Sheerly Avni gets it right with her 10 films that get women right. Her take on To Kill a Mockingbird zeroed in on one of the reasons I love that movie--besides daddy-crush Gregory Peck, of course--though I never thought about that reason. Article's from 2005, so no new movies. I'd love to see her do an update. 

I found the article googling inspiration for a character I'm trying to liven up. The protag is a male, but the female character is also a POV. She was so dull that I was thinking of eliminating her POV, then realized, doh, she'll still be dull. I think I've got a line on her now, and it plays in nicely with a plot twist. 

This one pass revision stuff: it's interesting. Keeps me from losing the forest for the trees. (Not that this is really the first revision. I'm just treating it as if it is.)

My usual MO is to do "serial revision" (overlapping tinkering) Refraining has made me able to pull back and see the big picture and how the scenes work: which ones do, which ones don't.

I'm now teetering on the brink of eliminating a POV. I've already easily deleted two of his scenes because nothing much happened in them. Just expository musings. They don't tell anything that the other scenes in the book haven't already told or could tell in a more interesting context.

The pro side of keeping his scenes is that he's a sociopathic person with tons of power (ie, the evil overlord). His creepiness creates a sense of danger.

But he might just have to settle for being his nasty self through the eyes of others. Bonus: an element of uncertainty, because on the outside, he's not all that bad

Bruce (husband) and I went for a long walk this evening. I was doing most of the talking, about my writing (as usual). I'd spent the afternoon trying to write a query letter. (As usual) this shot me into fears and insecurity: suddenly the whole entire book was exposed as a puny, spineless thing. (As usual) he was encouraging; he's read the whole thing and liked it.

Trying to boil it down to a few sentences, though! I was having a hard time articulating my protag's problem / conflict, and his goal. I know what they are but... And more worries came piling on: will I end up overworking this thing? When I get going on this, the anxiety can literally makes my heart feel cold, though I'm not normally a particularly anxious person.

He said, it all comes down to dedication.

I said, how did you know that? Did you read my "themes" list? (I'm adapting Holly Lisle's "One pass revision" process). Dedication is the main gear in my protag and the main theme of the book. Despite utter failure, overwhelming uncertainty, good ole gloom, and the possibility of being executed for treason--he keeps on; he gives his all.

Then I backtracked and asked, What do you mean?

He was referring not to my protag but to me, my dedication. That if I'm dedicated to finishing the book the way it should be done, I don't need to worry about overworking it.

If I know one thing, it's that I'm dedicated to this thing. So his words were hugely encouraging and also a bit of neat synchronicity, helping me lock into what I need to say about my story in this synopsis.

But I'm still with writerknv  who came up with the real word for this dread summing up: suckopsis.

My mom and I share books sometimes. She's an avid romance reader and she's got me on Victoria Holt, a romance/mystery writer, more in the line of Daphne du Maurier than Harlequin. I'm reading King of the Castle now.

Holt's writing is more slowly paced than today's (her career spanned the 30s through the 70s). Also, if you've read one of her books (or any romance book) you absolutely know that in the end, the heroine will get the man of her dreams. Said man is, of course, the prime suspect, with the heroine's quest being to absolve him. The point is, you don't know exactly how she will do this (and will she keep the faith?) and who the guilty party will be.

Holt's characters are stereotypical and the plots formulaic; how else would she have pumped out 200 some books in her career? Still, I'm enjoying the sheer escapism of her books, and her craft, and the way she captures her period settings with details. It's really interesting, too, to see how Holt paces the revelations of her clues and red herrings simultaneously with character development.

writerknv gave me some thoughts on pirates.

When I was a kid we used to play at pirates. They were romantic and colorful figures of the age of sailing ships. They make great heroes or villains, and fill in nicely as minor ne'er do wells.

Real-life pirates are a whole different story. Cap'n Sparrow headscarf notwithstanding, I wouldn't want to meet this Philippino guy and his crew on the ocean blue.



Pic from The History of Pirates by Angus Konstam.

Music: Smoke n'oakum

Eureka! Scientists have "discovered" that sleep deprivation really does make people irritable!

A new study shows that after sleep-deprivation, people are more prone to act over-emotionally and irrationally, a finding that suggests that sleep may play a role in many psychiatric disorders.

Gods of writing, take note. You can manipulate your hapless characters by taking away their sleep. Over-reaction can lead to all sorts of interesting scenes. link