Comments | heidicullinan: From mess to MS

heidicullinan

From mess to MS

Jul 20, 2010 11:58

This is another one of those writer navel-gazing posts about process. If you don't want to play with these balls of yarn, feel free to walk on by.

I have had two stories so far spring out of my head like Venus from the sea: Double Blind and Nowhere Ranch. Every other story has taken me through at least mild hell, and some of them have seriously ( Read more... )

writing, two to tango

Comments 10

egret17 July 21 2010, 03:06:35 UTC

*jumps around with pom poms*

Go, Heidi!

heidicullinan July 22 2010, 15:00:00 UTC

Thanks! :)

mariesexton July 21 2010, 03:12:19 UTC

You go, girl! And when you're done, can you fix my Paris story for me? kthx.

heidicullinan July 22 2010, 15:00:17 UTC

No.

josephine_myles July 21 2010, 12:24:25 UTC

Go for it!

Regarding antagonists - can't they be something less personified, like a character's inability to deal with their past, or a situation with their work/life that is getting them down, even if there is no "villain" behind it? I'm sure that there must be an antagonist in there somewhere...

heidicullinan July 22 2010, 15:02:23 UTC

Well, yes. But a physical one is better. Stronger. Easier to deal with. You're right. Mostly Jenny Crusie totally polluted my head on this one, but overall I think she's right. In genre fiction it works better with a present antagonist to move the arc. And I'm still going to try to find one if I can. But this one might be there to challenge my thinking on that score.

josephine_myles July 22 2010, 17:49:28 UTC

I wonder - are you sure you've written a genre romance? Might you have written something more literary, perhaps? I figure the genre conventions are only worth sticking to as long as they are helpful to you.

heidicullinan July 22 2010, 18:01:37 UTC

Oh no. I'm not literary.

I think I have it too. Maybe. I'm putting the frame in place now. It will be vague, that I know, but I'll get it. Eventually.

Probably.

rowanspeedwell July 21 2010, 14:03:59 UTC

Oh, THANK YOU for this post. I'm in the middle of this myself and feeling totally lost and alone and miserable, and just knowing someone else (let alone one of my "auto-buys") is going through the same process is so comforting. (Sobs quietly on your virtual shoulder.)
Thank you.

RowanS

heidicullinan July 22 2010, 15:04:06 UTC

HA! Thank you for the comment. I'd been muttering to myself for posting it at all. I wasn't sure it had come out like I wanted and was convinced I'd just selfishly foisted my neurosis on the net.

Best of luck.