Story on the Brain

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...

But I DO have standards. And by "not hierarchical" I mean, my standards are not higher than someone else's, or lower, or whatever. They're just mine, see? For instance I'll never read a Dan Brown book because a Trusted Resource told me they are incredibly badly written, along the lines of the Left Behind series, one of which I actually read once but it was because I was teaching a class called Heaven and Hell, okay? It was for work! Oh good golly those books are so very very badly written. YIKES. So anyway. On the other hand, I read and adore a lot of things that your standard judger of literary quality wouldn't maybe find so very high on the list. Also I might punch out a judger of literary quality who said bad things about Meg Cabot or, I don't know, Stargate Atlantis. Which I realize is a tv show, but it's the same thing, see? Here are my standards: 1) Things have to happen. I cannot stress this enough. There has to be a STORY. You have to be able t...

Okay, I got the outline done at least in large strokes for the cozy mystery. It involved a lot of talking out loud to the computer and then petting the cat, who comes running if I talk out loud. Also I invented the Bryson Grant, which sends people to travel around the world recording oral history, or in this case, oral mystery. I'm way too tickled about the Bryson Grant. Also, I totally want one! Mostly I got things done because I was ranting and raving about how happy writing makes me, like happy in a slightly deranged way, like somehow I got cross-wired and writing presses the endorphin button and leans on it. Seriously, it's not normal. And then my friend said, "So what are you writing now?" and I gave the thumbnail, and then said, "But I'm stuck on the outline." Then I decided I HAD to whack it into shape this weekend, before I get students turning in paper drafts on Monday. I need my road map! It turns out I was trying to throw everything into the s...

Go and read! You don't have to have read The Demon's Lexicon to read this, but the characters are mentioned or appear in it at a much later date. This is a gorgeous, heart-breaking story. Sarah knows how to do it right!