by Sin | September 23rd, 2009
Seriously, you can’t get any funnier than a picture of flaming zombies. Has nothing to do with my blog. Music of the week: Pin Up- Evans Blue- The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends
PS: I have to say, Happy Birthday, to my little sister today. Happy birthday, punk.
I’m very linear in my methods of writing. I like the unknown that unfolds in front of me while I write from one scene to the next. I like how my characters whisper to me exactly what they want to say and how they want everything to go down. It’s not exact science, it’s not neat and pretty and tied with a hot pink bow, but it’s me. It’s how I roll.
Well at least how I used to roll.
Writer me has been in complete chaos lately. She hears a scene and she goes with it- very old school me. She hears the next and she moves on- also very old school me. Except, the old school me and the writer me lately is not meshing. I’m writing all out of order. This doesn’t sound like it may be as big of a deal as I’m making it, except, I don’t write a plot out and outline and do those chart thingys or read those books y’all are always trying to get me to pick up. So, I have no direction. No writing compass to guide me forward and I’m feeling a bit like I’m in limbo while I’m stumbling around writing character POV’s that don’t even get a POV.
Ah, the joys of first person point-of-view.
Monday, I stumbled upon a quote of my semi-villain, Kady, telling me it’s so easy to destroy everything once you know how to apply the right amount of pressure. I felt like that maybe I was meant to write the ending first. Not to mention my unfortunate dangerously vivid imagination light bulb went off after being wickedly prompted yesterday and I had to write something about a button up shirt and a dark hallway between Kiki and Dex to get it out of my head. (Nevermind that. Those two need to be separated. In a bad way.) And Ruiz can’t handle Sadie. And Ash hasn’t even made his presence known yet, but I’m thinking about a kidnapping in his future. *sigh* Seriously. How did I get into this mess in the first place?
I’m shaking my head at all this nonsense.
So, after a blog filled with really no substance lets talk if you write linear or nonlinear. Which do you prefer? What’s the benefits of either side? Because at the moment, I’m not finding any. Readers, do you think you notice while you’re reading if a writer pieced it all together at the end?
And someone, PLEASE, tell my muse vacation time is OVER.
Last I heard she was in Cabo drinking mojitos and screwing cabana boys. She’s about three inches tall, wearing an “I Heart Nerds” leotard, pink tutu with matching leg warmers, pink diamond encrusted tiara and usually clutches a pink fuzzy diary with entries of her various nerd encounters. (Open at your own risk.) Her name is Ms. Scarlet Coco. If you see her, grab her by her hair and drag her ass back. And she’s had her shots. So if she bites, feel free to bite back.
It’s one reason why I have such a problem with some lines they tend to candy-coat atrocities or ignore them all together.
In a genre where you’re not allowed to kill the dog, it doesn’t surprise me you’re not allowed to mention the squalid conditions of everyday life, medicine or working conditions.
I have an aunt who is really deep into Wicca and we were talking once about creating a time travel where a female priestess got sent back to the time when the Druids were so awful to women.
Hellie – Queen of Tough Love!
Hellie, actually the highwayman’s name was Mad Jack McGhee. I had fun with that guy. lol
Yeah, but the military stuff the guy picked apart was useful though. I did need to know that my hero couldn’t just rush home from Waterloo without first selling his commission and it helped for figuring out the proper rank and regiment, etc. All stuff that was basically said in passing, but I didn’t want to cause any red flags. So it was a mixed reaction to the criticism.
The one I love is, the borders were calm during this time. Is that so?
What year was the book set? I would wager anything set after 1745 would have a “calm border”–Culloden destroyed the clans.
Not the queen of tough love. Just well aware of the frailties of human evolution and the sheep mentality of groups. Oh, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Human nature doesn’t change. Individuals can though.
Hel – You need a hug!
Don’t hurt me!
I am simply not so cynical. I know, ya call it realistic. But if yer writin’ a romance, than ya let it go against the reality a’ things…
Hel – You need a hug!
Don’t hurt me!
Sorry, that just cracked me up big time. LMAO
Jus’ don’t get between me and Hel as she glares at me. Ya might go up in flames!
I suddenly got a mental image of Buddy the Elf trying to hug the raccoon. About the same difference.
I think giving two people a happy ending is going against the reality of things enough. I don’t want a whole fairy tale–that just ruins the story for me.
Hellie, have you seen a book that makes the town accepting of her witchery? I haven’t read many American historicals during this time.
It’s ironic how ‘religious believers’ were so very superstitious. I read accounts of how if a mother died in child birth then the baby was marked as a witch. Or that the mid-wife cast a spell on the child to spread the crafting. And if the child died, then the mid-wife sometimes was accused of witch craft.
Odd that doctors could use leeches in healing but if healing herbs were used there was a danger in being accused of wrong doing.
I don’t know. It’s like when a mixed race couple, prior WWII, would move to Paris fer a happy endin’ since the US be impossible fer them.
So, the Puritan and the witch leave Salem… Wouldn’t that work?
I know, and go where? But still!
In a genre where you’re not allowed to kill the dog, it doesn’t surprise me you’re not allowed to mention the squalid conditions of everyday life, medicine or working conditions.
Well, I kill the dog and mention the squalid conditions.
My ms is placed in 1603, but I’ve been called on it at least once and I had to laugh. I’ve also been called on a town that I place in the debatable lands. I’ve done my research and know it’s there and when I was called on it I double checked. Yep, it was still there.
You go, Rene! Don’t ya love it when ya can face down the finger shakers?
Chance, could they disappear amongst the Iroquois.
Go back to England. Maybe go to the islands. What if they were abducted by aliens? LOL (I think I’m lacking sleep)
Well, in my world…aliens be an option…but I be mad. I like the islands option…
Hellie, have you seen a book that makes the town accepting of her witchery?
No, but I’m waiting. I just didn’t want to go off about Regency set novels *again*. I thought I’d pick a different time period.
Chance, I’m the girl who heard an editor in a chat room once say that a piss pot was an automatic rejection. You know what I did? In my first Highlander series, my heroine tosses a piss pot out the window to spite the hero, in my second, my entire first scene revolves around a piss pot, and in my third my klutzy heroine gets her foot stuck in one. And you know what, each of these scenes work perfectly where they are. Once I get the piss pot series done, I’ll be done trying to prove I can do something I heard shouldn’t be done.
LOL, Hellie. Yeah I haven’t picked up a Regency for a while. But there were some Victorians that kind of bugged me. Oh well, they’re in print and I’m not, yet.
I read accounts of how if a mother died in child birth then the baby was marked as a witch.
Wow, there must have been a LOT of witch babies then.
Doesn’t surprise me though. In my local churchyard, there is a row of baby graves in the back of the church yard. Not marked because they were the burial spots of babies who hadn’t been baptized yet. This is a BAPTIST CHURCH, which isn’t supposed to believe in that sort of thing. And this is mid-1800s. 200 more years to be less superstitious–and you’re still burying babies in the back in unmarked graves because they’ll contaminate the churchyard.
So, the Puritan and the witch leave Salem… Wouldn’t that work?
Yes, I would. But where would they go?
And I read The Shape of Mercy…and there was a scene where basically they left or tried to leave–and the townsfolk still got them. Basically the long arm of the law will reach you. You can’t go somewhere else and live in sin. THAT I could believe.
But maybe if they take a boat to Paris, I might believe it. Though they’d be surrounded by Catholics so I don’t know how their circumstances have improved.
Maybe they can fall through a bolt hole and go to an alternate history in time.
Renee, you are such a rebel.
I get tired of the shouldn’t's too.
Huzzah, Renee, for killing the dog! Good for you! (And funny about checking the town to make sure it was still there. *LOL*)
The Piss Pot Series…I love the Promotional items for this series…hilarious.
But they USED piss pots! I don’t get it!
But everyone taking a bath every single night is hilarious too.
Oh, speaking of baths, when I was doing some research I found a drawing of a tub. A really cool tub. It was in the shape of an octagon with a column in the middle. There were faucet type things around the column. My imagination went wild and I was thinking of using it. My hero’s grandfather was quite eccentric and bathing everyday would have been normal for him.
So, if write historical, strictly correct, you’re a linear writer, right? Because ya write accordin’ ta correct time and circumstance.
But if’n ya write alternative historical, blantantly incorrect, you’re a non-linear writer…
Thought it might be nice ta touch on Sin’s original topic agin!
Chance, that almost makes sense. You had me for a minute. I can just see myself in a college class writing that down in my notebook as as gospel, nodding like I understand and then suddenly going…now, wait a minute…lol
hee, hee. Well, if time is linear… History has an outline… I certainly remember doin’ history outlines when in school…
But the theories do abound about the real nature of time…perception? More?
A question for Q perhaps!
All of these comments are the reasons I write straight contemporary. Not that I won’t get called out about things, but I’m willing to deal with that. Not willing to argue over cravat or no cravat.
I love the piss pot story. What does she expect, that we’ll pretend they have toilets? Or better yet, no one ever goes to the bathroom. *rolls eyes*
Of course no one ever uses the bathroom! That isn’t romantic! They also never get acne, yeast infections, food poisoning…
Ah…! Romance!
I read a Jo Beverly once that was set on a ship. And the heroine actually had her “courses”. I was so proud of Jo. LOL!
I always refer ta them as monthlies…