Friday, February 08, 2008

The trouble with HER

Today was full of revelations.
Hubby doesn't read my blog anymore. (Revelation I) He said he stopped reading when I started drifting, when I stopped writing anything interesting and began posting fluff - comics, jokes, drivel.

I suppose he's right. When I started this blog back in the fall of '06, I wasn't afraid to ramble on about my opinions - books, weird thoughts, politics, television, writing...
Back then I wasn't afraid of sharing a piece of my soul or going on a rant. Somewhere along the line I started censoring myself.
Fear? Probably. I really hate offending people and because my audience is much bigger now (there's 5 or 6 who read regularly rather than just TL and hubby *snort!*) I guess I'm more conscious of my subject matter.
Will I remedy this?
I dunno... I'll think on it. I've got My Public, My Fans, to consider *double snort*!
At least I haven't lost my sense of humour ;)

On Writing (Revelation II):
I managed to squeak out 1000 words this afternoon but a few hours later, as I was mulling the next scene during a coffee run to Tim Hortons (aka LIFEBLOOD) came to the realization that everything that went on in scene one would have been better presented in the next scene. Wow - that probably made NO sense...
What I mean is, instead of two scenes to get two points across, I could get both points across in one scene, that being scene two. Follow?
So after banging my head into the steering wheel a few times (don't worry, I was at a red) I knew I'd have to delete and begin again.
C'est la vie. This is the life of a writer, n'est pas?

How did I come to this conclusion - albiet a few hours too late? Something I read earlier in the day triggered Revelation III - on how an author decided to combine two scenes...
Which segues nicely into:

Are you having trouble with your heroine? I am! Margaret Moore's blog post, Heroines on a Tight Rope was definitely enlightening (Revelation IV). It not only triggered the earlier revelation about combining the scenes, but also gave me the strength to eliminate the wishy-washy from my gal, Lucy Logan. Gah - she even has a wishy-washy name, doesn't she? I think I'm going to change it to something stronger.

Lucy Lonergan - meh
Lucy Lawless - crap, already taken
Lucy Lofty - Carrie's cousin? ... heh hehe
Lucy Langstaff - too soap opera

Okay blogland - give me a stong surname for my Lucy! Suggestions welcomed. There may even be a prize. Oh - and her sister's name is Penny, so it has to suit both gals.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wolff.

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

I've done that scene squeeze thing, myself. I swear, sometimes, we need to write the scene wrong just to have that A-ha!!! moment later on.

As for a surname... ignore the egotistical rock star above. Yet I'm powerless to help; some of my characters have no last names. I hate surnames, to the point that I'm lucky I know the surnames of my friends.

If I get inspired, I'll holler.

Bonnie Staring said...

Leyland
Levine
Diamond (I'm a Beatles fan)
Lemming (LOL)

Okay, I'm gonna head back to my WIP. ;)

Wylie Kinson said...

Hey Trevor - good one! But I sorta like 'Voss' better ;)

Susan - liar. You did good with Walter!

Bonnie, your sense of humour is ALWAYS welcome over here. And Diamond made me think of Sky. How about Lucy Skye? It gives her a head-in-the-clouds persona which she sort of starts out with. Not to say she's dopey, but it's a flaw she overcomes.

Shelley Munro said...

MacIntyre. I like M's.

I see you have a release date. Awesome. A book always feels more solid once it has a date of birth, so to speak.

Leah Braemel said...

Oh boy, is this time on several points - first I've been holding back my opinions on few things afraid to 'rock the boat'. I've got a post I wrote up yesterday and didn't actually publish it for that very reason. Hmm, maybe I will today after all.

And Revelation II is the story of my life lately. And those thousand words feel like they've been written in blood lately, so having to lose them really hurts. But it's gotta be done.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow - as long as it doesn't snow 'too' much. Cursed winter!

Wylie Kinson said...

Don't hold back, Leah!! (she says bravely)
And yes, we share the same inkwell, I think...

Shelley - M's are good :) And I love the birth day analogy. I'm going to use that!!

Leah Braemel said...

Okay I posted half of it. I'll save the other half for a different day when I'm brave.

Now I just have to get back to my doc and start writing forward instead of constantly editing.

Anonymous said...

Ha! I went on a surname hunt today -- do great minds think alike? ;-)

Let's see...

Lucy Byatt
Lucy Solomon
Lucy Griffin
Lucy Fredrickson

That's great, about your scene revelation -- frustrating at the time, but always good over the long haul -- if you remember, for the first round of Sven, I wrote 12,000 words then decided to ditch them and start a new story. Heh!

And holy cats, I see a hot looking cover for Law of Averages in your sidebar... SQUEEEEE!!!!

Wylie Kinson said...

Thanks for the suggestions TL. And yes - you do see a new cover. I was waiting until Sunday to make a big splash... so tune in tomorrow!

Kimber Chin said...

Please no alliteration!
I always groan when I read that.
What's her background?
Personality?
Heritage?
I like to go with something that does double duty. Gives the avid reader a memory cheat.

About being edgy...
making a difference means being different and being different means some people won't like you. Heck, some people won't like you no matter what. You might as well do and say what you want.