Technology Hates My Thesis and Some Etc. Artwork

I'm determined to have a more regular posting schedule this semester and so far, I feel I'm not doing too badly. This is the second post in less than a week. We're doing well my friends. Very well, indeed.

When Technology Rebels

Today, I meet with my thesis adviser to pass off two more chapters. I wanted to have more, but with the lightning storms, tornadoes and evil printers eating what little was left of my paper supply, I'm lucky to have that much. The other two chapters I wanted print off were either eaten whole or were not up to my usual standards. Graduate school applications and graduation rigmarole stressed me out, just a tad, so my blog schedule so far this semester pretty much mirrors my writing schedule. I am proud of what I'm turning in though - so at least, I have that.

Artwork to Appease the Tech Gods

Here and on my new Deviantart account, I give you a few pieces that accompany my novel/thesis. Please keep in mind that I am not a formally trained art student, nor have I had lessons in Photoshop 7. I'm self-taught, so please, let that temper your judgment of my artistic merit and any errors inherent in the work. Also, their heights are not accurate in this two pictures. The lady is actually about four inches shorter than the guy.

The character on the left is one of the more powerful females in my story. Fearre is the last of her House and leads her men into combat on giant wolves. In drawing her, I wanted her to be sexy and cool, but not the typical short-skirt stereotype. I think I balanced her fairly well. Fearre is a no nonsense sort of character and I hope her outfit and design show that.

The character on the right is one of my most tragic in his role as The Traitor. Laer always wants what he can't have and in the end, he destroys everyone and everything he loves to get it. He's a character torn between a few cultures and through the course of the story uses specific aspects of each to help him realize who he is. This is an outfit of his homeland, so it's not very culturally mixed. At some point, I'll do a sketch of him nearer the end of the story when he has settled on a specific look.

I'll probably post some more sketches on Sunday, but I'll drop by to post on everyone's Friday Snippets. See you then!

So say we all.
Bri

Writing in Shades of Grey...With a Hat

CREATION v. DESTRUCTION

After reaching today's word count, I wrote out some theme ideas and how to work them into the story. My characters use violence or pacifism - depending on their morals and what would better serve their causes. So, I've got a theme of creation v. destruction.

WHITE HATS v. BLACK HATS

Most of these characters make these decisions based on their personal backgrounds. The protagonist will not always chose "creation" and the antagonist will not always chose "destruction." They will chose like any "real" person would - based on background, personal experience, and circumstance.

If they didn't, they would be typecast as "heroes" or "villains." And everyone knows that while villains are tons of fun to write, heroes can be boring and predictable. I generally detest the idea of writing a villain who is evil, only for evil's sake, or a hero who does good...only because it's the right thing to do. I know I sound like a cynic, but hear me out.

I enjoy characters who make these decisions based on human need, who are interesting flawed. I don't like characters who are motivated by high-minded ideals or gutter-deep depravity - at least not at first. I don't mind if eventually the protagonist gains higher goals or motivation, or the villain darker intentions and plots. I love the characters who deal with the conflicts as humans. Not as characters.

Obviously, both types of "good" and "bad are necessary - I just prefer one over the other in what I read.

SOME EXAMPLES TO CLARIFY

• Protagonists: Equality 7-2521 in Anthem, Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Howl in Howl's Moving Castle, Han Solo in Star Wars, Mal Reynolds in Firefly
• Heroes: Robin Hood, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Superman, Captain America, Luke Skywalker

• Antagonists: Jaime Lannister in A Song of Ice and Fire, Denethor in The Lord of the Rings, Deth in The Riddlemaster, Vicious in Cowboy Bebop
• Villains: Sauron in The Lord of the Rings, the Borg in Star Trek, the Agents in The Matrix Trilogy, the blue-handed men in Firefly
  

So say we all.
Bri

When the World (R)evolves Around a Character

In the fall semester of 2006, I drafted the first 200 pages of the first book of XIII. While I've worked steadily on this series for most of my adult life, this book always made me skittish. The middle and the end of the series were not difficult to write, but the beginning was always the bane of my existence. The reason?

My protagonist was like a rock star. A celebrity. Unlike celebrities in the real world, the entirety of the fictional world I created revolved around this guy and his choices. I had to write him exactly as I imagined him, because he was so utterly important to the plot and development of the other characters. He. had. to. be. awesome. All the time. But writing like that was exhausting and intimidating.

So, I solved his ego problem today: the revisions have gone smoothly since. I just had to force myself to realize my hero didn't - couldn't - know his own destiny. As such, I shouldn't write him as though he already carried that weight. He can be reckless. He can be young. He has no idea that at some point, everything will depend on him. So that's that.

Keep your ears open: there's something secret a few of us are creating in the blog-iverse. It has a little something to do with revolutions and evolution...and maybe a little writing. I'll be sure to keep you posted, because I'm sure you'll enjoy.

So say we all.
Bri

Petticoats & Parisols...or...Swords & Shields?

The past week was wonderfully productive. After writing out an outline for XIII's first book, I am pleased to announce that for the next month, I will plunge toward a disastrously high word count of 50,000 words. I realized late last night that if I did not give myself a cruel deadline, I would never put my story into descent prose, dooming XIII to remain in note-outline form for all eternity.

So...
After looking over my notes, I realized my protagonist's sister was interesting, but because of limited "screen time" came across as a trope character. As one of the few female leads, I wanted her to do more than just fill a slot in my protagonist's family. I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted, but I knew I did want to stay away from stereotypes: Warrior Queen, Maiden in the Tower, Priestess-Healer, Crazy Feminist Man-Hater etc. She needed to be believable, not a joke of herself.

To remedy this, I decided to split the novel between brother and sister, giving them separate but intertwined plot lines. But the sister still seemed a stereotype. In a last desperate effort, I wrote her as a male character, in the first person. After two or three scenes, I surveyed my work, changing all pronouns and names to reflect feminine gender. And that was when I discovered to my amazement-horror that the sister was suddenly fascinating and complex. Traditional masculinity displayed through dominance, decisiveness, logic and rationale, mixed with her mild femininity and innocence, all turned the little sister into a driving force of the novel.

I'm not sure what this says about my sensibilities, but I can say that I am very pleased with the results. Thoughts?

So say we all.
Bri

p.s. Thanks to Jocelyn, Charlie, Martin and Pam for the great brainstorming sessions in the wee hours of the morning.

Digging out of a Rut

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I just returned from a brief vacation to San Antonio to visit my aunt and her two massively fat cats. I've been editing my three short stories this week and hope that by the time I return to school, they may be ready to send out to various magazines.

As far as the "Hard Lessons" post is concerned I've been working on this as well. The problem, in brief, was that my narration style had gone very "anonymous." I couldn't tell my voice from the narrators in a few short stories, and I knew my critic-friend was right when she said that if I did not stop this habit now, I would probably never be able to stop it. And the fear for me was that I might find myself writing the same characters for the rest of my writing life - so the effort to get myself out of this rut has been tremendous. And needless to say, it has paid off in so many ways.

I'll let you know more about this as it progresses, but just know that whatever problems there was, I feel like I am steadily gaining ground on it. My posts may be scattered for the next few weeks, seeing as how the end of the term is rushing down on us with a mountain of tests, papers, book reports and short stories as well as portfolios. I will be posting links to various other writers' blog within this week, so be looking for that in the sidebar.

Last note: my Into Print professor recommended a book called Chapter by Chapter, and while I have only made my way through the first three exercises, I strongly (repeat, strongly) recommend it for anyone even interested in writing. What I have done so far as helped tremendously in my own work - so at least go check it out.

So say we all.
Bri

On Unreliable Narrators and Blog Posts

Today, I attended a craft lecture about "unreliable" narrators and while what the lecturer had to say about the craft of fiction irked some of my sensibilities, I found some of his ideas fascinating. One of the things that I have decided to do in the Breaking the Bowl short story is to play with the idea of an "unreliable" narrator and his constantly shifting memories. He relates his knowledge of combat and death to what he knows of love and the dark of space and loss. I think, once I articulate the ideas clearly on paper, the images will work exceptionally well together to come to a very powerful conclusion.

The other thing I was thinking on today was the idea of how religious an experience listening to music can be. I was listening to the soundtrack for 300 and The Fountain, and I found scenes for short stories and my novel coming to life in my head. Look for a sidebar tomorrow listing off some of my favorite mixes. The songs may be of benefit to those of you who want some listening suggestions, but will also be helpful to me in remembering some of the music that helps stir inspiration.

At the current time, I am working on the design of this site which will be changing drastically within the next few hours. Hopefully, what I'm doing will work well, but we'll have to see. What's done is done.

So say we all.
Bri