[identity profile] witchwillow.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] lkh_lashouts
Oh for the love of all that's holy!



LKH: Italics
Me: Regular
My Emphasis: Bold

In A LICK OF FROST what I made notes for was, names of characters and physical descriptions, especially of eyes. When I first created my version of the sidhe, the high court of faerie, I had this neat idea. I read one account of a man who had met one of the sidhe. He described her as beautiful, then said she had three eyes. Now I'd read all sorts of true accounts of people that had interacted with the fey. I studied reports of people from the 1700s and before, and after, that said they'd been abducted not by aliens, but by fairies. They do not describe anyone as beautiful that has three eyes, or any extra bits. That is like considered a sign of being 'evil'. So, how to reconcile beauty with three eyes?

I walked around for a day or so, trying to decide what it meant. I passed a news stand and saw a cat magazine. It had a gorgeous cat on the cover with a closeup showing it's eyes. Eyes that had three distinct rings of color in it's iris. I knew what I thought the man had meant when he said the beautiful woman had three eyes.

So I gave most of the sidhe multi-colored irises. Great idea, very visual. Problem, it's sometimes hard enough to remember who has gray eyes, or brown, or blue, but then also to remember who has three rings of different shades of blue, and who has grey rings, or which of them has eyes that are just green. It makes a small problem that most writers have with a large cast of characters even harder. Yes, yes, if I would just keep that running list of physically characteristics on file, I wouldn't have to worry about it. I've been meaning to do that for years. I just never quite do it.


There's more to this blog. So much more. Stuff about dyslexia and her two degrees blah blah wankcakes blah beer blah. But this is what makes me scream:

ARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHH


The following rant will be quite rambly and may be somewhat incoherent.

Do we need reminders that vampires drink blood? No.

Do we need reminders that weres shift shape? No.

Do we need reminders that the fey use magic? No.

Why then, if she's properly introduced the concept of tri-ringed irises does she feel the need to continually remind people, over and over again with description after description that she can't even keep straight?

If it's not important enough for her to remember, if in fact she finds the concept confusing, how can she not think that the readers aren't confused. If her own characters don't impress themselves into her memory, how can she not understand why some readers don't really give a damn?!

I know I could well be missing something, much in the same way I read the first Merry book and I don't remember the tri-ringed irises at all. But this whole thing strikes me akin to the long haired men in the Anita Blake books. People can't keep the men straight (no pun intended) because they're all beautiful and long haired and pony-tail wearing.

And now having seen her solution is to write NOTE CHARACTER B _ INSERT HAIR COLOR / EYE COLOR; I 'm all no wonder men in both her books come across as empty shells.

I'm not going to get into the couch pop-psychology about why LKH can't hold onto the characterization of a male character; his personality, what makes him tick, etc. Because I think she can't hold onto any characterization. And this is why it's so much easier for her to have all other women as bitches, all major character women defined by the crown on their head, or their physical appearance and all the men just walking dicks with long multi-coloured hair and eye colour.

When I was a little girl, I think I wanted to meet a mer-man with sea-foam green hair and green eyes. I've now been on livejournal for going on almost six years now and my participation in fandom has helped me place that childish longing in it's place. It was the infantile longing for the exotic that's created to be tamed. It was my first fantasizing about a magical universe. I don't really remember much about my little mer-man, but I knew we were going to save the world together from a great evil (Blame Tolkien).

I have been actively straining to learn all I can about writing and characters and world building and various nuances of writing for the past six years. I've written fan-fiction and done rpgs and called it all my Outside The Classroom College Writing Experience.

I've seen myself grow.

How the hell is LKH managing to move backwards? She started off with characters who've stayed in my mind precise and clean for years ( Edward, Rafael, Ronnie, Olaf, Jason). Now, however, everytime I read reviews I have no idea who's being talked about. People go 'The one with the hair and the eyes' but it all gets jumbled for me because they all have 'special hair and special eyes and special penii'.

My personal memory can suck, for a shitload of reasons (stuff I can safely say would make LKH run screaming). But as books were always my comfort, I could and can remember storylines from books I read when I was 5, 6 and 7. I can almost always remember the characters involved and what they were supposed to look like and more importantly what they felt like.

LKH's 'progress' in writing, terrifies me now. Because I can't remember the characters, the people she's writing about anymore. Which means I can't remember what I was doing at the time I read the books. Which means I can't remember parts of my life, because her work has no hook.

I'm sure that's not the way it feels for everyone else. I know I have a unique mental take on things. But surely I'm not the only one thinking that her characters have become soulless. It's more than they're now pod!people. They seem empty inside. And the knowledge that she just sticks in 'HIS EYE COLOR IS WHAT?' just makes things creepier to me.

http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2007/05/taking-my-own-advice.html
Page 1 of 3 << [1] [2] [3] >>

Date: 2007-05-06 07:23 am (UTC)
ext_12572: (Default)
From: [identity profile] sinanju.livejournal.com
I think it's very clear how LKH has managed to regress. She used to thank her writing group for their help on her books. That was back when she still believed she was a mere mortal, and her work could actually benefit from criticism by other human beings. Back when she actually solicited criticism and considered it (however ungraciously I suspect she did so).

This was back before she became a Big Name Author and could dispense with them (and with editors). And to the degree that she has cut her ties with anyone and everyone who was willing and able to provide guidance, her work has increasingly sucked.

At this point she doesn't even take her OWN advice. She _knows_ she ought to be maintaining a bible for her series. But she doesn't.

Date: 2007-05-06 07:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] melaniedavidson.livejournal.com
Um... good try, LKH, but having rings in your irises is not even close to having three eyes. What the heck?

Date: 2007-05-06 07:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] melaniedavidson.livejournal.com
That's got to be part of it. That, and at the same time being unwilling to let go of an idea she saw in one account, unsubstantiated anywhere else--so twisting it so that it "makes sense".

Date: 2007-05-06 07:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] frabjously.livejournal.com
Word. That's actually what I take issue with in this post. So she does the research, finds out that they supposedly had three eyes and then creates this bullshit characteristic just so they look super-pretty. Well why did she do the research in the first place then??

I can imagine cases where someone might have three eyes, and be "beautiful", especially the fey who have an ethereal prettiness to them anyway.

Date: 2007-05-06 07:50 am (UTC)
ext_12572: (Default)
From: [identity profile] sinanju.livejournal.com
Yeah, I think hubris covers it. The rants she's posted about the haters and how people don't like her recent works because they're too edgy (hah!) and make the readers think too hard pretty much demonstrate that, I think. There seems to be no room in her worldview for the idea that her work could be less than perfect, or that it could be improved by actually obtaining some constructive criticism.

As for the bible issue--laziness probably has something to do with it, but I think it's mostly hubris. I suspect she thinks that relying on a series bible would interfere with her Creativity (insert charicature of joint-smoking, beret-wearing Artiste here). I don't doubt, based on what she's written in the past, that in her view creativity must be spontaneous, pouring out of her subconscious (in the inimitable phrase Ayn Rand used once) "like vomit out of a drunkard."

Note how often she complains about the characters being uncooperative, and how "forcing" the plot doesn't work because that's not how the story wants to go. (Alternated with claims that she puts more of X into her books just to flip the bird at haters who object to X, put shhhhhhh!) Note the complete lack of ownership of her fiction. She lets her "friends" (for whom she supposedly buys presents, thinking they're real) do what they like; she avoids plots that endanger characters because the other characters would be unhappy. Ad nauseum....

I find the incessant chatter about "muses" by fanfic writers on the internet mildly amusing*, but they're not being paid big bucks to produce an (allegedly) professional product. LKH is, but she refuses to listen to criticism, won't maintain a series bible, and purports to have characters dictating plotlines to her; that's the behavior of someone who believes (consciously or not) that her subconscious can squeeze out perfect fiction without any editorial direction, like a goose laying golden eggs. Hubris.

*I write fanfic myself, but I never lose sight of the fact that it's fiction and _I_ am responsible for it, whether it sucks or not.

Date: 2007-05-06 08:13 am (UTC)
ext_12572: (Default)
From: [identity profile] sinanju.livejournal.com
If what you mean by "a muse" is a very clear mental image of a character, that's one thing. But I've seen far too many people write about their muses as if they had an objective existence, not like a shorthand way of describing their own internal processes. This is especially true when they opine that a story has stalled because "the muses aren't talking." They're giving away their own agency when they do that.

But I will admit that I take issue (maybe more than I should) with alienating your own creativity. I'm a big believer in "one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration" as the recipe for creativity. If your story has ground to a halt, that's not a sign that the muses are uncooperative. It may be evidence that you need to rethink your plot, though.

Getting back to LKH, though, (and it is all about her, after all!) the failure/refusal to employ a series bible is telling. It means she doesn't believe it's necessary; if she really thought it was, she'd be doing it.

Date: 2007-05-06 08:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] frabjously.livejournal.com
LKH has the same problems with beauty as she does with feminism.

Date: 2007-05-06 08:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] frabjously.livejournal.com
Isn't it amusing that her characters are so uncooperative, yet she manages to tear their essence to pieces (especially with that Rafael thing).

Date: 2007-05-06 10:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] slayra.livejournal.com
I have tried to read 'A Kiss of Shadows' three times now. I dread what is to come, so I never got past page 50. *sigh*

I've read 14 AB books and the characters were never LKH's strong point. At first there weren't that many (and, wow, she actually killed a semi-important character, Phillip) but I never much cared for their development. They are too two-dimentional for me. Anita, JC, Richard have a number of automated responses to situations a few character traits that are repeated book after book. They don't grow much as characters (unless you count their superpowers), they don't get deeper, they stay the same.

When she started adding more characters (male) it got worse. All her characters are automats, with little or no personality (and the little personality they have is horrible). It's a problem that comes from having way too many characters. I honestly have a hard time remembering names and hair colors and eye colors... I just can't connect with the characters as they aren't fleshed out... they don't seem real and most of them are little more than sex dolls.

Date: 2007-05-06 11:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] stefflebug.livejournal.com
Ok, this woman breaks my brain.

I agree with her first paragraph : he advice I give beginning writers is not to get bogged down in the first draft. The example I usually give is from my own first book, NIGHTSEER. There was a moment when I had to get her undressed for the night, and I had no idea what a society equivalent to about 1300 to 1400s would wear under their clothes. But I was smart. Instead of running off to the library and researching 14th century underwear I just typed, "NOTES; WHAT DOES 14TH CENTURY UNDERWEAR LOOK LIKE," and kept writing.

This is fine advice, it doesn't break the flow of writing and lets you get the points of the story down before you lose them. Then you go back and fill them in.

But then she starts wangsting, and going on about how now it is details like name and eye colour that she needs to fill in, just no. You make a character list, you plan things like that, or they all end up penii with pretty coloured hair (I love that description).

Oh and : I am dyslexic. .... It made so much sense. I can't spell because the blasted letters in the middle don't stay still.

Does anyone else think that she is using this as an excuse for not being able to remember the spellings for the ardeur, raphael, etc?

Sure, dyslexia can interfer with things, but then you have someone who is not dyslexic to help you out. Like, I don't know, an editor.

Date: 2007-05-06 02:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com
"I read one account of a man who had met one of the sidhe."

Says it all, really. She believes this waaay too much.

Date: 2007-05-06 02:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rozasharn.livejournal.com
What Horsedoovers said. You're doing fine.

The problem with being dyslexic and arrogant both at once is that when such people run the spell-checker, and it notifies them of errors, they think "What's wrong with that? It looks fine to me. Must be a problem with the machine," and click the Add to Dictionary button. That's why LKH keeps messing up words like ardeur: instead of trusting authority, she put misspellings into the machine, and undercut her own safeguards.

Date: 2007-05-06 02:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rozasharn.livejournal.com
I'm pretty sure the reason for the cast of thousands is
A) She can't bear to kill any core characters, so she needs new Red Shirts to kill off every book;
B) She wants another lover for herself. Remember how she talked about how she and Jon were "looking for a third?" That desire drives her to write in new men for her (characters) to have sex with.

Date: 2007-05-06 03:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zombiexbunny.livejournal.com
That's what I was thinking as well...that their "third eye" was visible.

I love how she's been writing these books that deal with the paranormal/magick/mystical blah-ba-de-blahs for years and yet the thought of a "third eye" doesn't even cross her mind.

"Eyes that had three distinct rings of color in it's iris. I knew what I thought the man had meant when he said the beautiful woman had three eyes."

Buzuh?! Well of course it's what you thought, LKH. Because god forbid it be anything else that might take away from the short, shiny-eyed, long haired, big dicked, buns-o-steel beauty that is presented with EACH AND EVERY ONE of the eleventy billion characters that are in your novels.


*huff*


Date: 2007-05-06 03:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dwg.livejournal.com
sdfkjasd;fsdkfj;aoeih n;

*deep breaths*

Now I'm suddenly glad that I keep character profiles of DOOM (no, seriously, the proforma is like 5 pages long and asks you everything about a character and their preferences in kitchen sinks) and files on world babble/building so I can help cobble together a coherent timeline and evolution of people.

But oh, LKH, back in the 18th century, people did not know what aliens were! They would have described them as otherworldly beings, and indeed, fairies. *headdesk* I DON'T THINK JOE CITIZEN WOULD HAVE RUN THROUGH THE STREETS YELLING, "OMFG! I JUST GOT ANAL PROBED BY LITTLE GREEN CHEESE MEN!!! AND THEY TURNED MY COW INSIDE OUT!!!"

Though, I don't see why she had to try and "reconcile" three eyes with beauty -- a chick can still have three eyes and be hot, Third Eye open, or like, an extra eyeball on her cheek, or hip, or whatever. The thing that's probably irking me the most about this is that LKH is focusing on the Unseelie, who are meant to find all manner of perversities and deformities as beautiful, and she's prettying them up and then pointing out that the Seelie are so damned vain and all LA LA LA WE ARE SO GREAT! *prisses in front of mirrors* Because right now, there's no difference between the two courts. Both are dying, both have omgsocrazyanddangerousperverted rulers that are in denial, both have the same sorts of prejudices and court systems. It's like pretty much everything else -- please insert name and description here, move to next sex scene.

I'm just waiting for the Wild Hunt to just ride along and inadvertantly flatten the Sithen, then get drunk and dance on the rubble while the hell hounds eat the corpses of Merry and her harem. It'd be better for everyone, really.

Date: 2007-05-06 04:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nightangel486.livejournal.com
I think what irritated me more was one of the previous blogs where she talkes YET AGAIN about how unique and innovative the AB:VH series was and how she was the FIRST ONE to do paranormal romance/urban fantasy. I distinctly remember reading other urban fantasy series which came out either before or around the same time as Anita Blake. This if anything really demonstrates just how egotistical she is.
Page 1 of 3 << [1] [2] [3] >>

Profile

lkh_lashouts: (Default)
LKH Lashouts

January 2023

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 23rd, 2025 01:53 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios