skepticlysm

Rabbit Hole

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Skeptifist

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  • One of the things I’ve had to go back and work on for my novel … character sheets.
  • I can see the characters in my head but reading while I’m revising, a lot of them are 2-D.
  • I noticed a lack of presence and flat dialogue.
  • Which means they’re placeholders and need to be fixed.
  • Annoying af.
  • Another speedbump in the struggle of writing a book.
  • That kind of thing was easier in the one I tried to write before.
  • At least it seemed so at the time.
  • Also a time when that was all I needed to worry about.
  • The job was to write, not to … job.
  • Anyway, character dictates plot as much as plot dictates character.
  • Kaia plotting everything down to the tiniest detail shone a light on why it’s taken me so long to write the goddamn book.
  • I get stuck because I did not do the pre-work.
  • I’m not a Pantser, as it turns out.
  • Exposition: allegedly there are two kinds of novelists – Plotters and Pantsers.
  • Plotters plan.
  • Pantsers pull it out of their asses.
  • Sorry, “write by the seat of their pants.”
  • That’s what Stephen King does, btw.
  • I bet he does not write character synopses.
  • I can’t sit here in these lists and criticize novels and movies for lack of character depth when I’m not doing it in my own work.
  • Don’t get me wrong.
  • Just because characters are flat does not mean the work won’t be entertaining.
  • There are fucktons of IPs where we have basic characters and the thing is about the plot/spectacle.
  • Fun, but disposable.
  • Beach books, right?
  • But your audience develops shallower emotional involvement when the characters are flat.
  • Which means the rollercoaster ride has to be perfect.
  • I’d rather have both, you know?
  • It’s like marketing: if you’re not creating an emotional connection to the property, no one’s going to remember (or return/buy your thing again).
  • (This is why most commercials are dogshit, btw.)
  • (Brand loyalty is an emotional response to a product or business.)
  • (Coke or Pepsi?)
  • (Favorite sports team?)
  • (I could do a whole list, or series of lists, on what makes for successful marketing, and you would not believe the amount of emotional manipulation that makes the good stuff good.)
  • My book is not literature, it’s a pulpy YA adventure.
  • Book one of a trilogy.
  • The heroine is 15 in book one, 17 in book two, and 19 in book three.
  • This is no kiddie story, but it begins when she’s youngish.
  • And she’s a she because way back when this was a short story, not a novel, Kaia said, “Why isn’t he a girl?”
  • Which is also how this became FOR her instead of for me.
  • I just thought the idea was cool.
  • Couple of kids break into a sorceress’s home.
  • Getting back out turns out to be harder.
  • This has been more difficult than writing my Master’s thesis.
  • However.
  • Progress!
  • I’m kinda pissed it’s taken me six weeks to make headway on it.
  • Head had to clear up a bit I guess.
  • We’re rollin’ now.
  • Obstacles being removed.
  • Hold fast.
  • You know, they say you’re less likely to complete a goal if you talk about it.
  • Like, I’m less likely to finish the book because I’ve talked about it to people.
  • F.
  • Too late, right?
  • Writing is a largely solitary effort.
  • You with a keyboard in a room alone.
  • Sometimes, however, you need to talk about it.
  • Need feedback.
  • Need holes shot in your thinking.
  • 17 chapters to go.
  • That’s where we’re at.
  • And then we revise.
  • (This is another of those lists written the day before.)
  • (Most of it.)
  • (Yes, sometimes, I write two in a day.)
  • (Like I’ve said before, this is compulsory.)
  • (And the freedom has been inspirational and motivational.)
  • (I’m not going to finish this one yesterday, however.)
  • Anyway, character sheets.
  • One of the how-to books I read on novel writing had you do all this character pre-work.
  • Role.
  • Values.
  • Ambition.
  • Goal.
  • …
  • But all I can think of are D&D character sheets.
  • It’s a struggle not to give them ability scores and proficiencies.
  • I am giving them alignments.
  • Because, duh.
  • Shorthand for values and general demeanor.
  • At least when you’ve trafficked in alignment labels for 40 years.
  • Go find a D&D alignment quiz out there on the Web.
  • (I’d do it for you, but the link would only be good on the blog, not FB, and … c’mon, you can web on your own.)
  • (Okay, fine.)
  • I’m Chaotic Good.
  • Got a t-shirt and everything.
  • Yippie-ki-yay.
  • My favorite descriptor of that alignment: “The right thing, the wrong way.”
  • Wrong’s a strong word, and I disagree with it in this context.
  • Who’re you to tell me I’m wrong?
  • It’s only wrong because you think you’re right.
  • (Said all I needed to say on the opening topic.)
  • (Maybe I’ll get to the chickenshit Hollywood bit …)
  • Honestly I took one of those tests just now and came up True Neutral, but that does not fit my internal narrative.
  • I feel I should mansplain it a bit.
  • When you’re doing an RPG, the alignment you assign to your character dictates how they act.
  • Say they’re Lawful Good, then they’d be a Dudley Doright kind of person.
  • Chaotic Evil would be a megalomaniac.
  • Chaotic Good would be … John McClain or Henry Jones, Jr.
  • It’s like a game version of Myers-Briggs.
  • Okay, yeah.
  • I may post another of these later that’s a little more … in line with what we’ve been doing.
  • This one’s like a writer’s nerd rabbit hole.
  • I need like a song rec or something.
  • Uh …
  • “Death Do Us Part,” Royal and the Serpent.

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