Dec
23

Originality

Posted in archetypes, craft, writing | 4 Comments
I got a rather frantic email yesterday from a friend who was a bit panicked over the the possibility that one the names of her characters was very similar to the name of a different character in someone else’s work. She asked me what she should do about it, and what I did to ensure my writing was original. Did I Google names? Plots? Characters? I decided to think about it for a bit and reply to her here. The truth of the matter is that it really *has* all been done before. Even not counting that Hollywood seems determined to do nothing but remake movies based off of previously existing movies, the same could probably be said of many of the books and stories out there. Part of this can be explained via the market. If you’re out to make money, than it makes sense that you would produce… Read more
Dec
18

Rejecting the Rejections

Posted in craft, rejection, writing | 7 Comments
This week was a rather interesting one on the twittersphere. A certain author, who shall remain nameless, apparently got it into her head to lash out at  someone who left her book a bad review. The backlash spawned over 18 pages of comments on Amazon, as well as massive commentary on blogs such as LKH Lashouts and Dear Author. Even Neil Gaiman mentioned it, so it’s clear the ripple effect was in full force. I followed it briefly, and stopped when the author made mention of getting the FBI involved for threats. Not because I cared about that, but just because it was starting to get silly – like watching a train wreck, I guess. On one hand, I feel pretty bad for her. No one likes having their work rejected, and Amazon is a pretty public place. On the other hand – as writers, that’s kind of the deal,… Read more
Dec
3

Back to Earth…

Posted in agents, craft, writing | 10 Comments
So yesterday was a bit crazy.When Colleen announced her representation of me on Twitter, my blog/twitter hits exploded for the next few hours. (And I got to see it all unfold live via my Woopra application – tons of little pings from all over the country – what people were reading on the blog, where they came from, how long they hung out – all in real-time.) Lots of emails. Lots of DMs. Lots of well-wishes and congratulations and questions on how I managed it.  (And isn’t that the trick question?? Although I did find it amusing that I had quite a few hits on my query and query letter tags. There’s no big secret here, folks. I wrote a book, I wrote a query, I followed submission guidelines, I got rejected, I sent it out again, etc. Rinse and repeat.) Today, we’re back down to normal levels as far… Read more
Nov
29

On Finding Aragorn

Posted in craft, worldbuilding, writing | 4 Comments
Actually, this isn’t really about Aragorn at all. It’s more about details and worldbuilding, but Viggo is pretty much the shit when it comes to getting into character, so I thought I’d use him as an example. (Although in an unrelated note, it looks like they’re trying to fit Aragorn into the two forthcoming Hobbit movies in some fashion…or maybe not, since there appear to be rumors of Viggo quitting acting before they film them. Boo!) But anyway, it’s no big secret that Viggo is a method actor (and a damnably good one). I seem to recall reading a magazine article or two back when LotR first came out, and one of his interviews talked about realism. i.e. in Aragorn’s case – the dude was out living in the woods with the greasy hair and the unwashed bod and the dirty underwear and all that – and it actually makes… Read more
Nov
28

Channeling the Emo

Posted in craft, writing | 1 Comment
I hear that a lot some days. “Channel your anger/lust/angst/wangst/unrequited emo/fishcakes into something fruitful.” Whether that means writing about it, or pouring it into a burst of artistic creativity or just arranging the garden/cleaning the catbox/roundhouse kicking the shit out of something. Apparently it’s better to do something with all that energy. (Something more productive than sitting around and stewing about it, anyway.) Some emotions probably lend themselves better to this goal than others, though. Unfortunately I’m more of an emotional stewer. I’ll bottle it up and bottle it up and every once in a while it will leak out of me. Although, I’ll talk about it an awful lot. Diarrhea of the mouth and all that.  I’m one of those people that does need to talk about the same subject over and over again, much to my friends’ dismay. I will happily beat that horse dead into the ground until the… Read more