[My Guest Post] Writing Prompt for Perspective

This month at Apex Book Company, I talk a little bit about something I feel is crucial to ensuring your story is your own — perspectives. When I’m worldbuilding and mapping out my plots, I also include something that happens a lot in romance — what the character believes and fears.

Just recently, I had the chance to apply this to a flash fiction piece-turned-short story called The Legend of Aeneis that I submitted into the atmosphere. The premise was about how a group of priests conducted a ritual they believed would save them from an impending attack. Thinking that uber-ancient technology or magic is the end all and be all is quite common in our culture, but it’s not always true. In this case, it definitely wasn’t.

Here’s a quote from the article:

Perspectives are one way to achieve the characterization. I just got done watching Season Five of Doctor Who, and I was reminded of how the Doctor’s view of humanity affects and shapes what he does and how he sees the world. Each alien race in the series has a different view of humanity, and for our own stories understanding that perspective — and why they believe and feel what they do — is crucial to ensuring an alien race is distinct yet something we can relate to. — SOURCE: Writing Prompt: How Would an Alien Describe a Human at Apex Book Company

I hope you get the chance to check this out. For more writing prompts, the Donald Maass Literary Agency has been offering some excellent ways to dig deep and find literary treasure. You can also follow the president of their agency on Twitter @DonMaass.

June 6, 2011
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Art Therapy with Cthulhu

Blank My Little CthulhuWhile the primary bulk of my time is spent writing these days, I often need a creative break. For that, I turn to something crafty and fun. (In this case…Cthulhu…)

I have in my possession a blank My Little Cthulhu with two victims, which was designed by John Kovalic. If you don’t know who he is, you may recall some of his projects including popular games like Munchkin and Apples to Apples, as well as several comics/toys/stories/etc. including Dork Tower and Doctor Blink.

How could I resist the call of the blank Cthulhu? The only thing is, I’ve painted toys before and I was never happy with the way they turned out. I’m kind of a precision line girl so it really screws me up if I can’t get the look I want. Since I’m an amateur when it comes to art, I’m still trying to figure out what materials work best while working on my drawing. (Let it be known that perspective is my biggest problem right now.) My friend Leanne Buckley was very supportive of my need for “art therapy.” It’s extremely relaxing to have play time and do projects like these for fun. Call it a guilty pleasure! I have a LOT of respect for professional artists and I’m often inspired by them to tinker in my spare time.

My solution here was to figure out what design I wanted to paint before I wrecked touched the figure. Matt (my fiance) thought it might be cool to paint a dreamscape on Cthulhu’s big head. So, the idea with this picture was to merge the cute take on Cthulhu that John had designed and play around with a possible dream. (Yes, those are bunny slippers, the full-size image was too big to scan. DOH!)

If it “worked,” then I’d use the theme to paint on my blank Cthulhu. If it didn’t, then I’d try something else. After going through this process, I’m not sure how easy it would be to wrap around some of the straight lines, but drawing this was a blast. The base image was drawn using a set of Micron markers; I used Paint to color in the blocks. No fancy tools for this chica.

Ugh. I seem to have Cthulhu on the brain these days. Well, that and King Arthur, but that’s best left for another post, for another day. Back to my words!

Cthulhu Dreaming

June 6, 2011
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It’s Caturday! Here’s Some Webcomics about Cats

It’s Caturday! Behold the mathematical proof that my cats are eating away at my sanity!

XKCD gets it right here. I devolve into a series of giggling squees mixed with some very interesting names for my fuzzballs.

As an animal lover and guardian of two, very naughty-yet-adorable cats, I really enjoy the occasional webcomic to brighten my day and laugh in the cat-ness that is… Well… cats. I hope you enjoy this list and check out some of them.

  • Lackadaisy – The artistic style of this comic is fantastic. I really like the sepia tones and the tight focus on the Prohibition era.
  • Clan of the Cats – A shapeshifting witch is at the heart of this comic, so if you like fantasy you might want to check it out.
  • Meow – In terms of artistic style, I really like the use of color and clean lines in this one. This is a more traditional comic in terms of content geared for cat owners.
  • Kat-Nap – If you need a silly, and you like satire, then this is a good one to try
  • Two Lumps: The Adventures of Eben and Snooch – I’ve been a long-time reader of this webcomic because I have two lumps of my own.
  • Laugh-Out-Loud Cats – Love the style of the artwork in this comic about cats being hobos. The characters are drawn in a throwback style to the comics of old, but the background in the strips are sometimes mixed with other styles and textures.
  • Doctor Cat – The terrible, horrible, non-existent attention span of a cat against the backdrop of a hospital? Hard to resist. Good use of color and bold lines.
  • Cat versus Human – A webcomic that’s more about the cat-loving owner than anthropomorphisizing her cat. (Yeah, that’s spelled wrong. I know. I know.)
  • Cat and Girl – Last but certainly not least, I had to mention this webcomic for its popularity and its well-known artist, Dorothy Gambrell.

Happy Caturday!

June 4, 2011
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Fighting the Seriousness of Writing with Silly Stupid

I don’t know about you, but I get serious’d out. Yep, there’s absolutely no other phrase for it. Just out. I was reading some of my old posts the other day, and I was laughing at how oh-so-very-professional they were. To some extent, they had to be due to what was going on at the time, but I’m straying from that and mixing it up a bit.

Just as one example of how I’m getting serious’d out, is when I think about the publishing industry. The only thing that I’ll ever bet money on, is that you never know where an artist — including yourself — will end up. It’s impossible to bet on what will happen in terms of success, because you don’t know. Even then, it’s all relative. Even then.

One of the ways I’m coping with the uncertainty of the industry, is to simply sit back, ignore the news and laugh when I can. I feel there are so many serious discussions, so many things people worry about, it’s not healthy to stress about it so much that it creates writer’s avoidance behavior. The news has no bearing on my work. The only thing that changes for me is my path, and I’m always adapting/shifting/changing/growing. Always. What I don’t lose sight of, however, is the next story.

I was going to offer sage advice, but instead I will offer you two things: an XKCD strip that’s extremely relevant and Sushi Cat for some silly stupid fun! Because really, silly stupid fun is a good remedy for super seriousness.

Sushi Cat is a blast if you haven’t played it. You guide the cat through sushi-filled goodness to ensure he’s got a full belly. Along the way, he falls in love with a stuffed kitty and faces his nemesis: Bacon Dog. There’s the original Sushi Cat, Sushi Cat: Honeymoon and Sushi Cat 2. It is addicting, but the levels move pretty quickly.

By the way, here’s the strip I mentioned. Note the last panel. I defer to XKCD‘s wise, wise words of wisdom which are applicable in any field, for any man, woman or child.

Marie Curie Sage on XKCD WebComic

June 3, 2011
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Missing Heroines, Romantic Tension and Doctor Who

Yesterday, I wrote a post about how we need to dig deeper to find a heroic heart. It’s timely, since I’m anxiously awaiting the debut of a few short stories out in the lands of publishing. It’s also relevant for another reason: just got back from WisCon and finished watching Season 5 of Doctor Who.

It’s really difficult for me to read books without tearing apart their structure; it’s becoming more challenging to do that with television shows and movies, too. I can relate to the many sides of the writer’s struggle — fulfilling the requirements of whatever format the story is in, watching screenplays get tweaked according to the producer’s needs, meeting IP guidelines.

However… It still blows my mind that here it is — 2011 — and we still struggle with painting “alternative” heroes: people of color, gay characters and, in many cases, strong non-bitchy women. In my article, I talked about how physical descriptions shouldn’t limit a writer, because the hero/heroine’s journey is about overcoming a limitation of some sort. If anything, I don’t understand why we don’t see more diversity in a heroic character, not less.

Enter my frustration with the female characters in Season 5 of Doctor Who. The Doctor is an iconic hero: like Superman, he doesn’t change. To understand him, to know him, I try to identify with the characters around him. I cannot, in any way shape or form, relate to Amy Pond. The actress herself isn’t the challenge; I don’t believe her character’s story. I cannot buy that she has fallen into extreme hero worship, where the Doctor has become her own personal Jesus, yet she still managed to fall in love with Rory. She’s a character that is only important because of the things that happen around her. She has absolutely no personal power of her own, regardless of what the Doctor says.

What I felt made the David Tennant era so believable, was the sharp contrast in the moments when he was having fun and the moments when he was totally and utterly alone. Donna Noble was my favorite companion, because there was no “love” there. They were best friends. I understood that she couldn’t physically handle the power she took into her system, and I was okay with that.

I feel that romance is Season 5’s biggest weakness. The minute the Doctor’s Companion starts to go down that path of “My Doctor,” it all falls apart because we know — as the audience — there is absolutely no chance in hell of that happening. There’s no romantic tension. There’s no conflict. There’s a very powerful, very suave, unattainable man that no one — with the possible exception of River Song in this season — can ever be with. Even in the episode where the Doctor is a lodger, he still gets the near-immediate attention of Sophie and the infatuation builds, leaving the “couch potato” out in the cold. I don’t buy it when Sophie flips the switch when Craig professes his love for her either.

I know it sounds like I’m being harsh, but I enjoy the show immensely and recognize how difficult it might be to write this series. The Doctor is a problematic character to write into a romance, because there is a sort of meta-storytelling tactic going on in each episode. We know he’ll never fall in love, so why introduce love interests in the first place? Romantic tension would be something that could be done, provided we believe there’s a chance — even a glimmer of hope — that he might end up in the happily never after with another character.

The happily never after is something I feel the show could take risks with, but it doesn’t. The continuous storyline about the crack in Amy’s wall is really where Season 5 begins and ends. I just wish there was more to emotionally relate to without being pulled out of the story completely. I still like and enjoy Doctor Who, but there’s something missing from Season 5: a heroine I can relate to.

June 2, 2011
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