Hello, all!
In today's teaser, Rose is returning from an excursion on her own, in which she is attempting to befriend one of the guards at the prison where her family is held, but which she neglected to tell Avar about. He's not too happy.
Enjoy!
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*snipped*
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Secondary Characters
Ask someone "who is your favorite Harry Potter character" and you get a lot of different answers. I guarantee you that at LEAST half the time, their answer won't be Harry, Ron, or Hermione. I myself always answer with Sirius, Lupin, and Tonks, and sometimes Luna as well.
There are a good many things that irritated me about the last few books the first time I read them, but over break, I sat down and read the whole series again, a little more slowly than my usual breakneck-must-finish-book-NOW speed. And I realized that while there are some flaws to the books, in my mind at least, J K Rowling is astonishingly good at several things.
The first of course is world building, but that's a post for another day. What really struck me about the HP universe about two months ago was that Ms. Rowling works with a very large cast of characters. An almost astoundingly large cast. Think about it: you've got the three main characters, plus all the other Gryffindors, plus the other students at Hogwarts, plus the teachers, plus Ron's entire enormous family, plus the Order of the Phoenix, plus the Dursleys, plus the Death Eaters. That's a lot of people to keep track of, let alone make distinct, and yet somehow she does. Every single one of the Weasleys has his or her own completely developed personality. All of the teachers and adults are distinct and real (and in my opinion extremely awesome).
I think if I ever send her fan mail, I'm going to ask her how the heck she does such a good job with secondary characters. I can only hope she's got a form response about that.
I personally struggle with minor characters. I work in time periods where people would have had very large families, and yet Rose only has two siblings and Avar only has one. I worry about my secondary characters, that they're one-dimensional, that they're really only there for a specific purpose (or otherwise that people will wonder "what's he got to do with anything?").
I suppose what I ought to do is go through each of their motivations step by step, the way I did with Rose and Avar. After all, apparently Ms. Rowling has endless back story on some of those secondary characters that never made it into the books. Perhaps that's what makes them so real; the fact that she knows more about them than she shows us creates the idea of a real person on the page.
How do you go about writing secondary characters?
There are a good many things that irritated me about the last few books the first time I read them, but over break, I sat down and read the whole series again, a little more slowly than my usual breakneck-must-finish-book-NOW speed. And I realized that while there are some flaws to the books, in my mind at least, J K Rowling is astonishingly good at several things.
The first of course is world building, but that's a post for another day. What really struck me about the HP universe about two months ago was that Ms. Rowling works with a very large cast of characters. An almost astoundingly large cast. Think about it: you've got the three main characters, plus all the other Gryffindors, plus the other students at Hogwarts, plus the teachers, plus Ron's entire enormous family, plus the Order of the Phoenix, plus the Dursleys, plus the Death Eaters. That's a lot of people to keep track of, let alone make distinct, and yet somehow she does. Every single one of the Weasleys has his or her own completely developed personality. All of the teachers and adults are distinct and real (and in my opinion extremely awesome).
I think if I ever send her fan mail, I'm going to ask her how the heck she does such a good job with secondary characters. I can only hope she's got a form response about that.
I personally struggle with minor characters. I work in time periods where people would have had very large families, and yet Rose only has two siblings and Avar only has one. I worry about my secondary characters, that they're one-dimensional, that they're really only there for a specific purpose (or otherwise that people will wonder "what's he got to do with anything?").
I suppose what I ought to do is go through each of their motivations step by step, the way I did with Rose and Avar. After all, apparently Ms. Rowling has endless back story on some of those secondary characters that never made it into the books. Perhaps that's what makes them so real; the fact that she knows more about them than she shows us creates the idea of a real person on the page.
How do you go about writing secondary characters?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Teaser Tuesday: Tales of the Past
Hello, blogosphere! Did you all survive Valentine's Day okay? Mine was spent writing and watching Pride and Prejudice - pretty good, right?
Also, I apologize for the lack of Thursday's post. I'll have one for this Thursday, I promise!
This is a continuation of a tease I put up a couple weeks ago, in which Vartan is creepy and mean and Avar runs away. I don't think I've given you any insight yet into why there are four werewolves hiding in the old tunnels beneath Paris, but here's a little of that now.
Enjoy!
---------------------
*snipped*
Also, I apologize for the lack of Thursday's post. I'll have one for this Thursday, I promise!
This is a continuation of a tease I put up a couple weeks ago, in which Vartan is creepy and mean and Avar runs away. I don't think I've given you any insight yet into why there are four werewolves hiding in the old tunnels beneath Paris, but here's a little of that now.
Enjoy!
---------------------
*snipped*
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Teaser Tuesday: Well, that's awkward...
Wow... I forgot it was Tuesday until just now.
I actually did some writing this morning! *dances*
I *think* this tease is pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just jump right into it, then, shall I?
Enjoy!
----------------------------------
*snipped*
I actually did some writing this morning! *dances*
I *think* this tease is pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just jump right into it, then, shall I?
Enjoy!
----------------------------------
*snipped*
Thursday, February 3, 2011
*headdesk*
So this week has been a little like this.
Also this.
Thank goodness tomorrow's Friday.
How do you celebrate the end of a long week?
Also this.
Thank goodness tomorrow's Friday.
How do you celebrate the end of a long week?
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Teaser Tuesday: Keys and Coffee Cups
Oh goodness it's early... student brains don't like waking up at 6:30. Or four hours of sleep. Yeah.
So... today's teaser... for my Fiction class we just read The Things They Carried, and we're doing an exercise based on that for Friday. So, here are some of the things that Rose carries. This bit is from right after her family is arrested, and she returns to their home for a few minutes.
Enjoy!
---------------------------------
*snipped*
--------------------------------------
Also: Let the Words Flow picked my query to critique! Woo!
So... today's teaser... for my Fiction class we just read The Things They Carried, and we're doing an exercise based on that for Friday. So, here are some of the things that Rose carries. This bit is from right after her family is arrested, and she returns to their home for a few minutes.
Enjoy!
---------------------------------
*snipped*
--------------------------------------
Also: Let the Words Flow picked my query to critique! Woo!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Writing + Studenting
For me, it's the first week of classes, the week where you actually start to live your schedule and realize just how much you have on your plate. ("I have HOW MUCH homework?" "I'll be in rehearsals HOW MANY hours?!?")
I also haven't done a lot of writing this week; I've been getting back into the swing of school and, of course, spending time with my college friends. But now that the week is winding down and schedules are starting to be finalized, I'm finding myself faced with the looming question: but when's the writing time?
There are various different ways that you can go about balancing writing and student-ing.
1. Set aside a specific writing time.
Maybe it's once a day, maybe it's twice a week, but give yourself a designated time to sit down and write. I'm really bad at this, but I'm going to try and do this for this semester.
2. Use the weekends.
Weekends are your friends for lots of reasons. Fridays count too. (Obviously your homework does need to get done.)
3. Squeeze in short writing sessions between things.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I get up almost two hours before my first class, and sometimes that time is good for writing. Mostly I try and blog then (although clearly that did not happen this morning... apologies.)
4. Stay up ridiculously late.
This is probably not the healthiest suggestion, but hey... it's college. It's going to happen anyway. Caffeine has already been embraced as your best friend. And occasionally, 2 am is a really good time for writing, right?
What do you guys do to balance school or work with writing?
I also haven't done a lot of writing this week; I've been getting back into the swing of school and, of course, spending time with my college friends. But now that the week is winding down and schedules are starting to be finalized, I'm finding myself faced with the looming question: but when's the writing time?
There are various different ways that you can go about balancing writing and student-ing.
1. Set aside a specific writing time.
Maybe it's once a day, maybe it's twice a week, but give yourself a designated time to sit down and write. I'm really bad at this, but I'm going to try and do this for this semester.
2. Use the weekends.
Weekends are your friends for lots of reasons. Fridays count too. (Obviously your homework does need to get done.)
3. Squeeze in short writing sessions between things.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I get up almost two hours before my first class, and sometimes that time is good for writing. Mostly I try and blog then (although clearly that did not happen this morning... apologies.)
4. Stay up ridiculously late.
This is probably not the healthiest suggestion, but hey... it's college. It's going to happen anyway. Caffeine has already been embraced as your best friend. And occasionally, 2 am is a really good time for writing, right?
What do you guys do to balance school or work with writing?
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