Pandora: “What is written beneath this heavy and handsome book cover will count, sayeth this cover”
Here I am, coasting towards Sydney to see my beautiful Vanessa. My utterly awful observation has resulted in me missing a crucial piece of information on the City Rail website regarding trackwork. As a result, I have plenty of time to write this while the coach I am in plods its way down the Pacific Highway et al.
I've just finished "The Mummy". Brilliant, just brilliant. I can't believe how deeply I can become absorbed in the characters and their situations. I don't think I have read anything that made me feel this way for a long time. I've just finished the entire 31 book Lone Wolf "extended" saga by Joe Dever, so maybe its just that I've become conditioned to bad writing. As much as I love the Lone Wolf books for the amazing world they are set in and the plot itself, Joe Dever really is a terrible writer. The guy has such a cult following too, the now out of print series I have is worth several thousand dollars according to eBay. His books are great because they make my imagination work hard to fill in the gaps, but as a result they are nowhere near as enjoyable as Anne Rice. While I was waiting for the train just now I read the first three pages of "Pandora" (which is apparently the Vampire Chronicles book I'm up to, according to karmajane), and I'm already in love with her. She is going to be a more philosophical Vampire, piles more than Lestat was anyway. Almost like a female version of Louis
For a writer wannabe like myself, she is such an inspiring author to read, and at the same time slightly depressing. Inspiring in the way all brilliant people are inspiring, because you want to be like them because they are so brilliant, and dammit, if they can do it why the hell can't I? And depressing because well, she is brilliant, and so brilliant, and wow could I ever really be that brilliant? I guess most of her thoughts and ideas come from her life experiences, and I just haven't had enough of those. Yet.
Some chatty girls have just gotten on the train now, so my focus has been shattered. So the little piece of writing I had planned to start is going to have to wait. I've got dozens of little ideas written down in a list on my desktop, waiting for me to come along and implement them, probably enough for a lifetime of writing. And I always invent more. Sometimes I have to cross some off, because some other clever bastard has already thought of it.
Actually, just this once I won't just write it down, on my private little list, I'll explain it. So here it is: you have a character writing a story. Kind of like Pandora is doing, explaining his/her life, but they are writing it in chunks, like on a train for example. Maybe pieces of it at a cafe, or while stuck in traffic. And as he/she is writing stuff down they are talking about people who are in the story, along the lines of "blah blah blah... and so anyway I will put this down because Bert needs me again." And then later you discover that Bert is a quadriplegic due to some incident involving the character which he/she will come to write about in the account. The trick would be to make it totally unlike a journal entry, the writing would have to flow perfectly as if it were just one long story, but tie together just right so that the reader will want to read back though it to see what they have missed. It would take lots of finesse but if done just right it would be brilliant.
Oh ok, and while I'm talking about ideas, I have another good one I want to get off my chest. How about this: an eternal journal. So basically you start writing a livejournal. It has to be from the perspective of a fictional character, with an excruciatingly well written back story that only you have a copy of. You spend plenty of time making the character sound real to the reader, even post a few comments, but he/she has to be of "average" personality and temperament. Also very important: mention world events from time to time. Like "oh yea, how crazy was that shit with the twin towers getting hit by those planes?". So you maintain the fake journal for a year, and then palm it off to someone roughly one year younger than you. Someone who you can trust to maintain it obviously, and preferably someone with a similar writing style. So, this character is, to the reader, the same age all the time, never seems to change, and has opinions about all the world events through history. An eternal journal. Pen and paper would work just as well of course. Maybe after four hundred years or so you could release a book with the journal or something - for the express purpose of getting the stories out there. Would it work? Would be awesome to find out. Am I patient enough to wait long enough to find out? Absolutely not.
I've just finished "The Mummy". Brilliant, just brilliant. I can't believe how deeply I can become absorbed in the characters and their situations. I don't think I have read anything that made me feel this way for a long time. I've just finished the entire 31 book Lone Wolf "extended" saga by Joe Dever, so maybe its just that I've become conditioned to bad writing. As much as I love the Lone Wolf books for the amazing world they are set in and the plot itself, Joe Dever really is a terrible writer. The guy has such a cult following too, the now out of print series I have is worth several thousand dollars according to eBay. His books are great because they make my imagination work hard to fill in the gaps, but as a result they are nowhere near as enjoyable as Anne Rice. While I was waiting for the train just now I read the first three pages of "Pandora" (which is apparently the Vampire Chronicles book I'm up to, according to karmajane), and I'm already in love with her. She is going to be a more philosophical Vampire, piles more than Lestat was anyway. Almost like a female version of Louis
For a writer wannabe like myself, she is such an inspiring author to read, and at the same time slightly depressing. Inspiring in the way all brilliant people are inspiring, because you want to be like them because they are so brilliant, and dammit, if they can do it why the hell can't I? And depressing because well, she is brilliant, and so brilliant, and wow could I ever really be that brilliant? I guess most of her thoughts and ideas come from her life experiences, and I just haven't had enough of those. Yet.
Some chatty girls have just gotten on the train now, so my focus has been shattered. So the little piece of writing I had planned to start is going to have to wait. I've got dozens of little ideas written down in a list on my desktop, waiting for me to come along and implement them, probably enough for a lifetime of writing. And I always invent more. Sometimes I have to cross some off, because some other clever bastard has already thought of it.
Actually, just this once I won't just write it down, on my private little list, I'll explain it. So here it is: you have a character writing a story. Kind of like Pandora is doing, explaining his/her life, but they are writing it in chunks, like on a train for example. Maybe pieces of it at a cafe, or while stuck in traffic. And as he/she is writing stuff down they are talking about people who are in the story, along the lines of "blah blah blah... and so anyway I will put this down because Bert needs me again." And then later you discover that Bert is a quadriplegic due to some incident involving the character which he/she will come to write about in the account. The trick would be to make it totally unlike a journal entry, the writing would have to flow perfectly as if it were just one long story, but tie together just right so that the reader will want to read back though it to see what they have missed. It would take lots of finesse but if done just right it would be brilliant.
Oh ok, and while I'm talking about ideas, I have another good one I want to get off my chest. How about this: an eternal journal. So basically you start writing a livejournal. It has to be from the perspective of a fictional character, with an excruciatingly well written back story that only you have a copy of. You spend plenty of time making the character sound real to the reader, even post a few comments, but he/she has to be of "average" personality and temperament. Also very important: mention world events from time to time. Like "oh yea, how crazy was that shit with the twin towers getting hit by those planes?". So you maintain the fake journal for a year, and then palm it off to someone roughly one year younger than you. Someone who you can trust to maintain it obviously, and preferably someone with a similar writing style. So, this character is, to the reader, the same age all the time, never seems to change, and has opinions about all the world events through history. An eternal journal. Pen and paper would work just as well of course. Maybe after four hundred years or so you could release a book with the journal or something - for the express purpose of getting the stories out there. Would it work? Would be awesome to find out. Am I patient enough to wait long enough to find out? Absolutely not.