Story on the Brain

Here's what's annoying about fiction dealing with magic: if it's not laid out with proper rules, or the rules aren't followed, it's nothing more than nonstop narrative cheating. I read a trilogy lately in which magic played a small then larger then important part, and each book got less satisfying as the role of magic grew. Why? Because it could have been anything at all. The more the plot depends on some arbitrary performance of some arcane ritual never mentioned or described or costing anything, the less the success means. It robbed the payoff of any weight. The same goes with the time pressure writers like to put on magic, too. Someone must perform some long and complex ritual! How long does it take? Just a little bit longer than we'd like, but it gets done just in time to save the day! Well, that's awfully convenient. Sci-fi does exactly the same thing with technology, obviously. It's broken, we need a widget, just a few more minutes---aaaaah! ...

I really want to do this. Not sure all the days will be sequential, but maybe! It's from here . Also since I'm not part of their group and don't know anyone or whatever, I might make changes to the questions so they work better with what I've read. Okay? Okay! BOOK MEME Day 01 - A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!) Day 02 - A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about Day 03 - The best book you've read in the last 12 months Day 04 - Your favorite book or series ever Day 05 - A book or series you hate Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time Day 07 - Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise Day 08 - A book everyone should read at least once Day 09 - Best scene ever Day 10 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving Day 11 - A book that disappointed you Da...

I knitted hats and caught up with Stargate Universe and Bones last night, which was totally awesomely fun of course! And one is done and another is 3/4 done, again with the awesomeness, rock! But both shows are giving me THOUGHTS. And the thoughts are pestering me and so out of my head they must go, so I can do all this paper grading that's 14 inches high on my desk. I so wish that was an exaggeration. Stargate Universe seems more and more like a soap opera for men. It's clearly about the men, no question--the women are peripheral in every way, either supporting or sleeping with (or not sleeping with) the main characters: Rush, Young, Eli, Scott. I don't have a problem with that, for real. It's a great show. It's just really male-oriented in a way that Battlestar was not and that's what's completely fascinating to me, because on paper the two are strangely similar, but in practice they're polar opposites. Battlestar has utter equality built into its fabr...

I had one of those sudden revelations again. Aha! I like to consider social metaphors in the sense of trying to fit an imaginary segment of society into our real society. So, what if witches are like plumbers? What if they're like academics? What if they're like the gay community? What if they're like the post office? What if they're like the NBA? What if they're like symphony orchestras? I always thought that was sort of poorly imagined in Harry Potter, the way that the magical world interacts with the real one. She didn't so much gloss over it as whistle and look the other way. Suppose you find out you're One Of Them. Like a super tall athlete, or a gifted violist, or a boy attracted to boys? How do you join that community? How do you build (or fight) that thing in yourself? How does it change your life, your family, your choices for the future? What if you're a gifted violist from a family of plumbers? Or vice versa? What if you have to get hired by a...

One of my biggest problems in writing is that I want to write something else. No matter how much I love my current book, other ideas intrude. Of course at the time they seem like the greatest idea that's ever been had, like it would be an absolute crime not to go write them right away, now now now! I am trying not to do this. I'll go write excited notes about a thing, but then ideally come back to my current one true love. No cheating on your book! Today BLDGBLOG just wrecked my ability to do that by posting about two different books that are such great inspiration for that book I've put on the back burner that I'm hopping up and down to go write that right now. Jeez! I don't usually use other books when writing MY books. Is that weird? I don't really do research except for bits of information--where is this town, and are there mountains nearby? what is the law on x?--and I don't like to let other fiction have too much to do with my own because of my chamele...

I just reread The Witch of Blackbird Pond for the first time in about, oh, say 30 years. And what struck me suddenly 24 hours after I got done was: power. People who accuse other people of being witches are afraid of their power. And the characters in this thing I'm writing who are just perfectly normal humans who sort of pathetically *want* to be witches, they WANT power. Isn't it cool how a position that was persecuted for its power is now sought for its power? I think that is so interesting. Is that what's behind all the vampire fanaticism? It also gave me a terrific new character to complete my trio. Except I might have just suddenly changed her to a boy, and not just any boy but the object of affection of our heroine. That gives us three main characters who are doing stuff and one that is going to get the metaphorical axe to the head for being tremendously awful in those understandable, sympathetic, selfish teenage ways. Oh yes. I also added in some excellent estranged...

I remember loving these books as a child but I had forgotten how much I skipped over. Re-reading childhood favorites is dangerous, but in the case of the Dark Is Rising books, you really should not do it. What I loved was the Drew children, because Stone Over Sea is a wonderful book and I kept reading to get more of them. But everything having to do with Will Stanton was so outrageously irritating, I nearly didn't finish the fifth book, Silver on the Tree. Good lord. He magically gets all these outrageous powers with no effort, goes through all this pointless contrived rigamarole, then is a rarefied Old One and crucial to the survival of the world. He's all smug and humble and knows more than everyone. I just could not stand Will Stanton. First off, I hate it when people get superpowers without any cost. Second, Will is boring. He just is. He doesn't have to fight for anything and he gets all the credit, whereas the Drew kids are way more fun and do much more of the work. T...