look, i can't think of a title, right?
Write what you know?
Posted 5th October 2008 at 01:02 PM by chopper
well, that's what They advise, anyway. which isn't a great problem unless you're writing about dragons (unless chrispy knows something i don't....)
it's a hard slog at the moment because i have a goal to reach and some unpleasant writing to get me there. the story requires cassia to have a choice between travelling with her father and travelling with the two mysterious chaps who have spirited them both out of their normal lives. the thing is that her father is (putting it mildly) an unpleasant man. very self-centered. uses his fists. this is stuff i don't have much personal experience in. i have the experiences of other people i can draw on, but a lot of those are far far darker than any place i want to go. and i don't want the guy to overwhelm the first few chapters of the book, as we won't be seeing him again.
so the going is very slow and painful. trying to write all this from cassia's POV without making her a passive victim, and not wallowing in nasty detail while also making his abusive behaviour believeable - not easy. it's tempting to leave it, skip off and write another part.
the point to this? i'm not sure there is one, but i certainly didn't set out intending to write the characters in this way - they seem to have developed into this relationship. not something that ever looked likely with the last Great Unfinished Project. but maybe that's why this one feels more complete and more challenging?
it's a hard slog at the moment because i have a goal to reach and some unpleasant writing to get me there. the story requires cassia to have a choice between travelling with her father and travelling with the two mysterious chaps who have spirited them both out of their normal lives. the thing is that her father is (putting it mildly) an unpleasant man. very self-centered. uses his fists. this is stuff i don't have much personal experience in. i have the experiences of other people i can draw on, but a lot of those are far far darker than any place i want to go. and i don't want the guy to overwhelm the first few chapters of the book, as we won't be seeing him again.
so the going is very slow and painful. trying to write all this from cassia's POV without making her a passive victim, and not wallowing in nasty detail while also making his abusive behaviour believeable - not easy. it's tempting to leave it, skip off and write another part.
the point to this? i'm not sure there is one, but i certainly didn't set out intending to write the characters in this way - they seem to have developed into this relationship. not something that ever looked likely with the last Great Unfinished Project. but maybe that's why this one feels more complete and more challenging?
Total Comments 1
Comments
 |  What I know But then I might as well be writing a technical manual. If I'm in speculative fiction, it's precisely to write what I don't know, while garnishing it with enough down-to-Earth details that my total ignorance is inconceivable. I might be wrong, but I'll be definitively wrong. And my dragons are never abusive towards their offspring. They might well kill them and eat them, but only if they come into contact with them, which both parties attempt to avoid. |
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Recent Blog Entries by chopper
- i'm mobile! (technically) (4th January 2009)
- Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... (29th December 2008)
- Write what you know? (5th October 2008)
- i know how it ends - the butler did it.... (12th September 2008)
- the slow movement (9th September 2008)
