Archive for » August, 2008 «
I’ve convinced myself I’ve opened Pandora’s Box with Diamond Crier. I’ve given myself all the room in the world to work with this story. Personally, I prefer confines. It gives me set walls in which to work. Without them the inundation of ideas can be overwhelming and counterproductive to my writing since the influx keeps coming and the story keeps changing. It makes my wrist cry.
I am trying desperately to get this story written. Right now I don’t know if I’m going to stop after this arc finishes and wait to edit or write through to the original ending that’s been pushed back by the addition of this arc and edit then. On top of that, the land of South Fair is ever niggling at the back of my mind and I so want to explore that region, perhaps shove Sabina into it once this main Diamond Crier story ends.
The ability to keep my mind focused on this one story and not let it wander into other sections of the world is proving to be a little difficult but I’m soldiering on, taking notes so I don’t forget anything and will come back to it all. I’m starting to consign to the fact that Diamond Crier might not be my first novel per se, at least not on query considering all the changes it’s going through and all the different stories I’m pulling from it. The editing is going to be extensive and at this point, I don’t see it being the first on the query boat because of the complexity of the world. I really do believe I’ll finish other novels first before this one’s good to go.
I wanted Diamond Crier to be my first on submission but I also want it to be perfect and not rushed. It doesn’t deserve to get released until it’s rightly finished and since the other stories are much more confined in terms of the world they’re in, they’ll probably come before this one.
With that being said, I’m seriously considering doing NaNo this year and I think I’m going to be pumping out the Earth Shatterer story for that one. It’s a fun story that I think I can crank out just to prove to myself that I can write 55,000 words in a month. I’ll put my head through a wall when it comes to typing in but the words will be written, won’t they?
I’m still aiming to finish Diamond Crier by the time I go on vacation in the first week of October. It’ll require some strict concentration on my part but I think I can do it. That would be the first arc only, though. I can do that but I don’t think I can crank out what would be a whole ‘nother novel on top of it in a couple weeks. I would like use of my hands and everything. Always a plus.
I don’t think I can drive the point home long or hard enough to read agent and editor blogs if you’re considering publishing mainstream. It’s insight into the publishing work that in years past only those privy to the world to begin with would have known. Thanks to the internet, publishing insiders are sharing what makes it all tick and if you find the right read (not some jaded schmuck that continually posts on the corruption and capitalism in the publishing industry), the information gleaned will be invaluable.
Kristin Nelson posted back in March about a conversation she had with an editor friend of hers about tired fantasy themes that she’s come across. They’d both know since they’re privy to the wonders of the slush pile, not to mention actual, bonafide submissions that we might never see so who better to talk about inundation than those on the receiving end of the flood?
Now my definition of tired is that these people are seeing the same product wrapped in hardly different packaging over and over and over again, thus giving the general theme itself a pretty sour flavor to taste. Sucks for those chosen ones and amulets of doom/saving grace but when people think changing the scenery of one of these tales is enough to make it different, I don’t blame the workers for being tired with them. I’m not a big fan of redundancies either.
Of course, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, nothing is tired if you can jazz it up enough to make it stand out from the crowd. There are a lot of quest stories and amulet searching stories and chosen one stories out there. They’re all on a quest to find an amulet that only they can use to save the world. There’ll be some bumps in the road, maybe some pirates or highway robbers. There’ll be moments of self doubt for the hero or heroine, perhaps a love interest and throw in a couple dragons and a pixie in there for good measure. The way I see it, this editor has gotten to a point with these themes where she’s read one story, she’s read them all.
The New York Times put out a pretty popular article debating whether or not reading online can actually constitute reading. Well, reading is reading, isn’t it? I obviously read that article online. Does it mean that it wasn’t “worthwhile” or up to par with those that think learning can only come from “good books”? Does the fact that more and more people turn to the internet to get their news mean they’re somehow dumber than those that get print ink on their fingers? Or is the only way to really learn is to feel the weight of a book in your hands?
Of course, the article focuses on sites like fanfiction.net to counter the “reading is reading” argument, of which many stories make the English language twitch at how it’s portrayed. Yeah, you’re sitting on your butt in front of a computer for hours reading stream-of-consciousness Mary Sue-isms. But you’re reading. A lot of what’s written on sites like fanfiction.net are not grammatically correct but neither are most people when they speak. Does it mean we should all walk around talking in a stilted language in order to prove that we’re not lacking in gray matter? I read stories on fanfiction.net. Does it mean my test scores might suffer?
I didn’t grow up with the internet. I had a slew of books at my disposal and still do. Too many to fit on the shelves that are way too small for them. I love books and nothing beats curling up on the couch and reading. Can’t do that with a laptop. But lets face it, Nora Roberts isn’t exactly John Steinbeck, now is she? Is her work somehow better than a piece online because it’s in tangible, sniffable book form? Is it not possible to find work that’s just as good online as you can buy in a brick and mortar store? Maybe even better?
I think the problem a lot of people have with internet reading is that it’s completely unadulterated (well, most of it). It doesn’t see the eyes of an editor and is printed in all it’s flawed glory. I think people fear that, because that’s what people are reading instead of the finely tuned scripts that are chosen and bound by publishers, that younger generations are going to lack the intelligence and reading and writing comprehension because their learning from sources that they “shouldn’t” be learning from. How dare we let those young ‘uns out into the world to learn for themselves, right?
Oh my god, so much fun. Too much to publish on the internet! I love my Lost Boys and the times we have and the new friends that I make (and the alcohol I drink and so on and so forth). I’m really not a big horror convention person. I don’t really go there to shop (I bought a key chain, a photo of the Boys from the movie and a Teddy Scares kit) like the diehards do and I’m not big on autographs (I only have autographs from guys from The Lost Boys since those are really the only ones I think are worth getting). I just go to have fun and see my friends that I see pretty much once a year (not necessarily at conventions). The weekend was a blast and I’m still trying to recover from it. Yesterday’s 4 hour drive and change drive home was interesting. It’s a serious break from my normal routine because I rarely party like that but when I do, I live it up! Why not?
Of course my effing hip decided to give out on me when the night was young on Saturday which pissed me the hell off. We were walking up the stairs (the elevators were pointless a lot of the time, they were so overused and delayed) and I went from no pain to OMG don’t make me take another step. Didn’t tell anyone but by the time we got up to one of the rooms, I was fighting the tears and trying not to show a limp. It was probably a half hour after that that I excused myself to go back to my room and deal with the problem. Of course I ran into two of my good friends that had left for a moment (also a couple of the celebrities at the convention) that had never seen me like that (by the time I got to the elevator, which was 10 feet outside the door, it was pretty obvious that I was really trying not to cry) and they both freaked.
I reassured them I’d be OK and that I’d be back up in a half hour. I gimped back to my room, had a good cry not only at the pain but at the sheer frustration that I’m 25 and have to explain to people that yes, I do throw my hips out (not to mention I’m 25 with the joint problems of a 60 year old, thanks gymnastics!), popped a couple Aleve (I won’t do anything stronger simply because it doesn’t get rid of the pain, just makes me see vapor trails) and waited for the blotchy crying to subside. Once it did, I redid my face and went down to the bar first. Of course, it was 2:30 in the morning and it was closed. Dammit. So I went back to the party. One friend was there and was happy to see me and made sure I was ok. Just so happens he was with some girls that had a stash of alcohol. Yay! Got me some and left only to run into friend number two that had actually come looking for me and I brought him back to that room for more alcohol. Party on!
I still consider myself very new to the whole fantasy genre and even newbier to the young adult world since it just sprang itself upon me one day. With that being said, I am blissfully unaware of overused cliches in both genres and ignorant of them all at the same time. I don’t risk too much “influencing” at this point since I haven’t read much of either. No chance of subconscious story inserting there. But I also don’t really know the trends of the market, what’s been seen too many times and what I should spin to make it original. When I say, ‘of course I think my work is original, I haven’t read anything like it,’ well duh. I haven’t because I don’t even need to broach the toes to count the novels I have.
So, when I read the young adult top 25 list of overused cliches, I was pretty much free and clear until I got to number two: best friends with red hair. Figures, right? I can’t do one of the lesser used cliches, I need to go for the big guns right off the bat. Of course it was purely coincidental but I certainly did a *headdesk* when I saw that. Although I think I might have violated number twenty-three: a token black friend amongst a group of white friends, usually female. While my South Fair guy is, well, a guy, I never thought of him as the “token” black guy, especially with other cultures already made known in the story. The thing is, with how malleable my story is already (the red-head has already been shunted into secondary character land pre-post), I wouldn’t be surprised if it morphed again (and again, and again . . .).
Of course, it can’t be said that any of those listed elements are particularly bad and will render your story automatically rejected, they’re just predominant and should you use one of those elements, make sure to put a nice little topsy turvey spin on it to make it stand out from the crowd. Considering Kristin’s post is relatively recent (not backlogged for two years like the rest I’ve been referencing), I want to say it’s still relevant to today’s market and it’s just something to be aware of.
It’s like with vampires; it’s not that no one wants to see any more blood-suckers in novels, it’s just that the character’s been rubbed raw from redundant overuse and it’s going to take a mighty spark of originality to get any interest in it.
The bottom line is to write whatever it is you want to write. Writing for the market is always a bad thing, especially with how quickly it can change. But being aware of the pitfalls and pot holes on the path to landing an agent (or publisher) are always good things to know.
