on writing
I've started reading Deadline. Maybe Grant's thing is to kick off all her novels with a crazy action scene. If so, that'd be awesome. I can't wait to see what she has in store for the third book. Other than that it's mostly just Shaun being crazy and a reiteration of what's been going on for the last 600 pages of that other book I read called Feed. Which, you know, is fine so long as we get moving soon. Actually, I'm only on page 41. I should give Grant some time to set up.
I'm only a little annoyed that she has been doing the "last week on..." exposition thing. I feel like she should skip all that crap and just assume that the reader's read Feed because 1) what kind of asshole reads the second book in a series first? and 2) if the person reading your book 2 hasn't read book 1 don't give them and their ilk the satisfaction of thinking it's ok. Drop them dead in the action of "and then this shit happened" and make them go, "wait. wtf? was there another book before this?" That's what fantasy writers do. I get that you don't want to alienate readers but I'm almost 99% sure whoever's reading Deadline has read Feed first. If it's really super important that a certain piece of info is shared again add it in dialogue or something. Don't patronize me by holding my hand and telling me the story again like I didn't hear you the first time.
Ok. I'm not a little annoyed. I'm medium annoyed.
Mostly I just skim those parts.
I feel like people who read genre books like these are the kind of people who, at least in some part, wish they could live that world. I know I am. I keep going back and forth between "zombies are so cool!" and "running for my life from zombies is not cool!" It's like adult me has to actively tell fantastical me that techinically speaking I've only fired a gun a couple times, I don't own a firearm, I don't know how good a shot I really am, and I've never been in a life or death situation. Suddenly being thrust into a zombie apocalypse would 95% mean my death. And then fantastical me goes, "but it would be sooooo coooolll!!!"
And it totally would! Until I was bitten and one of my friends or loved ones was forced to shoot me in the neck.
I've thought about it, you know, the likelihood of a zombie apocalypse. At least based on what I know about viruses and parasites and science. There are parasites that take over the brains of their hosts and force them into deadly situations, usually to be eaten by a bigger host so that the parasite can continue its life cycle. And we have begun gene therapy based on live viruses injected with certain DNA vectors. It would really be a matter of, "is this the kind of particle smart enough to get past the blood brain barrier to our brains?" You wouldn't know it, but that mess of goo around our brain tissue is a pretty hard nut to crack.
I think wanting to live in these crazy worlds is why I write and why I read. I can't actually exist in a post apocalyptic world but I can pretend I do for a little while with people I created or have thought up in my head. That's probably also a reason why I rarely read or write realistic fiction. I already live in the real world. I don't really need to read about it and I definitely don't need to write about it. It's not really going to scratch any of my itches to sit around making up romantic comedies. Unless of course it was romantic comedies and dragons. Or something equally as entertaining. Like solving murders, super heroes, ghosts, all that stuff is stuff I can't really be a part of. I'd probably freak out if I was. But in the safety of my own head it's pretty damn fun.
I'm only a little annoyed that she has been doing the "last week on..." exposition thing. I feel like she should skip all that crap and just assume that the reader's read Feed because 1) what kind of asshole reads the second book in a series first? and 2) if the person reading your book 2 hasn't read book 1 don't give them and their ilk the satisfaction of thinking it's ok. Drop them dead in the action of "and then this shit happened" and make them go, "wait. wtf? was there another book before this?" That's what fantasy writers do. I get that you don't want to alienate readers but I'm almost 99% sure whoever's reading Deadline has read Feed first. If it's really super important that a certain piece of info is shared again add it in dialogue or something. Don't patronize me by holding my hand and telling me the story again like I didn't hear you the first time.
Ok. I'm not a little annoyed. I'm medium annoyed.
Mostly I just skim those parts.
I feel like people who read genre books like these are the kind of people who, at least in some part, wish they could live that world. I know I am. I keep going back and forth between "zombies are so cool!" and "running for my life from zombies is not cool!" It's like adult me has to actively tell fantastical me that techinically speaking I've only fired a gun a couple times, I don't own a firearm, I don't know how good a shot I really am, and I've never been in a life or death situation. Suddenly being thrust into a zombie apocalypse would 95% mean my death. And then fantastical me goes, "but it would be sooooo coooolll!!!"
And it totally would! Until I was bitten and one of my friends or loved ones was forced to shoot me in the neck.
I've thought about it, you know, the likelihood of a zombie apocalypse. At least based on what I know about viruses and parasites and science. There are parasites that take over the brains of their hosts and force them into deadly situations, usually to be eaten by a bigger host so that the parasite can continue its life cycle. And we have begun gene therapy based on live viruses injected with certain DNA vectors. It would really be a matter of, "is this the kind of particle smart enough to get past the blood brain barrier to our brains?" You wouldn't know it, but that mess of goo around our brain tissue is a pretty hard nut to crack.
I think wanting to live in these crazy worlds is why I write and why I read. I can't actually exist in a post apocalyptic world but I can pretend I do for a little while with people I created or have thought up in my head. That's probably also a reason why I rarely read or write realistic fiction. I already live in the real world. I don't really need to read about it and I definitely don't need to write about it. It's not really going to scratch any of my itches to sit around making up romantic comedies. Unless of course it was romantic comedies and dragons. Or something equally as entertaining. Like solving murders, super heroes, ghosts, all that stuff is stuff I can't really be a part of. I'd probably freak out if I was. But in the safety of my own head it's pretty damn fun.