Category: Books

Author Highlight: Charles Dickens

This past weekend I decided to watch BBC’s 2008 rendition of  “Little Dorrit” (screenplay adaptation by Andrew Davies).  I watched all 14 half-hour episodes in one night, and, the next day, went back and watched them all again.  I have never read the book, but after watching this, I want to.  In fact, I’m going on a Dickens kick right now thanks to “Little Dorrit.”

I’ll admit right now that I haven’t read a great deal of Dickens, although I can assure you that he wrote far more and far better works than A Christmas Carol.  I’ve been various film and TV adaptations of his work, and frankly, I prefer watching a good adaptation than trying to read the books.  Why?  Because I’m a modern reader spoiled by modern writers and I rarely have the patience to try to wade through Victorian English prose.  Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of lovely pieces of dialogue and description in Dickens but it was written for another people in another era and was originally released in serial format to readers.  Their form of television episodes, basically, so the style and language is very different from what I’m used to.  Maybe when I’m older I will be able to appreciate Dickens’ craft better than I do now.

Either way, if you get a good writer like Andrew Davies to update the language just enough to make it accessible and to cut out the dense prose in between the action…then you’ve got one hell of a show.

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Cult and Tone-Twists

I’ve been reading a book called The Cult TV Book:  From Star Trek to Dexter, New Approaches to TV Outside the Box.  It’s a collection of scholarly essays on the phenomenon known as cult television, shows like Star Trek, Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Babylon 5, or Battlestar Galactica that gain a dedicated, and sometimes even massive, following of viewers who are deeply engaged in an ever-expanding and enriched reading of the universes, stories, characters, and themes contained within those shows.  I’m fascinated by books and articles like this, particularly when it pertains to media I like or hobbies I participate in.  Several of the articles so far have pointed out that the dedication of fans to these kinds of shows and their willingness to consume alternate media relating to those shows, such as websites, conventions, podcasts, fanfiction, and purchasing DVDs and other merchandise have impacted networks.  Television networks have begun shifting their focus from creating shows that are (usually) insipid enough to appeal to the greatest number of people to focusing on niche markets of smaller, but more dedicated, viewers on networks such as HBO.  The trend that once marginalized cult TV fans is now what helps TV networks make a profit as they design more and more shows to be more like original cult TV and tap into the love fans have for shows that reward attentive viewing.

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Handy Books For Writers

I have always enjoyed reading books about writing.  For some reason, it gets me in the mood to write.  Plus, there are plenty of suggestions, hints, or theories that can help me overcome writer’s block or attack a plot problem from a different angle.  Over the years, there are a few such books that were quite useful to me.

How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card  
This is the only book I’ve found that deals solely with the problems that plague fantasy and sci-fi writers.  Orson Scott Card is a prolific writer in both genres, although he does learn a bit more towards the sci-fi.  But, either way, he does an excellent job defining fantasy versus sci-fi and addressing the problems inherent in dealing with those genres.  It’s a great, easy-to-follow read and it’s relatively short, only 140 pages, so it doesn’t take very long to devour it.  This is a must-have for writers of fantasy and science fiction.

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Magical Theory and Practice: Part 3

This being the third part of a discussion on the creation of magical systems in fantasy. 

Here is the last question I usually ask when creating a magical system.  (I couldn’t think of any more that didn’t involve interlinking the previous questions or involving aspects of the others.)  Please note that you are not limited to the questions listed here.  You are welcome and highly encouraged to come up with more questions to answer, to continue to expand the scope of your inquiries.  The more questions to ask and subsequently answer, the more complete and well-knit your world will be.

WHAT IS THE PRICE OF MAGIC?     

This is perhaps the most interesting part of the magical equation, and the one that can make it the most unique.  A lot of people have a very dim view of what magic is, assuming that it’s a dues ex machine that just sweeps in and makes all the boo-boos better.  If it’s a poorly written fantasy, then they’d be right.  But we don’t want to write bad fantasy, do we?  So, you need to put some thought into what the price of magic is.

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Magical Theory and Practice: Part 2

This being the second part of a discussion on the creation of magical systems in fantasy. 

Here are the next three questions that I usually ask when creating a magical system.  Please note that you are not limited to the questions listed here.  You are welcome and highly encouraged to come up with more questions to answer, to continue to expand the scope of your inquiries.  The more questions to ask and subsequently answer, the more complete and well-knit your world will be.

WHAT KIND OF MAGIC IS IT?

There are numerous kinds and forms of magic and more are made every day.  These are a few of the most common, and they can be melded in various interesting ways:

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Magical Theory and Practice: Part 1

This being the first part of a discussion on the creation of magical systems in fantasy. 

I usually answer these first three questions when I start creating a magic system:  who can use magic, where the magic comes from, and the world’s views on magic.  These can help define your setting and at least some of the major conflicts your characters may encounter.  Please note that you are not limited to the questions listed here.  You are welcome and highly encouraged to come up with more questions to answer, to continue to expand the scope of your inquiries.  The more questions to ask and subsequently answer, the more complete and well-knit your world will be.

WHO CAN USE MAGIC?

Is magic something that can be learned through study, like music or mathematics?

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Magical Theory and Practice: Introduction

Magic is the guiding principle upon which fantasy is based.  It is the defining literary facet that differentiates fantasy from other genres.  Now, I’m sure there are several of you who will come up with examples of books that are labeled fantasy, but have little or no magic (such as Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels.  Rest in peace, Ms. McCaffrey.  You will be sorely missed.)  I acknowledge that there are exceptions to every rule.  However, when most people think of fantasy, they are picturing wizards, elves, dragons, and, most importantly, magic.

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"There Will Never Be Another…"

I think everyone has a special show.

I say “show” as in a TV show, but really, it can be a single book or a trilogy or an entire series, a movie, a comic, anything that tells a story.  Everyone has a story that is very precious to them, characters that are near and dear to their heart, a tale that takes their breath away.  Over the years, I’ve had several stories that affected me deeply, stories that I come back to every year that remain fresh and new and alive, no matter how many times I’ve read or watched them.

For my Dad, that would be the old cartoon series Rocky and Bullwinkle.  For me…well, I’ve had a few, most notably the original Star Wars trilogy, Joss Whedon’s sci-fi TV show Firefly, the wonderful blend of the best of American and Japanese animation that is Avatar: The Last Airbender, every Toy Story movie, the anime series Yu Yu Hakusho, The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman, The Bard’s Tale: Castle of Deception by Mercedes Lackey and Josepha Sherman, and, oddly enough, Elvenborn, the third book in The Halfblood Chronicles by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey.

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Onward and Upward

Being a writer is hard.

Heck, being any kind of artist is hard.  Writing, drawing, painting, sculpting, composing or playing music, dancing, costuming, the performing arts…all of these and a few I haven’t listed require time, training, and serious dedication to master.  Some people have inborn talent that lets them pick up art forms more easily than others.  Some appear to be good at everything with no effort at all.  But that lack of effort is an illusion and I’d say that 99% of any master who makes the work they do look easy have paid their tithe of blood, sweat, and tears.

While talent may give you an edge in some fields, most of it is acquired through long, careful study and vigorous practice.  No matter how much talent Nature has gifted you, if you don’t expand and refine that gift, it will go to waste or never reach its full potential.  Thanks to my mother’s side of the family, I have a decent amount of inborn talent for drawing and painting.  It’s not genius level, but I look and approach things from an artist’s point of view and can draw decently without a whole lot of training.  However, I could be a really good artist if I put my mind to it.

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To Write, You Must Read

One of the greatest and most basic rules of thumb in the world of writing is: “Write a story you would want to read.”
 
The next question is, “What kinds of stories do you enjoy reading?”
 
Once you’ve answered these two questions, your journey into the realm of writing has begun. And yet, so many writers seem to forget these basic questions. Too many get caught up what they think other people want them to write, or what other people want to read, or what kind of story formula will guarantee sales that will make them a multi-million-dollar success. If you start coming at stories from that angle these days, you are only sabotaging your own efforts. Your readers can tell when a story has heart and when it was written with calculation designed to draw them in. To an extent, every writer is trying to pull readers in, but the difference is this: are you trying to hook them because you think you have a good story to tell? Or are you trying to hook them for the money and popularity?