Tropefails
April 27, 2009 at 6:05 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: Fail, Slush, Tropes
So over at Fantasy Magazine they have a blog post asking commentors what fantasy tropes they want to avoid.
I commented on a beginning that one sees often in slush, or in my case in online sf/f/h writers workshops, of a surly swordsman smoking in the corner of a bar waiting to begin his violent tale. (full disclosure here, I once started a tale in this manner) It struck me that there are other stories that you see over and over that just don’t work.
There was one that I saw both an SF and a Horror version of that had a male main character who starts off with a self-condemning voice in his head. He goes on to brutalize and murder a woman and finds out she’s not who he thinks she is. Then the authorities kill him. I can’t tell you how much that story line repulsed me. The authors told me in each case that they pretty much wanted to show a bad guy get his in the end, you are supposed to hate him and then enjoy his downfall.
Yeesh. I’m the guy who gave up on Lolita after he threw the book at the wall at least three times in the first third. Now it may be because I had just sired a beautiful daughter, but I can’t stand reading a book or story wherein the main point is: Look how sick this jerk is!
Slushreaders, feel free to share your personal favorites. Only the first comment needs to be approved, the rest go straight through.
Are writers human in the same way?
April 16, 2009 at 7:27 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: Disconnect, Monsters, Writers
A couple more scenes should do it for my Haunted Man story. Then I have to edit the sucker before next Thursday’s writers’ group.
So here’s what is wrong with writers, we live secondarily. No matter what happens to us we have this voice that says, “Oh this is good, I can use this.” I have heard it compared to a large net we drag around behind our head and all of the stuff that gets caught in it can work its way into our stories.
Last week my 1.5 yr old daughter had an allergic reaction to a cashew. We rushed her to Immediate Care and she got some Benadryl and steroids. We were in the room for a while as they kept checking on her. I was worried, but as I started looking around the room, noticing the sharps containers, the armature lamp from the ceiling, the cabinet marked Urinary Catheters, the voice started talking. You see there is a scene in the story I’m working on that I was just about to write that takes place in a room very like the one I was in.
So I was horrified to be there and see my poor daughter all swollen and red, but I was also writing down details. My wife said, “What are you doing?” And I told her, without looking up, I have a scene in a room like this.
She was not impressed. So, are writers monsters? Are we just separated a bit from normal humanity? I feel like normal people feel the things that happen to them, and writers feel them and then say in our heads, “What is it about this that makes me feel this way on an elemental level? How can I capture it and make others feel it?” Are you still feeling it if you look at it that way, I mean really feeling it?
Feel free to post your thoughts.
Updates and Memes…It’s Bacon!
April 11, 2009 at 1:26 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: Bacon, Cute, Excuses
I don’t tend to balance writing well. I will binge and neglect. Writing a story, I neglect to read, blog, etc. When I discovered Battlestar Galactica DVDs at my local library I watched the whole first season in a row. (Except the last episode some soandso still has checked out!)
I need to schedule my time so I can do a little of each each day.
Anyway, so update time. I am still working on my haunted man story. I am nearing the homestretch on the first draft though. I am now a master sergeant on Call of Duty 4 online. I have almost all of the first season of BSG and am dodging spoilers daily. I remembered I had a blog and posted. 
And now, since it’s Saturday and I can resist the meme no longer here is my entry.
The first meat she ate was spaghetti sauce, but the first meat she loved was bacon
I am a firm believer in cuteness and bacon. I have a theory that meat that comes from cute animals tastes better. Why should the pet animals that have been enjoying cute privilege be spared? Remember the scene in Dragonslayer when the princess stuffs the lotto urn with her name because she regrets having been exempted all those times? (Ironically Peter MacNicol was recently in an episode of Numb3rs re: animal rights)
Thus I would like to say that this bacon came from this pig:
However, this particular bacon came from this not-as-cute pig. Frankly it’s the weirdest looking pig I’ve ever seen.
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