And what a day it will have to be.
Another lackluster day. Only 500 words, leaving me 2800 to get before month's end. Which is one day. Mind, my current record is only 2600, and that was for an "inspired" scene I pounded out in 4 hours. Looks like an all-nighter for me tomorrow. At least I'm taking the weekend off.
Today was torpedoed by my orthodontist appointment this morning (verdict: yes, I need braces, and yes, it's going to cost a crapton of money) followed by a meeting as soon as I got to work, followed by lunch. By this afternoon, all sense of motivation was shot. And then, despite my best intentions, I got drawn into chatting this evening (you know who you are, culprits! *g*). But in my defense, the scene I'm working on is delicate and slow. So I did work for over 2 hours, it just wasn't a lot of wordage.
Anyway, to bed with me.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Face-Lift 452
The query is up on Evil Editor as "Face-Lift 452".
See it HERE.
Not the glowing response I so naively dreamed of, *w* but he raises valid points. Some of the stuff I cut out, he asks about. Go figure.
I'll see what the Minions say, let it simmer, and have another go. I've got time yet before I actually submit.
See it HERE.
Not the glowing response I so naively dreamed of, *w* but he raises valid points. Some of the stuff I cut out, he asks about. Go figure.
I'll see what the Minions say, let it simmer, and have another go. I've got time yet before I actually submit.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
New Beginning 351
It's up! My opening is "New Beginning 351" on Evil Editor's blog.
Check it out HERE.
AHAHAHA the continuation...priceless. And not far off the mark.
So far, a good response to the writing itself. A couple useful comments, that I will probably implement, and a generally positive reception. So yay!
I expect the query within the next day or so. We'll see how that goes over. *crosses fingers*
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
2 days and...
Apparently, I am more dependent on my writing time at work than I realized. Only 571 words tonight, going at it hammer-and-tongs since the baby went to sleep. I needed 1300. SO that leaves me 2K to get tomorrow.
I mean, I *could* try to stay up for another hour or two and pound them out. But I feel the tiredness creeping in, and that usually means my writing slows down. And then I'd be exhausted tomorrow, too, and slower on output. So as long as I get myself on to bed, I think I can push for the 2K later.
I'm in the middle of a scene that should be easy enough to finish tomorrow. And I'm hot on the trail of my mystery soldier. I think once I know who he is, a lot of other scenes will click.
Oh, and Book 2, which I have been largely ignoring save for jotting down a general plot brainstorm and one scene, already has a title. I think it's going to be One Highland Wife. (Assuming this one stays One Highland Night, which I am growing rather attached to.)
I think my stuff should be up on Evil Editor tomorrow. I'll post links here once they are up. Feel free to leave positive comments over there, if the Minions are being too brutal. *w*
Oidhche mhath.
I mean, I *could* try to stay up for another hour or two and pound them out. But I feel the tiredness creeping in, and that usually means my writing slows down. And then I'd be exhausted tomorrow, too, and slower on output. So as long as I get myself on to bed, I think I can push for the 2K later.
I'm in the middle of a scene that should be easy enough to finish tomorrow. And I'm hot on the trail of my mystery soldier. I think once I know who he is, a lot of other scenes will click.
Oh, and Book 2, which I have been largely ignoring save for jotting down a general plot brainstorm and one scene, already has a title. I think it's going to be One Highland Wife. (Assuming this one stays One Highland Night, which I am growing rather attached to.)
I think my stuff should be up on Evil Editor tomorrow. I'll post links here once they are up. Feel free to leave positive comments over there, if the Minions are being too brutal. *w*
Oidhche mhath.
Wikijag
I didn't get anything written at work today. Not as much free time, and also too tired (on the day after I actually got enough sleep, go figure). But I was also lacking in direction, as the 20+ pages of continous narrative I've been working on kinda petered out, and I'm not "seeing" the rest of that plot clearly just yet.
FTR, that's now my biggest "chunk" yet at just over 5200 words, supplanting the former recordholder, "Scene Zero" - the handfasting - which is about 4700. Not counting chapters 1-6, which are contiguous but split into discreet units of ~3500 words each.
Another thing I've not been "seeing" clearly that I needed to come to grips with was the presence and involvement of English soldiers in the barracks at Kilchurn. Breadalbane had the barracks built specifically to house an English garrison, but Ft. William stole most of his thunder. However, troops were stationed there from time to time.
I have had fleeting glimpses of soldiers involved in the goings-on at Kilchurn, and I think figuring out who they are/what they're up to will help me knit together a lot of the remaining chunks. It will un-stall my progress in chapters 7-8, for one, and I'll be rolling along consolidating several other big chunks of story that will comprise pretty much the entire first half of the book. Exciting!
So, to that end, I've been on a nice wikijag through articles about the British military and its organization, most of the articles modern but containing some fun tidbits thrown in from the seventeenth century. I have a very strong feeling that a fairly important secondary character (a Lieutenant, whether over his own platoon or SIC of an entire company) is lurking just out of sight, and if I can drag him into the light and find out who he is it will go a long way in helping me finish this thing.
Hmmm...
Eep!!!
My opening has disappeared from the "waiting" list...it should go up on EE's blog soon. He promised to actually comment on the new openings himself. I don't want to be trashed, but at the same time I'm not 100% satisfied with it and I am looking for some comments/ideas.
I guess we'll see how I feel once the Minions get ahold of it. *g*
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
3 days and counting...
I stayed up way too late last night. Already I feel myself flagging, and I have a bit of work left to accomplish at the day job. But! The good news: I got almost 1200 words today at work. Another all-too-rare slow morning, and I am not complaining. Since my daily target was 1250, I'm going to call that good and turn in early tonight.
Now, if a scene is knocking around in my head by my usual writing time tonight, I'm not going to ignore it. But other than that, I'm not going to "force" myself to stay up and try to write. Even if it would be nice to get ahead for a change.
4 more days and counting...
Eh, so much for my "four mewses" theory - tonight has not been as productive as I hoped. I got so much done at work today (1300 words!), I had visions of knocking out another 1000 words or so tonight and even getting in bed fairly early (which for me is midnight). As it was, I scraped my way to 500 more for a total of almost 2K. None too shabby.
And I have broken the mystical 75K at last. If I can keep this pace up for the rest of the week - 4 more days - and average 1250 a day, I'll squeak by my goal.
My rough plot for act two (Elspeth's kidnapping and aftermath through the prelude to Glencoe), after its brainstorming birth in chat last Friday, passed muster with DH and Claire, and now I'm rolling right along working on it.
That, I think, was the last piece of the puzzle; once I decided on this course of action things were suddenly looking up and I'm getting jazzed. I still have a lot to write, but I know everything that entails. I feel caught up in a current, just barely pulled along at the moment but with the sense it will get stronger. Returning to the doldrums analogy, I feel the breeze and expect to be three sheets to the wind (not that way!) within a week or two. Here's hoping!
And I have broken the mystical 75K at last. If I can keep this pace up for the rest of the week - 4 more days - and average 1250 a day, I'll squeak by my goal.
My rough plot for act two (Elspeth's kidnapping and aftermath through the prelude to Glencoe), after its brainstorming birth in chat last Friday, passed muster with DH and Claire, and now I'm rolling right along working on it.
That, I think, was the last piece of the puzzle; once I decided on this course of action things were suddenly looking up and I'm getting jazzed. I still have a lot to write, but I know everything that entails. I feel caught up in a current, just barely pulled along at the moment but with the sense it will get stronger. Returning to the doldrums analogy, I feel the breeze and expect to be three sheets to the wind (not that way!) within a week or two. Here's hoping!
Monday, August 27, 2007
The four mewses
We have four cats. How that came to be is a tale of much woe (if you're my husband). But for me--a certified "cat lady"--it's a way of life. I've come to consider them my "mewses".
Here's a glimpse of my writing space. I write at my laptop on our generally unused dining room table, in a rickety old wooden chair that is not ergonomically designed. But after a year of doing so, it's become my "space" and I think well here. At least, until my neck starts hurting.
When all four cats congregate on the table, for some reason I have an easier time writing. I don't know why. Looks like tonight's going to be a good night.
Clockwise from bottom left: Smokie, Dak, Cali, Shadow
Here's a glimpse of my writing space. I write at my laptop on our generally unused dining room table, in a rickety old wooden chair that is not ergonomically designed. But after a year of doing so, it's become my "space" and I think well here. At least, until my neck starts hurting.
When all four cats congregate on the table, for some reason I have an easier time writing. I don't know why. Looks like tonight's going to be a good night.
Clockwise from bottom left: Smokie, Dak, Cali, Shadow
From the SIP (scene-in-progress)
This made me chuckle. It's farther down in the scene I'm currently working on, a longer bit of which I included in last night's post.
From One Highland Night (c) 2007
"We need to…flush the wound. I don't know where that dirk has been."
"A dirk was it? Remind me to ask ye about that later. Flush it with what?"
"The whisky," she said, wincing in anticipation.
He grinned unexpectedly. "Oh, aye, I've heard some men rinse their wounds with the uisgebaugh. They've got bigger stones than me, though."
"You're not being very encouraging." She glowered at him and started to pass the whisky. "On second thought, here—" She knocked back one last searing, fortifying mouthful. "Use the rest for my arm."
Sunday status
Well, nowhere near the 3K I'd hoped for, but honestly I didn't expect to get it after I overslept this morning (that's what I get for staying up till 5 am!) and missed my first writing window. I had to wait until I got home, and even on a long night my record is 2600 words. I don't want to get back into the cycle of exhaustion that held me back last week, so even though I'm still awake and could probably continue to write, I'm going to bed now.
I did manage a respectable 1100 words, and I'm actually really pleased with the scene. I finished up with a couple paragraphs of notes that should keep me moving through the rest of this arc tomorrow. 7K in 5 days. Not impossible.
Following Jen's most excellent example, I'll probably post snips from what I work on each night as a way to share my progress and keep me motivated. Here's tonight's (it's kinda long):
From One Highland Night (c) 2007
I did manage a respectable 1100 words, and I'm actually really pleased with the scene. I finished up with a couple paragraphs of notes that should keep me moving through the rest of this arc tomorrow. 7K in 5 days. Not impossible.
Following Jen's most excellent example, I'll probably post snips from what I work on each night as a way to share my progress and keep me motivated. Here's tonight's (it's kinda long):
From One Highland Night (c) 2007
Another step, and the crystal brightened. She must be near the point of confluence. Just walk forward, and the portal would, presumably, open. She could leave certain danger behind, and the heartache she knew would come when Alec eventually wed wee Janet Cameron. She could go home.
Home. Home meant safety, the comfort of the familiar. Seeing her brother again, her cat…even her father. This place, this time—they were not her own. But home meant loneliness, too. The pain of abandonment. That is, if the wormhole even returned her there. The possibility existed that she'd end up in another place and time altogether. Or…nowhere.
She looked to Alec, torn. He fought two soldiers, plaid swinging and sword flashing. Sparks flew as his blade met those of his opponents, clash after clash. It startled her; she'd thought that a special effects gimmick in the movies. This was no gimmick. The gentleness and humor she loved about him were gone from his face, replaced by a fierce scowl of concentration. He was every inch the Highland warrior. He'd risked himself, his friends, and retribution against his clan to rescue her. In Glasgow, he'd taken her to see Isaac Newton. And before all that he'd found a place for her within his clan, who had—slowly, to be sure, and with much coaxing—accepted her.
Go or stay? The men fought, the sun rose, and every second wasted brought them closer to certain capture, but still she hestitated.
And then she saw him. Half in shadow, one of Campbell's men slunk toward Alec from behind. His knife gleamed dully in the increasing light of dawn. Alec remained occupied with the soldiers at his front, new ones come to replace their fallen colleagues.
Going unnoticed was no longer an option. She stepped away from the wall and shouted, "Alec! Behind you!"
But he did not hear her. The Campbell crept closer. Her choice was made.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
One of my daily feeds
One of my daily feeds is from HowStuffWorks.com - yeah, I'm a nerd like that. (If you have been reading this blog regularly and hadn't figured that out yet, well...)
Anyway, I logged on to my Google homepage this evening and saw my new feed:
How Time-Travel Will Work
and I thought I would share. *g* The picture on the first page of the article is really nice. Think of the top layer as Alec's time, and the bottom layer as Elspeth's, and the wormhole runs between the two at the Point of Confluence. Except the gap between the layers is infinitesimally small, so that the two timelines effectively exist one on top of the other. Still, the only way to travel between them is through the wormhole, and that is only energetically stable in the presence of an exotic material like, oh say...an allotropic form of diamond found in meteorites that happens to have higher-dimensional resonance. Or somesuch. *w*
Anyway, I logged on to my Google homepage this evening and saw my new feed:
How Time-Travel Will Work
and I thought I would share. *g* The picture on the first page of the article is really nice. Think of the top layer as Alec's time, and the bottom layer as Elspeth's, and the wormhole runs between the two at the Point of Confluence. Except the gap between the layers is infinitesimally small, so that the two timelines effectively exist one on top of the other. Still, the only way to travel between them is through the wormhole, and that is only energetically stable in the presence of an exotic material like, oh say...an allotropic form of diamond found in meteorites that happens to have higher-dimensional resonance. Or somesuch. *w*
The Doldrums
I've spent the latter part of this week stuck in what I call "the doldrums." The real doldrums are the regions of little-to-no winds on the oceans that would strand sailors. Think of the scene in Master & Commander where they're stuck on the ship in the baking heat, unable to make progress.
For me this stagnation came as a result of realizing how far I'd come (almost 3/4 of the way done!) and realizing how far yet I had to go. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it was like those dreams where you're running and running and don't ever go anywhere. I felt like I wasn't drawing any closer to the end. If I could just get a little bit farther, the manic energy as the story coalesces would carry me to the end. Just a little bit farther...
Added to that, the workload at my day job has ramped up, leaving me drained, and then staying up late trying to press onwards compounded the problem.
I am happy to report, however, that after a few helpful brainstorming sessions (thanks, girls!) and catching up on my sleep, the first stirrings of breeze are fluttering my sails. Managed 2400 words last night - but I cut 400 from an old scene I was reworking, so I'm only 2K to the good - and I feel energized and hopeful for today.
Mini-goal is 75K by tonight. That's 3K(!) from where I am at the moment, but we'll see what I can do. If I pull that off, or even get close, the end-month goal of 80K isn't out of reach just yet. Then I'll probably take Labor Day weekend off to recover, and ready myself for the final push. Hopefully by that point the winds will pick back up and carry me to the finish line.
I already have my personal reward planned: DH gave me a certificate for a massage for our anniversary, and I haven't used it yet. I also cashed in 10-years'-worth (seriously!) of points I'd been stockpiling from MyPoints.com for $300 worth of gift certificates to Sears, JC Penney, and Old Navy. I'm planning a day at the spa and shopping spree. Definitely something to work towards!
Onward...
For me this stagnation came as a result of realizing how far I'd come (almost 3/4 of the way done!) and realizing how far yet I had to go. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it was like those dreams where you're running and running and don't ever go anywhere. I felt like I wasn't drawing any closer to the end. If I could just get a little bit farther, the manic energy as the story coalesces would carry me to the end. Just a little bit farther...
Added to that, the workload at my day job has ramped up, leaving me drained, and then staying up late trying to press onwards compounded the problem.
I am happy to report, however, that after a few helpful brainstorming sessions (thanks, girls!) and catching up on my sleep, the first stirrings of breeze are fluttering my sails. Managed 2400 words last night - but I cut 400 from an old scene I was reworking, so I'm only 2K to the good - and I feel energized and hopeful for today.
Mini-goal is 75K by tonight. That's 3K(!) from where I am at the moment, but we'll see what I can do. If I pull that off, or even get close, the end-month goal of 80K isn't out of reach just yet. Then I'll probably take Labor Day weekend off to recover, and ready myself for the final push. Hopefully by that point the winds will pick back up and carry me to the finish line.
I already have my personal reward planned: DH gave me a certificate for a massage for our anniversary, and I haven't used it yet. I also cashed in 10-years'-worth (seriously!) of points I'd been stockpiling from MyPoints.com for $300 worth of gift certificates to Sears, JC Penney, and Old Navy. I'm planning a day at the spa and shopping spree. Definitely something to work towards!
Onward...
Friday, August 24, 2007
For Good or Ill...
I was going to wait until I finished the first draft for this, but Evil Editor posted a petition (yay, alliteration! heehee) for both openings and queries. So -gulp- I sent him both.
At least I have a title to go on them now.
We'll see what the minions have to say. I'll post links when they go up.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Best intentions...
I know I said the other was the last post, but I've been doing a lot of soul-searching and research, and THIS is really it. Then back to writing topics, and new blog layout! (I hit a snag with the widgets - one of my test blogs is fully outfitted and I thought copying the template over would bring all the widgets to this one, too, but no. So once I get the time to re-outfit the widgets on this blog it'll be up and running. BTW - isn't "widget" a great word?)
Anyway, I found this great article on "Mary Sues" and just had to share a line from comment string:
There is a lot of Mary Sue to be found in popular literature. You mentioned Gabaldon, and I find her Jaime [sic] character to be a prime example.
Ahaha, well...at least I'm in good company. *w*
Actually the comment string has a lot of good discussion. I highly recommend reading all of it. Continuing in the same comment from above:
Ayla, from Clan of the Cave Bear, is another. These stories are popular, and they work, because of depth. You take the Holy Trinity of character, plot, and style, and if you have the other two working for you, it doesn't matter if your character is a little bit over the top. It helps if the character has depth as well.Mary Sue can have her beauty and her speshul powers, as long as she reacts and behaves in ordinary, realistic ways. She has to be troubled by her setbacks, she has to make mistakes, and she has to have realistic flaws to counterbalance her gifts.
Another thing about Mary Sue is context, and I mean perhaps genre, as well. [...] In fantasy, or romance, readers want wish-fulfillment, and since that is the essence of Mary Sue, she works better there.
And this, from the author of the article:
...don't mistake a hero for Mary Sue.Mary Sue is just always perfect, never makes a real mistake, she never shifts from the center of everything. A hero makes mistakes and learns, is not always the center of everyone else's thoughts, earns every step of his or her rise. [...]
I think the key is that Mary Sue never changes because she starts perfect and ends up perfect. She doesn't have to evolve, she just collects powers and posses. Conflict sort of bends around her. Her strength is that she makes a great wish-fulfillment story lead.
You may have a lovely main character, and she may have brains and wit and skill, but if she makes mistakes and changes and learns and risks, she's not a Mary Sue. She's a hero.
Seriously, my ultimate conclusion is this: I admit that when I started writing this romance novel, I thought it would be fun to have a character like me. From the (many, many) articles I've read on the topic, it's common for first-time writers, and I'll own it. (I maintain she chose the name Elspeth vs. me giving it to her, however. And I think it's telling to note that since she laid claim to it a little over a year ago, I have ceased using it for myself. That's her name, now.)
Now, 70+K words in, she has expanded beyond the very basic framework I set her up with at the beginning and become her own person. I'm not just projecting myself into a slightly modified/enhanced container. As for the "perfection" aspects of Mary Sues...sure, she's intelligent and a blackbelt. She's pretty - in a normal way - and she attracts the attention and love of a desireable character (Alec). But not everyone likes her - right away or at all - and things don't fall into her lap. She's not perfect, and she goes through a lot before she ends up with the man she loves (some her fault and some out of her control), she screws up a few times, and over the course of that she grows and changes.
But I have also changed as a writer. I'm aware of the phenomenon now, and I'm on my guard. Elspeth will retain some similarities to me, those that are integral to her character or to the story. But we also have our differences, and when a question comes up about her I won't default to filling in the blank with my life or personality - I'll really think about why I'm adding that detail, and if it's true to her. And I'll cull the bits of "author insertion" extant in the MS to date. I still feel confident in my ability to characterize, because Elspeth isn't the only original character in the book (as opposed to lots of fanfic, where there are canon characters and one new character - often a Mary Sue) and a great many of the other characters have taken on life without being based on me at all. Yet it was still I who wrote them, and in some way they're all refractions of my experiences as Beth described in her post.
If I write more books (and ideas for #2 are starting to trickle in) the female MCs look to be Mairi NicDonald (nee NicGregor) and Andrea "Andi" Duluth (Elspeth's modern friend). These are characters that "mushroomed" into the current story, and took on enough life to warrant further stories of their own. Will those stories be inherently better because I didn't set the MCs up with similarities to myself, the author? Or is it possible that Elspeth is strong enough to stand on her own, apart from me, and will be an accessible character despite her beginnings? I intend the latter.
And that is my final word on the subject.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The TTWND du jour
(TTWND = Topic That Will Not Die)
Bear with me folks. Once I work through this I'll talk about something else again soon. I promise.
I went back over the second test and this time removed stuff that I could cut from Elspeth and not affect her character but that was contributing to the "Mary Sue" score. I also pulled stuff that was skewing the results.
I.e. the question "Are one or more other characters attracted to her/him?" should be a moot point, since I'm writing a romance novel. Kind of hard to have a romance if the love interest isn't attracted to the character. "Has the character ever been nursed back to health from serious injuries by a warm, kind, and loving person? Was this person the character's love interest?" She is nursed back to health by Alec after she falls in the loch, and yes - that's her love interest. "Does the character sacrifice her/himself for love?" Yeah, that's kind of central to the plot, after all. But I don't think having these things is all that outside for a romance novel.
Ultimately, a lot of these tests were designed to cull author-insertion Mary Sue characters out of fanfic involving canon characters, and are designed accordingly. However, they can be used for original fiction. Maybe I'm just making excuses for myself, in saying "yeah, but that shouldn't count because..." but I am at least being honest that I'm adding a lot of my life into hers. Shouldn't be that hard to change, since it's not integral to her personality. I'll let her pick from now on.
I'm still torn over the job thing, though. Which do you guys think is worse?
Character has unique profession, but it also happens to be the author's,
OR
Character has different profession than author, but it is a profession that other characters in the same subgenre often have.
Bear with me folks. Once I work through this I'll talk about something else again soon. I promise.
I went back over the second test and this time removed stuff that I could cut from Elspeth and not affect her character but that was contributing to the "Mary Sue" score. I also pulled stuff that was skewing the results.
I.e. the question "Are one or more other characters attracted to her/him?" should be a moot point, since I'm writing a romance novel. Kind of hard to have a romance if the love interest isn't attracted to the character. "Has the character ever been nursed back to health from serious injuries by a warm, kind, and loving person? Was this person the character's love interest?" She is nursed back to health by Alec after she falls in the loch, and yes - that's her love interest. "Does the character sacrifice her/himself for love?" Yeah, that's kind of central to the plot, after all. But I don't think having these things is all that outside for a romance novel.
Ultimately, a lot of these tests were designed to cull author-insertion Mary Sue characters out of fanfic involving canon characters, and are designed accordingly. However, they can be used for original fiction. Maybe I'm just making excuses for myself, in saying "yeah, but that shouldn't count because..." but I am at least being honest that I'm adding a lot of my life into hers. Shouldn't be that hard to change, since it's not integral to her personality. I'll let her pick from now on.
I'm still torn over the job thing, though. Which do you guys think is worse?
Character has unique profession, but it also happens to be the author's,
OR
Character has different profession than author, but it is a profession that other characters in the same subgenre often have.
Mary Sue update
Precie was kind enough to supply me with "Mary Sue test" links in the comments on that post. (Thanks, Precie!) Here are the results:
From this test:
Elspeth is suspiciously similar to you as you'd like to be. She is not at all cool; in fact, she thinks cool is a temperature reading, and when she says "Oh, I just put on whatever old thing's lying around," she means "on the floor, where I threw it last night - but I turned the underwear inside out first." She may have sometimes thought that she was special, or destined for greater things, but probably dismissed the idea as a fantasy. She's got no emotional scars to speak of. And you've been sparing with the free handouts: whatever she gains, she's worked for.
In general, you care deeply about Elspeth, but you're smart enough to let her stand on her own, without burdening her with your personal fantasies or propping her up with idealization and over-dramatization. Elspeth is a healthy character with a promising career ahead of her.
In general, you care deeply about Elspeth, but you're smart enough to let her stand on her own, without burdening her with your personal fantasies or propping her up with idealization and over-dramatization. Elspeth is a healthy character with a promising career ahead of her.
Score Breakdown
She's Got My Nose 21
She's The Anti-Cool 0
I'm Destined For What? 3
Healthy as a Horse 0
Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child 8
Total: 32
She's Got My Nose 21
She's The Anti-Cool 0
I'm Destined For What? 3
Healthy as a Horse 0
Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child 8
Total: 32
And from this one:
Your Mary Sue Score: 54
36-55 points: Mary-Sue. Your character needs some work in order to be believable. But despair not; you should still be able to salvage her with a little effort. Don't give up.
So. I'm not out of the woods, but she's not irredemable, either. *g* I'll follow up on some of the articles/essays the tests link to. Plenty of time in rewrites to work this out.
Tuesday update
I'm turning into Jen Hendren. I swear that girl is a bad influence... (Love ya, Jen!) *g*
I told myself no sleep until I broke 70K. Well, I did. For all that it's now almost 4 am, and I have to be up in 3 hours to make it to work. It's the middle of the week for crying out loud. This kind of behavior - on my part at least - is usually reserved for weekends at the end of a writing marathon. *sigh*
At least tomorrow (today?) will be short - I have a dentist's appointment at 2. Don't see myself going back to work afterwards. Maybe I'll find someplace to take a nap...
Wordcount for the day: 1241. Hard-fought, every last one.
I told myself no sleep until I broke 70K. Well, I did. For all that it's now almost 4 am, and I have to be up in 3 hours to make it to work. It's the middle of the week for crying out loud. This kind of behavior - on my part at least - is usually reserved for weekends at the end of a writing marathon. *sigh*
At least tomorrow (today?) will be short - I have a dentist's appointment at 2. Don't see myself going back to work afterwards. Maybe I'll find someplace to take a nap...
Wordcount for the day: 1241. Hard-fought, every last one.
Characters: the Mary Sue line
I re-read Beth's excellent post on characters and their relationship to the writer, and it plus a comment one of my oldest friends (who just recently looked at my first chapters) made about my MC got me thinking...
Where is the line between basing a character on some of your experiences and writing yourself into the story? How much of you-the-writer has to be present in the character for it to be called a Mary Sue? And to what degree is intent a factor?
The comment my friend made was to the effect of "Elspeth is obviously a Mary Sue, but that's okay."
Well, no. Because I didn't intend for her to be. I mean, yes - I set out to give her some similarities to myself. But I have never intended to write myself into the story. Elspeth is not an idealized version of me. Writing this book is not a way for me to live out a fantasy of going back in time to the Scottish Highlands and meeting a kilted warrior. (DH would look good enough in a kilt to suit my tastes, thank you very much...if I could ever get him to wear one.)
Every trait Elspeth shares with me is for a reason:
If we have a similarity of appearance, it's because as an average-sized brunette I like to see average-sized brunettes as romance heroines. There are far too many impossibly petite blondes with violet eyes and waists the hero can span with his two hands, IMO. Beyond basics (hair and eye color, dress size) Elspeth and I are not twins. When I describe her, I am not describing me.
We share a profession because of the way I'm handling the time travel. I'm a physicist, so I'm going the sci-fi route there. Ergo, a physicist heroine. I can explain the mechanism to the reader through her hypotheses. This is hardly the first time-travel romance to feature a physicist heroine. If it's the first one actually written by a physicist, well that's out of my control.
Related to that, why make her a medical physicist, specifically? Well, mainly because - as I mentioned - the "physicist heroine" had been done. Usually as the brilliant research Ph.D. looking into time-travel or somesuch. Medical physics is a relatively unique field - there are only about 3000 practicing in the country, out of a population of 300 million. So to the reader who has never heard of it (most), it's a new twist. Plus I'm all about promoting the profession - we're generally backstage types. *g* But in this case giving her the same job as myself was a conscious decision after eliminating other possibilities, because it fit the needs of the story and differentiated her from other heroines. If I had a really common job, I would have chosen something different for her to do.
And a big one: her ex. I admit I drew from my own past when I decided to have her fiance and best friend go behind her back and break up her wedding. I wanted to establish sympathy for her right off the bat, and that kind of betrayal will engender it pretty quickly. Yes, I named the fiance after my ex-boyfriend that went out with my best friend in high school. Yes, I named the best friend after my former best friend. But I was never engaged to him - it was a silly high school thing. Still, maybe I'm bitter? Nah - I love my husband, and the ex and I would never have lasted. Why keep the names? I liked how they fit with the story. Those characters are not the people from my life any more than Elspeth is me. For one thing - and anyone who knows him and reads my book will realize this - the way Elspeth's ex acts when she returns is completely different from the way they guy I dated act(s). For one thing, Elspeth's ex is still straight. *w* All I kept were the names and the basic setup.
And hey - she lives and works in my city. Because I like it here. Because I can describe it in detail. Because there's (no joke) a Glencoe Farm for Alec to get a job at. Lots of writers do this, or so was my impression. And really, very little story time is spent in her city. The majority of it is in seventeenth century Scotland, which is requiring extensive research on my part.
Oh, and her name. Yes, Elspeth has been my screen name for years. Because I liked the name, and the uniqueness of it. (Hello, I'm a Jennifer coming out of the late 70's/early 80's when every 3rd girl just about was named that.) I had intended for it to be my pen name, but when I started writing and then found out it was Scottish, she laid claim to it and wouldn't let go. It suited her, and I've redirected to "Rebecca Gabriel" for myself. For the record, had DH agreed, I wanted to name a daughter Elspeth whenever we had one. So it's less identifying the name with myself than using a name I just really liked.
Other aspects in which I intended to share with Elspeth have fallen by the wayside as the story has developed. No pottery. Her relationship with her father is strained and distant. She's lost her mother to cancer (a prospect I don't even want to imagine). Certain plot points have been dropped, others changed, when she has spoken/reacted unexpectedly. I've given her her head, and the more I write the more differentiated we become.
So where does that leave me? Despite my best intentions, have I with "blithe obliviousness" (to quote Beth) created a Mary Sue in Elspeth? Does the fact that I chose our similarities on purpose, but NOT to put myself in the story, mitigate? What about all the other characters that have come alive (Alec, Mairi, Iseabail, Teresa, Ormelie) and have nothing in common with me, oftentimes far from it?
I think the big indicator is how I feel about her and Alec. I'm not in love with Alec for myself. When I write scenes between them, I'm not imagining myself in her place. I've really come to care for them as individuals, and for their relationship. Reading over the handfasting scene and the reunion scene make me misty, because I am happy for them. But even though the major emotional/sexual scenes between them have already been written, I feel impatient for them to get together, as if it isn't real until the entire story is told. Once the plot is contiguous, then their HEA kicks in.
Another thought: is it just that people near and dear to me are going to be more likely to look for and see "me" in her and themselves in the other characters, and will that color their perceptions? It's like a fortune/horoscope: you interpret the vague based on what you expect, mentally conforming it to the shape of what you know in your own life. Will they just roll their eyes and smile indulgently when I claim for the umpteenth time that really, all of these characters created themselves from the bare framework I gave them, and some from complete scratch? Will none of this matter to someone who hasn't met me and doesn't know all the sordid details of my life, and who identifies the characters with people from their own existence?
I'm laying all this out and asking because I don't want to commit the amateur mistake. I still have time to change aspects of her character. I can make her a Ph.D. research scientist. I can change her physical description (slightly). Heck, I can change her ex's name, the city she lives in, and her cat's name (a tribute to my own dearly departed companion of 17 years). Most of these play very minor roles in the story. Things I can't change about her are the fact that she's a physicist (of some type), her martial arts training, her temper, or her sense of humor. I can't predict or direct exactly what she will say in given situations, any more than I can Alec. ( He has some gems, let me tell you. *g*)
So, while I'm working on the SFD, and as I prepare for the rounds of rewrites, what should I do?
(And gah - I have spent my entire writing block working on this post. Sometimes I guess you just need to work things out. But I really do need wordage too. Guess another late night for me...)
Where is the line between basing a character on some of your experiences and writing yourself into the story? How much of you-the-writer has to be present in the character for it to be called a Mary Sue? And to what degree is intent a factor?
The comment my friend made was to the effect of "Elspeth is obviously a Mary Sue, but that's okay."
Well, no. Because I didn't intend for her to be. I mean, yes - I set out to give her some similarities to myself. But I have never intended to write myself into the story. Elspeth is not an idealized version of me. Writing this book is not a way for me to live out a fantasy of going back in time to the Scottish Highlands and meeting a kilted warrior. (DH would look good enough in a kilt to suit my tastes, thank you very much...if I could ever get him to wear one.)
Every trait Elspeth shares with me is for a reason:
If we have a similarity of appearance, it's because as an average-sized brunette I like to see average-sized brunettes as romance heroines. There are far too many impossibly petite blondes with violet eyes and waists the hero can span with his two hands, IMO. Beyond basics (hair and eye color, dress size) Elspeth and I are not twins. When I describe her, I am not describing me.
We share a profession because of the way I'm handling the time travel. I'm a physicist, so I'm going the sci-fi route there. Ergo, a physicist heroine. I can explain the mechanism to the reader through her hypotheses. This is hardly the first time-travel romance to feature a physicist heroine. If it's the first one actually written by a physicist, well that's out of my control.
Related to that, why make her a medical physicist, specifically? Well, mainly because - as I mentioned - the "physicist heroine" had been done. Usually as the brilliant research Ph.D. looking into time-travel or somesuch. Medical physics is a relatively unique field - there are only about 3000 practicing in the country, out of a population of 300 million. So to the reader who has never heard of it (most), it's a new twist. Plus I'm all about promoting the profession - we're generally backstage types. *g* But in this case giving her the same job as myself was a conscious decision after eliminating other possibilities, because it fit the needs of the story and differentiated her from other heroines. If I had a really common job, I would have chosen something different for her to do.
And a big one: her ex. I admit I drew from my own past when I decided to have her fiance and best friend go behind her back and break up her wedding. I wanted to establish sympathy for her right off the bat, and that kind of betrayal will engender it pretty quickly. Yes, I named the fiance after my ex-boyfriend that went out with my best friend in high school. Yes, I named the best friend after my former best friend. But I was never engaged to him - it was a silly high school thing. Still, maybe I'm bitter? Nah - I love my husband, and the ex and I would never have lasted. Why keep the names? I liked how they fit with the story. Those characters are not the people from my life any more than Elspeth is me. For one thing - and anyone who knows him and reads my book will realize this - the way Elspeth's ex acts when she returns is completely different from the way they guy I dated act(s). For one thing, Elspeth's ex is still straight. *w* All I kept were the names and the basic setup.
And hey - she lives and works in my city. Because I like it here. Because I can describe it in detail. Because there's (no joke) a Glencoe Farm for Alec to get a job at. Lots of writers do this, or so was my impression. And really, very little story time is spent in her city. The majority of it is in seventeenth century Scotland, which is requiring extensive research on my part.
Oh, and her name. Yes, Elspeth has been my screen name for years. Because I liked the name, and the uniqueness of it. (Hello, I'm a Jennifer coming out of the late 70's/early 80's when every 3rd girl just about was named that.) I had intended for it to be my pen name, but when I started writing and then found out it was Scottish, she laid claim to it and wouldn't let go. It suited her, and I've redirected to "Rebecca Gabriel" for myself. For the record, had DH agreed, I wanted to name a daughter Elspeth whenever we had one. So it's less identifying the name with myself than using a name I just really liked.
Other aspects in which I intended to share with Elspeth have fallen by the wayside as the story has developed. No pottery. Her relationship with her father is strained and distant. She's lost her mother to cancer (a prospect I don't even want to imagine). Certain plot points have been dropped, others changed, when she has spoken/reacted unexpectedly. I've given her her head, and the more I write the more differentiated we become.
So where does that leave me? Despite my best intentions, have I with "blithe obliviousness" (to quote Beth) created a Mary Sue in Elspeth? Does the fact that I chose our similarities on purpose, but NOT to put myself in the story, mitigate? What about all the other characters that have come alive (Alec, Mairi, Iseabail, Teresa, Ormelie) and have nothing in common with me, oftentimes far from it?
I think the big indicator is how I feel about her and Alec. I'm not in love with Alec for myself. When I write scenes between them, I'm not imagining myself in her place. I've really come to care for them as individuals, and for their relationship. Reading over the handfasting scene and the reunion scene make me misty, because I am happy for them. But even though the major emotional/sexual scenes between them have already been written, I feel impatient for them to get together, as if it isn't real until the entire story is told. Once the plot is contiguous, then their HEA kicks in.
Another thought: is it just that people near and dear to me are going to be more likely to look for and see "me" in her and themselves in the other characters, and will that color their perceptions? It's like a fortune/horoscope: you interpret the vague based on what you expect, mentally conforming it to the shape of what you know in your own life. Will they just roll their eyes and smile indulgently when I claim for the umpteenth time that really, all of these characters created themselves from the bare framework I gave them, and some from complete scratch? Will none of this matter to someone who hasn't met me and doesn't know all the sordid details of my life, and who identifies the characters with people from their own existence?
I'm laying all this out and asking because I don't want to commit the amateur mistake. I still have time to change aspects of her character. I can make her a Ph.D. research scientist. I can change her physical description (slightly). Heck, I can change her ex's name, the city she lives in, and her cat's name (a tribute to my own dearly departed companion of 17 years). Most of these play very minor roles in the story. Things I can't change about her are the fact that she's a physicist (of some type), her martial arts training, her temper, or her sense of humor. I can't predict or direct exactly what she will say in given situations, any more than I can Alec. ( He has some gems, let me tell you. *g*)
So, while I'm working on the SFD, and as I prepare for the rounds of rewrites, what should I do?
(And gah - I have spent my entire writing block working on this post. Sometimes I guess you just need to work things out. But I really do need wordage too. Guess another late night for me...)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Archives
I will be cross-posting all posts from now on, in order for this blog to be live and full of interesting (to me, at least) content when the time comes for agents, editors, and - eventually, hopefully - readers to seek it out.
I have been blogging for the past year on a different blog, and all the content I've posted up to this point can be found in the archives there:
Jenny Does the Write Thing
I have been blogging for the past year on a different blog, and all the content I've posted up to this point can be found in the archives there:
Jenny Does the Write Thing
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