Yes, I've been quiet. That's because I've been writing.
After all these years reading paranormal and sci-fi romance, I finally gave in to writing one. What started as my side project in November during NaNoWriMo has continued to grow and flow. Thankfully. I even know how it ends and I'm only two thirds of the way through. Which if you're in the extreme pantser category like I often am, you know how much of a miracle this is.
The Last God has been fun to write, so far. I say that because things have been moving along so well, that I'm just waiting for either my ambition or inspiration to suddenly go dry. But so far, so good.
Once I get a better handle on how to spell my MCs name, I might even share a little about it. Yes, you read that right. I've spelled her name soooo many different ways that's it become rather a game of key mashing the general shape of the thing every time I use it. I had to say it last night at my writer's group meeting when I was passing out the latest excerpt and let me tell you, having to pronounce the name I haven't decided how to spell was pretty much a vocalization of a keymash. It's *mumble* Ja...*mumble* I'm happy to report the first two excerpts have been well received despite the name issue.
Other than happy writing away and gathering a few extra winter pounds, we've been searching for an exchange student for the next school year. As of yesterday, we may have secured one from Denmark. We're quite excited because she has the same interests as my daughter and when you have a nerd artist, that's not such an easy niche to match. Nerd artists tend to be shy and not go out for exchange student programs, not like the sporty kids do anyway. We should know in a week or two if we've made a solid match between our school, her family, and the exchange program.
I have been reading and watching but doing so much of both lately that I haven't been good about keeping track. Oops. I should probably get better about that again. I did manage to read 38 books last year, which, while I'd set out to do the 52 book challenge, is technically a fail, is a lot more books than I made time for the year before. That's a win...in my book. (Ouch, I know.)
Showing posts with label character problems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label character problems. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Monday, February 18, 2013
The percolator strikes again
There are times when we need to step back from our novels to give them time to lose their shiny luster of newly written awesome so we then see them more objectively and fix them. Sometimes that means weeks or months or years.
After completing a novel critique last week and pondering my overall plot comments, something clicked in my percolator and *poof* I knew how to fix one of my old novels. I love when this happens. I wish it would happen more often. I'd have a lot more done writing-wise. But it would seem my percolator can only do so much, so often.
I brushed the virtual dust off my 2007 NaNo novel yesterday. New notes were created as I reacquainted myself with the characters and their plotlines. A new chapter one is in progress.
While the novel went over well with crit buddies, I'd worked myself into a pantser corner around chapter 22. The princess needed to marry someone. Her aunt was roaming the countryside building up support for the princess. Her uncle (from the other side of the family) was gleefully sitting on her throne and putting the final touches on the wedding of his faux son to the faux princess. The man the real princess needed to lead her army was stuck in a distant country. Any of the men she could marry to gain hold of additional forces sucked.
The pieces were all there. And there they sat. Staring at me. Glaring. Waiting impatiently for me to make the story work.
Funny how writing notes on how to better pull the plot together for someone else, triggered an epiphany for my old novel, but hey, I'm not going to ponder this miracle too deeply. I need that thought power to fix this story.
There's the obvious character modification, then some plot holes to patch up and about 15,000 words to add to bring the story to it's conclusion. Let's just hope I can get this done before April, when I hope to launch myself into a new project that hit me the other day.
Guess that means I better get writing.
After completing a novel critique last week and pondering my overall plot comments, something clicked in my percolator and *poof* I knew how to fix one of my old novels. I love when this happens. I wish it would happen more often. I'd have a lot more done writing-wise. But it would seem my percolator can only do so much, so often.
I brushed the virtual dust off my 2007 NaNo novel yesterday. New notes were created as I reacquainted myself with the characters and their plotlines. A new chapter one is in progress.
While the novel went over well with crit buddies, I'd worked myself into a pantser corner around chapter 22. The princess needed to marry someone. Her aunt was roaming the countryside building up support for the princess. Her uncle (from the other side of the family) was gleefully sitting on her throne and putting the final touches on the wedding of his faux son to the faux princess. The man the real princess needed to lead her army was stuck in a distant country. Any of the men she could marry to gain hold of additional forces sucked.
The pieces were all there. And there they sat. Staring at me. Glaring. Waiting impatiently for me to make the story work.
Funny how writing notes on how to better pull the plot together for someone else, triggered an epiphany for my old novel, but hey, I'm not going to ponder this miracle too deeply. I need that thought power to fix this story.
There's the obvious character modification, then some plot holes to patch up and about 15,000 words to add to bring the story to it's conclusion. Let's just hope I can get this done before April, when I hope to launch myself into a new project that hit me the other day.
Guess that means I better get writing.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
As NaNo winds down
Contrary to what you might believe from my blogging presence, I am still on the planet. It's just, well, NaNoWriMo. I'm happy to report that I wrote my 50,000th word last night at 9:12pm. No, the story is not done. The story will very likely never be done. It's a mess. It's easily the worst thing I've written since I started to take writing seriously. However, it didn't suck so horribly bad that I couldn't bear working on it. It had some redeeming bits.
On the redeeming list:
• Characterization practice. Since I spent a good deal of this "novel" trying to find out just who the hell had an engaging pov to tell it through, I did a lot of showing of the scene and events through many different people.
• Writing through the "bad guy". Yes, I've done the antagonist pov many times, but this guy was a different experience. He saw the world at a very different angle than everyone else. He had a very disturbing (yet fun in a writer-sort of way) mind to get into.
• Description is awesome for adding word count. This is probably why I'm light on description in most of my other writing. I'm usually focused on keeping the word count low and only focusing on the important details rather than trying to build up lots of words. However, this was also a good place to see how people saw the same things very differently.
• I made time for writing again. This was my real goal so even though the writing generally sucks, I'm calling it a win.
What sucked so bad:
• I was so stressed with life that I couldn't remember my own character's names from day to day. I had to make a list - and when I forgot to add secondary people, well on the next day, they ended up with names like "guy 2" and "nurse 4".
• I repeated soooo much stuff because I couldn't find a character to tell the story through that spoke to me like they normally do. This was also likely due to life being stressful / not being able to relax and sink into the story.
• Inane. That should be the title of this "novel". While it had a few scenes I really enjoyed writing, most of it was in the "OMG just get through this so I can get to the next plot point" or "For the love of all that's holy someone do something" category. In short, the whole lack of focus thing on my part led to mind-numbing three page scenes where two characters ate crackers and then declared they were thirsty. Tired brain no make interesting thing happen. Gaaaah.
On the whole, I'm chalking it up to a month-long writing exercise. Which makes me a little sad because this is the first time I've not walked out of NaNo with a shiny new project I'm proud of. I guess that's what the other eleven months of the year are for, huh?
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The benefit of threats
Apparently telling my floundering cast of NaNo characters to get their plot together or get off my keyboard had some effect on them. Or me.
I can usually tell when a story just isn't going to happen and know when to bail on it in favor of using my time (somewhat) more productively. This mess was going nowhere. Then I made the angry Father do something. What was the biggest conflict he could create other than slogging along as the advocate for the unfortunates? He needed to want to make a change in the mess that wasn't going anywhere. He watned to make things better for the characters, and to do that he was going to need to confront the director of the hospital. We've not met yet other than in passing mention from Eva, the nurse--which was the one POV that was really working so far.
Then came the idea that we should go meet the Director before Father go there. Oh boy, this guy is off his rocker! I had no idea. But ooooooh is he fun to write. And now, I have conflict brewing that is much more immediate than my overall plot. Yes, yes, I think we might have something here after all.
Maybe. Until things dry up again and I have to drop more threats.
I can usually tell when a story just isn't going to happen and know when to bail on it in favor of using my time (somewhat) more productively. This mess was going nowhere. Then I made the angry Father do something. What was the biggest conflict he could create other than slogging along as the advocate for the unfortunates? He needed to want to make a change in the mess that wasn't going anywhere. He watned to make things better for the characters, and to do that he was going to need to confront the director of the hospital. We've not met yet other than in passing mention from Eva, the nurse--which was the one POV that was really working so far.
Then came the idea that we should go meet the Director before Father go there. Oh boy, this guy is off his rocker! I had no idea. But ooooooh is he fun to write. And now, I have conflict brewing that is much more immediate than my overall plot. Yes, yes, I think we might have something here after all.
Maybe. Until things dry up again and I have to drop more threats.
Monday, November 12, 2012
The slog
So how's NaNoWriMo year seven going for me, you ask?
Blarg.
Yep, that sums it up nicely (or not so nicely). I've never written such a wandering, inane mess of attempted scenes. Thankfully. I'll give myself the opportunity to write utter crap this one time because hey, gotta try everything once, right?
Maybe something will come of it--some scene that jumps out at me that could be turned into a short story or a novella. One thing is for sure, it's not going to end up anywhere near novel territory as far as a workable amount of coherent words.
So what the hell is going so wrong this year?
I had an idea. It seemed like a good one. I had a beginning point, a character, a setting, and knew where I had to end it. You have to understand, this is way more planning than I usually put into any NaNo novel so I thought I'd be way ahead of the game. It turns out, not so much.
Jackson, my intended MC didn't have the same fun personality to write as Joshua (from A Broken Race, of which this new story was supposed to be a prequel).
So I switched to Grace, whom I'd had no intention of using for POV character at all, but hell, Jackson wasn't working so why not, and there could be some love interest there...maybe? Grace worked for a while, but after she took three pages to eat a meal of crackers, I realized that she wasn't the key to breathing life into the story I'd intended to tell.
Let's try Jerry. No, didn't intend to POV him either, but he seemed to be working and he carried the story on for a good while after I'd ditched Grace. The words started to come. Oh hallelujah! But then he dried up. Crap.
Eva! Eva didn't even exisit in the story until Grace needed a direct antagonist. Eva was doing wonders for my lagging enthusiasm. Then a prompt to add an unexpected child came up. YES! Eva had a sick child, and this I could work with! Words happened. Story happened. We learned things. We even got a bigger antagonist to deal with. I was just about jumping for joy and then I wrote a really sad scene for poor Eva and I had to put her aside for a little while before she could feasibly take on the next part of the plot. Which meant I needed to write: "Time passes" or jump POVs again.
Back to Jackson, Grace or Jerry? None of them enticed me, but the angry-on-the-inside-priest from Jackson's chapter did. I was all excited about writing Father Frederick for a while but now...now the story is dragging again.
Which is why we're back to: Blarg. It's just not clicking and I know this story not going to amount to much for all the slogging I'm forcing myself to do. However, it is getting the creative writing juices flowing again and I am carving out time to write from my otherwise over-filled day. I am accomplishing part of what I set out to do this month. So I'll give this story another 5k to shape up or not and if it doesn't, I'll fill my other 25k with one of my other countless projects that needs finishing or one of the short story prompts on the sidelines that needs starting.
So take that Novel-that-would-be, either click or get off my keyboard.
Blarg.
Yep, that sums it up nicely (or not so nicely). I've never written such a wandering, inane mess of attempted scenes. Thankfully. I'll give myself the opportunity to write utter crap this one time because hey, gotta try everything once, right?
Maybe something will come of it--some scene that jumps out at me that could be turned into a short story or a novella. One thing is for sure, it's not going to end up anywhere near novel territory as far as a workable amount of coherent words.
So what the hell is going so wrong this year?
I had an idea. It seemed like a good one. I had a beginning point, a character, a setting, and knew where I had to end it. You have to understand, this is way more planning than I usually put into any NaNo novel so I thought I'd be way ahead of the game. It turns out, not so much.
Jackson, my intended MC didn't have the same fun personality to write as Joshua (from A Broken Race, of which this new story was supposed to be a prequel).
So I switched to Grace, whom I'd had no intention of using for POV character at all, but hell, Jackson wasn't working so why not, and there could be some love interest there...maybe? Grace worked for a while, but after she took three pages to eat a meal of crackers, I realized that she wasn't the key to breathing life into the story I'd intended to tell.
Let's try Jerry. No, didn't intend to POV him either, but he seemed to be working and he carried the story on for a good while after I'd ditched Grace. The words started to come. Oh hallelujah! But then he dried up. Crap.
Eva! Eva didn't even exisit in the story until Grace needed a direct antagonist. Eva was doing wonders for my lagging enthusiasm. Then a prompt to add an unexpected child came up. YES! Eva had a sick child, and this I could work with! Words happened. Story happened. We learned things. We even got a bigger antagonist to deal with. I was just about jumping for joy and then I wrote a really sad scene for poor Eva and I had to put her aside for a little while before she could feasibly take on the next part of the plot. Which meant I needed to write: "Time passes" or jump POVs again.
Back to Jackson, Grace or Jerry? None of them enticed me, but the angry-on-the-inside-priest from Jackson's chapter did. I was all excited about writing Father Frederick for a while but now...now the story is dragging again.
Which is why we're back to: Blarg. It's just not clicking and I know this story not going to amount to much for all the slogging I'm forcing myself to do. However, it is getting the creative writing juices flowing again and I am carving out time to write from my otherwise over-filled day. I am accomplishing part of what I set out to do this month. So I'll give this story another 5k to shape up or not and if it doesn't, I'll fill my other 25k with one of my other countless projects that needs finishing or one of the short story prompts on the sidelines that needs starting.
So take that Novel-that-would-be, either click or get off my keyboard.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
I came home to a letter
I returned from my trip to Yellowstone late last night to find a note on my desk. In light of not having all my photos organized enough to post anything trip related, I figured I'd share the letter.
Dear She Who Taps the Keys,
We hope you are enjoying your time away from us. We stand here stunned. We don't have much choice, you see, because you left your laptop behind. You've left us for a long weekend, sure, but nine days? What were you thinking? What about all those great ideas you get when you're away from the computer? How are you supposed to apply them to our stories if you leave us behind?
Perhaps you don't fully understand our plights. Here, we'll lay them out for you so you can sit your butt on the couch, plug in your laptop and seriously consider making up for lost time.
Samarah would like to know what the hell happens in the middle of her story.
Jackson wonders what happened to his family (and the rest of the human race for that matter).
Bruce also wants to know what happens in the middle of Not Another Bard's Tale. What is it with you and skimping on middles anyway?
Maribella demands to know which young man (none of which she likes) she's going to marry. Her uncle suggests himself as he's quite content to run the kingdom. No really, he'd be happy to take that plot issue off your hands.
The mermaid is getting restless and is threatening to feed your toes to her new husband if you don't finish her story's revisions.
Marion is very depressed as you keep talking about fixing her story but never seem to get around to it. She may start stealing babies from other WIPs if you don't act soon.
Oh and Vayen and the gang are quite annoyed that you've set their third novel on the back burner. Are you sure it's wise to annoy them?
We hope you enjoyed your vacation. Don't plan on another any time in the near future.
Sincerely,
Your Characters
Dear She Who Taps the Keys,
We hope you are enjoying your time away from us. We stand here stunned. We don't have much choice, you see, because you left your laptop behind. You've left us for a long weekend, sure, but nine days? What were you thinking? What about all those great ideas you get when you're away from the computer? How are you supposed to apply them to our stories if you leave us behind?
Perhaps you don't fully understand our plights. Here, we'll lay them out for you so you can sit your butt on the couch, plug in your laptop and seriously consider making up for lost time.
Samarah would like to know what the hell happens in the middle of her story.
Jackson wonders what happened to his family (and the rest of the human race for that matter).
Bruce also wants to know what happens in the middle of Not Another Bard's Tale. What is it with you and skimping on middles anyway?
Maribella demands to know which young man (none of which she likes) she's going to marry. Her uncle suggests himself as he's quite content to run the kingdom. No really, he'd be happy to take that plot issue off your hands.
The mermaid is getting restless and is threatening to feed your toes to her new husband if you don't finish her story's revisions.
Marion is very depressed as you keep talking about fixing her story but never seem to get around to it. She may start stealing babies from other WIPs if you don't act soon.
Oh and Vayen and the gang are quite annoyed that you've set their third novel on the back burner. Are you sure it's wise to annoy them?
We hope you enjoyed your vacation. Don't plan on another any time in the near future.
Sincerely,
Your Characters
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Time to get motivated
Made from gloves, which I'll toss out the trendy term 'upcycled' to pretend I'm up on the lingo, these little guys (No, I didn't use that extra finger to make them gender specific) are ready and waiting for your abuse (a.k.a. motivation). They are posable and padded for to protect your knuckles.
I'll use one of my current characters as an example.
"Hey 152, can I talk to you a minute?"
"Okay."
"So in that last chapter, I thought I had issues with William slowing the pace down with all his tidbits of history."
"The Williams are bad."
"Yes, yes, we know that. But it turns out William wasn't my problem. It was you!"
"Me? What did I do?"
"It seems your killing people, even by accident is making you difficult to sympathize with. You're going to have to cut that out."
"But, it's not my fault. It's what I do. I don't want to change!"
"Oh yeah?"
Yep. They work. And I feel better too. Win win!
Character motivators, coming to a OCGR Nano raffle near you. Or me. Yeah, mostly near me. Sorry.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
When evil characters go bad
I'm happy to announce that Beatrice is dead. Overjoyed, in fact. I think I'm supposed to be feeling tragedy at the fact her life went so wrong, perhaps nodding at the injustice of her sheltered childhood and how it made her into such a horrible person. But no, I'm just smiling because she's finally dead and I can put the book down.
There came a time yesterday as I sat outside, enjoying the elusive perfect weather of mid-summer, with my dog happily at my feet and three young hawks chasing each other through the woods, when I nearly tossed the book into the unlit firepit. I read the few distasteful pages that killed any remote sense of redemption for wayward MC and closed the cover in disgust. Did I want to bother reading more about this horrible fictional person with no redeeming characteristics whatsoever? At that point, not really.
But the day was so lovely and peaceful and if I put the book down, I'd have no excuse to keep myself outside rather that endure the racket of my children reaquainting themselves with the X-box and television after my son's long electronic deprived week at camp. Toys were again scattered over my orderly floor, friends were visiting and my husband was busy drilling and grinding something in our workshop. No, it was far better to subject myself to quiet (other than the screeching of the hawks) and attempt to learn something from dispicable Beatrice.
Which means I didn't toss the book into the firepit. Instead I took a deep breath, opened the book, found my page and continued to read.
Beyond friday's post, here is what I learned.
- A MC has to have SOME redeeming quality or I want to see her fail. Please don't make me wait 600 pages to see her fail in two paragraphs of lackluster, I'm-ready-to-die action.
-When every other character in the novel can't stand your character, it isn't a good thing. It doesn't make her more evil or misunderstood. It just means they all see the logic and reason the MC missing.
- A MC who's motivation is the steadfast center of their life at the beginning of the novel shouldn't spend the rest of the novel contradicting their motivation in every bold way possible just to create conflict. It makes no sense and makes me want smack them upside the head and ask, "What the hell are you doing?" Deliberate self sabotage is not compelling
- If there is a direct conflict between the MC and another character, for goodness sake, act on it. The terror factor I praised in my previous post sputtered out shortly afterward. The words, "he's coming" only have so much effect when repeated for the next three hundred pages without anything actually happening.
- Do not point out the direct problem with the novel in dialogue. "It's like you wish things to happen and the gods just make it so." Yes, exactly. No one stands in the MC's way. Stuff just happens. Stupid stuff. Stuff that makes you look at the words again and just exclaim, "Why does no one at all question this? Why on earth would the MC even think of this course of action when there are twenty other far more logical options that never cross her mind?"
- Ruining other characters for the sake of it (because she's evil!!!), characters that would have helped the MC if only she had actually spoken to them in a logical manner, is just wasteful and makes me want to chuck the book into the firepit.
- Writing in first person with random moments of omniscent pov is disconcerting.
- A MC who knows they are evil but keeps being evil anyway, just cause, makes me want them to die horribly. Yes, this somewhat repeats my first point. Which is another point. Don't repeat everything in case I didn't catch the anvil the first time around. I got it. Thanks.
- Just because I enjoy some books by an author, doesn't mean I'll love them all.
There came a time yesterday as I sat outside, enjoying the elusive perfect weather of mid-summer, with my dog happily at my feet and three young hawks chasing each other through the woods, when I nearly tossed the book into the unlit firepit. I read the few distasteful pages that killed any remote sense of redemption for wayward MC and closed the cover in disgust. Did I want to bother reading more about this horrible fictional person with no redeeming characteristics whatsoever? At that point, not really.
But the day was so lovely and peaceful and if I put the book down, I'd have no excuse to keep myself outside rather that endure the racket of my children reaquainting themselves with the X-box and television after my son's long electronic deprived week at camp. Toys were again scattered over my orderly floor, friends were visiting and my husband was busy drilling and grinding something in our workshop. No, it was far better to subject myself to quiet (other than the screeching of the hawks) and attempt to learn something from dispicable Beatrice.
Which means I didn't toss the book into the firepit. Instead I took a deep breath, opened the book, found my page and continued to read.
Beyond friday's post, here is what I learned.
- A MC has to have SOME redeeming quality or I want to see her fail. Please don't make me wait 600 pages to see her fail in two paragraphs of lackluster, I'm-ready-to-die action.
-When every other character in the novel can't stand your character, it isn't a good thing. It doesn't make her more evil or misunderstood. It just means they all see the logic and reason the MC missing.
- A MC who's motivation is the steadfast center of their life at the beginning of the novel shouldn't spend the rest of the novel contradicting their motivation in every bold way possible just to create conflict. It makes no sense and makes me want smack them upside the head and ask, "What the hell are you doing?" Deliberate self sabotage is not compelling
- If there is a direct conflict between the MC and another character, for goodness sake, act on it. The terror factor I praised in my previous post sputtered out shortly afterward. The words, "he's coming" only have so much effect when repeated for the next three hundred pages without anything actually happening.
- Do not point out the direct problem with the novel in dialogue. "It's like you wish things to happen and the gods just make it so." Yes, exactly. No one stands in the MC's way. Stuff just happens. Stupid stuff. Stuff that makes you look at the words again and just exclaim, "Why does no one at all question this? Why on earth would the MC even think of this course of action when there are twenty other far more logical options that never cross her mind?"
- Ruining other characters for the sake of it (because she's evil!!!), characters that would have helped the MC if only she had actually spoken to them in a logical manner, is just wasteful and makes me want to chuck the book into the firepit.
- Writing in first person with random moments of omniscent pov is disconcerting.
- A MC who knows they are evil but keeps being evil anyway, just cause, makes me want them to die horribly. Yes, this somewhat repeats my first point. Which is another point. Don't repeat everything in case I didn't catch the anvil the first time around. I got it. Thanks.
- Just because I enjoy some books by an author, doesn't mean I'll love them all.
Friday, July 23, 2010
How much evil can you tolerate?
I'm halfway into Philippa Gregory's Wideacre at this point. While I'm enjoying some aspects of the book, I keep getting distracted by asking myself the question above.
The main character, Beatrice, starts off as a young girl in awe of her father and his social position as a Squire. He owns land. She loves the land. That's all good.
There's no hint that Beatrice is actually the antagonist until a short while later when she falls for the gamekeeper's, half-gypsy son, figures out that she's a girl--in the sense that she won't inherit the land she loves, it will go to her older brother who doesn't care about it like she does--and plots with her young lover to kill her father so she can control her brother, who turns out to be in love with her.
As if plotting to kill the father she's adored since early childhood just to keep her hold on land--because her brother will need her to help run it, he's an idiot when it comes to management--isn't bad enough, she has a moment of clarity, attempts to stop her lover from following through, but doesn't get there in time and then tries to kill him to keep everything secret. Beatrice is officially evil. And horribly vain.
I don't mind that the story is told in the antagonist's pov in so much as I have a hard time caring what happens to her. It's more like watching a car accident in slow motion. I'm rooting for her to get caught. She's grasping at straws to stay home and not marry--which she should know by fifteen, is her duty, as much as that sucks. And she's totally avoiding any forward planning past what hole in the damn she needs to plug next. One of these days, she's going to run out of fingers.
Her mother is happy to avoid the truth of what her daughter really is. Her brother is happy to have someone to sleep with who shares his tastes. Her new sister-in-law is happy to be out of her abusive childhood home and is grateful that she has Beatrice to run interference with her 'rough' new husband. Oh and did I mention that sixteen year old Beatrice has managed to get pregnant with her brother?
The whole not even realizing that getting married is bound to happen for a girl, to get shipped off and not inherit, seems kind of like avoiding the obvious for the sake of making the story work. She's also not ever once taken the fact she could get pregant into account with all her jumping to bed, at fifteen, with a commoner who lives in a shack down by the river, which would ruin her reputation to no end and what on earth would mama and papa say? Or what about when she sleeps with her brother? Nope, never once crosses her mind until the revelation that she knew she was pregnant for two months but was hiding it from herself--and us.
Now, onto the story thread that I'm most enjoying: the 'he's not dead yet' young lover. See, Beatrice is evil, but like most evil folks, doesn't check to make sure the person they tried to kill, is actually dead. Evil fail! Now she's terrified he's going to show up, maimed as he is, and tell the truth about who she plotted with him to kill her father. This aspect of the story, the terror of being found out, is done really well, full of heart-pounding, she's-going-to-be-found-out moments. The sad thing is, so far, only one other character is bright enough to suspect she's even hiding anything.
What I've learned so far:
1. Check to make sure your victim is dead! Not doing so only causes convienent plot points.
2. Being an evil character is fine, but being oblivious about common conventions in their own setting/world is not.
3. No amount of excellent description of characters and settting will hide the fact that the other characters are all going far too easy on the MC, easily explaining everything away that should be an anvil.
The main character, Beatrice, starts off as a young girl in awe of her father and his social position as a Squire. He owns land. She loves the land. That's all good.
There's no hint that Beatrice is actually the antagonist until a short while later when she falls for the gamekeeper's, half-gypsy son, figures out that she's a girl--in the sense that she won't inherit the land she loves, it will go to her older brother who doesn't care about it like she does--and plots with her young lover to kill her father so she can control her brother, who turns out to be in love with her.
As if plotting to kill the father she's adored since early childhood just to keep her hold on land--because her brother will need her to help run it, he's an idiot when it comes to management--isn't bad enough, she has a moment of clarity, attempts to stop her lover from following through, but doesn't get there in time and then tries to kill him to keep everything secret. Beatrice is officially evil. And horribly vain.
I don't mind that the story is told in the antagonist's pov in so much as I have a hard time caring what happens to her. It's more like watching a car accident in slow motion. I'm rooting for her to get caught. She's grasping at straws to stay home and not marry--which she should know by fifteen, is her duty, as much as that sucks. And she's totally avoiding any forward planning past what hole in the damn she needs to plug next. One of these days, she's going to run out of fingers.
Her mother is happy to avoid the truth of what her daughter really is. Her brother is happy to have someone to sleep with who shares his tastes. Her new sister-in-law is happy to be out of her abusive childhood home and is grateful that she has Beatrice to run interference with her 'rough' new husband. Oh and did I mention that sixteen year old Beatrice has managed to get pregnant with her brother?
The whole not even realizing that getting married is bound to happen for a girl, to get shipped off and not inherit, seems kind of like avoiding the obvious for the sake of making the story work. She's also not ever once taken the fact she could get pregant into account with all her jumping to bed, at fifteen, with a commoner who lives in a shack down by the river, which would ruin her reputation to no end and what on earth would mama and papa say? Or what about when she sleeps with her brother? Nope, never once crosses her mind until the revelation that she knew she was pregnant for two months but was hiding it from herself--and us.
Now, onto the story thread that I'm most enjoying: the 'he's not dead yet' young lover. See, Beatrice is evil, but like most evil folks, doesn't check to make sure the person they tried to kill, is actually dead. Evil fail! Now she's terrified he's going to show up, maimed as he is, and tell the truth about who she plotted with him to kill her father. This aspect of the story, the terror of being found out, is done really well, full of heart-pounding, she's-going-to-be-found-out moments. The sad thing is, so far, only one other character is bright enough to suspect she's even hiding anything.
What I've learned so far:
1. Check to make sure your victim is dead! Not doing so only causes convienent plot points.
2. Being an evil character is fine, but being oblivious about common conventions in their own setting/world is not.
3. No amount of excellent description of characters and settting will hide the fact that the other characters are all going far too easy on the MC, easily explaining everything away that should be an anvil.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Oh, oh! Cut me!
Way to make your MC totally unsympathetic #1: Have him kill a guy in a jealous fit of rage. I'm talking totally losing his temper and just obliterating the guy. Over the top? Pretty much.
Not to say Zsmed didn't earn is fate just a little. He was rather disrespectful and went heavy on the insults. Still, there's a point where an anti-hero can be too much anti to be a hero anymore.
Mr. MC has always had a hard time walking that line, which led to quite a few of the casualties glaring up at me from the floor. Thankfully, Zsmed isn't one of them. One of the glaring ones, I mean.
When I informed him that he was getting cut, he jumped up and hugged me.
"You mean I don't have to suffer a horribly painful death?"
I put my editing knife down. "Nope, you're free to go."
"Wait, does the mean I don't get to sleep with Ms. MC?"
"Sorry. If you want to live, I'd caution against it."
Zsmed sighed. "Fun as it was, I'd much rather live. Off I go then, thanks!"
He even took out a few of the more ambitious looking Barthromians for me. He spends most of his time flirting with young Ms. Wildstar, who has no idea what to do with the attention of a thirty-something alien pilot other than blush and giggle.
That more recently cut assassin is looking guiltier every day. He's up to something. If only Zsmed was more of a fighter than a lover, I'd put him on the task of taking the assassin out.
I wonder who else I could rely on…
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