(no subject)

[darksongtrilogy.livejournal.com]

LKH in bold, me mentally bludgeoning her to death with dictionaries. Loose is not the same thing as lose, you moron!

Friday, April 13
http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2007/04/confused-bothered-and-bewildered.html

We have power, or rather didn't loose it yet. I can't explain it but I know that somewhere in the process of getting the generator that we will loose power. So I'll blog while I can.

Loose vs. lose count: 2

I got over the hump with the scene that was giving me such fits. How?

By throwing out the chapter; by destroying the scene that wasn't working.

It was plot-related.

Once I finally let it go, and rewrote it completely it worked. Cool.

Then I did the next day's work and I ended the chapter with a main character very hurt. Hurt enough that I made a note, is such and such dead for good?

I'm betting no.

I got up this morning to that note on my computer. No wonder the writing isn't going well.

WAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNGGGGGGGGSSSSSSSSTTTTTTT. In a world with vampires, shapeshifters, and witches, in which the main character is (was) a vampire executioner, PEOPLE MIGHT DIE????

I could loose some of the minor men, frankly, as a writer the extended cast is getting to be a burden,

Truer words were never spoken. Loose versus lose count: 3

but the main guys. The core group, that is a different thing all together. The person now lying on the floor in Maeve Reed's house is not someone I ever thought we'd loose.

Count up to 4. Is she doing this on purpose? And is Merry ever going to get to the Seelie Court? In any of our lifetimes?

I've debated all morning.

I finally realized that I was willing to let him go. I'm tired. Physically, emotionally, every way. This tiredness comes to almost every book, a point where I just want it done. It is a dangerous point in a book this almost desperate weariness to be done. If you are not careful you will make choices that you will regret later. There is almost always a point of desperate weariness where you simply want done. Ironically for me, it is almost never close enough to the end to be the end. It's close to the end, but not that close.

Sarcasm aside, this is proof that she needs a long vacation. Or she's got CFS. Or, to put my bitch hat back on, she is incapable of appreciating the blessing of being able to live off the work you theoretically love.

I'm frantic to be done, but there are too many pages left to do a marathon session and be truly done. But I know that if I'm not careful I will end up finishing the book sooner, but having to rewrite it from the point where I got frantic. Because I will inevitably make a choice that makes it quicker to finish, but not better. So then, I've actually cost myself time, because an extensive rewrite is needed on the last third or so of the book.

There's rewriting involved in this process somewhere? I find that hard to believe.

It's that old saying, haste makes waste. Too slow, drives me crazy as a writer. I spend a great deal of the last part of any book balancing those two instincts. Fast enough to finish, slow enough to make the right choices.

Then GO SLOWER.

I also should never have left a note at the top of an empty page, "Is such and such dead for real?" It was almost guaranteed to make the writing grind to a halt. I know better than that. I know never to end at a difficult point without at least throwing a few sentences out so that the next day begins with something, a beginning.

Such-and-such, ladies and gentlemen, is not dead.

Sometimes I write like I'm building a bridge across a huge chasm. I lay a few boards at a time, then I can see a little more, and I move by inches or feet. Putting that note in front of me as the only thing on the next page was like stepping up to the bottomless chasm with nothing but empty space between me and the next side. I know that I need at least a little rope, a few boards, something so that crossing that emptiness looks a little more possible than impossible.

We've moved beyond the dragon metaphor, thank God.

There are three kinds of scenes that I never want to start with a blank page the next day: sex scenes; fight scenes; emotionally powerful scenes. A blank screen for either of those three is bad thing for me. But yesterday I didn't know what to do. I was caught off guard by the potential loss.

Translation: She hasn't killed anyone in so long, she's forgotten how to do it.

I hoped that getting away from the computer for awhile would help me decide, or give me the courage to see it through. But no, I just got up to that awful note and stared at the screen.

My heart bleeds for her, it really does. Who new that the self-proclaimed dark, gothy author with the childhood obsession with dark, gothy things would have such a deep, y'know, soul? That she would feel the emotions of her dark, gothy characters so deeply that she can't kill the oversexed clone-wangs?

This feels strangely like that moment near the end of CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED where I'd planned to kill Jean-Claude off. When push came to shove, I could not do it. Now, all these years later, I'm glad I didn't do it. Anita and I would have missed him. The series would be completely different. There, having written that, helps me think, at last.

It might have kept a continuous plot, the ardeur would've been harder to rig...and he's French. Yeah, killing JC gets an enthusiastic thumbs up from me.

The man lying on the floor, so hurt, is too valuable to us. We would weep for him, Merry and me. Me, being tired and wanting the book done, and wanting more control over the plots, by that I mean . . .

Oh, that's just delicious. Want more control of the plots, do you? Do tell.

Well, with Jean-Claude he was taking over the plots more and more. I wanted him not to do that and was willing to kill him to stop it. With Merry it's just the sheer number of the men. It feels stifling and difficult. I need a smaller cast, but killing people arbitrarily is not the way to do it.

Oh, come on. Pretty please? I'll stop calling you an incompetent hack with her head so far up her ass, she's damaging brain matter.

Just as killing Jean-Claude would have been wrong, this character would be too missed to loose, I think.

Count: 5. And if it's Galen again, I think she's overestimating how much he'd be missed.

So hard to know for certain. I think I will write the scene from two, maybe three plot of views. (Yes, I did mean plot of view, not point of view. I know my point of view, it's Merry. But through the same set of eyes you see things differently if the plot changes. So I will do three different plot of views.) Dead, not dead, and metaphysical.

Meaning, he'll metaphysically die, but not really die. It's like a coma in soap operas. Gets the character out of the way for a bit, wangsts the viewer, and accomplishes fuck-all.

Or sort of a combination of all of the above. We'll see which one flies, but at least if I write them out, see them, Merry's reaction, I'll be better able to know what is needed here. One of the things I love about fiction is that you can kill someone today and bring them back tomorrow, with no one remembering that they died yesterday, because they didn't.

Maybe your fans wouldn't remember it, but I think the Logic Gods frown on it. And aside from that, I have to say...huh-wha?

I have the power to go back in time and change things. God, I love that. If only it worked in real life, eh?

Yes, someone with sense could've gotten to you and warned you what would happen if you surrounded yourself with yes-men.

Final count from the NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR: 5 errors on loose versus lose. I.E. every. single. time.

Comments

[delphinapterus.livejournal.com]

Hey, I liked JC! Yep, even from the start he wasn't very original. Sexy French vampire never seen that before but still he had the potential to be a very scary dude who could manipulate Anita easily then he became Emo Exposition.

She's the author, she can put in a fight and kill of her characters. There no need to say it's done arbitrarily because that's the constant of her books when they aren't wangsting and fighting they're fucking.

[reticentric.livejournal.com]

By throwing out the chapter; by destroying the scene that wasn't working.

It was plot-related.

That made me LOL.

I think she needs a long vacation or something because my characters have never taken control of my brain and forced me to go in a direction that I didn't want to go. Yes sometimes I've written things I didn't expect but I don't think that is the same thing. She's just a whackadoo an acts like writing is some giant hurdle to get over; stop complaining jackass it's not that hard!

One of the things I love about fiction is that you can kill someone today and bring them back tomorrow, with no one remembering that they died yesterday, because they didn't.

Maybe your fans wouldn't remember it, but I think the Logic Gods frown on it. And aside from that, I have to say...huh-wha?

Hahaha I think she's talking about the characters not remembering someone died. But of course bringing them BACK to life means they did in fact die and only a dumbass character wouldn't remember something like that.

Oh LKH why you so crazy?!

[thekiwiwhoflew.livejournal.com]

For a minute I forgot this was Merry and my heart skipped happy little beats over the thought of one of Anita's Man-Harem dying.

[saadiira.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! Heh. There are a couple in there I'd head desk if she did kill, because they could still be made INTERESTING, but there are QUITE a few there who DO need to die, die, DIE! (Starting with Micah, as long as I'm DREAMING...)

-Dira-

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

She wants more control over the plots? She's the frickin' author!

[sevariusjr.livejournal.com]

It's getting really disturbing at this point.

I've not written dozens of novels, but I have written a bit in my time. And I've never reached the point where I start to believe my characters are real and are controlling the plots of the stories I'm writing.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

hello, I am a LKH plot. I am a sexy devil. *swish swish* watch my long sexy hair. I make even Fabio jealous.

You like my pecs?

You like lower?

*smile*

If you do what I say, I will pleasure you like no woman has ever been pleasured before. No...don't talk. Don't think, shhh my beauty. I will do the thinking for us. You just... enjoy....

LKH: But...but... Ohhh. OOOOHHH... Oh Fabio JC Richard Nathaniel Auugie Frost Galen, Holly Deck The Halls, London Bridge Is Falling Down Plot, oh Plot, yes baby!

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

You win several internets.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

awwh shucks m'am. :)

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

LOL!

2 Things.

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

Thing the First: I keep forgetting she's supposed to be writing a Merry book. I know she keeps saying 'A LICK OF FROST' but it sounds like an ice-cream shop. So I end up thinking Anita. That plus 'cadre of men' and how am I supposed to know she means the redhead and not the pale pale sorta mexican brunette? Really, where's the difference in the plot? Sex, a little more sex, someone's bedroom, people watching, a little more sex, and someone -not- dying.

Thing the Second: I admit to being someone, who when saddened by the death of a character in a book, (as a child and still today) flips to the front of the book to where they're alive again. So to me, they're not really dead, if at the start of the book they're alive. And as a reader if I know I'll be upset reading about the death, I just don't.

As a writer my thought process is similar. At the front of the story, they're alive.

Also, they can always be alive both in fanfiction and in my heart. So....

Yeah, cracked as shite. But at least she took my mind off some recent aggravation.

[slayra.livejournal.com]

Oh dear... this post here (from LKH) seems to point to a general in-satisfaction with writing. Take your own advice Laurell: don't like, don't write. AH! You don't even do it well!

By throwing out the chapter; by destroying the scene that wasn't working.
It was plot-related.
So it seems. I told so. Everyone here thought so. It seems we were right, lol.

I could loose some of the minor men, frankly, as a writer the extended cast is getting to be a burden,
Reading about it is just as awful. Really. She should just kill two or three or four. Most people won't notice a difference. And while she's at it, do it for the Anita Blake books as well. Some men *cough*Requiem, London, the stoo-peed cookie monster, Auggie, Damien, and YES PLEASE MICAH!*cough* could go. No-one cares. Really, we don't. She managed to write the most unlovable characters I've had the (dis)pleasure of reading. It should be easy to kill a few.

Such-and-such, ladies and gentlemen, is not dead.
LKH is a spoilsport. :p

This feels strangely like that moment near the end of CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED where I'd planned to kill Jean-Claude off. When push came to shove, I could not do it. Now, all these years later, I'm glad I didn't do it. Anita and I would have missed him. The series would be completely different. There, having written that, helps me think, at last.
Well, putting aside the fact that JC is the most chiche vampire figure around and I always thought he was ridiculous saying 'ma petite', I kind of like the guy... especially because he is calm, collected and very much open-minded. Also, I like dreaming and imagining scenarios where JC and Asher run off into the sunset (or moonlight) and leave Anita to take care of herself. Without any advice, mwahahahahah. So... LKH have you ever thought of just... killing Micah in a painful, horrible way? Pretty please?

The man lying on the floor, so hurt, is too valuable to us. We would weep for him, Merry and me. Me, being tired and wanting the book done, and wanting more control over the plots, by that I mean . . .
WAH??? SHE has control of the plots! Is she delusional? I don't mean to sound rude, but this is crap. She's trying to look all artist-y by saying her work controls her, but really it is so transparent an act we can all see it's just plain faking. She doesn't kill of her characters because she doesn't want it. Merry? Please. I don't buy any of her talk of thinking characters are real (at least not to the point she says they are) or that 'they control the plot. It's all bull. To make people think 'oh, she is such an artist. She's like a woman possessed [by the characters] when she writes. GAH!

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

. . . Plot of view. Now there's a term I managed to miss in college!

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

I think I'm really thrown by how she doesn't see something that for all intents and purposes should be major--killing off one of the characters--as something that would majorly affect the "plot." She's only concerned with her own comfort.

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

The person now lying on the floor in Maeve Reed's house is not someone I ever thought we'd loose.

Ok, now I've been kinda up to date on the whole MG books, but wasn't she heading to the Seelie Court with a little lay-over at the Unseelie court? Last book had her spending her time in the Unseelie court and she was supposed to be at the Seelie court this book (I was planning on peeking if they ever made it). So, why in the name of all things holy is she at Maeve Reed's house! That's no where near where the last book left off!

My brain hurts.

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

Did you read the novella claiming to be a novel that is Mistral's Kiss? It ends in California. Because LKH apparently entirely forgot that Merry HAD to be at the Seelie Court the VERY NEXT DAY.

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

No, I stopped actively reading the MG series back on the third book (and I only bought that because I wanted an example of first person narrative and couldn't think of any other book that had that). I knew that each book was like a day or two days at a time. And I knew she hadn't made it to the Seelie Court.

How did she get back to Cali? Was the Seelie ball called off? Or did that all get eaten by the plot monster?

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

Ah, I keep reading them in hopes of SholtoTentaclePorn. Which she entirely flaked out of. I sulked.

As far as I can translate the garble into English, the plot monster must have eaten the entire Seelie Court. Except for the ones that shaved off Sholto's tentacles, thus negating the promise of tentacle!sex. Anyway, through many convoluted things and a lot of exposition they ended up having to go back to Cali b/c someone let Cel out. Sort of. More or less. So they popped back to Cali via the Sholto Express and NO ONE once mentioned the fact that they had to be back in the Midwest that very evening lest Taranis get insulted.

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

shaved off Sholto's tentacles, thus negating the promise of tentacle!sex

Dang! I would have read it for the Tentacle!sex too! I like Sholto, he had promise.

[summersdream.livejournal.com]

Well, the tentacles grew back later. When there was no more hope for tentacle!sex. *headdesk*

I really did like Sholto and Doyle and the beginning of this series. I still like them both and think they deserved a better author. One who could write plots. So I keep reading because I think "She can't possibly get worse" and lo, she does.

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

They all deserve a better author. Even Galen could be interesting with the right person behind the keyboard.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I said last night in a chat that this blog post...well, a kitten crazily chasing its own tail until it fell down dizzy and zonked out asleep probably has way more logic and coherency.

Also, Kim Harrison's editor ran past this blog, stole all the vital words used for making legiable language to add to the stash she has under her mattress. And at night, she takes out those words, fondles them and laughs maniacally.

After I picked my jaw up off the floor and gave up on trying to translate the entry into English, I DID have to wonder just how different the AB:VH books woulda been if she'd had the guts to go through with killing JC. I want to say it'd be interesting and thought-provoking, but I keep coming back to the notion that the series woulda fizzled and died because I don't think LKH is the kind of author that can skillfully deal with such a significant and dramatic event in her storylines. Hell, I don't think she plots much beyond the book she's currently writing...which too me is blasphemy if you're writing a series. ARCS, people, ARCS.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

And stuff might have been so much cooler, but I have to wonder how long it would last before the Anne Rice Crazy kicked in.

[nightangel486.livejournal.com]

Man, the books would have been so interesting if JC had died and Micah was evil.

[ladymina.livejournal.com]

she should have killed JC and I would love for her to kill off both harems (well at least weed out half of the men please, pretty pretty please)
And while I see that characters influence the story, the author usually still has control about the plot ...
I always though characters influencing the plot was like 'No Anita would rather kill herself or at least JC instead of accepting the damn adeureruer crap' - not noo my character would cry if so and so dies ... ack

[longtail.livejournal.com]

I think I quit reading MG at the third or fourth book. Never even finished the last one, I was like "Why am I reading lousy Anita all over again?" It was so mind-numbingly boring that I had to keep going back and re-reading pages, so I gave up.

I'd love it if she killed one of the men. NONE of the MG men sound like people you'd want to be around. Besides bishy boi bed-monkey factor in looks, the only one I thought I'd want to hang out with was Rhys. Galen's too white bread, Frost's an arrogant whiny boy, Doyle's too reserved, Nicca doesn't say anything...Rhys was the only one I could maybe go out and have a drink and a laugh with. But really, none of them had any real personality...not even Merry has much personality.

The more and more I read about LKH "loosing" the fight with her characters for plot control, the more evidence I see of serious burnout. The characters are all she has left of her own creativity. They have to be in control because she can't sit back and objectively think about things like "Ok, is this characters death going to add anything to the book/series?"

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

She refuses to listen when her mind and body tell her to stop. She needs to take a break and maybe try something new. Like plot. Or writing third person. Some writers can do that. Janet Evanovich does it all the time. Her Plum series is in first person, but her Full series and other one shot books are in third person.

[dinsedaledarby.livejournal.com]

This feels strangely like that moment near the end of CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED where I'd planned to kill Jean-Claude off. When push came to shove, I could not do it. Now, all these years later, I'm glad I didn't do it. Anita and I would have missed him. The series would be completely different. There, having written that, helps me think, at last.

why, oh why didn't she kill him when she had the chance?
you would have missed him? repeat after me: not. a. real. person.
I mean, I'm a writer. I write characters I like. But I do not think of them as real people and if they must die, they die. It's not the same thing as murdering your best friend. If the only friends you have are the people in your books, then I would feel extremely sorry for you.

[tooimpurenangel.livejournal.com]

The only thing I remember about the last Merry book I read is that it was purp-le
That's it!
Dear Laurell,
YOU SUCK!