A Link

The amazing Tia Nevitts has decided to add reader interviews to her blog and I got to be the first one interviewed!  (Cue happy but self conscious blushing).  If you want to check it out, here is a link.  And seriously, if you haven't checked out Tia's blog already, you really should do that anyway.  She has been encouraging writers and would-be-writers for.... lost count of how many years.  Let's just say for as long as she's been blogging.

Writing Out

Writing in a cafe sounds so romantic.  You picture artsy people in berets surrounded by coffee scents as they pen deeply atmospheric tales.  I wonder if it's like that for some people?  I'm used to working alone, so going off into a crowd to write was definitely a new experience. 

I didn't actually go to a cafe.  I went to my local Chic Fillet.  First thing I learned; the food is a major distraction.  I thought I'd eat a waffle fry, type a few words, take another thoughtful bite... nope.  I inhaled my food in just a couple seconds.  Which meant I had no excuse to not type.  I had an hour and a half to kill between one errand and another, and I had been smart enough not to bring my Nook.  It's amazing how the threat of dying from boredom can motivate a person to write.  

On the down side, I have not yet learned how to really get into my story when someone is conducting an interview at a nearby table and people are randomly walking in and out, so I mostly did edit work.  Chances are, as I write out more often I'll get better at tuning out my surroundings.

I've read about people who write entire novels in coffee shops and restaurants.  In fact there are some who draw inspiration from being surrounded by people. 

 If anyone knows their secret, clue me in! 

Rebellious Young Teens

Have you noticed that the `rebellious' part of rebellious young teens tend to be an informed ability?  Not that I mind reading about non-rebellious teens.  I just wish people would stop assuming if there's a teenager in the story they must be rebellious even when all evidence points to the contrary. 

I once read a movie review that described Mulan as a rebellious young teen.  Yeah... no.  Trying to save your father by risking your own life may be impulsive, but it's not rebellious, folks, sorry.  You want a rebellious young teen from among the Disney animated ladies, you've got to go with The Little Mermaid.  Ariel is the genuine article when it comes to rebellious.  Nobody can tell her anything (though they sure try).  We meet her exploring a sunken galleon behind her father's back, egging Flounder into joining her, and nearly getting her friend killed as a result.  Sebastian is sent to keep an eye on her, and before you know it he's pulled into lying to his king.  This kid is reckless and it's hurting everyone around her.  (Except Prince Eric, whose life she saves.)

The subterfuge cannot last, and of course it doesn't.  Sebastian turns out to be a lousy lier.  King Triton finds out that his daughter's been regularly risking her life and predictably blows his top.  This is where the eels come in, tempting Ariel into a devil's bargain.  No matter how hurt and angry she is, Ariel loves her dad too much to just swim off to his worst enemy.  She almost resists temptation. 

Almost.

In the human world Ariel is, for the first time, vulnerable.  In an ironic twist, now that telling the truth would help her, she has no voice.  This time it is Ursula weaving deceptions around Ariel and Prince Eric to make sure Ariel stays indebted and enslaved.  Everything comes crashing down at the end of the second act when Eric finds out who Ariel is just as she turns back into a mermaid and gets dragged under the ocean only to learn that Ursula used her to lay a trap for her father, who takes her place as Ursula's slave. 

Then the climax happens.

In The Little Mermaid the authors actually showed that Ariel was rebellious, they didn't just stick `rebellious young teen' in the tag line and expect you to accept their word for it.  They didn't just leave her swimming around getting her friends in trouble, either.  They took her to the place where her actions have deep consequences; her father enslaved, Prince Eric almost drowned by the eels, her kingdom on the verge of destruction.  Then they have her realize her mistake and fight for her friends.  In the end, to prove that she's really changed, the authors have her reconcile with her dad.  (That bit where she hugs him goodbye makes me tear up every time.)

A rebellious young teen can make for a great protagonist when you give them a good story arc and make sure you're not just using `rebellious' as a synonym for `teen'.

Non-post

Sorry for the lengthy silence.  I've been spending time with my family here in the real world and fighting off the cold that Would Not Die.  I'll try to post something next week.  (Try is the operative word here.)  In the meantime, I hope you all are having a terrific new year.

Merry Christmas!

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11

Presents!

Is it strange that, at thirty-one, I still more or less do a happy Snoopy dance at the thought of Christmas presents?  I love buying them, wrapping them, opening them....  You'd think after all these years I'd have outgrown the excitement of Pretty Paper!  Ooh yeah! 

Speaking of presents, I have a story about one that happens to be true.  

Once upon a time, about two years ago, as it was getting on toward Christmas, my dad was taken to the hospital with pneumonia.  Its funny how you don't think anything will ever touch your parents until suddenly it does, and then the world turns... strange.  You kind of numb everything out until you can deal with things again.  So there I was with the world turned numb and gray and hard to process, with a presentation for my last day of the collage semester. 

If you are taking classes and something bad happens in your personal life, it will always be either before a presentation, or a major test.  This is a Universal Law. 

 I made it through the presentation and I don't think anyone noticed that I was only half there, so it was a success.  Later one of the other students gave me a gift and told me how much she appreciated me.  I was stunned.  I don't think I reacted right -I barely reacted at all.  I was too stunned, it was so unexpected.  Her kindness absolutely got me through the rest of the day.  I had planned to go home and stare at the telephone all day, waiting to hear updates about my dad.  Instead I gathered my brothers and took them out Christmas shopping at the mall, and got pizza.  When mom came home from the hospital she didn't find me with my nerves stretched taunt from phone-watching.  I was relaxed enough to help her relax.

The job of presents is to show people that you're thinking about them.  Words work as well or better.  It's really easy to underestimate how much it can mean to a person to hear that they've been important to your life.  I know I don't tell people that often enough. 

Love Languages

A little while ago I watched a scyfy movie called Alice. The story is a modern girl falling into a dystopian version of Wonderland.  Under all the trappings, the plot is a basic love triangle.  There's Jack, Alice's real-world boyfriend who has more connections to Wonderland than first appears, and Hatter, a sort of con-man who acts as Alice's self-appointed guide/protector after she falls into Wonderland.  Normally I'm not a big fan of love triangles, but this one really worked for me.  Both guys care about Alice, and both show their affection in different ways.  With Jack, it's all gifts.  A couple minutes into the movie, he's bringing her roses.  Later, when he wants her to go with him right now, he tries to give her the mcguffin ring, and later he tries to prove he can be trusted by slipping her her missing father's watch.  His attempts at reaching Alice are all solid objects.  Hatter gives Alice exactly one gift; a coat when she's dripping wet.  Everything else is about actions.  He talks her across the ledge when she's afraid of heights.  He gets between her and a gun, and fights off a Jabberwock for her.  He rescues her from the villains once and tries to do it a second time which doesn't exactly work out, but hey, it's the thought that counts.

There's this book called The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.  His theory is that everyone has a love-language, a way of being shown affection that especially speaks to them.  I was thinking about that in relation to characters.  Sometimes you'll read a book or watch a sitcom and the guy is there changing the girl's tires in the rain and twisting himself into a pretzel to get her tickets to her favorite concert.  It's obvious he's crazy about her, and what does she say?  `I just don't know if he likes me.  He's never said the words.'  Am I the only one who wants to smack that characters with a get-a-clue stick?  Then you have the characters who are told the words -repeatedly and with sky-writing- and they say `talk is cheap.'  It's not that the character isn't listening, it's just that the guy isn't speaking her language.

Of course, as soon as the characters get in sync, you get all sorts of lovely scenes that are unique to them because it'll pull on everything that has happened before in the story, all the mistakes and mishaps, only this time they can laugh and get it right.