tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post4242852502165723855..comments2024-03-10T04:29:20.044-04:00Comments on Mad Genius Club: Like A Double ShadowSarah A. Hoythttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17478124095732219352noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-9426339285456830582010-09-16T08:53:33.353-04:002010-09-16T08:53:33.353-04:00This seems somewhat apropos - http://www.unclehugo...This seems somewhat apropos - http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/ah-bujold-lois-more.phpFrancis Turnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09239588633595604498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-24140920650472834442010-09-16T00:12:07.344-04:002010-09-16T00:12:07.344-04:00I do often start with an idea, particularly for SF...I do often start with an idea, particularly for SF. But I think its a fallacy you can divorce action does from character - good action requires good characterisation. My ideas for actions scenes revolve around that particular person doing that, so it still revolves around character.Chris McMahonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17883058490702361466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-45771243492901043692010-09-15T23:21:18.353-04:002010-09-15T23:21:18.353-04:00Stephen,
yes exactly. They do things that surpri...Stephen,<br /><br />yes exactly. They do things that surprise you. Have I mentioned the violin? I had no idea Kit played the violin. And Tom's father asking him "did you eat anyone?" terrified me because it was SO weird and I'd never thought of it.Sarah A. Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17478124095732219352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-27771673633645747392010-09-15T23:15:25.079-04:002010-09-15T23:15:25.079-04:00Brendan,
You got it exactly, that point of half-r...Brendan,<br /><br />You got it exactly, that point of half-reality one reaches for, and which plays havoc with sanity when one reaches it.Sarah A. Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17478124095732219352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-9441907497140239602010-09-15T23:13:38.382-04:002010-09-15T23:13:38.382-04:00Pam,
oh,I have a few that want me to live for the...Pam,<br /><br />oh,I have a few that want me to live for them even though they are UNpublishable.Sarah A. Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17478124095732219352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-75536675100068342262010-09-15T21:41:42.121-04:002010-09-15T21:41:42.121-04:00I realized that the character in my SF series had ...I realized that the character in my SF series had become fully "real" when she fell in love.<br /><br />I didn't do it. I had a vague idea that I would probably need to build in a love-interest in the second book, but no actual plans whatsoever on the subject. (she ends the first book at age 18, so she had plenty of time, after all ...) But I started writing a chapter where she's letting some friends (and the readers) in on the general shape of some of her downstream plans, for the purpose of recruiting their assistance ... and in the second paragraph of the chapter, completely without any input from me, her heart skipped a beat as one of the guys answered the door with his shirt off.<br /><br />I can't fully "walk away" from her, because it's a series. But I started acting (community theater) when I was ten -- so I have some experience at playing a role, bringing it to life ... and then wiping off the greasepaint and putting the costume back on the rack.Stephen Simmonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07522113936557314128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-75957946026515229272010-09-15T19:50:57.168-04:002010-09-15T19:50:57.168-04:00Reading this made me think of Douglas Adams and hi...Reading this made me think of Douglas Adams and his spiel on really getting hold of the reality behind characters.<br /><br /><i>Those who are regular followers of the doings of Arthur Dent may have received an impression of his character and habits which, while it includes the truth and, of course, nothing but the truth, falls somewhat short, in its composition, of the whole truth in all its glorious aspects.<br /><br />And the reasons for this are obvious. Editing, selection, the need to balance that which is interesting with that which is relevant and cut out all the tedious happenstance.<br /><br />Like this for instance. "Arthur Dent went to bed. He went up the stairs, all fifteen of them, opened the door, went into his room, took off his shoes and socks and then all the rest of his clothes one by one and left them in a neatly crumpled heap on the floor. He put on his pyjamas, the blue ones with the stripe. He<br />washed his face and hands, cleaned his teeth, went to the lavatory, realized that he had once again got this all in the wrong order, had to wash his hands again and went to bed. He read for fifteen minutes, spending the first ten minutes of that trying to work out where in the book he had got to the previous night, then he turned out the light and within a minute or so more was asleep.<br /><br />"It was dark. He lay on his left side for a good hour.<br /><br />"After that he moved restlessly in his sleep for a moment and then turned over to sleep on his right side. Another hour after this his eyes flickered briefly and he slightly scratched his nose, though there was still a good twenty minutes to go before he turned back on to his left side. And so he whiled the night away, sleeping.<br /><br />"At four he got up and went to the lavatory again. He opened the door to the lavatory ..." and so on.<br /><br />It's guff. It doesn't advance the action. It makes for nice fat books such as the American market thrives on, but it doesn't actually get you anywhere. You don't, in short, want to know.</i><br /><br />For the full text see Chapetr 25 of "So Long and Thanks For All the Fish"<br /><br />While this is all a bit of fun, I don't think he would have even started telling the joke if Arthur wasn't real enough for him to imagine this really happening.Brendanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12290731721638936110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-67679080826181952142010-09-15T19:34:49.941-04:002010-09-15T19:34:49.941-04:00Matapam,
At least one of my characters doesn'...Matapam,<br /><br />At least one of my characters doesn't want me to get her published. Y'see, one of the follow on stories starts with her getting almost a thousand facebook friend requests when some "outs" her on national news. The conversation with the parents should be funny as heck (to me at least). "Yeah mom, I'm a werelion..." :-PC Kelseynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-40354446403795396102010-09-15T18:57:05.924-04:002010-09-15T18:57:05.924-04:00Yeah, what's wrong with normal people?
Oh, wa...Yeah, what's wrong with normal people?<br /><br />Oh, wait. They can get quite inventive about where they were when the wife called the office, or what happened to their home work. They just haven't taken up creation as a lifestyle.;)<br /><br />And my characters are so independent they don't care if they get published. Or perhaps that's a coping mechanism of mine that slopped over.MataPamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11128604732495114033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-16393458065366137892010-09-15T17:01:09.684-04:002010-09-15T17:01:09.684-04:00Rowena,
Yeah, I know that feeling too. I'm n...Rowena,<br /><br />Yeah, I know that feeling too. I'm not saying I'm always good at keeping in mind it's an illusion. When I was dying in the hospital, (yeah, I survived, but according to the doctors, I WAS dying) fourteen years ago, all I could think was that now my worlds would die with me. I felt very guilty about it, since some had been patiently waiting for years to be written.Sarah A. Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17478124095732219352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-3667065368994239932010-09-15T16:59:41.796-04:002010-09-15T16:59:41.796-04:00Ah, Pam, I like your intimation that we're evo...Ah, Pam, I like your intimation that we're evolutionarilly superior. As I said I've been trying to figure out how this set of genes for er... "Making up crazy sh*t" ever made the Darwinian cut, and I've come to the conclusion the only reason for it is that we were viewed as shammans of some sort and held in religious awe (as well as being entertaining.) What always weirds me out is how "normal" people can't do this as easy as breathing.Sarah A. Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17478124095732219352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-37916129238893442272010-09-15T16:57:54.381-04:002010-09-15T16:57:54.381-04:00Brendan
Actually, that was sort of a an important...Brendan<br /><br />Actually, that was sort of a an important example, because they DID believe these people/gods had existence separate from them and that their playwrights were either channeling the very distant past or the voice of the gods. So it wasn't, you might say, something popular opinion could influence. As such.Sarah A. Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17478124095732219352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-79078079743863608152010-09-15T16:56:49.643-04:002010-09-15T16:56:49.643-04:00Chris,
I doubt your work is crap. And even if it...Chris,<br /><br />I doubt your work is crap. And even if it is, sometimes it needs a little more work... Or a lot more work. Buck up. It took me 9 years from writing my first story to actually selling the first story, then three years more to a story that didn't kill magazines/editors and actually saw the light of day.Sarah A. Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17478124095732219352noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-2405231852958421722010-09-15T16:14:49.983-04:002010-09-15T16:14:49.983-04:00Lovely post, Sarah.
My characters are so real to ...Lovely post, Sarah.<br /><br />My characters are so real to me that if a book doesn't sell, I fee like I've let them down, after all they've suffered through. Now no one will read how their lives end up!Rowena Cory Daniellshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08995983965583233914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-13320533682771804062010-09-15T14:13:17.675-04:002010-09-15T14:13:17.675-04:00The things I do to my characters? All I have to do...The things I do to my characters? All I have to do is loosen my grip and they scramble to escape.<br /><br />It really is a strange thought process. I don't think it's insanity, though. I think it's a different way to use the dream process. It's the normal memory/imagination/analysis/curiousity/organizing and explanitory machinery we evolved with, and we've discovered a new use for it. Sort of like realizing that a forefoot makes a dandy grabber and manipulator.MataPamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11128604732495114033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-87106216835616997082010-09-15T09:31:18.212-04:002010-09-15T09:31:18.212-04:00If you read the later Greek playwrights you sort o...<i>If you read the later Greek playwrights you sort of get a sense of the twin disease of the writer who has come to believe in his own work: First, no dead character can stay dead, particularly those who died young or unfairly (see Iphigenia in Tauris for an example.) They were all miraculously healed/hidden/restored by some god or supernatural being, and come back for more adventures.</i><br /><br />I couldn't help but wonder if this was a case of Sherlockitis. The authors wanted to kill of their characters but the public kept on insisting on more Holmes(or Iphigenia as the case may be.)Brendanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12290731721638936110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4940224740718934743.post-545004393005390502010-09-15T08:44:05.179-04:002010-09-15T08:44:05.179-04:00My characters are the greatest characters to ever ...My characters are the greatest characters to ever char an acter... It's my work that is crap. :-P<br /><br />When it's time for the characters to be left, I just think nasty thoughts at them. Reminding them of just how not nice I can be to them. :DC Kelseynoreply@blogger.com