Wicked thoughts, June 30, 2013

Wicked thoughts

I just got back from a trip to the East Coast. We took in Wicked on Broadway in the Gershwin Theatre. For any writer, seeing this can be an eye opener. Here we have two flawed heroines who struggle with right and wrong and their place in a society who decides what is right and wrong and often they're just plain wrong. Their arcs criss-cross and cross again. This play has inspired me to do a better job giving my characters nuance.

Here's a cute scene and song from Wicked.

 

 

Rush, rush rush. I wrote the above quickly, still suffering from vacationitis. What about male POV? Well, sometimes I have nothing direct to blog. But...always and with every word I write you might feel the testosterone oozing onto the page. My opinion may be different than yours because I'm a guy and I've noticed your gals (mostly).

 

The green faced witch gets a boyfriend and he is portrayed with nuance. Can you imagine him choosing the green witch over the 'pop-u-u-lar' blonde witch. Well he did, perhaps because she's more magical (a better kisser (G-rated)). Okay as a guy, I liked the green witch better as a woman than the ditsy blonde although they both had a lot of heart. Maybe some would love all that high energy, the day is beautiful, isn't it, type. I just want to go green.

 



I just can't help myself, June 16, 2013

I just can't help myself.

Sorry about last week. I mean, I didn't post. I felt unfocused because I had received a request for my latest manuscript and wanted it out the door. Next week, I'll be on vacation, likely no blog post then.

Maybe this is a guy thing, or maybe it's an artist thing. The publisher who requested a full is an e-publisher. I thought, why not make my work "better" by adding the title of a song at the beginning of each chapter. The idea here, if they don't hate it and toss out the insert (not the ms.), is to set a mood for the reader AND since it's an e-book it could with permission present the whole song. (Probably expensive—so I'll go with the mood thing.)

So without preamble, here's the song title I chose for my last chapter, and for this blog the link to the entire song and video on YouTube is below.

LIKE A STAR, by Corinne Bailey Rae

Does anyone have experience with putting any kind of links into e-books? Dou you enjoy this singer/performer?

Extra credit: Picking out a song for each chapter has the added benefit of unifying the chapter under one predominant idea or theme. The song title might cause the writer to rewrite something which feels off key (or find another song). It's a great way to review each chapter before sending the ms. to a publisher. If nothing else, you could keep the titles to yourself.

The alternative male POV revisited, June 2, 2013



The alternative male POV revisited

I’ve written about alternative ways of writing male heroes in romances (or any fiction) by suggesting the writer of consider renaissance men and creative types and the way they might act differently than what we are used to seeing in a ‘normal’ alpha hero.

If you try this with your hero, try not to forget he's a guy. Make sure to sprinkle in a little primitive spice here and there.

 

I’ll offer myself as an example, because I’m an artist. When my daughters were 8 & 10 and watching TV at night, I noticed a possum making its way slowly across the back fence. Being curious, I decided to find out how slow and how close I could get. I wanted to interact, to know directly, to bond. I walked up to it. It stopped, turned, and hissed at me showing off impressive rows of sharp dirty teeth and basically saying we're not going to bond. Oh yeah. Being an ex-engineer, I calculated my reaction speed to it’s and grabbed it by the scruff of its neck before it moved a millimeter. I gripped firmly so that it couldn’t whip around and bite me. It didn’t try to fight much, because it couldn't. Then it played possum.

 

So now what do I do? I've got this creature in my grasp. I can only do so much studying and admiring it's oddness before I'd have to  stop torturing it and let it go. Guess. Naturally, I walked to the sliding door and asked the girls to come look closely at what I had. After they stopped screaming,  practically walking backwards into the TV, they told their mother on me. She directed me in a loud voice to let the creature go somewhere far from the door and then wash my hand. Preferring to sleep in the house and wondering why none of them wanted to come close to inspect the possum, I assumed it might be a typically female reaction, just like the ones I got when chasing girls with frogs many years ago. Or they didn’t trust me to keep a firm hold. I smiled as I watched the possum waddle off, unfazed and with no interest in hissing at me. Who's the man?

 

In the movie, RUBY SPARKS, 2012, the hero, a failure with women, a NY Times best seller at 19, finds himself in a five year dry spell. During that time he has no direct experience with women. He decides to write a story about his ideal woman with himself as the hero. His very own fantasy. His brother on reading the beginning of the manuscript says the hero (his brother) has no idea what a woman is like. The story sucks, ever hear that from a relative?

 

This story is about a creative type eventually trying to manipulate his universe, finding out if he'd get bit or not. In one scene in particular and others less so, this creative/renaissance man becomes very alpha and shows more than once 'fatal flaws.'

 

Here's the official trailer for Ruby Sparks, romantic comedy (2 minutes long).