How to not endear a character to me: start out by describing how she's beautiful except for that one little flaw which would only matter to the sort of shallow, vapid person she was born and bred to be. Then spend the first five or six chapters watching her glide through a childhood where she never even peels a potato, sighing about how she doesn't "belong."
So the story shows signs of life around six chapters in (what do they tell writers about starting at the beginning, not before it?) and normally I would've tossed the book already. But this did make Tor's top ten list and my vocabulary is getting a workout, so I hang on.
Our narrator improves, and is surrounded by characters I came to care about. Did I enjoy it? ...yes, but Phedre's essential arrogance and martyr's attitude remained tedious whenever they resurfaced.
When I picked this up, I learned that it apparently has a reputation for being "about S&M." That's an element, true. As such things go, it's braided into the story better than most. But for all Phedre's carrying on about it, she always shifts to glossing over such scenes at some point. Which is a little like singing the glories of the hunt but skipping the part where you cut an animal's throat, hang it up by its ankles for the blood to drain, and eviscerate it carefully so you don't get excrement all over your meat. It's a bit dishonest to ignore the grim realities of what you're doing, IMO.
Just my opinion. But if you're curious about S&M, this is a good book for seeing if you're curious enough to go deeper into the genre. Or not. Back when I was curious about such things, I picked up The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, which is really too much, too soon, and what-the-hell-does-this-have-to-do-with-anything for someone who's only curious.
I read Kushiel's Dart for the supporting cast, and because of the supporting cast I won't be reading the other two books in this trilogy. I may try the first volume of the second trilogy, though. The author writes a dense, lush prose that, as I mentioned, gives your vocabulary list a workout without losing you if you don't know the word immediately. (off the top of your head -- what's fustian?) That, I respect.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The middle of the map
What with all the blogfests, it's been over two weeks since I've actually written a blog post from scratch. Which is fine, since the WIP is devouring all available brain power. I've been writing (a little quick math here) an average of 960 words a night (wow, higher than I thought) since May 10th (let's call that 21 days). Plus the 6K-odd background story that drops in neatly, it turned out, as Chapter 6, that makes for about 26,300 words so far.
My target (highly theoretical target) is 85K. So I am rapidly approaching the dreaded Middle of the Story.
Dreaded for some. Some people dread beginnings, some dread middles. I seem to have some trouble with endings, personally.
I am a planner. Not a pantser. I start writing when I've got a pretty good map of where we're going and how we're getting there. That map is especially important in the middle, after the characters have gotten a good start and brought their own distractions and quirks into play. I need to keep them focused and moving toward the story's climax.
More importantly, I need to keep them moving toward the next set piece, the next landmark in the story. By getting from landmark to landmark, we'll get to the climax. I hit my first landmark in Chapter 3, 4 and 5 deal with the results and mention the climax, Chapter 6 is the flashback to provide some context for that climax, and now I'm starting 7 with the push toward the next landmark.
Side note: chapter numbers mean nothing, to me. Some people plan by chapter numbers, but I don't.
My map has three major landmarks before we get to the climax. Each landmark is a fairly direct and logical result of the previous landmark and puts my characters in position for the climax.
Since I tend to have a problem with endings, my map peters out around the climax. To some degree, I need to see the lay of the land once I get there, and to some degree I'm trusting my characters to tell me how they're going to resolve this. After writing umpteen novels, I can be confident in that much.
I used to be more of a pantser and I wrote lots of rambly stories that ended up in the weeds. Mind you, the weeds can be fun when you're the writer... but as a reader I've come to appreciate how important the underlying plot skeleton of a story is. And thus I draw maps.
Do you dread the middle? What part of your map tends to be sketchier than the others?
My target (highly theoretical target) is 85K. So I am rapidly approaching the dreaded Middle of the Story.
Dreaded for some. Some people dread beginnings, some dread middles. I seem to have some trouble with endings, personally.
I am a planner. Not a pantser. I start writing when I've got a pretty good map of where we're going and how we're getting there. That map is especially important in the middle, after the characters have gotten a good start and brought their own distractions and quirks into play. I need to keep them focused and moving toward the story's climax.
More importantly, I need to keep them moving toward the next set piece, the next landmark in the story. By getting from landmark to landmark, we'll get to the climax. I hit my first landmark in Chapter 3, 4 and 5 deal with the results and mention the climax, Chapter 6 is the flashback to provide some context for that climax, and now I'm starting 7 with the push toward the next landmark.
Side note: chapter numbers mean nothing, to me. Some people plan by chapter numbers, but I don't.
My map has three major landmarks before we get to the climax. Each landmark is a fairly direct and logical result of the previous landmark and puts my characters in position for the climax.
Since I tend to have a problem with endings, my map peters out around the climax. To some degree, I need to see the lay of the land once I get there, and to some degree I'm trusting my characters to tell me how they're going to resolve this. After writing umpteen novels, I can be confident in that much.
I used to be more of a pantser and I wrote lots of rambly stories that ended up in the weeds. Mind you, the weeds can be fun when you're the writer... but as a reader I've come to appreciate how important the underlying plot skeleton of a story is. And thus I draw maps.
Do you dread the middle? What part of your map tends to be sketchier than the others?
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Music blogfest!
Did somebody say music blogfest! Woohoo! This one is hosted by East for Green Eyes and I know I'll be listening to lots of playlists today!
I joined www.playlist.com for their ability to create embeddable playlists... their available tracks leaves something to be desired IMHO, but at least I can get the gist across here.
I'm an enthusiastic builder of playlists for my writing, so I was ready for this blogfest. My WIP, Orbital Shifts, currently has a playlist of 22 songs and here are some of them.
It's a combination of what's available on playlist.com and what's a good sample of the tracks. There are a couple I wish I could have put in here, but they're not available. Namely:
Those are all sad songs -- the sample playlist runs on the angry side and the playlist actually has a good dose of sad.
Now off to tour other playlists... I love finding new musicians that I like...
I joined www.playlist.com for their ability to create embeddable playlists... their available tracks leaves something to be desired IMHO, but at least I can get the gist across here.
I'm an enthusiastic builder of playlists for my writing, so I was ready for this blogfest. My WIP, Orbital Shifts, currently has a playlist of 22 songs and here are some of them.
It's a combination of what's available on playlist.com and what's a good sample of the tracks. There are a couple I wish I could have put in here, but they're not available. Namely:
- "Little Black Heart" by a-ha. My iTunes has a way of throwing up random songs that really hit me while I'm writing. This one happened last night, in the middle of a dark scene. It's been in my head all day.
- "Never Wanted This" by Armin van Buuren.
- "Pax Deorum" by Enya. Apparently she's not hip enough for playlist.com or something.
Those are all sad songs -- the sample playlist runs on the angry side and the playlist actually has a good dose of sad.
Now off to tour other playlists... I love finding new musicians that I like...
Word Choice Wednesday: Slough
slough
Merriam-Webster says:
to engulf in a slough : to plod through or as if through mud : slog
Which was not what I was expecting. I could've sworn there's a verb form of slough (rhymes with tough) that's used in conjuntion with off to mean: a layer coming off the underlying structure in chunks. As I drove down the highway, the layer of snow on the roof sloughed off. Spectacularly.
There is, of course, also the noun version of slough (rhymes with plow) which is a deep, thick mud-pit. A mire. I remember it well from reading Pilgrim's Progress -- the Slough of Despond.
So I went to dictionary.com and there it was: to be or become shed or cast off and to dispose or get rid of; cast (often followed by off). Merriam-Webster fail.
There are several pronunciations and spellings listed for this word. I really want to hear from people on this. Please comment with your thoughts.
Value:
I'm calling this a ten cent word, both as a noun and a verb. Since it's not that common, it needs to be surrounded by similarly unusual/semi-archaic/poetic vocabulary. My example above isn't so good.
More specific than:
As a verb, more specific than erode or shed. As a noun, it's a specific kind of marshy/boggy place. Not much different than a mire, but it might be deeper.
Word relationships:
Cast off, mentioned at dictionary.com, is more about discrete things -- casting off clothes, or casting off bad habits. Peeling specifically requires layers, whereas I've always thought of sloughing off as chunky. Possibly rotten. Molt is listed as a synonym, but it's not how I would expect to see it used.
What comes to your mind?
Merriam-Webster says:
to engulf in a slough : to plod through or as if through mud : slog
Which was not what I was expecting. I could've sworn there's a verb form of slough (rhymes with tough) that's used in conjuntion with off to mean: a layer coming off the underlying structure in chunks. As I drove down the highway, the layer of snow on the roof sloughed off. Spectacularly.
There is, of course, also the noun version of slough (rhymes with plow) which is a deep, thick mud-pit. A mire. I remember it well from reading Pilgrim's Progress -- the Slough of Despond.
So I went to dictionary.com and there it was: to be or become shed or cast off and to dispose or get rid of; cast (often followed by off). Merriam-Webster fail.
There are several pronunciations and spellings listed for this word. I really want to hear from people on this. Please comment with your thoughts.
Value:
I'm calling this a ten cent word, both as a noun and a verb. Since it's not that common, it needs to be surrounded by similarly unusual/semi-archaic/poetic vocabulary. My example above isn't so good.
More specific than:
As a verb, more specific than erode or shed. As a noun, it's a specific kind of marshy/boggy place. Not much different than a mire, but it might be deeper.
Word relationships:
Cast off, mentioned at dictionary.com, is more about discrete things -- casting off clothes, or casting off bad habits. Peeling specifically requires layers, whereas I've always thought of sloughing off as chunky. Possibly rotten. Molt is listed as a synonym, but it's not how I would expect to see it used.
What comes to your mind?
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