Random musings about your writing....

Yay for coming out of the closet of, uh, secret sci-fi writers. I'm not sure if such a closet exists. Maybe I need to build one so you can make a grand entrance out of it. There could be a cool, beaded door hanging. That would help with your dramatic exit!

Shady_Lane, I'm just wondering, are most of your main characters guys? I don't think I'd be able to effectively pull of a male MC. I don't understand the male mind well enough. Actually, I don't think I want to understand the male mind too much. I could be scarred for life.

Sorry! I won't call you Shady_Lane anymore. Shady. Shady. Shady. Shady. Shady. Shady. Okay, I think I got that straight.

So, anyone else want to muse?

I have a love affair with talking animal stories.

There, shoot me.

Seriously, though:

LC has talking gophers (fairies) and chickens.
Blue has a talking cat.

It seems as though talking animals are of the norm in Crin. *sigh*

I used to write about males a lot, but now I write mostly about females. I don't know why I switched, probably because I think female MC's make a situation more dramatic, which I like. If a man gets slapped it's less dramatic than if a woman gets slapped -- terrible example, but it gets my point across.

I'm a pretty relaxed, laid back person on the surface. My characters tend to reflect the insanity beneath, or my really sharp tongue. It's a defense mechanism I built up over the years, but I'm not proud of it. Most of the time I regret what I say when people push me over the edge.

However, my nasty streak has done wonders for enhancing Dictionary's character. He's a snide, sarcastic, bitter attorney, also known as Flarminkie.

...yeah, my head's all messed up. You should see my artwork.

Shady Lane said:

Haha, I don't think it's a bad example.

I'm just a super super emotional person, so I tend to expect all women to be super super emotional. My boys are probably pretty stoic, so, when they do break down, it's beautiful.

Or at least it's supposed to be.

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Oh goodness, it is beautiful when a tough, troubled boy finally breaks down... at least it is in books.

EDIT: 3 posts were written while I was writing this one. Wow.

Ah, Shady, I'm a super emotional person too! I'm a crier, and most of my girl MCs tend to be criers. I guess as authors we do put bits of ourselves in our characters, even though, I assure you, many of MCs are the quintessential anti-me.

As for the crying, well, the one really does have a good reason. Her best friend slash guy-she-thought-was-her-soul mate died, so yeah, that could send you into a crying frenzy. My other MC cries over guys and is just over dramatic, like me. My newest MC cries on her first day at a new school and after a guy rejects her, but I'll be toughening her up in the rewrite, so maybe she'll be my first non-cryer!

Ha...another random musing. When talking about my writing, I tend to totally discount my first novel that I wrote when I was twelve/thirteen. I never mention those characters, though I think I love them most of all. That book is just so different from the books I write now, and the romance is a small, small subplot. The big romantic scene is a slow dance! But hey, they're geeky eighth graders. That's how it should be. Also, I discount my NaNo novel too, which was an urban fantasy.

Shady Lane said:

Dictionary is such a ridiculously fantastic name.

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I. Love. Dictionary. I totally want a piece of that fairy booty.

The first long piece of fiction I wrote was about 20k words. It was fanfiction, with some original characters thrown in. It wasn't until later that I realized these original characters were trying desperately to break out and tell their story...

So, I hope to do them credit later in life, when I finally write their story. I swear, it'll make you cry. It'll make me cry. It makes me cry just to think about the ending. Because, you know, it's that awesome.

I refuse to believe my first novel was bad! It was just....inadequate for the needs of the marketplace.

My female characters only cry when they're painful experiences are building up inside them, and they need to let it out, which is always around the middle/end of the story.

Okay, let's see...

- In my first novel, which I started nearly three years ago and finished over two years ago but am still fixing as I keep learning more and realizing all of the mistakes I made, the MC was supposed to be a boy until the night before I started writing. Not sure what happened, but it worked much better with her as a girl. She's kind of a wallflower, and a bit klutzy, with a rather controlling father who she's intimidated by, and she is both enthralled by and intimidated by her oldest brother. Her next oldest brother, though, is her closest friend. It all just seemed to work better with a girl.

- Other than that first one, all of my MC's are boys/men. I don't know why. I just like writing them better, and I feel like I can write them with more honesty. I got along with my now-husband's roommates in college better than I did with my own, and I loved the way they dealt with issues they had with each other - direct, to-the-point, and often with a half-joking threat of physical pain. No huffing, no snitty remarks - imagine that! Fun fun fun.

- I love writing (and reading) about sibling and sibling-like relationships. That's pretty much all that any of my stories are about.

I have this thing in my writing, not necessarily about the sibling relationships, but in new relationships themselves.

It's always about boy meets girl (or boy), and that developing relationship is the backburner of the real story. I think it's from rereading Wally Lamb's books so many times, and the way the characters seem like real people.

SinkFulloDishes said:

- I love writing (and reading) about sibling and sibling-like relationships. That's pretty much all that any of my stories are about.

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I think that's pretty interesting! I always have siblings in my stories, but they're never essential to the main plot. In the novel I'm submitting, the girl's older, protective brother interferes with her love life. I know that sounds like such a horrid cliche! In one of my other novels, the little sister basically served as a way to make the MC more sympathetic; when the MC hung out with her, she was less of a jerk. It didn't work. All the agents still thought she was unsympathetic.

Anyway, I also think it's interesting the gender of your character changed when you started writing it. Most of my ideas just seem to be for females, except for one I've had recently, mostly because the idea centered around the name Greybert.

Shady Lane said:

Ooh, what are everyone's character names for all your books?

I'll do mine:

Carnival: Josiah, Kyle, Charlie, Sawyer, and Trey

Christmastime: Ian, Noel, and Caitlin.

Singleton: Dmitri, Sasha, and Renee.

Nimble: Griffin and Zach.

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If I name all my characters, it'll be a long list, but to simplify...

The Crown of Jenali: Salomah, Judith, Ruth, Leto, Kalikar, Jeremaias, and Demetreus

Absolute Simplicity: Megan, Sarah, Adam, Diane, and Tim

I tend to have one central relationship in all my stories. I start with the relationship, and build up from that. Right now, I'm working on a novel that's mostly about a mother-son relationship (though the dead dad haunts the whole book. Metaphorically, that is). It's so common in YA fiction to have parents that are conveniently absent for the whole book, but my parents played a huge role in my teenage life and I'm sure I'm not the only one. For one thing, I couldn't drive (got a license, then went and smashed up my car), so they had to drive me everywhere. Anyway, in my novel I thought I'd explore a relationship where the kid and his mom are practically equals -- they both earn money for the household, and for various reasons, they have to take care of each other.

Another novel I've been planning is about an older sister - younger sister relationship. And the one I'm going to write after that is about a college student's relationship with an older guy.

Shadows of Evil: Dylan, Julie, Jordan, Skye, Caleb, and Kate. Then there's the Witch Ducress, Adrienne, and the Lady in Green.

Witch Eyes: Braden and Jade, Riley (who's name might change, she hasn't decided yet), and Mal (who's name is definitely changing, when I can think of something better). Then there's Lucien, and Catherine, and Braden's father who's nameless.