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Post by ronmiller on Mar 24, 2020 15:43:31 GMT
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Post by ronmiller on Mar 24, 2020 15:44:31 GMT
Most of my characters exist solely within the books...that is, there is not much more back story than you get in the text. Bradamant (the heroine of The Iron Tempest) and Velda are both exceptions. Velda, in fact, has an entire biography. Memorable characters take on life and deserve the time and detail that goes into giving them a back story they need if they're going to remain active. Kind of why I fleshed out the back story for the 'Regeneration' series.
The character I'm working with now is explaining certain highlights of her life story from her time living in her version of reality as well as her time living in a reality much more similar to ours, sans COVID-19. It's her way of connecting with the closest thing to extended family she can have, the counterparts of her relatives lost in her world.
Writing a credible biography for a fictional character is not the easiest task, but it can help lure the reader deeper into another world for a time even if it's just for the reader to better appreciate the life he /she / ze has.
You are absolutely right on all counts! The more real the character is to you, the more believable the character will be for the reader. |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 24, 2020 16:55:20 GMT
Memorable characters take on life and deserve the time and detail that goes into giving them a back story they need if they're going to remain active. Kind of why I fleshed out the back story for the 'Regeneration' series.
The character I'm working with now is explaining certain highlights of her life story from her time living in her version of reality as well as her time living in a reality much more similar to ours, sans COVID-19. It's her way of connecting with the closest thing to extended family she can have, the counterparts of her relatives lost in her world.
Writing a credible biography for a fictional character is not the easiest task, but it can help lure the reader deeper into another world for a time even if it's just for the reader to better appreciate the life he /she / ze has.
You are absolutely right on all counts! The more real the character is to you, the more believable the character will be for the reader. Just a matter of bringing the foot so often planted in another world back regularly enough to keep the spouse happy, even though she likes my books she likes to spend time with me.
I should be able to make a PDF copy of this to email you, maybe this evening or in the morning. It's the rough draft and I know there are things i need to correct, but it should give you a decent enough idea of whether a publisher will be interested or not.
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Post by ronmiller on Mar 24, 2020 18:13:57 GMT
You are absolutely right on all counts! The more real the character is to you, the more believable the character will be for the reader. Just a matter of bringing the foot so often planted in another world back regularly enough to keep the spouse happy, even though she likes my books she likes to spend time with me.
I should be able to make a PDF copy of this to email you, maybe this evening or in the morning. It's the rough draft and I know there are things i need to correct, but it should give you a decent enough idea of whether a publisher will be interested or not.
That'd be cool! Thanks! |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 24, 2020 21:50:55 GMT
Just a matter of bringing the foot so often planted in another world back regularly enough to keep the spouse happy, even though she likes my books she likes to spend time with me.
I should be able to make a PDF copy of this to email you, maybe this evening or in the morning. It's the rough draft and I know there are things i need to correct, but it should give you a decent enough idea of whether a publisher will be interested or not.
That'd be cool! Thanks! Updated timeline for the PDF, tomorrow morning to evening, as I've gotten marching orders to perform certain duties like paying attention, helping with dinner, and not baring canine teeth at a six-year-old who just laughs in response. Close to the finish on this tale and ready to jump into the next.
If I wasn't using the chopstick method to type, it would be done already but with vastly more errors.
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Mar 25, 2020 3:18:35 GMT
"Yet oddly enough people still do buy books and use them for the intended purpose rather than as doorstops."
Not enough.
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Post by And still Kevin 2024 on Mar 25, 2020 3:26:18 GMT
Yes I think it's inevitable that we identify with our characters. That's why it must be hard for authors to kill off a character they love, but I suppose if the plot demands it, one must do it!
That is very true, but some writers seem to have a sadistic streak. And the more relatively recent the story, the more sadistic. I suppose 'A Song of Ice and Fire' (renamed Game of Thrones for TV) is a good example. It goes through the usual 'getting to know the character' motions, often over half a book or series, then kills them, often horrifically. Good or bad people.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 25, 2020 10:30:28 GMT
Yes I think it's inevitable that we identify with our characters. That's why it must be hard for authors to kill off a character they love, but I suppose if the plot demands it, one must do it! That is very true, but some writers seem to have a sadistic streak. And the more relatively recent the story, the more sadistic. I suppose 'A Song of Ice and Fire' (renamed Game of Thrones for TV) is a good example. It goes through the usual 'getting to know the character' motions, often over half a book or series, then kills them, often horrifically. Good or bad people. Mr Lomas,
Perhaps the 'seems to have a sadistic streak' is what is the key. Consider writers similarly to companies supplying a product, companies don't something there is no demand for, i.e.: you won't find medicinal tapeworms sold in the pharmacy for weight loss these days because there is no demand for them, yest there used to be.
Writers produce what they supply to meet a perceived demand whether it's a book about history, astronomy, or romance, action, adventure, horror, gore, and all the other labels. Civilization also still has prostitutes, human traffickers, assassins, pharmaceutical companies and narcotraficantes, and a host of other people supplying people's demands.
I could write stories as would leave many readers aghast and dealing with nightmares, but some of the stories I can envision will never be written for that very reason.
Being able to envision or write something disturbing in the sense of the horror or gore it contains doesn't reflect as much about the writer as it does the audience he's writing for.
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Post by ronmiller on Mar 25, 2020 12:08:07 GMT
Yes I think it's inevitable that we identify with our characters. That's why it must be hard for authors to kill off a character they love, but I suppose if the plot demands it, one must do it! That is very true, but some writers seem to have a sadistic streak. And the more relatively recent the story, the more sadistic. I suppose 'A Song of Ice and Fire' (renamed Game of Thrones for TV) is a good example. It goes through the usual 'getting to know the character' motions, often over half a book or series, then kills them, often horrifically. Good or bad people. Mr Lomas,
Perhaps the 'seems to have a sadistic streak' is what is the key. Consider writers similarly to companies supplying a product, companies don't something there is no demand for, i.e.: you won't find medicinal tapeworms sold in the pharmacy for weight loss these days because there is no demand for them, yest there used to be.
Writers produce what they supply to meet a perceived demand whether it's a book about history, astronomy, or romance, action, adventure, horror, gore, and all the other labels. Civilization also still has prostitutes, human traffickers, assassins, pharmaceutical companies and narcotraficantes, and a host of other people supplying people's demands.
I could write stories as would leave many readers aghast and dealing with nightmares, but some of the stories I can envision will never be written for that very reason.
Being able to envision or write something disturbing in the sense of the horror or gore it contains doesn't reflect as much about the writer as it does the audience he's writing for.
And, frankly, one example is hardly a trend. (Although what Kevin suggests is hardly anything recent. Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie had Poirot die.) |
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 25, 2020 17:41:34 GMT
Ron,
Check your email, you should have a draft copy of the novel I just finished in your inbox. I'll chase down errors once I've let the work gain a little distance, and yes I have that Neanderthal story among others percolating for the subsequent novel.
It might help others if you list reasons why a publisher might or might not be interested in the work here.
I know it won't win a Pulitzer, but hopefully it doesn't qualify for a 'Used TP' award.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 26, 2020 15:20:09 GMT
Ron,
I think you might like some of the peoples in the next book, from Denisovan and Neanderthal groups to one or two unknown [to us] species from earlier in the human lineage, as well as a group of Indigenous Americans who look down [with good reason] on their would-be invasive European counterparts.
The spouse gave me permission to start jotting down some notes, and she's already seeing some of the irony involved. Too many Anatomically Modern Humans [AMHs] equate apparent technological level with level of intelligence or lack thereof, since an individual looking 'primitive' doesn't necessarily correlate with that individual having a fairly low IQ.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2020 19:19:36 GMT
If I wasn't using the chopstick method to type, it would be done already but with vastly more errors.
Sphinx-Cameron, I too use the chopsick way of typing. It would take me ages to type a short story for my writing group. My friend advised buying the program "Dragon". However I was horrified at the price of the latest programme wnich she had. So I went to ebay and bought, second hand, an earlier version. It isn't as good as hers but it takes less time than "chopsticks". I just speak into a microphone. Unfortunately it does make some mistakes and I have to correct them, but I just highlight the mistake and speak the correct word into the mike that comes with it. If that doesn't work I have to type in the correct word. My friend's version hardly makes any mistakes, so for those who can afford it, go for the latest programme.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 26, 2020 20:01:18 GMT
If I wasn't using the chopstick method to type, it would be done already but with vastly more errors.
Sphinx-Cameron, I too use the chopsick way of typing. It would take me ages to type a short story for my writing group. My friend advised buying the program "Dragon". However I was horrified at the price of the latest programme wnich she had. So I went to ebay and bought, second hand, an earlier version. It isn't as good as hers but it takes less time than "chopsticks". I just speak into a microphone. Unfortunately it does make some mistakes and I have to correct them, but I just highlight the mistake and speak the correct word into the mike that comes with it. If that doesn't work I have to type in the correct word. My friend's version hardly makes any mistakes, so for those who can afford it, go for the latest programme. Well, part of the reason I chopstick type is it's been several years since I was using all they fingers to type roughly 70 words a minute. I could get back into it, and the novel it just took 19 days to write would have been finished in a few days.
The problem is the amount of editing vis a vis corrections would have been horrendous. My first two novels [roughly 60K and 70K words apiece] took two and three weeks to write in the time I had before and after work. The editing of each took about four to five times longer than the actual writing.
The chopstick method forces me to slow my fingers down while I visualize what's happening, meaning other than some small stupid errors there's not huge problems to fix, I hope.
Dragon would be nice, except Prinz Liam and the rest of the crew would confuse the heck out of the software due to the bedlam of young children. Brief outbursts of "yah yah yah" or "you guys you guys you guys" and similar might make for interesting dialogue at certain points, but I tend to prefer adding my own.
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Post by ronmiller on Mar 26, 2020 23:26:24 GMT
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 26, 2020 23:41:13 GMT
Looks like I need to get more indepth, while not causing the spouse to seek my separation from the keyboard. |
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