Back in January, I picked up a collection of YA vampire stories called Immortal: Love Stories With Bite. I admit it, I'm a sucker for vampire stories, and while not all the stories were fantastic, there were a lot of really good ones that make the anthology worthwhile.
Rachel Caine's short story "Dead Man Stalking" was one of my favorites out of the entire book, and while I wouldn't have called it a "love story" in the romantic sense, I think it explored a different kind of love, and I am so glad it was included. It was an introduction to Caine's series, The Morganville Vampires, which, I am sad to say, I may never have picked up otherwise. Here's another admission: the back blurb of a book matters to me. The title or cover might get me to pick up a book, but it's the back blurb that gets me to either buy it on the spot or look inside. The back of the first book, Glass Houses, never really grabbed my attention.
The short story? Grabbed me, hooked me, and dragged me back to Borders for more.
Luckily for me, the first two books were published in a 2-for-1 volume back in November, so I picked that up... and have flown through Book 1 in three days. Considering my normal method of reading is a chapter or two every morning, that's breakneck speed for me. I love the characters, I love the writing, I love the quirks and twists and turns and the way it keeps me on the edge of my seat. Caine isn't afraid to put her characters in danger and keep them there, and despite the main character being a 16-year-old brainiac in college, Claire hasn't struck me as a Mary Sue. Sure, she's super book-smart, but other than that, she's pretty much an ordinary girl who flounders in ordinary ways and finds herself in extraordinary circumstances.
I've just finished the first book, Glass Houses, and just started Book 2, The Dead Girls' Dance, about three hours ago... and am already six chapters in. It's not that I read that slow: it's that I have other things to do... or keep trying to do. And yet, I just keep picking the book back up, read another scene or two, try to put it down, and can't. I don't want to wait to know what happens next.
And that, I think, has to be the highest praise any book can ever hope to achieve.
I think there'll be another trip to Borders this week, and I will be grabbing as many of The Morganville Vampires series as they have.
Showing posts with label writers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writers. Show all posts
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Right to Write
One of my favorite writing exercises is pretty simple. I grab a book, flip to a page, and write down the first noun or verb I see. Repeat two more times. Then, write something using all three words. It's a good little exercise that can come up with some interesting results, especially if you do it shortly after getting up, before the Inner Critic and Editor have had their morning coffee.
Anyways, today the book I was using to find words was Novel Ideas: Fantasy, an anthology of short stories and novellas that eventually spurred the author on to full novels or series. I haven't read them all, having found it a fantastic source for my exercise and not wanting to know context for the words, but today, I flipped to the intro page of Orson Scott Card's story Lost Boys.* Well, the only Lost Boys I knew of involved Kiefer Sutherland in a pair fangs, so of course I had to read the intro... where Card described a night of storytelling at a university Halloween party where he decided to tell a ghost story that ended up with half the people present pissed off at him.
Long story short, Card decided to give personalizing a fictional story a try by telling it in first person as if it were fact and had happened to him, even to the point of using his own life and real names. He then added fictional characters and events, like his "eldest son" Scotty and the bodies in their crawlspace. When he later decided to write it as a short story and present it at a workshop, the other writers were furious. One even went as far as telling him he had no right to write a story about losing a son like that unless he actually had.
That got me thinking. Is there anything a writer doesn't have the right to write? It goes right back to that old stand-by of "Write what you know." But people tend to interpret that as, "you can only write your class, race, gender, and lifestyle." Which means people shouldn't write about different family set-ups, professions, or religions, either. Which, frankly, would make for a pretty bleak reading selection, particularly for a fantasy lover like me.
Instead, I prefer to think of it as having a deeper meaning. Humans were granted an amazing imagination, and we "know" a lot more than we give ourselves credit for. We all know the basic emotions: love, joy, anger, sadness, grief, desperation, fear, embarrassment, etc. Writers can take those emotion and extrapolate them into what their characters are feeling, and through their words, they can inspire their readers to feel those things, too. Imagination is a powerful thing.
Am I saying screw the research and just write whatever the heck you want? Not if you want it read by other people. Do the research, listen to people who have lived through something similar, pay attention, and then put that wonderful imagination to work.
So did Orson Scott Card have a right to write that short story from the first person? In my opinion, absolutely. As he wrote in his afterward, he may not have lost a child to death, but he knew intimately what it was like to have a child who couldn't really live the way all parents want their children to. The emotions in his story came from a very real place, and it resulted in a powerful story. That people would get outraged over the fact that he hadn't had a child die seems ridiculous to me. It's fiction - the truth is in the lies.
* This is the story that he later turned into the full-length book, Lost Boys: A Novel. Obviously, a lot changed, but the key idea seems to have stayed the same.
Anyways, today the book I was using to find words was Novel Ideas: Fantasy, an anthology of short stories and novellas that eventually spurred the author on to full novels or series. I haven't read them all, having found it a fantastic source for my exercise and not wanting to know context for the words, but today, I flipped to the intro page of Orson Scott Card's story Lost Boys.* Well, the only Lost Boys I knew of involved Kiefer Sutherland in a pair fangs, so of course I had to read the intro... where Card described a night of storytelling at a university Halloween party where he decided to tell a ghost story that ended up with half the people present pissed off at him.
Long story short, Card decided to give personalizing a fictional story a try by telling it in first person as if it were fact and had happened to him, even to the point of using his own life and real names. He then added fictional characters and events, like his "eldest son" Scotty and the bodies in their crawlspace. When he later decided to write it as a short story and present it at a workshop, the other writers were furious. One even went as far as telling him he had no right to write a story about losing a son like that unless he actually had.
That got me thinking. Is there anything a writer doesn't have the right to write? It goes right back to that old stand-by of "Write what you know." But people tend to interpret that as, "you can only write your class, race, gender, and lifestyle." Which means people shouldn't write about different family set-ups, professions, or religions, either. Which, frankly, would make for a pretty bleak reading selection, particularly for a fantasy lover like me.
Instead, I prefer to think of it as having a deeper meaning. Humans were granted an amazing imagination, and we "know" a lot more than we give ourselves credit for. We all know the basic emotions: love, joy, anger, sadness, grief, desperation, fear, embarrassment, etc. Writers can take those emotion and extrapolate them into what their characters are feeling, and through their words, they can inspire their readers to feel those things, too. Imagination is a powerful thing.
Am I saying screw the research and just write whatever the heck you want? Not if you want it read by other people. Do the research, listen to people who have lived through something similar, pay attention, and then put that wonderful imagination to work.
So did Orson Scott Card have a right to write that short story from the first person? In my opinion, absolutely. As he wrote in his afterward, he may not have lost a child to death, but he knew intimately what it was like to have a child who couldn't really live the way all parents want their children to. The emotions in his story came from a very real place, and it resulted in a powerful story. That people would get outraged over the fact that he hadn't had a child die seems ridiculous to me. It's fiction - the truth is in the lies.
* This is the story that he later turned into the full-length book, Lost Boys: A Novel. Obviously, a lot changed, but the key idea seems to have stayed the same.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Story Soundtracks, Anyone?
Last week, as I was idly browsing the thank-you gifts for each level at the NaNo Donation Station (because someday, I'll be able to afford to donate more than ten bucks), where the gifts range from everything from a nice shiny halo on the site to writing software to a taco voucher with the head of NaNo itself. The aforementioned software actually looked really cool. I mean, really cool. And if I had a Mac, I'd probably order it in a second (Scrivener, for those who are curious), but I am, indeed, a PC.
Then, I noticed that the folks who donate $2500 get a spot in Lani Diane Rich's "awesome online novel revision workshop." Well, I thought, if that's their big addition to the major donors, it's worth checking out!
You can look over her rather impressive credentials and the workshops for yourself. Me, I went straight to her blog... and it is there that I came across her idea of making novel soundtracks.
Now, the idea of using music with writing isn't a new one. I've used it for years to get me in the mood for a particular story. For this year's NaNo, I've been listening to Daughtry's Leave This Town over and over again. However, I'd never thought about making a soundtrack for my novels.
How cool is that? Gather together songs that make you think of certain characters or events in your novel and stick them all on a playlist, ready and waiting to inspire you and get you thinking about your novel even when you're not working on it. Maybe I'm just not used to making my own playlists, or maybe I'm just not that tech-minded, but the idea never occurred to me.
I can tell you now, though - next novel, I am definitely going to give this a try!
Then, I noticed that the folks who donate $2500 get a spot in Lani Diane Rich's "awesome online novel revision workshop." Well, I thought, if that's their big addition to the major donors, it's worth checking out!
You can look over her rather impressive credentials and the workshops for yourself. Me, I went straight to her blog... and it is there that I came across her idea of making novel soundtracks.
Now, the idea of using music with writing isn't a new one. I've used it for years to get me in the mood for a particular story. For this year's NaNo, I've been listening to Daughtry's Leave This Town over and over again. However, I'd never thought about making a soundtrack for my novels.
How cool is that? Gather together songs that make you think of certain characters or events in your novel and stick them all on a playlist, ready and waiting to inspire you and get you thinking about your novel even when you're not working on it. Maybe I'm just not used to making my own playlists, or maybe I'm just not that tech-minded, but the idea never occurred to me.
I can tell you now, though - next novel, I am definitely going to give this a try!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Well, Hello There, Melanthe!
Has this ever happened to you: A character shows up out of the blue one day, plunks down across from your laptop, orders a French Vanilla Latte, then looks you square in the eye and says, "Hi. I'll be showing up in your story soon, and no, my name is not negotiable."
It's one of those fun little surprises that tend to spring out at you during the course of a story (along with the "wow, did I seriously just write that? I might have a knack for this after all!" and "hm, things are going kind of slow- oh, hey, so-and-so just set the house on fire! That'll move things along!" moments). They're particularly fond of showing up during NaNo, when you're plowing through your novel at breakneck speeds, with no time to sit around and ponder the writerly way of things. More importantly, you don't have time to argue with those stubborn characters who refuse to budge until you let them have their way.
Well, Melanthe is one of those.
I knew she was coming. I start out with a Big List of What Must Happen - bullet points, if you will, with the hows of getting from point to point left to the passion of the muse and the joy of the moment and whatnot - so I knew her character was coming. I even had a vague feeling of dread about it, that inkling that she was going to pick a name I wasn't going to like, but I figured, "Hey, I've got a good week or two! I can talk her into a new name!"
Nope. Melanthe.
Sometimes, naming a character can be hard. It can involve hours pouring through baby name books or, if you've joined the 21st century, sites like Behind the Name, looking for that perfect name that just slips onto your waiting character like a favorite t-shirt. But there's something enjoyable about it, about finding the perfect name with the right sound that fits your character in personality and sound, not to mention the world the story takes place in. Which, I suppose, is where I have a problem with "Melanthe." It's just not a name you'd run into where the story takes place.
Never mind the pronunciation problems. "Mel-AN-thee. Like Melanie, with a TH."
She's actually the second character in the story to have creative differences with me over their name. In the other one's case, he's gradually getting used to the one I picked for him. Melanthe? Won't even consider changing.
Ah, well. Sometimes, you just can't fight it. And sometimes, you just have to get through the story and use the find and replace function later. :D
It's one of those fun little surprises that tend to spring out at you during the course of a story (along with the "wow, did I seriously just write that? I might have a knack for this after all!" and "hm, things are going kind of slow- oh, hey, so-and-so just set the house on fire! That'll move things along!" moments). They're particularly fond of showing up during NaNo, when you're plowing through your novel at breakneck speeds, with no time to sit around and ponder the writerly way of things. More importantly, you don't have time to argue with those stubborn characters who refuse to budge until you let them have their way.
Well, Melanthe is one of those.
I knew she was coming. I start out with a Big List of What Must Happen - bullet points, if you will, with the hows of getting from point to point left to the passion of the muse and the joy of the moment and whatnot - so I knew her character was coming. I even had a vague feeling of dread about it, that inkling that she was going to pick a name I wasn't going to like, but I figured, "Hey, I've got a good week or two! I can talk her into a new name!"
Nope. Melanthe.
Sometimes, naming a character can be hard. It can involve hours pouring through baby name books or, if you've joined the 21st century, sites like Behind the Name, looking for that perfect name that just slips onto your waiting character like a favorite t-shirt. But there's something enjoyable about it, about finding the perfect name with the right sound that fits your character in personality and sound, not to mention the world the story takes place in. Which, I suppose, is where I have a problem with "Melanthe." It's just not a name you'd run into where the story takes place.
Never mind the pronunciation problems. "Mel-AN-thee. Like Melanie, with a TH."
She's actually the second character in the story to have creative differences with me over their name. In the other one's case, he's gradually getting used to the one I picked for him. Melanthe? Won't even consider changing.
Ah, well. Sometimes, you just can't fight it. And sometimes, you just have to get through the story and use the find and replace function later. :D
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