SUPERNOVA*

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

The Reading Responce that turned to Mega-Bitch

This weeks reading was interesting, in the sense that it gave me a lot to worry about. I had three quarters of the way finished my story, quiet proud of how quickly it was all coming along (in hind sight that should always be a warning), in pausing long enough to reread chapters seventeen and eighteen I found all sorts of flaws in my writing. My characters aren’t exactly memorable, though they are composites of the lovely women in my life. The action isn’t so much action as the main characters self doubt and fear. She’s conflicted only because she’s a tad self pitting, and I doubt I’ve gotten into her skin at all. I have managed to describe the world around her, but I’m becoming paranoid that it’s all trivial mindless stuff that doesn’t quite get across her feeling of hopelessness so much as the fact that despite being witty and articulate she is hopeless.

It’s strange in a sense, as a role play writer I have become acutely aware of the world surrounding my characters. Their transformations, alterations, and devastations unfold easily through a few simple hours of writing with my friends. Even their histories can be summed up in a few paragraphs with paraphrasing and memory alteration. They feel completely real, as though they have lives of their own- yet in some ways many of them remain very flat. There is nothing more to then than that first layer one puts out. I know that even at times I am still guilty of this. It’s hard to give dimensions to someone who A) you know you’re going to kill off, or B) is meant to just be a plaything for the masses around her.

I’ve also see it go the other way though- people spend so much time in the details they completely lose the plot. The devil might be in the details, but there are some characters that are so jam packed with pointless information- or disgustingly dramatic backgrounds- that they lose all meaning. They aren’t real, they are at best what we like to call Misery Mary Sues. These are the characters that have been so abused, so depressed, so wounded and “hurted”, so wha-look-at-me-ish that they can’t allow anyone else to contribute anything. This is not only annoying in forum writing, but a pain in the ass to read as well.

It isn’t often that I’m guilty of characters like this, I find they offer no inspiration because more often then not their stories are dull and lack any action because they’re too busy whining about their miserable lives and the time their daddy didn’t take them to the Christmas party. It’s depressing really, and the plot device relied on most heavily in those times of course is the “saving grace” the person that they fall in love with and makes them turn it all around. HA! I don’t know just who that supposedly happeneds for, but any time I’ve fallen on my backside, I’ve had to pull myself back up. I suppose that’s where we find fiction meets reality? The reality of it is no one can save you if you can’t save yourself- the fiction of it is we all want that special someone to sweep us off our feet and wipe our cares away.

Ahem, I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent now. The only other thing I can really think to say is that they ought to have spent a little more time on names. I think names are one of the most important things about a character, there are some names that just don’t fit. For example, I am sick of hearing names like “Pandora Psyche Grimsby”! I understand that Psyche was a great story in Greek Mythology, as is Pandora, but come on people! Anyone who would name a child Pandora is just cruel. No if, ands, or buts about it- it would be like naming her Apple. I know we’re all guilty of this, I’ve been writing a character for six months named Evangeline- but in my defense, she hates her name and goes by Evie. The rule of thumb I always use is pretty simple really- don’t name your character anything you wouldn’t name your child. It’s cruel and unusual punishment. Besides, if you name her Pandora, everyone will call her Panda, or Panny (which is disturbingly similar in sound to panties).

xoxo SJ at 5:46 PM.

About Me

Name ♥ Sara
Birthday ♥ o1//o2
Horoscope ♥ Aquarius
School ♥ Of Hard Knocks

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