I got reamed out yesterday for writing a stereotypical character. After reading the comment, I realized I deserved it, even though criticism isn't that easy to take. It make my writing better. And me better in this case. I didn't try to write a stereotype.  I read a column on it just the other day, saying if something comes easy, it's probably a ( Read more... )

 I read (listened to) a book this week with a stalker as the male lead: Murder in Thrall by Anne Cleeland. The main character is a first year cop in London and her boss (DCI?) is a well breed (repressed) Lord. She is a huge enough character (and interesting in all the right ways) that she can carry the story. It's all from her POV except for a ( Read more... )

Rewriting any story means changing it: moving scenes to better places, making sequences more logical, giving better motivations, fixing plot holes, weaving in dangling bits. I understand that. But one of the scary parts for me is how the characters change. Now the change can give to story more emotion impact and the characters more logical ( Read more... )

Are the Seven Essences of Man even a thing? I can't google it because I don't know what it's really called. The seven [something]. It's the seven... liquids that make a spell/ceremony/something more powerful in fantasy novels/stories/something: bile, blood, saliva, semen, sweat, tears, and urine. Has anyone heard of it before? I can't have come ( Read more... )

 Today while waiting to start work, I mentioned a radio show I'd listen to last night about what parents tell their kids about Santa. My mother thought that if we discovered she lied about the little things, how would we trust her about the big ones. On the show other people were moralistic like this. But some adults really liked the childhood ( Read more... )

Yesterday I got my first Christmas present. My husband took the kids Christmas shopping, so I got to be alone in the house for a few hours (the first time in at least a month). I’m calling it a Christmas present because I was supposed to work, but I was told to take the day off. (And I agreed before I thought about how much I now wouldn’t be making ( Read more... )

I used a word in a story (which I’ll post when Harmonies is finished) and discovered (by way of my beta) that the word I thought meant Spanish speaking indigenous (to the Americas) man is used as a slur in other places in the world (but not the corresponding word for woman, I guess). Quite the shock because it’s been used with pride every time I’ve ( Read more... )

 I just put Claimed up on A03. I'm not sure I'll get many readers there, but it's definitely worth a try. I'm thinking of putting up more of my short stories. Because the site keeps track of series, I could separate them into maybe fairy tales, school boys, and knights and nobility without having to keep the rating the same for every story in the ( Read more... )

Does anyone know the etiquette for posting something original to AO3? I just got an account, but all the FAQ have to do with fanfics. My daughter says there’s original stuff on there, but the tag Original Work seems to be used with tags for series as often as not and Original Characters seems to be when people are added to an established story.

I’d ( Read more... )

I’m reading body language books (only half way through the first one) to help define Kurt’s father for his story (I want him to be able to read people - except the man he loves) and I’m finding the action tags ( “[quote]” K stroked E’s neck) easier to write.

Of course last time I read one of these books (about gestures when people are attracted to ( Read more... )