writerly ways

[cornerofmadness]

I'll be keeping this relatively short because I'm still watching the Star Trek marathon. I'm going to end up with a blood clot in my leg if I don't start moving. If nothing else I did move about making banana jam and then some pasta carbonara. It was pretty good.

I won't be getting much else done today because in an hour they'll be rerunning Amok Time, Mirror Mirror & Trouble with Tribbles three of my favorites so I'm going nowhere. So much for writing. I did get my test for tuesday done.

Anyhow, writerly ways. I realize I'm drawn to and write best one particular type of character. I was reading Attack on Titan and thought huh, you know i really don't like the main character because he's rather dumb. I like instead Armin and Zoe who are intelligent. I thought about it further. I preferred Willow and Giles to Buffy. I prefer Yukio to Rin.That FMA is my favorite manga because they're ALL intelligent. So on and so forth.

Then I realized that most of my characters are highly intelligent. When I write someone who isn't, I struggle. Enter Luc and my troubles with this novel. I love Luc but he is hard for me to write. I wish that weren't true. Luc is one of the reasons the novel got kicked back for revisions. They said he was 'like a secondary character with more screen time' 'too passive' 'only reacted to other characters but never on his own.'

Yes and no. SOme of this is valid. Not all. Luc IS passive. He's abused and beaten down. That's his fucking arc for pete's sake. By the end of the novel, he's ready to stand on his own feet. ANd Luc DOES do stuff on his own. He's studying for the GEDs and he has a friendship with a local diner waitress and helps her kids. I guess that doesn't count or something.

Maybe it's Luc's lack of intelligence that's part of my problem bringing him alive to be a main character.

I need to know how I'm supposed to improve the world building (um, you know it's earth, it's already built. I think they mean description based on examples) and beef up Luc AND cut word count at the same time. At least I know one plot thread I will be cutting. That should help. At least I figured out how to make Arrigo grow. He hates dealing with fledglings and doesn't want to train them. enter Luc.

I'll bbl with my word count for the day.

Have more of the links Betty sent me.

Moral dilemmas to improve characters


Marketing tips

Avoiding publishing blunders

vivid writing


transforming heroes into villains

dealing with feedback podcast I haven't heard this yet since my internet is connecting at 1.2 mps sigh.


Day 11 - 306 words


And I did have a graphic for 9/11 but can't find it. I suppose I could get another but instead I'll just stop for a moment of contemplation instead.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I like the article on transforming heroes into villains. Innnteresting.

Enjoy your star trekkin!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I thought that was the best of the bunch myself.

I AM!