backbone of the story, without which the plot elements would fall flat.  The story is also about interrelationships: familial, neighborhood, social.  People turn out to be not what is originally expected, and the basic conflicts give the book a depth that is lacking in many books, because we have so many more characters here.  This community of characters is also what makes the book feel homey and gives it the breadth I like.

And thirdmost, I liked how the magic worked: a seat-of-the pants, organic sort of magic that appeared to be rather individualistic and could be worked in several ways depending on one's specialty.  Also, the magic was a commonplace, as the humans appear to have always known about the demons and vampires living among them.  There is also the interesting subplot of Rae worrying that she is going to go off her nut because of a "bad cross" with socerer and demon blood. 

And what was truly truly unique about the world of Sunshine is its vampires.  In particular, there's a unique take on vampire sensory functions and how their world interacts with the human world.

Lots of 'I wish I thought of that' moments in this book.  I've been trying to think how I could riff off of Sunshine's world to build a unique world of my own, but, as Neil Gaiman says in his blurb, Sunshine is "pretty much perfect."  So, how can I improve on that?  I haven't figured it out yet.  Guess I'll have to settle for dissecting how this book's world is unique and try to replicate the flavor of uniqueness rather than the basic ideas.

What are the inspirations I take from Sunshine?
Okay, there are a few things I take away from Sunshine that inspire me. 

The vampires are different, and not particularly attractive, not romantic at all.  I should be able to do that somehow, too.  Or to the faeries if I have faeries (which is the idea I've been thinking about).  Yet, Rae/Sunshine becomes friends with a vamp.  I can have my character become unexpected and conflicted friend to an unsavory fey element, too, then.

The magic is organic, and the downside to it is that if Rae has the wrong blood in her family tree from her mother's side, she could pop off and become a raving lunatic at any moment:  something she's really concerned about, even if as a reader you know that's not gonna happen.  I could have some worry like that for a main character, too.  for the Faerie story I have in mind, it would be more about a faerie gift that could turn on her; but it would be a worry that the readers should recognize as not so great, because they see the character's inherent strengths which she cannot or will not yet see.  (Letting the readers feel smart is good.)

Or there is also the voice of the book, with a first person, wry voice that makes you like Rae and the people she likes, too.  You care about them because she does.  It's a warm world of community.  And the community and world Rae lives in infuses this book so well it makes the world one I hated to leave when I finished the book.  I could attempt that, too, and I could have my character ina world where there are a lot of players, not just a handful, and they are all loved and important.  I could have a heroine in my faerie story that is trying to protect them and conflicted like Rae is because she finds herself friendly with one, yet has the conflicting demand of being forced to fight against the faerie contingent, as well. 

So, I hope this clarifies what I mean by using someone else's stuff to inspire your writing ideas.  Not literal stealing, but emulating their way of thinking.

How to use the good bits to get something new.
To clarify my dissection process:
1.  What is attention grabbing that I wish I thought of here?  Why do I like it?
2.  How does it differ from other people's stuff? 
3.  How can I riff off this?  Meaning, what similar thing can I alter/add, or how can I take the same element and make it different, take it in an entirely new direction?
4.  Repeat 1-3 for all elements that I like.
5.  Try to establish some sort of inspiration from something. 

It's not cheating, by the way.
When you use someone else's work to inspire yourself, remember this:  'Stealing' an idea isn't really theft.  Not like copying someone's prose.  (If it were, then all those vampire brotherhood romances and chick lit shoe-shopping stories would never have gotten published.)  (In fact, another technique that can work is to copy scene structure from a novel you like so you are stealing the structure and some of the plot elements, but not the story or prose.  Which is a topic for another post.) Sometimes doing these things can get you past a sticking point, too.

You can't copyright an idea or stylistic approach.  So take what you like and consider them from a writer's perspective as a way to think about your story, not how to word your story.  Take the good bits and consider how they function and how you can make them yours. 

Happy writing!

First Lines from recent reads

Blood Engines, by T.A. Pratt:  "Marla Mason crouched in the alley beside the City Lights bookstore and threw her runes."
    I'm still reading this one, not sure I like the book, knowing I don't like the protag.  Interesting world premise, though.  And, being a former San Franciscan, I love knowing the locations she's using.  But, that alley she mentions?  I think it's like 15 feet long.  Really small, anyhow.   
    As far as first lines go, this one isn't particularly gripping in a 'gotta read more now' way; yet it establishes the genre and the place quite firmly. 

Holy Smokes, Aisling Grey #4, by Katie MacAlister:  "'I'm gettin' married in the morning! Ding, dong, the bells are gonna riiiiiing!'"
    Not the hookiest line ever, but where we last left our heroine, Aisling Grey, in book 3 of this series, she had just become engaged to her wyrvern mate, Drake.  As usual, an amusing book by Ms. MacAlister.

Midnight Alley, Morganville Vampires #3, by Rachel Caine:  "The instant the phone rang at the Glass House, Claire knew with a psychic flash that it had to be her mother."
    Again, not the hookiest beginning, but it did make me wonder why she knew (riffing on the old mom calls at the worst times trope) and hearkens back to the earlier books, when parents are a bit of a problem with Claire the girl genius- over-protective, etc.

Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett:  "The Morris Dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse."
    Rereading an old favorite.  The beginning seems pretty bland, yet the book is a howl.

I'm the Vampire, That's Why, by Michele Bardsley:  "The night I died, I was wrestling a garbage can to the curb."
    B grade book, decent first line.  It gives a hint at the humorous tone and  makes it obvious who the narrating vampire is going to be, and makes me curious as to what/why/how the speaker dies.  (And we know there's gonna be a vampire, because the  title give that much away.)

Merely Married, by Patricia Coughlin:  "Adrian Devereau, the sixth Duke of Raven, among other things both laudatory and not, staggered to a halt dead center of the rutted country lane and thrust his jaw in the air with the reckless abandon of a man well into his cups."
    The first line itself cannot really stand alone; the following dialog is was draws one into the book. However, we are given an interesting situation to view here, and it set the scene, gave a bit of info about our character, Adrian, as well as made me wonder what was going to happen.   I got this used based on the review or mention on one of the recent romance blog entries.  Not quite finished, but it's one of the better of the genre.  Silly but heartwarming.  Good characters.  Love of a good woman redeems the devil's child, etc.   

And then, the opening line of Magic Bites, which is listed below.  Those are this weekend's reads.

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Ace trade paperback, 272 pages. Book 1 in the Kate Daniels series.

A new urban fantasy series begins with a feisty and tough female protagonist who gets to battle the undead.  Vampires not the least bit sexy, magic and technology are like oil and water: they do not mix. Magic has returned to the world, and this tale, set in a strange alternate Atlanta, Georgia, is about solving the murder of Kate's friend.  She deals with undead, necromancers, shape shifters and the like in her quest for vengeance.  She's got secrets, and they promise to be...interesting. 

Good read.  Imaginative and very different world.  I read this book straight through in a cozy five hour sitting.  Patricia Briggs, author of Blood Bound and other good reads, gave it a blurb saying she liked it, too. 

I give this one a high five and say it's a keeper. 

And since we are on the topic of first lines, sort of, here's the first line from this book:

"I sat at a table in my shadowy kitchen, staring down a bottle of Boone's Farm Hard Lemonade, when a magic fluctuation hit."