tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30639226036426406692024-03-05T21:22:09.968+11:00nindogsnindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-74672768954547473542012-12-14T17:43:00.000+11:002012-12-14T17:43:05.601+11:00"In 900 Years of Time and Space, I've Never Met Anyone Who Wasn't Important Before" (Problem: Boring Lead, Riveting Supporting Cast)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I received an email the other day from a reader (who wanted to remain anonymous in this post - but we'll call her Sarah) who told me that she was having trouble getting into her protagonist, despite this being her most prominent POV.<br />
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She is dynamic as many Young Adult characters are, but at the beginning she's anxious and self-doubting because she's in that adolescent phase when you realise everything you know about yourself is completely wrong and you're just starting to discover who you REALLY are. There's not much that makes her like me (or am I kidding myself?) even though I've been in the same position as her. Well maybe not exactly since this is YA SF, but as far as her emotional state goes, I've been through that. But I just feel like she should've developed more by now, and she still feels like a faceless stock character.</blockquote>
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Bildungsroman is the nature of YA above all, and that relatable trait for the protagonist is necessary. To some extent, there is a universal adolescent experience, and YA is a form of escapism that addresses or even helps the overcoming of this phase and its anxiousness and doubt with the reader. The prominent thread is <b>the realisation of what you can do</b> and <b>who you are </b>or<b> what you like</b>, which I think is a main factor in the popularity of love triangles - choosing the self that you want to be and all that.<br />
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Sarah went on to say:<br />
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I never intended to insert myself into the story or anything like that, don't worry! I do see similarities, but I guess I don't or can't understand her as well as I could have three years ago. I'm really flexible over what I can do next, but there's also a lot I would have to keep if I start changing her around because the whole idea of the story is her shift from who she was into who she learns she is from the events of the story. I just need a way to get into her better or make her more human.</blockquote>
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First of all, when people email me, I always make apparent that <b>by no means am I telling you what to do.</b> Everyone has a different approach to characterisation, everyone has different experiences they're drawing from, everyone has their process.<br />
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Second of all, people need to <b>stop assuming that author insertion is a cardinal sin.</b> It isn't! Not at all! I am a BIG believer in drawing from your experiences and your emotional/psychological understanding of adolescence (and the world, for that matter) in crafting POV and characters and plot. For example, in my adolescence, I made the long<b> journey of realisation and confidence from</b> <b>self-hating doormat to leader/girl on bloody fire</b>.<br />
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That being said, there are a number of options in Sarah's situation.<br />
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<li>She could <b>scrap the protagonist completely and promote a secondary character that might be similar to the protagonist or just enthralling generally. </b></li>
<li>Likewise, she could <b>combine</b> said <b>secondary character with the protagonist</b>, or <b>switch their personalities</b>.</li>
<li>She could <b>give her protagonist a chance to shine</b> - not just in terms of the story, but in terms of her own relationship with the character. Engaging in writing exercises can <b>strengthen the author-protagonist bond</b>, allow you to understand them better, to accustom yourself to their voice and their situation. </li>
<li><b>Develop the protagonist</b>. Try and determine what it is about the secondary characters that make them so much more intriguing. Are they just more well-developed? Do they have better thought-out backstories? Are they more involved than your protagonist? Are their stakes higher? Figure out what it is that separates them, and then decide what you're going to do to your protagonist.</li>
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So, does the term "ordinary teen girl" summarise your protagonist almost completely, maybe excepting one flaw or trait? You need to rework your thinking. Everyone is ordinary, and no one is ordinary.<br />
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Here's another way to think about it and it's a lesson from <i>Doctor Who</i>.</div>
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<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md7dwkT8Jl1rrezdgo2_500.gif" width="218" /> <img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdtdkykHTg1qj0bt2o1_r1_250.gif" width="215" /> <img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdtdkykHTg1qj0bt2o2_r1_250.gif" width="215" /> <img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdtdkykHTg1qj0bt2o3_r1_250.gif" width="215" /> <img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdtdkykHTg1qj0bt2o4_r1_250.gif" width="215" /> <img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdtdkykHTg1qj0bt2o5_r1_250.gif" width="215" /> <img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdtdkykHTg1qj0bt2o6_r1_250.gif" width="215" /> <img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdtdkykHTg1qj0bt2o7_r1_250.gif" width="215" /> <img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdtdkykHTg1qj0bt2o8_r1_250.gif" width="215" />
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Just look at those characters, even if you're unfamiliar with the show. Look at them. They are completely different - in appearance, demeanour, backstory, plot and growth - and they are all extraordinary. Don't worry if your character doesn't fit the typical YA protagonist mould - <b>what is important above all is that your protagonist is a <i>character</i>, they're a <i>person</i> with all the little bits that make up a person.</b><br />
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If all else fails, take a note from One Direction and that <i>Little Things</i> song.<br />
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<b>What do you guys think? Tell me about your troublesome protagonists, how you've overcome beige characters with a whole range of bright colours around them. What kind of protagonist do you want to read? Who's the most interesting character you've encountered in YA?</b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-11913763638979682492012-11-20T16:45:00.000+11:002012-11-20T16:45:54.306+11:00Your Workspace is All Wrong (And What's Essential to Boost Productivity)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The way we writers work is peculiar, and actually, <i>particular</i>. Though I've found that one method for one novels doesn't always suit another novel. Some of us are fully digitised, others still handwrite half of their work, and many of us are an amalgam in between. </div>
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Me? I like to outline with tangible plot points, create and reshuffle, and I do this with post it notes on cork boards. I can keep track of pacing, interlocked story lines and character frequency. I can sketch landscapes and statues therein. But when it comes to writing, it has to be in Word.</div>
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But today, I want to talk about healthy creative environments.</div>
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So, at the moment, I'm on the floor in my living room, more from my uncanny ability to sit cross-legged for extended periods of time and the fact that I just spent the better part of a year extricated from my family in HSC mode (and I'm attempting to quash complaints that they never see me despite my nearly always being home). That, and the wifi conks out on my end of the house and it's infuriating.</div>
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I've never been one to work well outside my house. Seriously. I can't study in libraries, I can't write in coffee shops or at the beach. I don't even work that well on my balcony.</div>
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But now, I'm stuck here. To the right: 50-inch plasma TV with Blu-ray surround sound. To the left: parents who are slightly deaf and thus turn aforementioned TV up <i>very</i> loud. Behind those boards: the kitchen, where every appliance is like thunder and mortar rounds when anyone operates them.</div>
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Solution: move. But where?</div>
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So, what exactly are the <b>essentials</b>? </div>
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You have to have <b>physical comfort,</b> namely a sitting positing that isn't distracting or painful or pins-and-needles-inducing, loose and preferably soft clothes, and temperature control. Not to mention light. I like a well-lit but not fluorescent room.</div>
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<b>Noise within your threshold of background sound</b>, which varies person to person. I actually like sound when I need to concentrate, and that's become more soundtracks than anything else lately. My most productive time is at night, when everyone's gone to bed, and I can leave the TV on at a normal volume, blend Hans Zimmer into it, and talk to myself and my proverbial brain beast that roams freely around the living room. </div>
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<b>Tools within reach or already set up</b>, be it your laptop charger, hard drive, textbooks, folders of research and plotting. Could you imagine running out of battery in the middle of the Natasha/Loki interrogation of <i>The Avengers</i>? </div>
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Sing it with me: <b>SUUUUUUSTENANCE!</b> Water or tea or coffee, jubes or crisps or apples. From many weeks of constant studying, I'll tell you this: above all, leaving your post in search of food or drink is THE ULTIMATE PROCRASTINATION TOOL. I don't know why that was capitalised. </div>
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You know what I'm about to do?</div>
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Well, clean my room primarily (because clearly to show people my party tricks in the backyard, my room at the front of the house has to be impeccable), but also relocate myself to my larger-than-Hulk desk. I've already boxed all of my school work, so it's just a matter of setting up some cork boards and figuring out how to boost my wifi signal. </div>
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But I'd like to hear from you guys. <b>Where do you work best? Did it take you a while to find it, or was it somehow forced on you? Do you need your environment to tie directly to the environment you're writing about? Any tips for making a perfect workspace?</b></div>
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<br />nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-57843159374383382772012-11-20T15:04:00.000+11:002012-11-20T15:04:12.112+11:00Review: Unravelling by Elizabeth Norris<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Series</b>: Unravelling #1<br />
<b>Release date:</b> June 2012<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Harpercollin's Children's Books<br />
<b>Pages: </b>445<br />
<b>Source:</b> Berkelouw Books<br />
<b>Rating: </b><img border="0" src="http://www.poetrytoprose.com/wp-content/plugins/xavins-review-ratings/tiny_star/star.png" /><img border="0" src="http://www.poetrytoprose.com/wp-content/plugins/xavins-review-ratings/tiny_star/star.png" /><img border="0" src="http://www.poetrytoprose.com/wp-content/plugins/xavins-review-ratings/tiny_star/star.png" /><img border="0" src="http://www.poetrytoprose.com/wp-content/plugins/xavins-review-ratings/tiny_star/star.png" /><img border="0" src="http://www.poetrytoprose.com/wp-content/plugins/xavins-review-ratings/tiny_star/blank_star.png" /><br />
<blockquote>
STOP THE COUNTDOWN. SAVE THE WORLD…<br />
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Leaving the beach, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit head on by a pickup truck.
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And killed.
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Then Ben Michaels, resident stoner, is leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, she knows Ben somehow brought her back to life…
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Meanwhile, Janelle’s father, a special agent for the FBI, starts working on a case that seems strangely connected to Ben. Digging in his files, Janelle finds a mysterious device – one that seems to be counting down to something that will happen in 23 days and 10 hours time.
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That something? It might just be the end of the world. And if Janelle wants to stop it, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets – and keep from falling in love with him in the process…</blockquote>
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It's described as <i>24</i> meets <i>X-Files</i> and as a blockbuster, but that is seriously underestimating the sheer awesomesauce of this debut from Elizabeth Norris. Andrea Cremer is a little closer, likening it to <b>if Veronica Mars snatched a case from Mulder and Scully</b>. The thing is this: from the synopsis, this doesn't <i>really</i> seem like a scifi, but it actually, brilliantly is. It's also a little pre-apocalyptic, I suppose. Norris expertly immerses you into a character that lets you see the "offness" of the goings on around her and concerning her, which escalates and grows in an addictive way until BAM - scifi glory and bamf.<br />
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Norris finds a perfect mesh of internal and external conflict, and a voice in our protagonist, Janelle, that is intelligent, passionate and resonating. Her inner strength, her loyalty and preoccupation with her family - the connections and characterisation we experience through Janelle makes the fluctuations of Joss-Whedon-kill-your-darlings really effective (and tearjerking).<br />
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I read the last 250+ pages after midnight - I thought I was going to do a couple chapters, but when this books kicks on the turn, it <i>kicks.</i> It is intense. Like, intense. The plot line is gripping, there is an absence of a love triangle, and an act of logic and selflessness to close. It's easy to engage with Janelle, and for once, there was a proper and respectable use of "fuck" that effectively characterised a supporting character.<br />
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While at times, the dialogue is corny and a bit repetitive, and the pop culture references a little on the shallow side, the book is fast-paced and captures the breathlessness of a teenager trying to make sense of a world crumbling around them, literally and figuratively. And there are a few red herrings, which I always applaud, because despite the formulaic twists and structure of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Unravelling</i>, there was a final turn at the climax that got me.<br />
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Overall, Norris has an understated, flowing style of writing that captures you, even if you've put the book down for a day. For authors looking to see examples of well-paced YA with innovative strands of science fiction/action/fantasy/thriller/whatever, this is a must-read. And honestly, I'm just generally recommending this one.nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-78749868863442542052012-11-10T14:07:00.001+11:002012-11-10T14:08:18.527+11:00Have we seen the end of action-oriented YA?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, have we?</div>
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A lot of writers struggle with balancing action and suspense with realistic development and emotion. I've received a couple emails about concerns that in writing physical struggles at the forefront, internal conflict plays second fiddle. </div>
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In many ways, <b>characters vs. plot</b> or even the conflict in <b>pleasing your readers vs. pleasing yourself.</b></div>
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We get caught up in all the little opinions - <b>agents condemn certain features and talk about the importance of "emotion" and issues relevant to the YA audience, and critics on sites like Goodreads can be absolutely brutal about their preferences.</b> We as authors have a tendency to reconsider our choices and our work in their desire to be relevant and pleasing and, well, <i>good.</i></div>
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But it's all about balance.</div>
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And I do mean <b>action-oriented</b> <b>and not action-packed</b>. </div>
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All plots have a sense of urgency to them, and that pacing is absolutely vital. It's important not to forgo that in the mistaken belief that it's <i style="font-weight: bold;">action</i>-action. With action-oriented YA,<b> growth doesn't become irrelevant, the character arc is a bonus, not the point</b>. I don't know about you, but I crave pure action. As much as internalised dialogue and reflection has its place, I very much prefer to witness a <b>character's arc through their finding out a way to deal the madness that is thrown at them.</b></div>
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This is where I tell you that Bella should've figured a way to overcome her situation and thus discover her ability to function and flourish independent of a significant other. Much as Katniss probably should have transcended her selfish struggle between martyrdom as the mockingjay and her desires.</div>
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But above all, <b>you need to write the book you want to write.</b></div>
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Kiersten White recently did a post on the most sought-after information in our industry, the so-called <a href="http://kierstenwrites.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/the-secret-to-getting-published.html">Secret to Getting Published</a>. And her advice was <b>"Write the best book you can. Write it as best as you can".</b> And you know what? <b>You can't do that if you're trying to please everyone but the person who is in an extended relationship with the story. </b>If you're going to eat, breathe and sleep with this thing, you have to not only like it, <b>you have to love it. And if you're sacrificing everything you want and love in a story to do that, it's not going to go anywhere.</b></div>
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And again, I'll stress that it's all about balance.</div>
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Just like emotional and descriptive scenes, action scenes tend to get repetitive. And I think this is where the adventure and thriller novels have lost readers' faith. You can't constantly rehash the same conversation without rubbing people up the wrong way, just like you can't apply cinematic storytelling to all of your action sequences. </div>
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<a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maxd2g4UEb1rrs8p8o1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maxd2g4UEb1rrs8p8o1_500.jpg" width="320" /></a><b>Films are not the same as novels.</b> As someone who makes both, I can honestly tell you that if you try to translate one into the other, you're going to lose a certain je nais sais quoi. And <b>you'll bore your reader</b>. Can you imagine reading Rosie Huntington-Whitely screaming "SAAAAAAM" every ten pages, separated by the same enormous robots jeering at one another and destroying the city a la <i>Godzilla</i>? No? Well, neither can your reader. And that's why those cinematic adrenaline rushes don't satisfy your reader - it just makes them want to hurl your book across the room with significant force.</div>
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Action and suspense and thrill will only incite actual adrenaline if your reader feels the stakes are relevant, <b>if they care about the stakes</b>. And in YA, it's all about how your audience is struggling for their identity. Your novel has to be an outlet for them. They need the thrill of watching people hunt demons and fall in love, or figure out conspiracy in the middle of a space opera, or fend off spiders and neo-Nazis while climbing to the centre of the Earth.</div>
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We haven't seen the end of action-oriented stories in YA. Not at all. But it's important that we see how inexorably it's entwined with how our characters discover their sense of worth.</div>
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<b>How about you? Please yourself or please your future readers? How do you find the balance between character growth and action-oriented storytelling?</b></div>
nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-80257254349411811772012-11-08T18:02:00.002+11:002012-11-08T18:02:34.825+11:00The Thursday Thrill!<br />
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<i>Warning: this post will include a lot of celebratory gifs. Like, a lot.</i><br />
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I'm hyperactive and confused and exhausted and sore and hungry and just - <b>I'm finished. The HSC. High school. I'm finished. </b>As of 2 o'clock this afternoon. My final exam on Art Criticism and History was finished.<br />
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And so, <b>I'm also back</b>.<br />
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To commemorate this occasion, I thought I'd make a post of all the things that are absolutely thrilling me about YA and publishing and reading and even my own writing that I am now free to catch up on. (Ugh, free. I love that word.) Anyway, all the things to come!<br />
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<b><u>Releases of very late 2012 and of 2013:</u></b><br />
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First and foremost: I just ordered <i style="font-weight: bold;">Days of Blood and Starlight</i> and omfgwhateven I have to wait three weeks until I can read it but it's worth it and aksf;akhjsfljasbfa.snf; ...Basically.<br />
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In my catch up searching, I very quickly (and excitedly) came across <i style="font-weight: bold;">Antigoddess</i> on Goodreads, the upcoming offering from Kendare Blake (of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Anna Dressed In Blood</i> fame, which admittedly, I haven't read). But oh my goodness it looks scrumptious! It's a new Greek god trilogy slated for September 2013. Here be the omfg worthy synopsis:<br />
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<blockquote>
Old Gods never die…
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<br />
Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.
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<br />
Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god.
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<br />
These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning.
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<br />
Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out.
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<br />
Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.
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<br />
The Goddess War is about to begin.</blockquote>
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Good, right? Ooph, my heart. September, y u so far away?<br />
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What else have I got? Well, have you heard of Victoria Schwab's <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Archived</i>? If you haven't, well, all I can do is 1) <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10929432-the-archived">Goodreads</a>, and 2) the first line of the synopsis is: <i>Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books</i>.<br />
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Yeah, I know. Amazeballs.<br />
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And have you come across this debutante: April Genevieve Tucholke? Her YA debut <b style="font-style: italic;">Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea</b> looks absolutely fantastic! Have a look on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12930909-between-the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea">Goodreads</a> and on April's <a href="http://apriltucholke.com/">site</a>. It's all the devil personified in one of those droopy-eyed, swoon-worthy boys who doze in the sun and it's all gothic horror and my goodness! Could I be more excited?<br />
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<b><u>Film/TV</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
<a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbqx7vSvBL1r8a8fro3_250.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbqx7vSvBL1r8a8fro3_250.gif" /></a>D-Craig and Ben Whishaw in <i>Skyfall</i> alone is enough to make me go aksng;kasngajsbg.jkasnfnaklsnf (I know, this post isn't turning out to be particularly coherent, huh?) But I've already told my family I'll be living at the movie theatre. There's <i>Red Dawn, Pitch Perfect, Rise of the Guardians, the Hobbit, Gangster Squad, Django Unchained, </i>and <i>Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters</i>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbqx7vSvBL1r8a8fro4_250.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbqx7vSvBL1r8a8fro4_250.gif" /></a>And <i>please, </i>s<span style="text-align: left;">omeone tell me they're watching</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><i style="text-align: left;">Arrow</i><span style="text-align: left;"> so I can gush with them. Stephen Amell,</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><strike style="text-align: left;">I want to rub my face on your face</strike><span style="text-align: left;"> is fantastic as Ollie Queen. I'm loving this show, its acting, its writing - it is just generally very, very good. And besides, DC superheroes? You can't go wrong</span>.<br />
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<b><u>Writing</u></b><br />
<b><u><br /></u></b>
I can <i>feel</i> the rust on my writing folders, it's been so long since I was actually working on them. I'm undertaking Nanowrimo, as I usually do, and integrating aspects of my old work into a new one: <b><i>The Girl in Jupiter's Tomb</i></b>.<br />
<br />
I feel like I've developed a fuller perspective over the last six months, which I hope will translate into my writing. The work I've done with short stories in particular has really made me appreciate the economy of language and lyricism of storytelling. Who knows? Maybe I'll craft a version of this story that I can fall in love with.<br />
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Now over to you.<br />
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<b>What's been going on with you guys lately? Any good reads or views? How's your writing going?</b><br />
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nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-28105241705587213692012-07-29T14:28:00.000+10:002012-09-01T09:35:57.861+10:00I'll Soon Be Seeing You: Pripyat, Ukraine (The Dead City)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Welcome to the </i><a href="http://nindogs.blogspot.com.au/search/label/soon%20be%20seeing%20you" style="font-style: italic;"><b>I'll Soon Be Seeing You</b> series</a><i>, inspired by the Cat Stevens song </i>Katmandu<i> and the talented atmosphere of photographers across the globe. We as creative spirits - writers, filmmakers, artists and consumers of stories - find inspiration in various settings. Laini Taylor found Prague, Leigh Bardugo found Russia - there's London, Paris, New York, Tokyo. So </i><i>I'll be exploring a range of landscapes, both conventional and not so much, to give you some ideas about your settings. </i><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Припять, Украина (Pripyat, Ukraine)</span></b><br />
<br />
April 26, 1986: an accident at a nuclear power plant destroyed one of the USSR's young and prosperous cities. Life does exist, but in a different form - in graffiti. Photographer Alex Cheban visited the city a few years ago, and today's inspiration set are some of his photos (and <a href="http://alexcheban.livejournal.com/31164.html">here</a> there are more).<br />
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And, ladies and gents, a video!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xAxCWNNyCpA" width="420"></iframe><br />
<i><br /></i><b>So guys, what do you think of Pripyat? What's a place you've been Googling lately for inspiration?</b><br />
<i><br /></i>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-67303380109651793032012-07-21T05:00:00.000+10:002012-07-21T11:47:19.813+10:00Meagan Spooner is My Homeboy (Or, nindogs presents the debut YA author of SKYLARK)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have always dreamed, since I was a wee lad, that one day I would have the pleasure of meeting a delightfully spunky individual who might become my homeboy. I have met said individual.<br />
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Her name is Meagan, and she is a debut author.<br />
<br />
Meagan Spooner's novel, <i>Skylark</i>, is due for release August 1, and as a part of her <strike>imaginarium</strike> <a href="http://www.meaganspooner.com/announcing-the-skylark-blog-tour/">blog tour</a>, this is but a chipper pit stop to change one's tyres, etc.<br />
<br />
I am seriously psyched for this novel's release. Actually. Truthfully. Honestly. Completely. Totally. And here's why.<br />
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<blockquote>
<i>Vis in magia, in vita vi.</i><br />
In magic there is power, and in power, life.<br />
<br />
For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley waited for the day when her Resource would be harvested and she would finally be an adult. After the harvest she expected a small role in the regular, orderly operation of the City within the Wall. She expected to do her part to maintain the refuge for the last survivors of the Wars. She expected to be a tiny cog in the larger clockwork of the city.<br />
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Lark did not expect to become the City's power supply.<br />
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For fifteen years, Lark Ainsley believed in a lie. Now she must escape the only world she's ever known...or face a fate more unimaginable than death.</blockquote>
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Absolutely smashing, right? So, without further ado:<br />
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<b>Hi, Meagan! <i>Skylark</i>, your upcoming debut, sounds incredible! What can we expect from it?</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
Thank you! I've had a really great team of people designing the cover, the trailer, the jacket copy. They all really fit with the story well.<br />
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<i>Skylark</i> is about a girl who wants nothing more than to fit in—she lives in a world where fitting in is the ultimate expression of adulthood and success. But she’s different, and always has been, and when she’s finally offered the chance to become a fully adult member of her city, she becomes an outcast instead. She flees into a world full of darkness and shadow, but also containing a kind of beauty and hope she never would’ve found had she stayed within the walls of her city. I think on the one hand it’s a dark story—full of fear and uncertainty and, of course, a generous handful of crazy twists. But I think it’s also a hopeful story, too. It’s about learning to have strength, because none of us are born with it. As one reviewer said recently, “stuff has to happen to make you steel".<br />
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<b>Simply from the synopses of <i>Skylark</i> and your 2013 release, <i>These Broken Stars</i>, it's clear you've got an enviable imagination. Where do these ideas come from? You don't snack on children while they sleep or anything?</b><br />
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Only when I have writer’s block! ;) It’s funny, this ends up being a question writers get a lot, and I think it’s because people want there to be a magical secret way to come up with story ideas. But I honestly think Edison’s words of wisdom hold true here—that genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. (Though I snort to call it genius.) Everyone has random thoughts here and there—writers are the ones who chase those random thoughts down, probe into them, ask the who/what/where/when/why/how of those strange ideas. The idea for <i>Skylark</i> came from a random thought while listening to NPR: what if we could discover magic, and solve the energy crisis that way? But the <i>book</i> came from deciding consciously to pursue that thread, and add other threads, and keep adding until the fabric of the story began to come together.<br />
<br />
<b>Let's hear about your origin story, the Cliff Notes on Meagan if you will. Did you always want to be a writer, or how did you get into writing?</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
I've wanted to be a published writer since I was four. It was the moment I realized that books came from real people—that their imaginations had created something that was sweeping me away—that I was hooked. It was later, when I was about 9 or 10, that I really started writing as opposed to just telling people stories verbally. I wrote all through high school, and while I desperately wanted to be published, I never pursued it—in equal parts because I wasn’t ready, and because I half-expected someone to just discover my awesomeness and beg to publish me. (HAH!) After going to college and then working for a while at a desk job, I pretty much woke up in the middle of the night one night and said “Okay, it’s time.” So I quit, went to a workshop, learned about revision and craft, moved to Australia for a year, wrote my book, got an agent, and then got a book deal. I went at it very consciously and methodically—I made up my mind when I was ready.<br />
<br />
<b>Tell me about your very, very first story.</b><br />
<br />
I told a lot of stories orally as a child, and I don’t remember those. The first actual story that I remember writing and caring about was when I was seven or eight, and it was about a marine biologist living by the sea and hearing mermaids calling to her in the night. It was an oddly dark story for a child to write (though perhaps not surprising for me, given what I write now). The mermaids were not the kind, pretty, Disney Little Mermaid creatures. It was very much like Dracula—my protagonist was very slowly dying, and a mermaid was slowly taking her place… each night she lost a little more of what made her human. I think about that story a lot—maybe some day I’ll resurrect it and rewrite it as an adult. I like mermaids better as dark, twisted creatures. (Hell, I like pretty much every mythical creature better dark!)<br />
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<b>What crucial advice did you learn between this story and </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Skylark</i>?<br />
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STICK TO IT. In all honesty, one of the biggest differences between published writers and unpublished writers is that published writers just didn’t give up. Stories almost never come easily to me the whole way through—I’ll write the first 10-15k in a storm of inspiration and glee and then I get a little bored, or I think of a new idea, or I decide I want to take up ice fishing. The hard part is ignoring all those other things, and sticking with the story. You have to work on it and invest in it if you want it to go anywhere good.<br />
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<b>Your next release was co-authored. What can you tell us about that experience in comparison to writing Skylark on your own? And if you could co-author with any writer, living or dead, famous or unknown, who would it be?</b><br />
<br />
Honestly,if I could pick anyone alive or dead, it’d probably still be my co-author, Amie Kaufman. There are so many authors I’ve love to work with, but I just don’t think I could do the whole thing, from inception to publication, with anyone but her. We’ve known each other a long time, and we’re so close that we literally do finish each other’s sentences and read each other’s minds. And as writers, we have different styles—we each bring something different to the table. Amie is incredibly clever and funny, and she’s able to get that into our stories and bring a lightness that makes the darker moments far more pronounced. Whereas she’s not as willing to do terrible things to our protagonists as I am, so I can bring that darkness that cuts the humour.<br />
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<b>Show us a picture of your workspace.</b><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirNwn0VroWm2X2vT-otWGIlUbXOh2yicBq1wjM1LuGJXNvnVDvm3v9fmX6curxoZuRM30Pi8vlHYqce9CJuqeo2t4CQEz1a2slUp0QNFQB-9FljcdnzveCsrwGHW3b3hIyBXtXrYYm_JRZ/s320/Workspace.JPG" width="450" />
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Overall, my workspace is boring. Dual monitors, for easy editing and looking between two manuscripts (I highly recommend this!). Can of soda. Water. Phone. Sharpies. Little speak-no-evil monkey sitting on my monitor. But the real important part of my workspace is shown in the picture. Usually, most days when I’m working, my cat Icarus sleeps in his bed on my desk. Every so often he’ll reach out and touch my hand, not asking for anything, just saying hi. It’s like having someone there to keep me company!<br />
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<b>What do you hope people get from <i>Skylark? </i>Likewise, what did you get from writing <i>Skylark?</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b><br />
I had so much fun writing this story. I felt completely carried away by it at times—I feel kind of silly admitting it, but I react while writing much the way I think/hope readers will react. I cry at the sad bits, I get scared at the scary bits, I grin like an idiot when good things happen. I think writing can be a very visceral experience. There were some scenes where I had to stop halfway through and take a break because it had gotten too hard to continue. But whenever anyone reports back that they finished the book in one night, that I kept them up past their bedtime, that they couldn’t put it down… I always think to myself, “Now you know what it felt like to write it!"<br />
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<b>Who/What are you inspired by at the moment?</b><br />
<br />
Right now? Shakespeare. I get a lot of my inspiration from the classics—particularly fairy tales and mythology, but also classic literature as well. I’ve been rereading a particular Shakespeare play and mining it for gems, for use in my current (secret) project, and it’s leading to all kinds of spin-off ideas.<br />
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<b>Describe your sense of humour, and tell us the funniest thing you've heard lately.</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
I have a pretty dumb sense of humor sometimes. I’ll sit and giggle for far too long at a picture of someone doing something stupid on the internet, for example. I also get a sort of masochistic pleasure out of bad puns. Well, and clever puns too, for that matter.<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b><br />
<b>What's on your nightstand right now?</b><br />
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<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQHcbLDxMfpFBpxYXneivz2bFxQCpZPSD7B5zqWicKmZOtm5H00Wnb0yfIBBC7PCJDApYR5gCd_xaICZlhzuVhhL5C6iSib1M0ohnaMAcQ9JFgferSFsp2ZGLKWILuudYyeL29da9UrsdR/s1600/Nightstand.JPG" width="450" />
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<b><i><br /></i></b><br />
I'm in the middle of reading SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo. <b><i>(Ohmygoodness so am I. I just feel asklga;sghnl about the bloody thing. It's absolutely smashing.) </i></b>It’s fantastic. I don’t have anywhere near as much time to read these days as I’d like, and usually when I go to bed I fall asleep more or less instantly. So lately I’ve been blocking out time and reading for at least half an hour before I sleep. And I’ve got some others in my TBR pile that I can’t wait to read—Diana Peterfreund’s FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS and E.C. Meyers’s FAIR COIN are high on my list of priorities, after hearing friends rave about them.<br />
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<b>What does your book collection look like at the moment? Do you have a favourites shelf?</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcKqrK1NILh-zCfswTYfigPqnC23M0DMtzoYumQ06-rt_0RAqSS476rjXARcKcXCOAa7r21l-HrVHdg5ivFF1bgQuVoZKGptmgMaxPZF-DIbGgUUUen6YSF5lBYYj7wbxiTiDs5QC8j5T/s640/Bookshelf.JPG" width="450" />
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Right now I only have this one bookshelf for fiction/fantasy/genre stuff. Out in the main room of my apartment is the bookshelf I share with my roommate, where we keep classics, cookbooks, coffee table books, etc. A bunch of my children’s books (The BFG, Watership Down, etc.) are out there. And then the other bookshelf in my room/office is my reference bookshelf, with all my nonfiction and craft books.<br />
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This means that I have a stack of about twenty books that aren't on my bookshelves...usually I keep the ones I haven't read yet in the stack, and put them on the shelf when I finish.<br />
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<b>Describe your go-to writing outfit.</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
Pajama pants, tank top, ratty bathrobe covered in cat hair. It's a glamorous life, what can I say?<br />
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<b>Routine or whimsy?</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
Routine, punctuated by whimsy.<br />
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<b>What music are you listening to right now? And what music inspired you while writing <i>Skylark? </i>(Bonus question: music while you write, or silence?)</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
I'm not listening to anything <i>right</i> now, because I get distracted when I hear music. Which answers the second part of the question—I need silence to write. If I listen to music with lyrics, I get distracted by the words of the lyrics. If I listen to music without, then I start inventing new, different stories to match the tone of the music. Or if it’s a movie soundtrack, I start playing the movie in my head.<br />
<br />
But while I'm not actually listening to any music right now, I've got Human by the Killers stuck in my head at the moment. So maybe that counts.<br />
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<b>What was the last movie you saw? Or, recommend me a movie.</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
The last movie I saw was <i>Brave</i>, the new Pixar movie. Reviewers were saying it wasn't as good as the others have been, so I was worried, but no, it's lovely. It's a mother-daughter film, too. So girls, take your mums and go see it.<br />
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<b>List 10 things that make your heart happy. </b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
In no particular order:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Books.</li>
<li>My cat.</li>
<li>Chocolate.</li>
<li>That first fall day where the heat has broken and you can smell the leaves.</li>
<li>Falling asleep listening to the rain.</li>
<li>Organising my bookcase.</li>
<li>Wind.</li>
<li>Fans (The "we-love-your-book" kind, not the kind that makes the aforementioned wind. Though I like those too.)</li>
<li>Snow. (Wow, a lot of these are weather related!)</li>
<li>Stars. The night sky in general. Thinking about infinite space.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<b>The absolute, greatest, singing-its-praises-until-you-bleed dessert?</b></div>
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Flourless, chocolate torte. The really dense, cold kind that slightly crumbly, usually comes with a dusting of powdered sugar...omg. Kill me now.<br />
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<b>One question you would like to ask the nindogs readership?</b><br />
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What sorts of things do you like to see from authors you like? Extra content/deleted scenes on Skype? Interaction on Twitter? Q&A sessions/live chat? Physical, public events at bookstores? As new authors, we're bombarded with all these options for ways to promote ourselves and our books, and it's hard to know what works, and what readers really like to see!<br />
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<b>The Avengers or Justice League?</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
The Avengers, hands down. I love Batman, but I loathe most incarnations of Superman, so they tend to cancel each other out. Whereas I love the Marvel universe in general. I’m a big X-Men fan, and I read Ultimates (which is all about the Avengers) before any of the movies started coming out, and thought it was completely awesome.<br />
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<b>Greatest play you've ever seen, or something that had the biggest impact on your idea of storytelling.</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<i>Medea</i> by Euripides. I saw a production of this play… must have been fifteen years ago now, but it’s still with me, as vivid as if I saw it last week. It starred Fiona Shaw (the actress who plays Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movies) and she was… horrifying. In a good way. If you don’t know the story of Medea, the short version is that her husband, Jason, betrays her and out of revenge she kills her children. As is traditional in Greek plays, the “action” takes place off stage and we only really see the aftermath. So we don’t see her kill her children—but in this production she carries them out, covered in blood. Real children actors, too. It was one of the most horrifying, gripping things I’ve ever seen. It scarred me. (Clearly, if I can remember it vividly fifteen years later.) But it taught me so much about drama. About how it’s not always the action that’s gripping—in fact, it’s never the action on its own. It’s how the characters respond and shape what’s going on that’s interesting to viewers/readers.<br />
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A woman after my own heart.<br />
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Now, time for some linkage and portkeys and suchness. For instance, if you're pretty stoked for <i>Skylark</i> and you like to win some free stuff (and everyone should be raising their hands right now, or else you need to go to some counselling to sort out your denial issues), Meagan, like the total Jedi she is, is holding a HUGE <i>Skylark</i> giveaway on her blog, like HUGE. Everyone who enters wins. I'm not even kidding. It's open internationally and all incredibleness. So climb that like a tree.<br />
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And don't forget to check out the rest of the sights on the <i>Skylark</i> tour!<br />
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<a href="http://www.meaganspooner.com/announcing-the-skylark-blog-tour/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUualxnJ8VoM04Qg6DbOs1QTIfm4SSN9dNhrushZxZ4IfX2HjZnO9h8NRuUuY8W-Qs3IYNisYVx5Dbs3geOu7Sq8svQZ4EYEE7k33oEX5Mdi_HmhtbZ-zVvfxE_EztWt50RQKLJbQ1uUh/s640/SkylarkBlogTour.jpg" width="450" /></a></div>
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Meagan's <a href="http://www.meaganspooner.com/">website</a><br />
Meagan on <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/MeaganSpooner">Twitter</a><br />
Meagan on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/SkylarkTrilogy">Facebook</a><br />
Skylark on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10352973-skylark">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-10963777902466868372012-07-16T11:36:00.000+10:002012-07-16T11:36:10.110+10:00Meet Heather Anastasiu, and her debut GLITCH (1984 meets X-Men)<a href="http://smmercury.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/HeatherAnastasiu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://smmercury.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/HeatherAnastasiu.jpg" width="212" /></a>I've been anticipating Heather Anastasiu's debut novel, <i>Glitch</i>, for the better part of this year. Dystopia, telekinesis, the moral discourse of society hidden in some brilliant YA. It's set for release August 7, and Heather was more than happy to answer some questions for me.<br />
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<b><i>Glitch</i> is your upcoming debut novel, the first in a trilogy, and it sounds absolutely phenomenal! So, what can we expect from it?</b><br />
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<i>Glitch </i>at its heart is a hero journey where the main character, Zoe, slowly discovers she has immense power and has to figure out how she’s going to use it. There’s action, romance, and the exploration of what it means to be human.<br />
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<b>You describe <i>Glitch</i> as <i>1984 </i>meets <i>X-Men</i>. Could you identify what elements you integrated from these sources into your trilogy?</b><br />
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I read <i>1984</i> as a sophomore in high school and loved it. There’s plenty of Big-Brother-is-always-watching type elements in <i>Glitch</i>, but I take it further so that Big Brother is inside people’s heads, quite literally because of cybernetic implants. But what really made me love <i>1984</i> was the shocking beauty of the love story, of two people trying against all odds to be free and be together. And yeah, there might be some of that in my book. ;)<br />
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Of all the superhero stories, <i>X-Men</i> was always my favorite, I think both because of the personalities of the cast of characters and because the awesome metaphor of being a mutant outsider struggling for equality is such a perennial theme. I wasn’t exposed through comic books, but through the cartoons and later, the movies. I love that the X-Men are a team, fighting with as much integrity as possible against both the establishment and other groups of mutants who want a more militant approach against the rest of humanity. Oh, and I love the variety of super-powers! There are so many possibilities to be imagined! One hint: I’d say Glitch’s main character, Zoe, is most like Jean Grey.<br />
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<b>Oh! I love that combination so bloody much. Now, on your blog, you summarised <i>Glitch</i> in three words: dystopia, superpowers and romance. (Another combination I'd die for!) How did you interweave the three, and did you have any trouble managing them?</b><br />
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Really, my favorite movies and books are equal parts action and romance. I don’t like action movies that have just a little romance thrown in. I want the romance to be a driving factor in the tension and movement of the book. At the same time, I firmly believe we need a good explosion or death-defying moment now and then. I think action helps keep tension up and keeps the reader engaged, but it’s always the romantic core that makes me fall in love with a story.<br />
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But yeah, I've had trouble keeping it balanced! Before my agent offered representation, we went through a couple of editing rounds to add more action to the lacking second half of the book. It was definitely a learning experience for me on how to balance out interpersonal relationships with tension-filled action bits. The action in the books only continues to increase throughout the series, so I’m glad I started learning this lesson early.<br />
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<b>I can most certainly relate to writing superpowers. You seem to have telekinesis, precognition, mimicking appearances and x-ray vision in <i>Glitch</i>. So, how did you approach constructing these? Did you draw from old cartoons, other books or comic books, films or games? Or did you appropriate what you knew of these powers into your own creation?</b><br />
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For their powers, I drew from super-hero movies, cartoons, tv shows, mythology, fantasy novels—any and all of my favorite elements from fantastic stories. Then I thought about how I might re-imagine these elements to incorporate them into the world-building of my novel, and in what fun ways they might help me construct my plot. <i>Glitch</i> is very sci-fi, everything has a logical explanation based in science, not magic. But I certainly bend the laws of what is strictly possible.<br />
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So one favorite element from storytelling back as far as you can go is: prophecy. I love the questions that are raised by the idea of destiny (and also wondering whether the future can be changed or not after a vision has been declared). Also, I very intentionally wanted Zoe to be a strong kick-ass heroine, so I thought of the strongest power I could give her—the ability to move things with her mind. Once I decided on the powers of my main characters, as I wrote, I started thinking about all the ways I could push and stretch their powers to make the world of <i>Glitch</i> a unique one.<br />
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<b>There are definitely some hardships one would face in setting a novel in a society underground. What kind of research did you have to do to manage it? Did you aim for a <i>City of Ember</i> landscape, or maybe more of a District 13 from <i>The Hunger Games</i> setting?</b><br />
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I definitely thought of the dystopias that have come before when I was doing world-building for <i>Glitch</i>. I was so delighted that both of these books, <i>City of Ember</i> and <i>The Hunger Games</i>, along with Scott Westerfeld’s <i>Uglies</i> series, had set the stage for this kind of story to be popular, but I was really trying to draw from the old dystopias that I loved growing up—<i>1984, Logan’s Run, Terminator, Total Recall,</i> <i>The Running Man.</i><br />
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<b>Your portrayal of the future is almost cinematic in its blend of darkness, science fiction and romance. I guess it's a thought in the back of everyone's mind that the pace of machinery and technology could lead to cybernetic enhancements among other things. What is your view on this? Do you think the conditions present in <i>Glitch</i> could ever come to light in our society?</b><br />
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In <i>Glitch</i>, I imagine a future in which technology is incorporated into our bodies. I don’t think this is really a huge leap. Putting GPS tracking devices in people’s bodies (Alzheimer’s patients mainly) is already a reality. Mike Chorost’s book <i>World Wide Mind</i> also explores the thought experiment of what might happen as technology becomes more and more integrated in the human body. We already are inseparable from our cell phones and the internet. I don’t think it’s <i>that</i> much of a stretch to think about embedding technology in our skin. I’m not really scared or pessimistic about this either. I don’t think it necessarily means The End Of The World. But the fun of being a sci-fi writer is seeing what trends exist in the world today (or the science of tomorrow) that could turn sideways and be used by those in power to gain more power. If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, just how far might people go to control society? I explore some of these questions in <i>Glitch</i>, asking just how invasive technology could become and how it could be used to control people.<br />
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<b>In the spirit of dystopians, we have to touch base on the apocalypse. So, lately I've been starting to think that maybe the Mayans are right. Still hoping they're not. But, say they are: wackiest thing you can think of that you would do before the world ends. Go!</b><br />
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No! I refuse to let the world end next year! But let's see, wackiest thing? Sky-diving maybe, though that's not really that crazy.<br />
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<b>I have some crazy love for cyborgs and mechanised alterations to the human form. It's definitely one of the reasons I'm super psyched for <i>Glitch</i>. How did you approach the science behind your cyborg transformations, and did it have any effect on how you characterised Zoe?</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
As mentioned above, I grounded the science of the cybernetics in trends that are already present in the world. But I certainly played with the extent internal machinery might be used to control humankind. In <i>Glitch</i>, there’s a chip in everyone’s brain that stops them from feeling any emotion so that they won’t rebel. But when Zoe begins to glitch and her body evolves to override the hardware, we get to participate with her as she begins to feel emotion. I think this was my favorite part of writing the book—trying to describe what it would be like to feel happiness, sadness, and love for the first time.<br />
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<b>Undoubtedly, there is enormous film potential in <i>Glitch. </i>(Fingers crossed!) If it were ever optioned, who would be your dream director and cast?</b><br />
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Lol, let's see, in the dreamiest of dreams...Catherine Hardwick as a director. For Zoe, I would say <i>Switched at Birth </i>star Vanessa Marano. For Adrien - I really have no idea - someone tall and lanky with striking green eyes? Max is easer, he's your athletic blond boy, like Alex Pettyfer.<br />
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<b>And your agent? How was it that you came to work with him?</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
I started querying in August. For the first time (I’d queried two other books previously, w/ nada response), I was getting a lot of requests for the manuscript. Charlie Olsen of Inkwell Management requested the full, and after he read the first 100 pages, he emailed asking to set up a phone call. He’d read the whole thing by the time we actually talked, and had problems with the last half of the book. He said he wasn’t comfortable offering representation right off the bat, and asked that I do some big revisions. I could tell, though, that he was a great fit. All his suggestions for revisions I felt were just what the story needed. We went through a couple revision rounds, talked on the phone a couple more times, and he offered representation in October.<br />
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<b>Alright. Now, some rapid fire.</b><br />
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<b>Favourite dystopian film? </b><br />
<i>Gattaca.</i><br />
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<b>Favourite dystopian novel? </b><br />
<i>1984. </i>I read this in high school for a class, and it absolutely shocked my socks off. I'd never become so emotionally involved in a book or class before.<br />
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<b>Character that you'd like to insert into your world?</b><br />
Rose from Richelle Mead's <i>Vampire Academy</i> series because she's so kick-ass and could teach Zoe a thing or two. ;)<br />
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<b>What keyword or theme in a blurb will immediately hook you?</b><br />
Romance!<br />
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<b>Two features of a book that are most important.</b><br />
Character development and story-logic. I want characters I can care about, and I want them in scenarios that are believable!<br />
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<b>Best title you've heard?</b><br />
Well, my favourite title of all time is "Something Wicked This Way Comes". But an awesome title of a 2012 debut is: "Under the Never Sky" by Veronica Rossi. Oh, and Susan Dennard's "Something Strange and Deadly".<br />
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<b>The book concept you always wanted to read about as a kid?</b><br />
Well, <i>Twilight</i> pretty much perfectly captured all my teenage melodramatic romantic longings for a good story. ;)<br />
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<b>Books you're dying to read this year?</b><br />
Ahhhh, so many!!! First on the list, Cassandra Clare's <i>Clockwork Prince. </i>And <i>Lola and the Boy Next Door, </i>by Stephanie Perkins, <i>Crossed</i> by Ally Condie, <i>Shattered Souls </i>by Mary Lindsey, and <i>Inheritance</i> by Christopher Paolini.<br />
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<b>Favourite guilty pleasure?</b><br />
Re-reading <i>Twilight. </i>And watching <i>True Blood.</i><br />
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<b>What scenes do you enjoy writing the most: action, suspense or romance?</b><br />
Romance, all the way.<br />
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<b>Favourite superhero?</b><br />
Hmm, I like the tortured ones. Wolverine probably.<br />
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<b>Thanks, Heather! I am absolutely thrilled for <i>Glitch</i> and wish you all the success in your career. Have you any last words of wisdom for writers out there?</b><br />
<br />
Never. Give. Up. I hit wall after wall of rejection, but I kept going: butt in chair, hands on keyboard, keep writing.<br />
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<a href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1326131169l/10535458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1326131169l/10535458.jpg" width="213" /></a><br />
Ahhhh, how exciting! I'm looking forward to reading <i>Glitch</i> so bloody much. And I'm sure you're pumped too. So, why don't you check out some of the linkage below? Including a preview.<br />
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<a href="http://issuu.com/stmartinspress/docs/glitch_excerpt">Excerpt from St Martin's Press</a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10535458-glitch"><i>Glitch</i> on Goodreads.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.heatheranastasiu.com/">Heather's website</a><br />
<a href="http://heatheranastasiu.blogspot.com.au/">Heather's blog</a><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/HeatherAnastasiu">Heather's Facebook</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/heatheranastasiu/videos">Heather's YouTube channel</a><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/h_anastasiu">Heather's twitter</a><br />
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<br />nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-241139451946066342012-07-05T19:33:00.000+10:002012-07-05T19:33:15.475+10:00Thursday's Things on My Mind and Things to Look Forward To<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am seriously anticipating <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12812550-days-of-blood-and-starlight"><b>Days of Blood and Starlight</b></a></i>, the sequel to <i>Daughter of Smoke and Bone</i>, especially when Laini Taylor is making <a href="http://www.lainitaylor.com/2012/06/done.html">such blog posts</a> and further Russo-inspired YA like <i>Shadow and Bone</i> (which is so absolutely stunning) is making my wanderlust for Eastern Europe worse. Likewise, Meagan Spooner's upcoming debut, <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10352973-skylark"><b>Skylark</b></a></i>, is very exciting. I'm actually on the official blog tour, so watch this space for a uber awesome interview with the loverly lady. And I know you're thinking <i>Nina, honey, you must be a month behind because <b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12680986-timepiece">Timepiece</a></b> is already out!</i> Well, the HSC is doing horrible things to my mind and the few torturous months that was between my finally reading <i>Hourglass</i> and its sequel's release just flew by! I ordered it off Book Depository as soon as I figured out it was out and leaving it on my desk will motivate my through my Trial exams, hopefully!</div>
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<img border="0" src="http://geektyrant.com/storage/0999-post-images/darkknightrisesbanner4232012.jpeg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1335194861274" width="460" /></div>
<img border="0" height="195" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRjIedbuvYV2yDlZbNTJWdHz6huZ2lVFrxjyZK_O--MLywifIO6ljTDuoEd1Q" /> <img border="0" height="195" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2012/7/4/1341401730475/The-Amazing-Spider-Man-008.jpg" /><br />
You are all <i>quite</i> aware of my self-professed geekiness, which we all know has been demonstrated time and time again with my gushing over my superheroes. Some of you were witness to my near breakdowns in the weeks before <i>the Avengers</i> (which I still cannot articulate about to any extent), and lo and behold, we are here again. Batman, my sweetheart, the central force in my childhood, is coming to a close in Nolan's universe with <b><i>the Dark Knight Rises</i></b>, and it is a sad, sad day for all cinephile-superhero-crazies. I don't know if I can afford the midnight session of this, and I've already had to scrap the nine-hour trilogy session at the theatre. (<i>Damn you, HSC! DAMN YOU!) </i>Anyway. My initial Marc-Webb related anxieties has fizzled away into gosh-EStoner-Garfield-aren't-you-wonderbar-ness and I shall be seeing <b><i>The Amazing Spiderman</i></b> next Tuesday! So,<i> whoopee!</i><br />
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<img border="0" src="http://gov.cebit.com.au/nsw/files/UTS.jpg" width="450" /><br />
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<img border="0" src="http://www.meredo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/usyd_logo.jpg" width="450" />
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Now, my final high school year and the HSC is nearing its final legs, and with that comes university applications and Open Days and a whole lot of people changing the default question of "How's school?" to "What are you doing next year?" All I know is that I'll either be at UTS or at Sydney, doing one Communications degree or the other. I actually <i>cannot</i> for the life of me figure out which one. If you have an opinion on the matter, please, feel free to voice it. I could do with all the advice - all of it!<br />
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So, that's me.<br />
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How about you? <b>What's been on your mind this week? Any releases you're anticipating? Anything you've watched or read lately? How are you feeling?</b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-76336673170748025472012-07-02T12:38:00.005+10:002012-07-02T12:39:31.402+10:00bright young things (or, contemporary constraints on twenty-something writers)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pubimage?id=1jB-YeMxTP1f-qRybWojdR3ai-dKKsYvCTIvc9u_Mmgo&image_id=1mM_f5cTY2vuOjyTQ4RGQIx1PaMZ00qc" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://docs.google.com/document/pubimage?id=1jB-YeMxTP1f-qRybWojdR3ai-dKKsYvCTIvc9u_Mmgo&image_id=1mM_f5cTY2vuOjyTQ4RGQIx1PaMZ00qc" width="450" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>taken from Marie Calloway's "<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1jB-YeMxTP1f-qRybWojdR3ai-dKKsYvCTIvc9u_Mmgo">Criticism</a>"</i></span></div>
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The journalistic and self-effacing tone of burgeoning literary voices, particularly in the US, is beginning to impart a stigma on we writers of a certain criteria - young, and often, female.<br />
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Take Marie Calloway, who, mostly through her controversial piece <a href="http://muumuuhouse.com/mc.fiction1.html" style="font-style: italic;">Adrien Brody</a> has been criticised as "a lazy boring writer who i know through a friend to be histrionic, predictably 'unpredictable' and most likely autistic".<br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pubimage?id=1jB-YeMxTP1f-qRybWojdR3ai-dKKsYvCTIvc9u_Mmgo&image_id=1Vq-w7yM4iHVpp09gQomwdTzDhaaMpMc" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://docs.google.com/document/pubimage?id=1jB-YeMxTP1f-qRybWojdR3ai-dKKsYvCTIvc9u_Mmgo&image_id=1Vq-w7yM4iHVpp09gQomwdTzDhaaMpMc" width="450" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">again, from "Criticism"</span></div>
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Some of the debate that has arisen around writers such as Calloway has gotten me thinking about the expectations and, thus, the limitations of young writers, particularly of the female persuasion. More or less a direct result from brilliant minds and strong voices, such as Zadie Smith, Miranda July, etc., there is a preconception that any twenty-something female who decides to penn articles or stories will be inconceivably witty, well-read, insightful and idealist (that or ironically materialistic). (Thankfully, novelists in the YA genre seem to more or less give this a wide berth.)</div>
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<i>As a society, we encourage girls and women to be emotionally accessible, and in touch with their feelings; we say that it’s an innately feminine trait. We say it, that is, until they have feelings that make us uncomfortable, at which point we recast them as melodramatic harpies, shrieking banshees, and basket cases. (<a href="http://imanassspankme.tumblr.com/post/4071883605/as-a-society-we-encourage-girls-and-women-to-be">credit</a>)</i></blockquote>
Likewise, however, to Calloway, is our very own Kody Keplinger, who came under fire for <i>The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend</i>. At times it wasn't the nature of the sex scenes themselves, but the subtext that readers felt undermined female empowerment and was teaching poor values to its younger audience. This whole scenario where our heroine sleeps with someone who she despises, and felts dirty afterwards, all to escape her problems. I can see where both sides of the DUFF spectrum are coming from, those who adore the wry tone and those who abhor the beliefs within it.<br />
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And, of course, along with this whole <i>"</i>thing" with female writers and writing about sex and etcetera, there's <i>Fifty Shades of Grey.</i> Given the sparse nature of my time as a whole, I haven't gotten around to perusing this, despite the fact that in one afternoon at the mall, I came across at least thirteen women strolling around with the book in their arms or peeking out of their handbags. "Mummy porn", Twilight fan-fiction (as evidenced <a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65785689/50ShadesofWTF.pdf">here</a> and <a href="http://dearauthor.com/features/industry-news/master-of-the-universe-versus-fifty-shades-by-e-l-james-comparison/">here</a>) - are some of the "names" I've heard this book called.</div>
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There have always been imitators whenever something explodes on the bestseller lists, which can even sell well despite its intention to ride a trend/emulate the originator - the kid immersed in a fantasy world as a result of <i>Harry Potter</i>, the fabulous supernatural boyfriend from <i>Twilight</i>, the big, dark government from <i>The Hunger Games..</i>.Now, <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> isn't of the YA genre, but its comparisons to the Big Two do make you wonder about what may be expected of our writers, particularly when the notorious youths of now are gaining their notoriety through self-exposure and revealing pieces on their personal lives and bodies. </div>
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<b>Let me know what you think in the comments. Do you think there's a stigma on young female writers (not necessarily in the YA genre)? Do you think that poor writing we revere now will have any impact on the calibre of mainstream writers to come? What do you think about these young writers that have been criticised for "baring all" to get attention?</b><br />
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If you're intrigued by Calloway, here's some of her work.<br />
(Beware, I'd steer clear if you're under 18 - <i>very</i> mature themes)<br />
(Also, probably not safe for work. There is a strong image component to her work - it's kind of like blog posts, words and images)<br />
<a href="http://thoughtcatalog.com/author/marie-calloway/">on thought catalog</a><br />
<a href="http://muumuuhouse.com/mc.fiction1.html">on muumuu house</a><br />
<a href="http://therumpus.net/2012/01/the-rumpus-interview-with-momus/">on the rumpus</a><br />
<a href="http://www.vice.com/read/jeremy-lin-by-marie-calloway">on vice</a><br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=10KVlYVEP1rT0xAA6K5Kejio7TwN9HoJCZsB2rksXbgs">insufferable</a><br />
<a href="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1010300/cybersex.pdf">cybersex</a><br />
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1jB-YeMxTP1f-qRybWojdR3ai-dKKsYvCTIvc9u_Mmgo">criticism</a><br />
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I'd also just like to make clear that I don't entirely support Marie Calloway. I thought that <i>Adrien Brody </i>had some merit to it, but overall, I do find her work quite uncomfortable to read, and at times, rather pointless and desensitised to the themes/context she's referring to. But, if you want to verse yourself in this type of writing, which is, disturbingly, gathering popularity in unpublishing, aspiring writers, I'd start with her and go from there.nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-82629438460146008392012-06-11T12:07:00.001+10:002012-07-01T23:35:15.090+10:00Everyone, Go and Get Schooled at the Intergalactic Academy (This is Not a Drill)<div style="text-align: left;">
I know we like to believe we hold the keys to the city of invention, and we are the ultimate force that defies physics and logic on a hourly basis, but here's the thing: you, especially if you're treading water in a whole new genre pool, have no idea what you're getting into. Just as fantasy-paranormal writers have cardinal rules outlining the behaviour of nasties, the weapons available to fighters against nasties, and the general course of worldbuilding, science fiction, the new shabang, has rules of its very own. And the thing is, well, it overlaps with science sometimes. I know, I needed to sit down after that too.
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But you can't well go treading through <strike>space</strike> the internet, searching for reason amidst technical terms and mathematical equations and theories with really long words/phrases <strike>and maths</strike>. For God's sake, man, we're writers, not physicists! And if you get lost, well, in space no one can hear you scream.</div>
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So, as a YA writer in need of some layman's terms, when you stumble across YA writers who, sometimes weekly, lay those terms out for you, you grab a fistful of their hair and you let them drag you through the universe. <b>Enter: <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/">The Intergalactic Academy</a></b>. If you aren't following these guys, do it now. Sean Willis and Phoebe North, if you asked them the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, Everything, would cooly reply 42, and you could just as well ask them to define their problems with female roles, logic, plot, pacing, <i>anything</i>, about Sci-fi and they would cooly reply 42 reveal the answers.</div>
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As a self-proclaimed Head Girl of the Intergalactic Academy, I figured it was my duty to give the new, or even seasoned and a little disillusioned, students a quick rundown of the school's most incredible parts. It's hard, since the whole school is shiny. (That was a <i>Firefly</i> reference. I couldn't figure out how to make it more explicit. Sorry.) But I'll forgo the reviews and interviews, and get right down to the articles.<br />
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<b>1. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1838006257">Your Space Travel Might Be Terrible If...</a></b><a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2012/05/21/your-space-travel-might-be-terrible-if/"> </a><br />
Sean Willis<i> </i>goes into "the fundamental aspects of space that almost every SF author overlooks". It's pretty bloody amazing, and he brings up <b>Newton's First Law,</b> and debunks every scramble in deep space by the team to adjust their trajectory after engine failure;<b> the fact that space is frictionless,</b> our spaceships can't be shaped like jetliners, and can't manoeuvre that way;<b> and that we have no sense of scale, </b>really making you scratch your head about people jetsetting across the universe, even a significant fraction of the speed of light, makes zero sense, as well as the quick response time of rescuers to distress signals across the galaxy.<br />
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"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."</i></b> Douglas Adams, <i>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</i>
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<b>2. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2012/04/09/defining-genre-the-problem-with-dystopian-romance/">Defining Genre: The Problem with "Dystopian Romance"</a></b><br />
Sparked by Jay Kristoff's Goodreads <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/show/12684830">status</a>: <i>Calling your book a dystopian when it's actually just a romance with dirty windows is kinda like lying</i><i style="font-weight: bold;">.</i> Phoebe North discusses how lately, <b>science fiction in YA has been labelled 'dystopian'</b> by publishers; how she doesn't classify poor worldbuilding (a popular argument against the integrity of the novel) as poor science fiction but just <b>"science fiction with poor worldbuilding"</b> and is therefore <b>reluctant to take away science fiction badges from authors like Ally Condie and Lauren Oliver</b>; and how she's still concerned about <b>science fiction's strong reaction to <a href="http://www.sff.net/paradise/girlcooties.htm">girl coodies</a> </b>(linking Debra Doyle)<b> in YA, since girls dominate the marketplace</b>.<br />
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I quite liked the quote included from Debra Doyle:<br />
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<b><i>We start by positing the existence of a body of sf readers and writers (numerically perhaps fairly small, but nevertheless extremely vocal) who are deathly afraid of getting girl cooties. “Hard sf” is their science fiction of choice, because it has the fewest girl cooties of any of the sf subgenres. No subjectivity, no mushy bits, none of that messy relationship stuff getting in the way of the classic sf values of hardness and rigor (and no, I don’t think the elevation of those particular values is coincidental.) Admixtures from other genres are allowed provided that the secondary genre also provides the reader with a low-cootie environment. Westerns don’t have girl cooties, for example, and neither do technothrillers. Men’s action-adventure is about as cootie-free as it’s possible to get. And so on.</i></b>
<br /><br /><b><i>“Romance, on the other hand, is absolutely crawling with girl cooties, and any sf which contains, or appears to contain, romance elements is going to be viewed with alarm by this set of readers. It’s often possible to offset the presence of girl cooties by including a sufficient number of explosions and fistfights and rivetty bits, or (in cases where even violence and rivets aren’t enough) by the inclusion of an appendix full of knotty-looking equations — but the readers are ever-vigilant and you can’t fool them forever. The incorporation of romantic elements into a work of sf, therefore, has to be done with considerable care, not to say deviousness.</i></b>
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Also:<br />
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<b>3. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2012/01/16/defining-genre-science-fantasy/">Defining Genre: Science Fantasy</a>, </b>featuring John Carter.<br />
<b>4. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2011/09/19/defining-genre-space-opera/">Defining Genre: Space Opera</a></b><br />
<b>5. </b><a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2011/09/05/defining-genre-dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic/"><b>Defining Genre: Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic</b></a><br />
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and:<br />
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<b>6. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2012/03/19/your-science-might-be-terrible-if/">Your Science Might Be Terrible If...</a>, </b>featuring <b>genes and human evolution.</b><br />
<b>7. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2012/01/23/points-to-consider-when-writing-your-neo-victorian-future-society-part-12/">Points to Consider When Writing Your Future Neo-Victorian Society Pt. 1</a></b><br />
<b>8. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2012/01/25/points-to-consider-when-writing-your-neo-victorian-future-society-part-22/">Points to Consider When Writing Your Future Neo-Victorian Society Pt. 2</a></b><br />
<b>9. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2011/12/21/the-minority-checklist-in-ya-some-cautionary-advice/">The Minority Checklist in YA: Some Cautionary Advice</a></b><br />
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and guest posts:<br />
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<b>10. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2012/01/02/cinder-blog-tour-marissa-meyer-on-how-the-awesomeness-that-is-firefly-inspired-the-lunar-chronicles/">How the Awesomeness That is Firefly Inspired the Lunar Chronicles</a>, Marissa Meyer</b><br />
<b>11. <a href="http://www.intergalactic-academy.net/2011/12/12/creating-a-killer-virus-megan-crewe-on-research-the-way-we-fall/">Creating a Killer Virus: How We Fall and Research,</a> Megan Crewe</b><br />
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And after that heavy linkage<br />
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<b>...my two cents.</b><br />
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Find the informed. Seriously. You might avoid those snarky, <i>but-they're-all-doing-it-wrong</i> people on the bus or you roll your eyes at them at the bookstore, but when it comes to Goodreads.com, io9.com, TVtropes.org, and basically any one of these sorts of forum/review spots, sit down and shut up. Just read, soak in what they're saying.<br />
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Often enough, they know what they're talking about. You might think it's pretentious that they draw diagrams and scan them or they fashion them in Paint to debunk the core concept of a novel, but they have a point. And you mightn't agree with me, or think artistic license overrides this, but it <i>is science </i>fiction<i>. </i>And the science does precede the fiction.<br />
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<b>But now I want to turn over to you. Thoughts on logic and facts in science fictions? Have you been over at the Intergalactic Academy? Where do you get your facts from?</b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-27721518407290849072012-06-07T21:44:00.000+10:002012-07-01T23:36:00.630+10:00The One With Anil's Ghost and Crime, Part I (Challenging Your Readers and Their Perceptions, the Truth Edition)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Michael Ondaatje, of <i><b>The English Patient </b></i>fame, set one of his novels in Sri Lanka in the 1970s, in the midst of their civil war, about a UN anthropologist of Sri Lankan roots, raised in the US, who returns to her homeland and grapples with the cultural divide as she tries to determine the identity of a skeleton uncovered at an ancient burial site. This novel is <i><b>Anil's Ghost</b></i>. In this series, <i>The One With Anil's Ghost and Crime</i>, I'll explore the role genre plays in determining our characters, our plots, how it opens up our possibilities for originality, as well as structure and form, textual integrity and themes.<br />
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Today, I'm looking at how this novel is absolutely relevant to the discussion of forcing an engagement between your readers and your theme (<i>not</i> preaching, I should confirm right now), through the exploration of truth.<br />
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The problem that so many writers have with themes is that there is this preconception they stick up like a flag post, like a white flag in the middle of a charred battlefield, and although they stick into the same grounding as everything else in the work, they are somehow separate from what they don't directly relate to. You'll find themes <i>so</i> effective once you realise that <b>they permeate every layer of the novel, that they resound through every character, through every plotting decision, no matter how minor they are. They interweave with setting, and if you figure out how to use them right, they'll help you unfold character information, backstory, etc.</b><br />
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Let's digress for a minute. Crime fiction blossoms in times of hardship as it offers concrete solutions to chaos, it lets us solve our societal, even personal, problems by solving a mystery with a hardened, superior detective. This sense of justice, this sense of truth, in the resolution of crimes and the punishment of the villain, is well and truly upheld by Western culture. Now, Ondaatje takes us into an Eastern culture (and we'll not get into how YA would only benefit from an expansion of its cultural borders) and in turn, through these foreign ideals, challenges our perceptions of truth and justice, where our values are forcibly rejected by our setting.<br />
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This is where your protagonist's characterisation is pivotal. Your protagonist is instrumental to the wiring of your entire work. Ondaatje gives us a Sri Lankan woman who was raised in the West. She looks Sri Lankan, she speaks the language, but everything she understand and everything she believes is entirely in tune with the audience. Her determination to identify one man, Sailor, the victim, out of the thousands of unnamed, unclaimed dead, is futile, and compels the audience into re-evaluating their own perception of what is right and wrong in this situation. Even when Anil solves the case, when she uncovers a conspiracy, when she goes to her superiors at the United Nations, they do nothing. They cannot do anything. So they do nothing.<br />
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<a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4lh9fTMpC1rsu9ojo7_250.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4lh9fTMpC1rsu9ojo7_250.gif" /></a>This perception of truth, grounded into our empirical understanding, is what bred that ol' cliche of the normal kid sucked into a fantasy world. We need an anchor, we need a channel through which we can view what is foreign to us. In situations such as the dystopian trend, this anchor point, this common thread to the audience, was the age of the protagonist and the familial devotion, not to mention that sense of community against a figure of injustice (something which most of its readers could most certainly relate to). This is what we understand, this is how we gauge our sentiments, values, against the course of the novel itself.<br />
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In relation to how we forge our connection to characters, <b>that development of identity is pivotal</b>. The authenticity, this connection to our own true feelings, resonates in the facts of our characters. Anil adheres to the themes of truth and justice in traditional crime conventions, with her career as an anthropologist, delving into facts, but the depth of her character, as a crusader for truth, as a determined, moral person, is only conveyed through the events.<br />
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If you've managed to extract anything from me besides "anskgnals omfg igbas;ignas;gna;slmgh" about <i>the Avengers</i>, you'll know this scene made my skin crawl. I'll cover it in its own series, but for argument's purpose: this idea of theme, and in <i>the Avengers</i>, it falls into the idea of confronting one's regrets, one's fears and shortcomings, beautifully crafts our characters, particularly our newer, once-smaller ones. The ability of Black Widow to transcend the conventions of the genre (you know, the damsel in distress, the tough chick who cracks under threat) not only allows the audience to connect with her, but also uncovers thousands of words of dialogue about her character.<br />
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Loki threatens to let the Black Widow's <strike>bunk buddy</strike> <strike>secret lover</strike> friend, Hawkeye (who is under his strange, Norse alien brainwashing control) kill her "slowly, intimately". The truth of this genre is that the theme only applies to the "favourites" - you know, the headliners, the ones with their own franchises. However, (and this is why I would sacrifice virgins to the almighty Whedon on a makeshift Incan temple) Black Widow operates within gender paradigms, allowing the audience to move with her, to feel <i>with</i> her. In Loki's exploitation of her past, the facts ambiguous but <i>just</i> enough, we watch as her body reacts, a vulnerable, small form that is all she has - she's not a super soldier, she has no armour, she isn't a god. But, when we discover that she's playing him, that every motion has been purposeful, it challenges our perception of how our heroines act, it challenges our perception of this justice, this hero figure. One's fears, one's shortcomings - we've seen other characters demonstrate how they can impede a character, but we see through Black Widow that they can be manipulated, and they can be useful.<br />
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You can allude to your theme, even let your characters play with it. In <i>Anil's Ghost</i>, our foil to the detective - Sarath - constantly speaks about truth. "The truth can be like a flame against a lake of petrol". He continually berates Anil for her steadfast, futile pursuit of Westernised truth. She represents the view that mysteries can be unravelled and justice prevail, and this outlook changes over time.<br />
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<b>Use your themes to spur growth in your characters, tie them to your characters so that they have to kick and writhe to get away, to transcend beyond.</b> Accept your genre's conventions - and in YA, a multigenre category, there are <i>so many, </i>and let your themes direct your subversions. When you read books or watch movies, try and spot where directors have done exactly that, or where they could have. Interweave your themes, play with them. Crime, for example, usually looks at good overcoming evil, at restoring order, at exploring human nature and the perverted world, and instinctive justice versus tarnished justice.<br />
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Just think about those themes for a minute, and try and relate them to TV shows, to film and books you've read. Now, try and <b>make a list of the themes in your own work</b>. Make a <i>physical </i>list. Now make another list, or branch off or Buzzan mindmap or whatever, and determine how you could further the complexity of your setting, your plot, your characters, your backstory, through exploring these themes.<br />
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<b>Now, I'd love to hear what you guys think! Drop me a comment below. How have you approached themes in your work? What themes do you think resonate the best in the books you've read? How about in YA - do you think themes are too prominent, too simple, or not taken seriously enough? Or, conversely, are themes overrated?</b><br />
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<b>Let me know!</b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-87506980112128185272012-03-22T16:40:00.004+11:002012-06-08T08:00:48.158+10:00On semi-hiatusJust a note to explain why I'll be absent for the next few months. I'm sitting my assessments and eventually, my HSC, and shall be trying to shove seven textbooks down my throat while also creating Major Works, etc.<br />
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Have a smashing day, ladies and gents!nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-919613987497390392012-03-15T16:18:00.000+11:002012-07-01T23:36:34.113+10:00A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes (Or, Wish Fulfilment: Is it OK?)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There is the infamous tar and feathering of SMeyer for her dream guy by the online community, and the condemnation of Mary Sue's and a fair amount of <i>Crucible</i> witch hunting for author insertion. But it begs the question: <b>what exactly is the spectrum of wish fulfilment, and is it ever okay?</b><br />
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In many ways, writing itself is a form of wish fulfilment, beside the cathartic relief, in which you as a writer experience pretty urgent desires for adventure, love and triumph that you share with your readers. <i>That </i>is the secret to the runaway bestseller, to the eleven-year-old at heart wanting to belong in a magical school for wizards, or a misfit thirteen-year-old girl who's beginning to believe boys think she's ugly and repellent.<br />
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But it's when wish fulfilment <b>detracts or damages</b> the novel that I have to stand against it. It's almost inevitable in new and/or young writers, and is something that you grow out of with experience and practice. It is important to keep in mind, though, something that <b>Marie Lu said in an <a href="http://sciencefiction.com/2011/02/23/exclusive-interview-with-author-marie-lu/">interview</a>: "June (the protagonist) has qualities I wish I had in myself. So she was created as who I wish I could be"</b>.<br />
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When wish fulfilment nosedives, it's common to find a least one mention of the term: <b>Mary Sue</b>. It's not a term I like to use, mostly because of the unnecessary connotations it's accumulated over time. It's usually the product of an author's deep, DEEP love for a character - they don't let anything bad happen, or let others chew them out, and they give them everything, unwilling to make them sacrifice or face challenges. <br />
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From memory, I think she:<br />
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• was <i>super</i> good at everything without working for it<br />
• had every attractive character fall in love with her<br />
• was just<i> so fucking amazing</i> that she never struggled or was wrong<br />
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Now, I want to get this straight because I don't really follow Mary Sue discussions and I honestly believe this: <b>Mary Sues are not <strike>the so-called embodiment of evil</strike> a bad thing because they represent wish fulfilment and/or author insertion, but because they are poorly written instances of wish fulfilment and/or author insertion.</b></div>
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And, of course, "wish fulfilment" has been interpreted in <b>two distinct streams</b>:</div>
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1. a means by which the author can fulfil their personal fantasies</div>
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2. a story/technique to allow the reader to pretend they are the main character</div>
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<b>These are by no means bad</b>. If the story is well-written, they are often the same or are intertwined. But, if only one is to be present, it's most certainly better for that to be #2, since there are few reading experiences more banal than watching the author play out their personal dreams that aren't relatable to you as a reader.</div>
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I recently had an email that asked: <b>"How do I use my personality in my characters without making them all the same?"</b> In a <i>Being John Malkovich </i>way, I suppose. And here's my answer. </div>
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There's this episode of <i>Teen Titans Go!</i> called <i>Nevermore</i>, in which two characters accidentally enter the mind of the darker/drier character of Raven. They encounter different aspects/emotions of her personality, most of which they have never encountered in the Raven they know. Happy, timid, brave, angry, etc. They all wore different cloaks, and though they had the same face and voice, their mannerisms and their behaviour was fundamentally different - they were all apart of Raven, but were individuals in their own right.</div>
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<i>Everyone</i> is like this. You have so many different aspects to who you are as a person, and it changes on a day-to-day basis. I have a <i>long</i> school day on a Tuesday, and the way I behave and tolerate others afterward is completely different to how I am on a Wednesday when I'm only at school for half the time.</div>
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<b>You have so many different parts to who you are that you could populate a small city with the different variations of yourself over your life. </b>Teenage you and toddler you? <i>Completely</i> different. Use sprinkles (you know, the kind you put on icecream) of yourself, and you'll find that if <b>you're honest about yourself, you'll find more interesting traits.</b></div>
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It's unrealistic to think that we can continually write these characters who have nothing in common with us. We have to write what we know to some extent, and that has some foundation in our interests, passions and experiences. It's the theory of <b>empiricism.</b></div>
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But, remember to be honest and brutal about yourself. We want <b>real you, not job interview you.</b> And really, the greatest pitfall for any character, any author-insertion or wish-fulfilment vessel, is the lack of risk and drama, the absence of conflict and danger - <b>The worst thing for a protagonist is convenience.</b></div>
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So, what about you? Pro wish fulfilment? Do you disagree, is there no successful way to insert yourself, or is it inevitable? </div>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-64342366050847353342012-03-10T10:51:00.002+11:002012-07-01T23:36:54.693+10:00Three's a Crowd, Dozens are a Statistic (Or, Bigger Casts, Secondary Characters and How to Avoid a Backdrop of Cardboard)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Teams and larger casts are set to boom, methinks, especially if these team-based casts (a la <i>Hourglass</i>) and YA sci-fi, what with the starship crews and armies and expeditions to desolate planets, etc., continue to increase. But the problem with this is that YA is so used to focusing on a trio, with a couple memorable secondaries whose appearances are based purely on comic relief or plot, that some of these larger casts are having trouble growing from this <i>trio.</i></div>
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A book I recently read had this problem. Fluid, fast-paced writing, enjoyable. I hadn't felt any criticism itch until we got to introducing the "team" and what it is they could do/why they were there in the first place. Admittedly, introducing people with a focus on their abilities has the potential to be clunky, and a lot of writers take the easy way out with a dollop of didacticism. </div>
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<i>This is Jack. Jack is sheepolopath. That means that he can read the minds of sheep, and it also means that he can control them and gather all the world's sheep into an unstoppable wool army. He also likes long walks on the beach and strawberry daiquiris. </i></div>
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No?</div>
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Another problem we have is that we have the main narrative, and our trio/couple, and then, when we come to secondaries, they are placed into their own narrative, a second world, and a third world, and so on, until we forcibly extricate them from their own - and unknown - activities and lives so that we can use them for plot advancement/comedic timing/sloppy reveal.</div>
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In simpler terms, we get two wunderkind who are apart of the team, but you see them once, and they go about their business. They essentially run the whole team, but only when your mains need someone to order to do something/something dramatic happens, do they become active. Sort of like androids. </div>
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So, here is where I ask you:</div>
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<b>If they're a team, why don't they behave like it? </b>Your mains don't need to do absolutely everything. Why not send one of your mains out with a secondary, or two? Teams mean equality. Teams don't mean Cullen families or Tributes in an arena - It means that there are four+ people who are equal under a leader, and who should get more face time than your average secondaries.</div>
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<b>Why not split your POV, (if you're not first-person) and complicate and expand your narrative?</b> Up above, I've got a picture of the <i>Game of Thrones </i>cast, or a tiny, <i>tiny</i> portion of it. It is a <i>flawless</i> TV show, (Go and watch it! Now.) and handles a large and intricate cast <i>incredibly. </i>And I know you may turn your nose up at me, but another more-YA-geared show is <i>Vampire Diaries.</i> </div>
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Here's the doozy about large casts and people. They have free will. They are not bound to your little town, or your MC, or the single direction you have on your first draft, or second draft, or third. Why not treat your secondaries (the ones who are important) like new mains? Introduce them like you'd introduce a MC - <i>show</i>, don't tell us about them. </div>
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Think about <i>Game of Thrones</i>. We have the links between the Lannisters, Starks and Targaryens - the conflict/war/revolution that resulted in where they are now. We see their paths will cross indubitably in the future. How? Well <i>that's</i> what we want to know. </div>
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<i>Vampire Diaries'</i> third season begins with a number of narratives - we have Stephen and Klaus galavanting around in the hybrid-adventure-<strike>climbing-Mt.-Doom</strike> suchness, and we have Elena and Damon and their search. Then we have Caroline and Tyler and the familial complexities there, as well as Jeremy and Matt and the ghost debacle. Big cast, big fat narrative because guess what? It all comes together.</div>
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In <i>Hourglass</i> (and I'm not saying this is how it <i>should've</i> gone, because it kind of wouldn't make sense, just using it as an example for what I'm trying to tell you), the MC - Emerson - has her trio problem, as well as the fact that she's been seeing this semi-solid apparition called Jack who says that he's only around for her. There's a reveal where she realises that Jack is really the antagonist they're looking for, and says something like "he's been living in my bedroom". Now, imagine if one of the secondaries took this second narrative away from Emerson. We have the MC's problems escalating, but punctuated with this other POV and the Jack-ness. Now, we have the two characters meet - sweet! We've interwoven a larger cast in a more fluid manner - and then one predominant narrative where the action occurs, etc., and then the reveal where Emerson describes the antagonist she saw - not knowing who Jack is - and our secondary goes "Whoa! Hold up. He's been living in my bedroom." </div>
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<b>Extra characters means extra plots, extra problems, more responsibility. </b><i>Do not</i> just sweep these secondaries under the rug because it looks sloppy. Don't introduce them all within a span of two pages with <i>a lot</i> of infodump. Give us time to get to know them, to determine how we feel about them and how we perceive them.</div>
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With your trios/couples, less is always more. Use that interaction time to flesh out your secondary cast, who, in turn, will reflect your MC's personality. Allow your audience to co-create, to consider what <i>could</i> happen, how things <i>could</i> connect, and then surprise them with what really happens.</div>
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Bigger casts make for bigger possibilities and bigger plots. Remember that. Everyone has flaws, they have motives and a line they will/will not cross. They have their reasons and their aggressors. Challenge every character just like you're challenging your MC. But then again, don't flesh out the postman's backstory because he makes an appearance - Trust your gut. If you have an important secondary, <i>show</i> us they're important.</div>
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Now, to you. Comment below - I <i>love</i> hearing what you guys think! <b>What bigger casts have you come across lately? Any classics that you'd always look to for inspiration? Do you think it's harder to handle bigger casts in fiction? Have you got any advice for introducing secondaries and teams? Any other thoughts?</b></div>
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<br /></div>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-22903875901995775562012-03-03T11:23:00.001+11:002012-03-03T11:23:10.098+11:00Independent vs. Collective Thought in Our Protagonists (Or, The Elizabeth Bennet Archetype vs. the Universally-Acknowledged)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As writers we know there is an explicit relationship between the stories we craft and the perspectives of our audience. And we can manipulate this relationship to convey a delicious subtext or to hint at (and when I say hint, I don't mean preach) a social comment to an open-minded audience who are looking to learn, to enjoy an intellectual pursuit, and have their growing perspectives challenged and further developed.<br />
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Take Austen. In <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, she endorses the value of independent thought in a society which enforces collective thought, of a "truth universally acknowledged".<br />
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Think about it. <b>Transformation stories,</b> novels and films reminiscent of <i>Pygmalion, </i>or <i>My Fair Lady</i>, or <i>Pretty Woman</i>, are about <b>the movement from independence and ostracism into collective thought</b>, a common role. <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, however, documents a fantasy in a classist society - 19th century England. Elizabeth and Darcy would <i>never</i> have happened. Never.<br />
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I'm not saying that Bella and Edward are indicative of independence because of their "forbidden love", and I'm not saying that Elizabeth and Darcy's is why they do represent independence. Austen promotes her values, her idea of a successful woman - who is well-read and capable of revision of her prejudices - in contrast to her society's idea - one who is well versed in singing, dancing, piano, art and languages and has memorised manuals on how to behave and what to say. To Austen's society, Elizabeth's sister Mary is successful. To us, we see that Elizabeth is the one who warrants success.<br />
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<i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8YPu1vkyXY">Here</a> is a clip from the 2005 film version, a discussion between Elizabeth, Darcy, Miss Caroline Bingley and Bingley about an accomplished woman.</i><br />
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Didacticism is prominent in <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>. Lady Catherine De Bourg (You know, Judi Dench played her), acts superior, represents the upper gentry, and, in her own way, tells us that we need to think for ourselves, that doing what is the norm breeds an oppressive and stilted environment. The scene below, where Elizabeth tells her about her unconventional upbringing, her "lower" family, and offends her by "giving her opinion decidedly" - It encompasses <b>an aspect of YA which I find absolutely thrilling</b>.<br />
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You see, when YA presents us with a great female role model, they <i>really</i> hit it on the head. It is very much <b>an Elizabeth archetype, who we grow to love, and who encourages us to take her example and embrace our own beliefs, our own thoughts and ideas, and to not let the confines of the social norm limit our ability to succeed and find satisfaction</b>.<br />
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If you're unfamiliar with the inflexible conventions of Elizabeth and Austen's time, further research into their marriage, education and success values will breed a greater respect from this book beyond Matthew MacFayden in the lake scene, Rosamund Pike proposal acceptance, and Donald Sutherland's "You really do love him".<br />
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Sometimes, I think that the publishing industry must forget about the audience they're catering to. These young people are more than their parents' wallets, more than their obsessive enthusiasm, more than their loyalty to characters and authors - <b>They are impressionable, and they are seeking out knowledge, they are <i>wanting</i> to stimulate their minds.</b> That's <i>why</i> they're reading.<br />
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That's why values such as those expressed in <i>Twilight</i> and its reincarnations have caused such concern. <b>Especially when your audience is as young as twelve, you <i>need</i> to be conscious of what you're teaching them, whether on purpose or not</b>.<br />
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Perfection can be an ugly thing. It's an unreasonable bar to set, it's a disorder waiting to happen, it is torment and self-loathing waiting in the wings. Our media already bombards our audience with values of physical perfection, why do you need to encourage it further? Swim against the stream, please! Don't just let it take you into a deep, dark abyss where there is no light, no hope and eons of sadness and me yelling at you.<br />
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I know you're thinking <b>hang on, isn't Darcy the perfect man?</b> Well, not really. That's society's label for him. Darcy starts out as arrogant, elitist, a symbol of the upper class who looks down on Elizabeth and the rest of her community...<br />
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Elizabeth: <i>From the first moment I met you, your arrogance and conceit, your selfish disdain for the feelings of others made me realise that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.</i><br />
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He is regarded as perfect by this community because he is a young man in possession of a large fortune, and he is <i>unmarried</i>. <b>Austen shows the appeal of Darcy through his ability to think independently</b>, to let his values and attitude stray from the norm of his class, and to <i>love</i> Elizabeth, a girl whose family is "lesser". He is capable of discarding pride and revising his prejudices, just like Elizabeth.<br />
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I'd like to think that dystopia is the recruiting phase for freedom fighters, pulling independent thought from the ruins of the last few years of mainstream YA, that they're pulling this to the forefront, and encouraging <i>not</i> rebellion per se, but for the Elizabeth archetype and for self-made success and the embracing of difference and (I say this in an un-Glee and un-Gaga way) the fact that people are born how they are, and there is no "exorcism" of uniqueness.<br />
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"Perhaps it is our imperfections that make us so perfect for one another". (<i>Pride and Prejudice</i>)<br />
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I'd like to see a step away from characters of physical perfection. If you've spent any time on tumblr, or any time with fans of certain TV shows, etc., you'll know that people are attracted to completely different things, and that someone whose physical appearance doesn't draw you to them can do exactly that with their mannerisms, their character. The <i>growth</i> of love is something that I want to see, not teenage lust that breeds someone's "forever" and is probably going to result in a lot of young marriages and early divorces. Independent thought, remember?<br />
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So, over to you. Comment below, I love hearing your thoughts! Remember, "Laugh as much as you choose, but you will not laugh me out of my opinion". <b>What's more useful to a writer, the promotion of or opposition to collective thought? Have you been drawn to the "Elizabeth archetype", or do you think it's a ploy that is overrated in fiction? What do you think of the independent thinker in YA, are they there, will they make their appearance greater soon, or are they sorely lacking? </b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-46136589262488948622012-02-22T10:45:00.003+11:002012-02-22T10:45:58.317+11:00Honey You Should See Me In a Crown II (Or, What BBC Sherlock Teaches Us: Doubt, Loyalty and Narrative POV)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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BBC's <i>Sherlock - </i>the reincarnation of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective in 21st century London. In its second series, it only has six episodes, but confounds me in its ability to be perfect. I'm a snob about film and TV, but I'll also be first to say it's the finest piece of storytelling on TV in a while. We writers can learn from it, so welcome to my all-rounder series: <b>Honey, You Should See Me in a Crown</b>.<br />
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I will be dissect this king of entertainment, created by Steven Moffat (of <i>Doctor Who </i>fame, a fan favourite since <i>Blink, The Girl in the Fireplace </i>and<i> Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead</i>) and Mark <strike>Godtiss</strike> Gatiss (who also plays Mycroft Holmes in the series). From plot, to pacing, to characterisation, to relationships and dynamics, from themes to subtext, to stereotypes and archetypes, and all literary bad-arsery. (And thankfully this will tie in with my HSC crime studies, so HA! Board of Studies, ha!)<br />
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<a href="http://nindogs.blogspot.com/2011/11/find-your-characters-shadows-or-how.html">I've talked about hero-villain dynamics and the importance of the shadow on this blog before</a>, so now I want to touch on how you can use that to manipulate your audience, namely through three things: doubt, loyalty and narrative POV.<br />
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First off, have a look at doubt, and watch this scene from the finale of Sherlock Series 2.<br />
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The villain, Jim Moriarty, who we've been chasing and engaging in a battle of wits with alongside Sherlock, suddenly gives us proof that he's an actor, Richard Brook, and that Sherlock hired him and invented all of the crimes.<br />
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And <a href="http://bakerstreetconfessions.tumblr.com/post/16569800012">this post</a>, from bakerstreetconfessions on tumblr, where, arguably, the Sherlock fandom resides, demonstrates the point I'm making:<br />
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<b>This device, this challenge to the audience's perspective, planted doubt, even if it were for just a moment</b>. They had to stop and ask themselves: <i>hang on, has Sherlock tricked me?</i> They were handed Richard Brook's resume, newspaper articles, a terrified man begging up and down that it was just a job. And we begin to think that the way Moriarty acted, the things he was capable of, only a man as clever as Sherlock would be able to do such things. And maybe he did. Maybe he created everything.<br />
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"How do you know you can trust him?" Sherlock asks the journalist. "What are his credentials?"<br />
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And then, we're asking the same thing, this time of Sherlock. We entered the story with John Watson, our narrative POV, and we know as much as he does. We've been taken into Sherlock alongside him, marvelling his intellect, his deductions, etc. And as Richard Brook is trying to convince John of his story, he's trying to convince us, and when John refuses to believe it, we sit with our narrator, for John's faith is the audience's faith.<br />
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This doubt is foreshadowed in Moriarty's story of Sir Boasts-a-Lot (Part <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgpx3EkAc8o">One</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtdEmNZfZiw&feature=related">Two</a>), where we see a seed of doubt spreading like a contagion amongst the police. And we, as John, catch up with these other characters, when Sherlock catches us out on our doubt, our wavering loyalty. <b>"You're worried they're right about me. You can't even entertain the possibility that they're right. You're afraid that you've been taken in as well. Moriarty is playing with your mind too. Can't you see what's going on?"</b><br />
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But that's the beauty of this episode, of this show, they entire Sherlock concept - We <i>never</i> know what's going on, and we'd never given a second thought to it until our narrative voice realised it. And then you realise that you have an incredibly unreliable narrator, for <i>he</i> isn't the detective who holds all the cards, he <i>isn't</i> the villain mastermind pulling the strings, he's just the sidekick, and so are we.<br />
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Of course, this sort of thing wouldn't work in <i>all</i> YA. But for the villains, the warlords and warlocks, <b>if you can make your audience reconsider what side they're on, the "angels" or the "demons", even for a moment, you can change their entire experience in your book.</b> I've talked about shadows before, and that intrinsic darkness in everyone is a fundamental part of pairing your villain and hero together. If you can question this, just like Moriarty managed to make the audience do, you have the opportunity to then interweave foreshadowing and subtext earlier through your work.<br />
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Your audience is loyal to your protagonist, naturally. Play with that. Subvert their expectations, investigate the archetypes and the conventions of your genre, of your "kind" of story and then twist them and morph them into something else. Why don't you entertain the possibility that your protagonist is really the villain?<br />
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So, comments below: <b>Any books or films that have challenged your faith in the narrator or hero? Do you think maintaining archetypal traits is important, or should we subvert them whenever we can? Does a traditional story have its merits, or do you think it's time to craft our own traditions? What else did you learn from this episode? What do you think of restoring our faith after such doubt - should we, or should we stay true to these challenges? </b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-51417476054696365322012-02-05T09:45:00.002+11:002012-02-05T09:45:39.856+11:00Atticus Told Me (Or, A Great Big List of Links)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Harper Lee said something like "Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts", but we can't always rely on our characters to lead us down the right path. That's where the beauty of our community really comes through. Whether it be writing bloggers like me, or authors divulging lessons they've learned along the way, we have a plethora of different sources to turn to.<br />
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So, I thought I'd compile a list of some of the posts and such that I've found helpful lately. I'll add more to it as time goes on, and hopefully, you find these interesting at least.<br />
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<b>WRITING</b><br />
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<a href="http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/what-project-runway-taught-me-about.html">Click</a>: What Veronica Roth learned about explanations from Project Runway.<br />
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<a href="http://maggiestiefvater.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/from-rough-to-final-ten-dissections.html">Click</a>: Maggie Stiefvater gives us ten writers dissecting their earlier drafts and final drafts.<br />
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<a href="http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1732344.html">Click</a>: Nick Mamatas on 10 pieces of advice writers need to stop giving the aspiring.<br />
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<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/15/microsoft-word-processing-literature-naughton?CMP=twt_gu">Click</a>: Has Word affected the way we work? An article at the Guardian.<br />
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C<a href="http://www.omnivoracious.com/2012/01/stacy-whitman-on-writing-cross-culturally-.html">lick</a>: A post at Omnivoracious about writing cross-culturally, including the pros and cons.<br />
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<a href="http://distraction99.com/2012/01/04/finding-what-works-for-your-writing/">Click</a>: Nova Ren Suma talking about creativity.<br />
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<a href="http://www.malindalo.com/2012/01/writing-about-lesbians-when-youre-not-a-lesbian/">Click</a>: Malinda Lo on writing lesbians when you're not one.<br />
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<a href="http://yamuses.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/avoiding-end.html">Click</a>: Veronica Rossi on endings and juxtaposing them with your beginnings.<br />
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<a href="http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/opening-chapters.html">Click</a>: Opening chapters at the Kill Zone.<br />
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<a href="http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/01/31/25-things-you-should-know-about-story-structure/">Click</a>: 25 Things You Should Know About Story Structure<br />
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<a href="http://writerunboxed.com/2012/01/27/5-attitudes-toward-publishing-you-should-avoid/">Click</a>: 5 Attitudes Toward Publishing You Should Avoid<br />
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<a href="http://writerunboxed.com/2012/02/01/research-vs-observation/">Click</a>: Research vs. Observation at the Writer Unboxed<br />
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<a href="http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/2012/02/01/8-laws-named-for-writers/">Click</a>: 8 Laws Named for Writers (incl. Gaiman's Law, Poe's Law, etc.)<br />
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<a href="http://scotteagan.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/pitching-is-job-interview.html">Click</a>: Scott Egan on why pitching is a job interview.<br />
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<a href="http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/creating-author-platform-that-sticks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+feedburner/tKhz+(The+Bookshelf+Muse)">Click</a>: The Bookshelf Muse on creating a platform that sticks.<br />
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<b>READING</b><br />
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<a href="http://flavorwire.com/250236/10-legendary-bad-girls-of-literature">Click</a>: Judy Berman from Flavorwire on 10 legendary bad girls of literature.<br />
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<a href="http://flavorwire.com/251506/10-cult-literary-traditions-for-truly-die-hard-fans">Click</a>: Emily Temple on 10 cult literary traditions for die-hard fans.<br />
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<a href="http://sarahreesbrennan.tumblr.com/post/15486442487/why-do-you-think-love-triangles-are-so-popular-these#notes">Click</a>: Sarah Rees Brennan on why love triangles are so popular.<br />
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<a href="http://kirstenhubbard.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/that-text-on-back-of-book.html">Click</a>: Kirsten Hubbard on the text on the back of the book and who writes it.<br />
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<a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/01/01/the-secret-worlds-teens-hide-from-adults/">Click</a>: Cassandra Clare on 'the secret world kids teens from adults' at the Wall Street Journal<br />
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So, guys, <b>have you found any sites or posts lately that have been helpful? Anything you've come across that was interesting? </b>Comment below and link up!<br />nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-86488526831778007362012-01-26T09:57:00.000+11:002012-01-26T09:57:38.733+11:00Honey You Should See Me In a Crown I (Or, What BBC Sherlock Teaches Us: Antagonists and Villains and Bad Baddies)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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BBC's <i>Sherlock - </i>the reincarnation of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective in 21st century London. In its second series, it only has six episodes, but confounds me in its ability to be perfect. I'm a snob about film and TV, but I'll also be first to say it's the finest piece of storytelling on TV in a while. We writers can learn from it, so welcome to my all-rounder series: <b>Honey, You Should See Me in a Crown</b>.<br />
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I will be dissect this king of entertainment, created by Steven Moffat (of <i>Doctor Who </i>fame, a fan favourite since <i>Blink, The Girl in the Fireplace </i>and<i> Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead</i>) and Mark <strike>Godtiss</strike> Gatiss (who also plays Mycroft Holmes in the series). From plot, to pacing, to characterisation, to relationships and dynamics, from themes to subtext, to stereotypes and archetypes, and all literary bad-arsery. (And thankfully this will tie in with my HSC crime studies, so HA! Board of Studies, ha!) <b>Note: spoilers threaded throughout. No, seriously. Spoilers.</b><br />
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Now, I think it would be fitting to begin with the giver of our title, and by that I mean our <b>villain</b>, Jim Moriarty. My kindred spirit. My joie de vive. We know that I have a big place in my heart for villains, and Andrew Scott's representation of Sherlock's nemesis reigns over them all. So.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">VILLAINS.</span><br />
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I have posted about villains before, so for a more comprehensive look into them, feel free to check out <a href="http://nindogs.blogspot.com/2011/11/find-your-characters-shadows-or-how.html">Finding Your Character's Shadow</a> or <a href="http://nindogs.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-do-people-do-anything-anymore-or.html">a post on types of villains and their motives</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lych6lw2TZ1qalyj8o4_r2_250.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lych6lw2TZ1qalyj8o4_r2_250.gif" /></a>Jim Moriarty is insidious, depraved and mentally unstable. It is his brilliance and his flair and his utter <i>boredom</i> with the world and its inability to challenge him that makes his pairing with the great Sherlock Holmes so right.<br />
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<b>A compelling antagonist has no limits to what he will do and can do to succeed.</b> The Moriarty Crime Corporation, this empire that they built up over mere episodes which felt like seasons, is entwined with assassinations, with terrorism, with heists and all manner of dastardly deeds. Moriarty, a consulting criminal, has this empire at his fingertips. He can do anything. As we saw in his stunt at the Tower of London in <i>The Reichenbach Fall</i>, he breaks in to the crown jewels with a push of a button his phone, and simply puts them on and waits for the police. Watch the clip below, really. The calmness with which he states his scope really makes you wonder <i>why</i> he wants Sherlock, and plants the question: what will he <i>do</i> to get him?<br />
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You can't just have the keeper of the keys in a world of locked doors, no, you have to <b>have a plausible reason for why this man is our antagonist</b>. Not why he's bad, but why he's <i>our</i> antagonist.<br />
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In their showdown on the roof of the hospital, Moriarty laments the fact that everything is so boring, that nothing in the world challenges his enormous mind, and that even Sherlock Holmes eventually wasn't even enough. He's in it for the contest, the puzzle if you like, involved in dealing with Sherlock. And when Sherlock is about to jump, just like Moriarty tells him he has to (Snipers will kill his three friends otherwise), and Sherlock begins to laugh, Moriarty panics. "What? WHAT? What have I missed?" he demands. And you can see that he <i>needs</i> to know.<br />
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Your reason has to be understandable. I can completely understand where Moriarty is coming from. For further examples? <i>X-Men's</i> Magneto, <i>Vampire Diaries'</i> Klaus, <i>Iron Man's </i>Obadiah or Whiplash, <i>Hellboy II's </i>Prince Nuada. There is an understandable concept that drives them.<br />
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I would, however, just like to introduce a little tangent. While this concept is effective and wonderbar, it is not always appropriate. Your villain must shadow your protagonist (<a href="http://nindogs.blogspot.com/2011/11/find-your-characters-shadows-or-how.html">see my post on that</a>), and so, if you have a morally ambiguous protagonist whose motives are questionable, like Bruce Wayne (He says he wants to save Gotham, but does he really just want revenge on the environment responsible for the death of his parents?), it is almost necessary that you have an antagonist such as the Joker, whose motive can be broadly assumed but which is never understood, whose insanity and malice could be echoed by the protagonist.<br />
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Anyway.<br />
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You need <b>your antagonist to challenge your protagonist</b>. Not in the glove-smacking duel challenge, or even the Cloud/Sephiroth sword-wielding challenge, but in that fact that if you want to prove your protagonist's strength, to show that they deserve to be the hero of the story, you need strong opposition. If you've played organised sports, like soccer, before, then you know that if you beat the team at the bottom of the table, no one makes a big deal about it, but if you beat the team at the top of the table, well, it's the talk of the next whole round!<br />
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<b>When you're plotting, flip over to your antagonist's side</b>. Get in their head. If you're Moriarty, what can you do to outsmart Sherlock, to embarrass him, to make this boastful genius look like a fraud? First, you'll need to <i>outsmart</i> him - that calls for intelligence and unexpected turns, then you need to <i>embarrass </i>him - so, prop him up and then bring him down, and then, to make him look like a fraud? You need to turn everyone against him, <i>especially</i> those with the most faith. It sounds like a complex and twisty plan. It sounds like you're going to have a serious power-player who can manipulate a <i>whole </i>lot of people and situations.<br />
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Moriarty is Sherlock's intellectual equal in some ways, but each of them brings something that the other doesn't have. Moriarty has his empire, his skills, his ingenuity, and Sherlock has his ability to unravel the most intricate of plots. That's what your hero-villain dynamic (and I will dedicate a whole post to this later in the series) should do. <b>Put them on the same level, whether if be intellectual, physical, in regard to supporting comrades, or something unexpected but necessary!</b> You have to be able to say that your character would not be who they were without this. Sherlock? Intelligence. Dom Toretto from <i>Fast and Furious</i>? Skill. Luke Skywalker? Beginner's luck. Then, once they're both on that level, <b>let them bring something unique to the table.</b><br />
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<a href="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxyzmkS0Xg1qbgd9do1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxyzmkS0Xg1qbgd9do1_500.gif" width="276" /></a>If possible, <b>subvert expectations as much as you can</b>. Take Moriarty's appearance, for example. Back in series one, we first met him while he was playing Jim, the boyfriend of Molly Hooper, who Sherlock told her was gay. Very gay. And then, at the pool, we're anticipating a suave, bad-Bond type, tall, dark and possibly handsome.<br />
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And we get Jim. Young, on the shorter side, an accent and higher-pitched voice, the look of an insipid law intern - Not arch-nemesis material. But then we saw more of Jim. Confident and extravagant, his ringtone was the Bee Gee's <i>Stayin' Alive, </i>he strutted, he seemed to take nothing seriously, he had no regard for human life. He spoke in allusions, but treated it all as a game, as though he and Sherlock were the devils and angels playing cops and robbers in Daddy's playground.<br />
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So, that's about all the space I can use for this post. I may do another villain post later on, but for now, I'll leave you with some links. Janice Hardy's <a href="http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/01/from-mind-of-evil.html">Writing from the Antagonist's POV</a>, <a href="http://blog.janicehardy.com/2009/10/flipping-out.html">Plotting From an Antagonist's Perspective</a>, and <a href="http://blog.janicehardy.com/2009/05/when-being-bad-feels-so-good.html">Creating a Great Antagonist</a>. Vanessa di Gregorio's <a href="http://letthewordsflow.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/writing-good-err-bad-villains/">Writing Good...Er...Bad Villains</a>, which overviews every aspect. And Aimee Lee Salter's <a href="http://www.aimeelsalter.com/2012/01/mighty-heroes-require-mighty-villains.html">Might Heroes Require Mighty Villains</a>.<br />
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So, tell me guys in the comments below: <b>What do you think makes a memorable villain? Have you got any favourites? Have you seen <i>Sherlock</i>? What did you think of Moriarty? What did you learn from or appreciate in the series? </b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-11387314592646977642011-12-31T22:53:00.000+11:002012-01-25T22:54:18.199+11:00Farewelling 2011's Finest and Foreshadowing 2012's (Or, The Week Between Christmas And NYE Is So Incredibly Awkward For Me)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I don't know whether it's recuperating after the mass amounts of shopping, wrapping, planning, cooking and eating associated with Christmas, or it's the contagious apathy associated with one year coming to a close and the inability to do anything substantial before the new one begins. Oh, and everyone's busy or on holidays. So what have I been doing?<br />
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Well, nothing. <b>But</b>, I have been vaguely considering the self-publishing route out of partial boredom and partial curiosity and partially because of the recent D Publishing opening (which I personally find too suspect to take seriously).<br />
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Anyway, I have two things to do tonight: summarise 2011 and look forward to 2012. And, if we have time, maybe considering the futile art of goal-making. (I'm terrible, trust me)<br />
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So, <b>the best of twenty-eleven</b>.<br />
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I only finished Laini Taylor's <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8490112-daughter-of-smoke-and-bone">DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE</a> the other day, and let me just say band-meet-wagon. It has been so long since I was just completely enthralled by a book, and it was the first of many which I finished under two days. That being said, Gretchen McNeil's <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8673931-possess">POSSESS</a> lived up to a premise that I held in very high regard for the entirety of its life wrapped in Batman paper before my birthday, and very much satisfied my inner exorcism fanatic.<br />
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And, <b>the most coveted of twenty-twelve.</b><br />
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There's a variety in these and there's also a lot of similarity. It goes without saying that come September I will be dying to read the next Karou adventure by Laini Taylor. But we've got angels, curse workers, alchemists (and they better not rip off Fullmetal Alchemist or so help me god), time travellers, and Greek myths. Honourable mentions: CITY OF LOST SOULS by Cassandra Clare, INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows, CLOCKWORK PRINCESS by Cassandra Clare, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green, and, well, Sarah J Maas' QUEEN OF GLASS. 2012 is shaping up to be pretty incredible.</div>
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Now, goals. More than ever I'm hesitant to make goals this year because it's HSC year. It's my last year of high school and I've already set my goals for that and they're pretty important. If I'm AWOL through the year, you'll know it most <i>definitely</i> is because of that.</div>
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But what do I want to achieve? I want to read fifty books this year, some of which will be school-related texts. I want to try and write once a week for the blog, or write up five posts once a month and schedule them. In regard to writing, I want to comb through the novel and do one last Big Revision and make it exactly how I've always wanted to but never really done, and then I want to query. Properly. </div>
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I have had the most apathetic month, and now I am going to work until my hands bleed for ten months. Ten months until school is done and dusted, until I'm a free woman. I will work and write and study and you can all watch me slowly go mad. </div>
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I hope everyone's had a brilliant year and I wish you all the best of luck for the year to come.</div>
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Oh, and guess what? This blog's been up for little over a year now. It feels <i>much</i> longer than that. This last year has just gone on forever, but really, it felt like absolutely nothing at all.</div>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-58539361202855671912011-12-27T20:09:00.001+11:002011-12-27T20:09:05.027+11:00And the Winner Is...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Congrats to Connie McAdams, who has chosen a copy of INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows for her Christmas present <a href="http://nindogs.blogspot.com/2011/12/dont-i-look-darling-in-red-or-holiday.html">prize</a>.<br />
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Thanks to everyone who entered, and I'm sorry that a glitch of some sort deleted some of the comments on the post. Don't worry, I still received all the entries despite the comment mix up.<br />
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Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-82775678853096895672011-12-18T09:00:00.000+11:002011-12-18T09:00:02.573+11:00What's In a Name? (Or, The Masterful Art of Naming Characters)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A friend recently recommended the BLUE BLOODS series (not some sort of novelisation of the cop show with Sergeant Lipton, unfortunately) to me. I scanned the blurb and found my processor not passing beyond two words. Schuyler Van Alen. <b>Schuyler Van Alen</b>. It took me a while to figure out how you're meant to pronounce that. Skew-ler van Halen. Yes, my mind read that as Van Halen. That, dear readers, is a teacher's worst nightmare in four syllables, or what I presume is four syllables. Who knows? I still haven't figured out how to say it. Is it Skyler? If so, why isn't it spelt Skyler?<br />
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Basically, if I can't figure out how to say a character's name within a fraction of a second of reading it, I am going to put the book onto the Gifts pile. (Yes, I actually have a pile of books which I give to people for their birthdays which have only been used to the fifth page.)<br />
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It isn't so bad for character names which I abhor. Usually, I'll suffer through a book if it's good, but I'll probably not go into the sequels. FALLEN's Luce, pronounced Lucy, infuriated me. Every time I saw her name I thought that it couldn't possibly be Lucy because I have nicknamed my friend Lucy as Luce. As in <i>Loose</i>. But that was the problem with it. There was no reason for her to be Luce, and every time I saw her name, I was drawn out of the story.<br />
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Personally, the more intricate the name, the more <i>indie</i> the spelling (or anti-spelling as I've come to call it), the more "normal" the character, and the more my regard of the author plummets. Surely, <i>surely, </i>they can create a vivid character without festooning them with a parade of <i>character!</i> preceding them every time they're mentioned.<br />
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If you're going to use superfluous names or spelling, I want a reason. I really do. Sometimes mundane names can be great, they can also hold metaphors and subtext. Flamboyant names make me think that you have no idea how to characterise and you're just throwing something wacky out there to make me remember your protagonist. That is, if you're set in "our world", in our time, in somewhere like New York. In that setting, when everyone is called Langford van Cassel den Rayne, I can't go on.<br />
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I know that character names can hold references and meanings. I <i>know</i> that. I'd rather something atmospheric for each character, a la JK Rowling. Think about it. Draco and Snape, serpentine, fitting for an antagonist. Hermione, Shakespearean, bookish. Dumbledore, enchanting and childish, almost in a similar strain to Santa. If you can go subtler than that, <i>do it</i>. Names can be evocative. Think Nigel, a man with a nasally voice and a fondness for tweed, someone Stanley Tucci would play with flair. Or, Trudy, a rubenesque red-haired woman. Or even Kirsten Miller's Kiki Strike, all sharp consonants, reflecting someone curt, tough and even mysterious.<br />
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I think that a name says more about a character's household than it does about the character themselves. I mean, the parents name the child, right? The only time a name says something about the character is when they've renamed themselves. For instance, Gwendoliana was named because her mother dreamed of a sinewy, prima ballerina daughter, but in reality, she's a rugby player who chews tobacco and smokes two packs a day. In this name, there's conflict. Ergo, Gwendoliana is a much better fit than, say, Shannon or Betty.<br />
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Oh, and <i>please</i>, for the love of God, just pay attention to ethnicities and cultures. If someone is Russian, then do your research and look into the naming intricacies of the Russians and all the wacky diminutives that are factors in that. And whacking a Chen on the end of an Asian character's name is just lazy. Seriously.<br />
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Even when it comes to fantasy names, take a leaf out of Tolkien's book. You've got hobbits and even then, Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry are all simple names. Boromir and Faramir are humans, and their names correlate. Arwen, Legolas, Galadriel, Elrond - all similar sounding and majestic names. I just come up with easy shortcuts for names with apostrophes in them and funny phonetic letters, like graves and other accents.<br />
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So, what are your thoughts?<br />
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<b>How strongly do you react to character names? Do you prefer plain names over flamboyant ones? Or do you think that strange names up the escapism appeal?</b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-10759300088408938592011-12-16T09:00:00.000+11:002011-12-16T09:00:06.880+11:00Don't I Look Darling In Red? (Or, HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This Christmas, I'm celebrating YA in a big way. Despite our differences, YA has brought me some great characters, some great plots, and writing and all-round inspiration. I definitely have some favourites or books I'm dying to read and for the season of giving, I want to share with you. I'll be giving away a book, some are pre-orders, current releases, sequels, from the list below. </div>
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Go on, pick one. Any one.<br />
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<img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1323327702l/11735983.jpg" width="131" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317794278l/11235712.jpg" width="131" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1318379878l/11388429.jpg" width="133" /><br />
<img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1271322714l/2175650.jpg" width="132" />
<img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320418072l/8884616.jpg" width="131" />
<img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320349604l/9064899.jpg" width="131" /><br />
<img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1323546379l/10025305.jpg" width="131" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317869337l/8755776.jpg" width="131" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311704885l/7735333.jpg" width="129" /><br />
<img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311982637l/9275658.jpg" width="133" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1310149690l/10345927.jpg" width="128" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514X5vN2N7L.jpg" width="132" /> <br />
<img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1307385651l/8573642.jpg" width="131" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1308926197l/9413044.jpg" width="131" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1323047366l/10756656.jpg" width="131" />
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<img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1319044443l/11870085.jpg" width="131" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1310649047l/10429045.jpg" width="132" /> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317794332l/11455096.jpg" width="133" />
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Truthfully, that list is more like a recommendations list. Really, any book that you want, be it a pre-order, current release, sequel or whatever, I'm willing to hear whatever it is that you're dying to read this holidays.<br />
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Now, just some details.<br />
<ol>
<li>This giveaway is open internationally, as long as Book Depository delivers to you.</li>
<li>You must be a follower of this blog.</li>
<li>You must comment below with a book you'd like to receive or give away this Christmas.</li>
<li>You must be at least 13+ to enter or have your parent email me with permission.</li>
<li>One entry per person.</li>
<li>Open until <b>midnight Australian EST on December 24.</b></li>
</ol>
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If you have any queries at all, feel free to email me.<br />
nnewcombe(at)hotmail(dot)com<br />
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Good luck!<br />
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<ul></ul>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-59773636055530875672011-12-14T09:00:00.000+11:002011-12-14T09:00:04.409+11:00All You Need Is Love (Or, Are Love Interests Mandatory?)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Okay, story time.<br />
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In July, I attended the <i>Harry Potter </i>midnight session for <i>Deathly Hallows Part 2</i> with a crowd who were dressed for the occasion, had brought chants, cutouts and books with them. Who, for the hour beforehand were prepping themselves for tears, laughter and the overwhelming reaction to the very end of these annual outings. We laughed through Hermione as Bellatrix, bawled through Fred's deathbed, sniffled through the Resurrection Stone scene, and rolled around in our seats laughing when Voldemort hugged Draco. But do you know what had half of the audience on their feet, the audience shrieking with cheers and laughter and drowned-out jokes? The kiss. Ron and Hermione's kiss.<br />
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I am not exaggerating.<br />
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It was, debatably, the most anticipated event of the entire film series.<br />
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When it comes to YA, love interests and the baiting of a potential couple to the readers is basically what drives our trends and our most popular books. And you can argue the opposite as much as you want, but you know that you have slugged through the most banal of YA because of a couple. I have mine. Rose and Dimitri, which soon turned into Rose and Adrian, from Richelle Mead's <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/345627.Vampire_Academy">VAMPIRE ACADEMY</a>. I did, however, give up during book three and read the spoilers instead.<br />
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It doesn't even have to be explicit for readers to latch on. Think about some of the fandoms on Tumblr.com. Even yourself. You've paired people together who were never the canon couples, who would never be drawn to each other in the work. And not just in YA. Think about Sherlock and Watson, or Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, or Stefan Salvatore and Caroline Forbes, or Draco and Hermione.<br />
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There's a lot of talk about the hard sell of YA without a slither of romance, and the absurdity of that. I know there is a lot of tears shed and opinions voiced on the matter, so I'm going to offer mine. Opinion that is, not tears.<br />
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The truth is that romance ups the escapism appeal of a book. It helps to draw you into the world and the plot, because not only do you have this adventure, but you get to spend the whole thing with your ideal so-and-so. I think that's a pretty universal sentiment.<br />
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But with YA, your audience is largely hormonal teenage girls who are lusting after the boy who catches their bus and this-and-that Hollywood star. They want to watch movies about sex and kissing. They want to watch TV shows about sex and kissing. It's pretty safe to assume that they also want to read books about sex and kissing.<br />
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That isn't to say you need to stretch your novel to accommodate for such a plot line. Write your book the way it needs to be written. During revisions you can keep that possibility in mind when you're reworking and making the plot more fluid. But it's not always necessary, and some YA authors have ruined potentially incredible books with this so-called near-requirement.<br />
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For instance, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8673931-possess">POSSESS</a> by Gretchen McNeil. I love Bridget, the protagonist, and I know that she needed some sort of home life away from the exorcising and suchness, but her love interest was <i>not</i> even remotely necessary. I would have been much more interested in further investigation into her father and a possible legacy he had with her exorcisms.<br />
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I'm not saying that every YA has romance at it's core. If romance drives your story, such is the case with TWILIGHT, then you're going to have a very banal soap-operaish series of conflicts. Romance should be an afterthought, a back seat on an adventure. Think <i>Doctor Who</i>. The adventures and conflicts of the Doctor and his companion are the forefront of the series, and occasionally, there's an inkling of a romance (Rose and the Doctor, for example).<br />
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There was a point to this post.<br />
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So, I'd really like to hear your opinion on this. <b>Have you discovered any well-done romance subplots in YA lately? How inclined are you to keep with a book if you're rooting for a couple? Have you got any inkling of romance in your own work?</b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3063922603642640669.post-86188854197351949262011-12-12T09:00:00.000+11:002011-12-12T09:00:03.795+11:00You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round (Or, Old Idea, New Twist)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is going to be me semi-ranting and mostly advising. Which is nothing new on this blog, as you all know.<br />
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Particularly with YA, we are a little obsessive with our trends. We latch on to them and then people get tired and then quality downgrades with mass production within those trends and then we find something else and it all starts all over again. That, or we have tropes so deeply ingrained in us that they just crop up and we can do nothing else but throw up our hands and hopelessly theorise about what we could have done to avoid this.<br />
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Everyone tries to put something fresh on old plots, or common plots, and make them work and brilliant by their own standards. But, especially with these YA trends, sometimes it's the core idea which traps us writers and inhibits our ability to see beyond the seeming conventionalities of said trend.<br />
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Here's one. Let's see if you can name it.<br />
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A seemingly normal girl encounters a mysterious, gorgeous boy who sucks her into a supernatural plot which endangers her life but entwines her fate further with his when threatening elements converge on her town-slash-city.<br />
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There is a whole universe full of titles you could be throwing at me right now.<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41865.Twilight">TWILIGHT</a> is probably the most common.<br />
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Or, even <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6339664-hush-hush">HUSH HUSH</a>. Or, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/395871.The_Awakening_and_The_Struggle">VAMPIRE DIARIES</a>. Or <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6487308-fallen">FALLEN</a>.<br />
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But, no.<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256683.City_of_Bones">CITY OF BONES</a>.<br />
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While they have similar, even identical, elements in common, each of those other books are different from one another. But CITY OF BONES is almost <i>intrinsically </i>different<i>. </i>Don't get me wrong, it has its problems and it borrows heavily from a number of trends and moulds. The girl meets supernatural boy is just its premise, not its story. It goes <i>much</i> deeper than that, and that is exactly what separates it from TWILIGHT.<br />
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Bella is passive, and doesn't have direction beyond the premise. Clary's journey is sparked by the premise and unfolds into a deeply personal endeavour on her part, where she actively engages in the conflict and sways it back and forth.<br />
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Do another one yourself. Like, the dark lord concept with only a plucky hero to face him. What could that be? HARRY POTTER? ERAGON? <i>What?</i><br />
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If you're worried about this, you need to think beyond the premise. Beyond the book.<br />
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You need to isolate the exact premise, figure out the conventional chronology of plot points. Once you've done that, if you've cross-checked a couple examples and made your list, you need to start brainstorming what <i>isn't</i> on that list.<br />
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<b>Character</b>: is there one who <i>can</i> be involved who is <i>completely </i>different to those previous? What traits haven't been used yet? Why do they have to only be a century old, why not millennia, or why not a newborn who's only a few decades ahead of their physical age? Why do they have to be gorgeous and charismatic? Why not overly intelligent or socially stilted?<br />
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<b>Setting</b><i style="font-weight: bold;">: </i>is there somewhere more fitting for your story? Would an angel encounter be more fitting in Vatican City? Or in an Orthodox community somewhere in Eastern Europe? Or even in a Catholic school somewhere in Asia or Africa or South America? Can it be in the past or the future? (And by past I don't necessarily mean the 1800s, it could be the 60s!) Does it <i>have</i> to be in a city or a small town? Why not a small city or a town with heavy tourism traffic?<br />
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<b>Perspective:</b> are you telling the story from the right perspective? Should it be from the human or the supernatural side? Or should it be a rebel against a dystopian government and not a government official struggling with their beliefs in this conflict?<br />
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<b>Genre</b>: could you meld genres here? Could you bring horror elements into a demonic story? Could you combine a murder mystery with ghosts, like Maureen Johnson?<br />
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As far as <b>tropes</b> go, you could turn things on their head, or challenge do's and do not's. Could you look at tropes that belong in other genres or other trends and explore that? Could you not have an uprising against an oppressive vampire governing-body as your main plot, with your naive heroine thrown in at the eleventh hour?<br />
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We've all done it: click out of a tab in frustration because why didn't <i>we</i> think of that spin on that idea. People always find ways of doing it, and there is no reason why we can't challenge the YA audience to spread the reach of its trends with our spins and concoctions.<br />
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<b>Have you ever taken a trunk novel out with the intention of reviving it with a spin? Have you ever stepped back from your novel and fundamentally changed its concept and plot? Have you seen books where the author has tried and abandoned their attempt to subvert conventions? </b>nindogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00402469664507298689noreply@blogger.com4