Laurell's writing style

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Laurell in bold. Me in regular

Recently I've been thinking about how Laurell structures her books. We all know that Laurell is focused on her page counts, but I thought that there was more to a book then mere pages. So we find out in this blog http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2008/04/no-fight-afterall.html that Merry wants to avoid conflict and Laurell is going to let her. (I can't even write that without banging my head against the wall.) 

Still having trouble with this scene. Not only is it not going to be the big fight scene I originally planned, but it may not be a fight scene at all. Merry has figured out a way to simply leave in safety. I finally called Jon over the intercom and whined to him about it. He said a smart thing. "Whose whining that this scene isn't the big fight scene?"

I thought about it for a moment, then said, "Me."

"Whose story is it?" he asked.

"Merry's," I said.

"How does she feel about this scene not being a big fight?"

"Relieved."

I went back to my computer and made some notes, because Jon is right

Then we find out that Laurell structures her stories specifically to avoid having to read sex scenes aloud here: http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/2008/04/videos-on-you-tube-and-my-space.html in this lovely passage: 

Oh, and BLOOD NOIR breaks a rule that I've had for years. I put the first sex scene in a book more than sixty pages in, because most readings last about an hour. I read about a page a minute. So if the sex is more than sixty pages in, then I never have to read the scene in public. Well, it just worked out that the first sex scene is very close to the beginning of the book. Close enough that I'm reading it on the video, and you can hear the crowd reaction.

Call me crazy, but I thought that being an author meant that plot and pacing were critical parts of writing. Does Laurell care about them at all?


 

Comments

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

I found more to shake my head about in the fact that she classified it at where she always tries to put 'the first sex scene' in any given book. Meaning she knows there will always be more than one sex scene. Call me crazy (crazy!), but if you are going to any given book knowing there will be more than one sex scene, and this is obviously a regular occurrence in all of your books...seriously, how exactly can you claim to not be an erotica/porn-writer through and through?

I don't know. It just baffles me and seems...off, or something.

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Oh--and no, I think it's clear enough plot and pacing don't mean much to her. If she cared about character development and letting that speak for itself, she wouldn't fight what the characters are trying to do so much as to try and force a fight to happen or not happen.

I also couldn't help thinking when reading that latest entry on the blog as she went on about being nearly at #20 in AB and that being a 'special number', does that mean she might actually end the horror and end the series already? One can dream! ;P

[easol.livejournal.com]

Nah, she'll probably just have a special treat -- namely she'll have Anita boink an important character (whom she will introduce specifically for that purpose).

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

Isn't that what she does in every book? ;)

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Maybe this time she'll have a five way-Anita, Belle, JC, Asher and Nate. Micah will stand in the corner and wank himself. Wouldn't that be fun?

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

"Fun"....you keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means!

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Nice Princess Bride usage

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

While I haven't read those books, I've heard good things about them, and while (a) fair enough, (b) I think that author/series is in a totally different league than Hamilton and hers! Also, I've gotten the impression that while sex might be part of the plot, sex isn't all there is of the plot, exactly.

[genchaos.livejournal.com]

You'd be right on all counts. While Carey does a series about an extremely sexually liberal society and religious prostitution and I'm usually not into that, she does so with such grace and finesse you care about the characters and pretty much don't give a shit. Wheras I can't think about LKH these days without a vague, gut-churning nausea.

No, I'm not jealous, Laurell honey; I just know shit writing when I see it. :P

...hey, if Anita and Phedre met, would the universe explode from the matter/ antimatter collision?

[last-servant.livejournal.com]

No, they combine into a Sue twice as annoying, spouting off bits of purple prose between a deluge of commas, French, and sex scenes.

[genchaos.livejournal.com]

Eh, I still deem Phedre much less annoying. She's at least freaking literate and spends time doing other things than being on her back.

But point taken. Hurg.

[dominanefret.livejournal.com]

The Kushiel books are by far my favourite.
I think comparing the two and finding Phedre more annoying than Anita is absolutely ridiculous. I don't understand it in the slightest.
The character is consistent, the sex is well written, there are intricately developed, astoundingly well researched plots.. and the books aren't littered with spelling and grammar errors.

[last-servant.livejournal.com]

I wasn't comparing, I was combining. And I'll have to disagree on all but your first and last points.

[genchaos.livejournal.com]

And again, Phedre goes out and does stuff other than sex and angsting about it.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

No, Phedre would kill Anita just to end the pain she causes.

Really. Phedre's masochistic, not stupid.

[genchaos.livejournal.com]

Heck, Phedre herself said there was a point beyond which Kushiel's Dart didn't do squat and pain was just pain. I think Anita definitely crosses that line. *wg*

[zombiexbunny.livejournal.com]

I absolutely LOVE those books.

[astronauta.livejournal.com]

for someone so 'sexually liberated', i'm surprise she finds reading sex out loud embarrassing.

[bloodredroses1.livejournal.com]

With her a-page-a-minute reading style I think she finds reading aloud at all embarrassing.

I think her whole page-a-minute thing is why she's just so fucking horrid at book readings because the only way she seems to be able to meet that goal is by basically stripping almost all emotion from the reading and having no "flow" to the words. Not that her writing has much flow to begin with.

And come on kids, she wouldn't know true sexually liberation if it jumped up and bit her on the ass. She plays with sexual liberation like she plays with her writing these days and frankly, for our sakes, it should be something she does behind closed doors.

Morgan

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

The first five chapters of Blood Noir are a sex scene, from a very reliable source.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

OT: i love your icon!

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Wait... a single sex scene?

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

Apparently it is possible pregnancy wangst, sex wangst and planning, then sex. Nothing but the sex happens in five chapters.

This is from a reviewer I know.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

Ouch. And didn't she already use up the pregnancy wangst in Danse Macabre?

(P.S. I see gwynethfar's Mulan icon and add one of my own.) ;-)

[manekikoneko.livejournal.com]

I agree; years and years ago, I went to a reading by Stephen King. Insomnia had just come out, I believe, and he read the "meet-cute" for the two leads, because, he said, he almost never writes that sort of thing and was a little amused by himself for having done so. When I heard Chuck Palaniuk read, he said he always chooses a short piece, often something unpublished in order to give the audience a treat. Just starting on page one seems like a bit of a cop out.

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

I didn't know anybody even did that. Just start boom on page one? All readings I've been to, the author will choose either an actual short story or a bit of writing that feels self-contained.

[brandiweed.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it's more amusing or more dismaying to speculate on whether Jonboi is gaslighting LKH.

[lilacwire.livejournal.com]

I know it shouldn't be surprising, but Jon is so obviously supporting Laurell's neurosis that Merry is an individual person. Augh. It's disturbing.

[genchaos.livejournal.com]

*dry* Gotta manipulate your meal ticket the right way, lest she dump you for a newer, more jailbaity model.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

With long hair, iridescent eyes and teeny tiny biker shorts.

[genchaos.livejournal.com]

And smells like vanilla. You forgot that part.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

Actually, I read it as a positive sign, that he's heading off her author!wangst. "Just stop whining and write!"

[zombiexbunny.livejournal.com]

And once again she goes the safe route instead of having some actual conflict.

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

Okay, here's the sad part - I first read this entry yesterday afternoon and was scrolling back through the flist tonight and saw it again... and only now did it occur to me that she could mean an actual battle scene. I was envisioning a big emotional fight between Merry and her House O'Cock.

Does this not speak volumes to the standard to which LKH writes these days?

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

What's even better is that a couple of days after this post she started angsting because she might kill a villain. I mean it's bad enough when she freaks out about losing (or in her case loosing) one of Merry's Men but now she can't even stand to kill Merry's enemy.

[eldestmuse.livejournal.com]

:O but that would have to include doing something involving a plot line, which would take precious time away from teh sex.