Shivery Bones, matey
Mar. 2nd, 2005 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonOne person who read my novel, Shivery Bones, said the title made her think of pirates. Ar! I could live with that—if it was the Johnny Depp type of pirate.
Unfortunately, the novel has nothing to do with pirates. It has to do with channeling gods and goddesses; the birth and death cycle of the Great Goddess; love, sacrifice, and redemption; the meaning of lif(e); and good and evil vampires. Oh yes, it's also about the Spanish Inquisition, but nobody expects that.
I'd planned on writing another type of novel after that one. I was writing a series of contemporary fantasy stories about a small, mythological county in Southern California called Dos Lunas and the very strange people who live there. I had a nice superstructure worked out that would allow me to use much of that material in a novel, but somehow that didn't jell and this old novel, Night Warrior, sunk it's fangs into me. I'm closing in on 60k words now on a novel centering around one of the "support players" in Shivery.
And just this morning my subconscious delivered of me a solution as to why the Dos Lunas novel didn't jell. That's the way these breakthroughs happen for me. Distract myself with something else and let the lower end of my brain work on the other stuff and then pop! A squawling mass of new ideas comes forth.
And the conclusion I came to about using the Dos Lunas stories for a novel: those stories are...stories. They were written novelistically (which is why I'm not a great short story writer), but I don't really think they are part of a novel. The superstructure is fine, but the journey my hero, JK, needs to make has to be told in a different way. It has to be a part of this universe and this novel, not those stories. They have turned out to be a very elaborate backstory.
I may still be able to make them work as stories some day, but it isn't a priority for me anymore. I'm a novelist. That's the way my creative mind works; that's the creative muscles that have developed. And JK will have his day. Just not in the way I originally thought.
Of course, my lower brain didn't have any good ideas about what to do with the minor character who wanted to hijack the entire novel. I plan to slip her some sedatives once I start writing that novel again.
Unfortunately, the novel has nothing to do with pirates. It has to do with channeling gods and goddesses; the birth and death cycle of the Great Goddess; love, sacrifice, and redemption; the meaning of lif(e); and good and evil vampires. Oh yes, it's also about the Spanish Inquisition, but nobody expects that.
I'd planned on writing another type of novel after that one. I was writing a series of contemporary fantasy stories about a small, mythological county in Southern California called Dos Lunas and the very strange people who live there. I had a nice superstructure worked out that would allow me to use much of that material in a novel, but somehow that didn't jell and this old novel, Night Warrior, sunk it's fangs into me. I'm closing in on 60k words now on a novel centering around one of the "support players" in Shivery.
And just this morning my subconscious delivered of me a solution as to why the Dos Lunas novel didn't jell. That's the way these breakthroughs happen for me. Distract myself with something else and let the lower end of my brain work on the other stuff and then pop! A squawling mass of new ideas comes forth.
And the conclusion I came to about using the Dos Lunas stories for a novel: those stories are...stories. They were written novelistically (which is why I'm not a great short story writer), but I don't really think they are part of a novel. The superstructure is fine, but the journey my hero, JK, needs to make has to be told in a different way. It has to be a part of this universe and this novel, not those stories. They have turned out to be a very elaborate backstory.
I may still be able to make them work as stories some day, but it isn't a priority for me anymore. I'm a novelist. That's the way my creative mind works; that's the creative muscles that have developed. And JK will have his day. Just not in the way I originally thought.
Of course, my lower brain didn't have any good ideas about what to do with the minor character who wanted to hijack the entire novel. I plan to slip her some sedatives once I start writing that novel again.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-02 01:07 pm (UTC)I have enormous respect for short story writers, who can create something sharp and direct. To me, though, my writing has a round feel, more like one of thos spirograph patterns than a perfect straight line.
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Date: 2005-03-02 02:01 pm (UTC)Or rather, I'd been doing nothing but novels for a long while, then I convinced myself I really should be doing short stories because that's the smart thing, and I tried real hard at that. But I'm just not a short story writer.
So do I. There's nothing like a crisp and juicy short story. But I've come to the conclusion that for me it's always going to be like dancing en pointe: I admire the beauty of it, but I'll never be able to do it with the grace and skill needed.
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Date: 2005-03-02 02:08 pm (UTC)I don't even know her and I love her.
That's a good breakthrough, though. And you never know... if the JK story makes it big, those backstories could be huge sellers. :-)
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Date: 2005-03-02 02:21 pm (UTC)Ramona (famous California Indian story). But I'm surprised and gratified you even got close on that one.
LOL. That is the way the business operates.
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Date: 2005-03-02 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-02 10:48 pm (UTC)I'm so glad that JK is stirring again. He's a patient sort, but his readers aren't!
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Date: 2005-03-03 11:54 am (UTC)He is patient, poor boy. Especially since last time I wrote him he was laying in a gully somewhere shot and bleeding...
Now, if I could just get Ramona to keep her hands to herself.