It's been said for a while that there are no truly original ideas anymore. Which, well, maybe. I haven't decided whether I agree or disagree with that, but I subscribe to the concept that it's all about how you spin an idea and make it your own, and not whether the core ideas are similar to That Other Work.
I also believe that it is absolutely possible for two different people to come up with strikingly similar ideas at the same time. Without getting into the dirty little details, I've engaged in the Hunger Games vs. Battle Royale debate with a former writing buddy before. Now, I'm sure I'm biased as I did enjoy the Hunger Games series, and I'm also sure I wasn't as well-informed going into the debate as I could have been, as my knowledge of Battle Royale comes from friends who have read it and wikipedia. From what I've learned from those two sources, though, while the general concept might be similar (coincidentally or not, we'll never know), there are more than enough differences in execution and overall setting to make me roll my eyes at the people who are still harping on about how Suzanne Collins plagiarized another work and shouldn't be as successful as she is.
Most writers want to be regarded as having a unique voice to convey whatever scenarios their imaginations conjure, I would think. We all want to have those fresh ideas that make readers marvel, to be ahead of the trends so we can stand out. Yet, if we really are working from a limited pool, that's easier said than done.
Without sifting back through the archives, I'm fairly sure that I blogged about my "oh shit" moment when I was halfway through writing the first Disintegration and learned that it had a lot of similarities to the movie Robocop (the remake of which was in the works while I was writing). I panicked, but was talked off the ledge by a friend who had both seen the movie and knew my plans, so he could assure me there were enough differences to set me apart. No one's come after me with a lawsuit yet (or even whined at me about it), so I guess it's all good on that front.
So why this blog post now? Because it happened again. *headdesk* Since I got the contract, I went to scan through The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions just to reacquaint myself with what I actually wrote, since it had been a while. And what did I find? There's a scene in there that is quite similar to a scene in Dragon Age: Origins.
Well, damn.
It's even documented on this blog that I wrote TFotMS well before playing DAO, but that doesn't mean I didn't start second-guessing myself. I tried to remain as spoiler-free as possible, but in my perusing of DA2-related stuff, did I come across something related to that scene and it got stuck in my head? Are the circumstances not as accidental as I thought? I mean, the common thread is admittedly not the most novel of concepts, but that they happened so close together in my life had me scratching my head a bit.
I'm not going to change it, of course. It's not exactly the same, and the characters, setting, etc. are certainly different enough. Will someone come across that scene and think, "Hmm, this seems a lot like that game I played"? Maybe. But for now, I'll just stick it in the "coincidences" file and not worry too much. Suzanne Collins got past it, and I can, too. ;)
Showing posts with label heated discussion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heated discussion. Show all posts
Monday, September 8, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Strong Women
I have plenty of thoughts about the topic that gives this post its title, enough that I may have to revisit it from time to time. I like to think as myself as a strong, competent, capable woman, and I like to read about the same. After all, don't we try to identify with the characters in the stories we're immersing ourselves in?
"Strong female characters" has always been a hot topic in literary circles. (It arguably comes up when discussing movies, too.) There have been articles and interviews and whatnot all over the place when it comes to which authors write women well, which fail miserably at it, and which seem to ignore women altogether. And as always, opinions vary greatly as to what constitutes a "strong" character, regardless of what's between his/her legs. I'm not going to make a list of links here or try to reinvent the wheel, but this is something I think about while writing.
I freely admit that not every single thing I've written passes the Bechdel test. Considering my primary genre is romance, the vast majority of it heterosexual, I don't feel a lot of self-loathing about that and I'm not going to kick myself down a shame spiral. However, I do often try to write exciting plots outside of the romance, and considering how plot-heavy this current project is, I've been examining the characters' personalities and actions more closely.
Let's take a look at a very short snippet from Chapter Ten:
Mielle raised her eyebrows. “I still don’t get it,” she said. “What’s so special about these things?”
“First of all, they’re not things, they’re people.” Ro folded her arms across her chest. “It’s easy to say they were people, but I know that whatever Zedek does to them in his lab, he can’t fully erase what they used to be.”
Her words hung heavy in the room. No one responded. “However,” she continued, “they’re designed to be deadly. They’re stronger than us. Their reflexes are faster than ours. They can sustain more damage than us even if we go in wearing full body armor.”
The redhead blinked her long lashes. “So how do we get around them.”
In the following chapter, Mielle seeks out Ro to apologize for possibly being insensitive, and then they have a chat about a couple topics, not all of them about a man. So yay for passing the Bechdel test (which had already happened earlier in the book anyway), but the scene got me thinking - if it were a male character, would he have come to apologize? Would the original exchange have been more heated? Would the following conversation have been any different if it had been between a man and a woman?
I don't know. Obviously by this point, the characters are fleshed out enough in my head that they drive the action and the dialogue. I'd like to think that a male character could be sensitive enough to apologize for a potentially off-putting remark, but does that mean it's bland or almost expected for a woman to do it? If it had been a man, would the resulting conversation have eventually evolved into the characters trying to get into each other's pants? If it had been two men just talking about stuff, would this even be an issue?
The "what-if" games can be crazymaking, but if we don't overthink things, the problems never get better, right? And I know, of course, that I am just one tiny, tiny drop in a vast ocean, but we should all be trying to do well by our characters. Or else they might come after us and exact revenge.
"Strong female characters" has always been a hot topic in literary circles. (It arguably comes up when discussing movies, too.) There have been articles and interviews and whatnot all over the place when it comes to which authors write women well, which fail miserably at it, and which seem to ignore women altogether. And as always, opinions vary greatly as to what constitutes a "strong" character, regardless of what's between his/her legs. I'm not going to make a list of links here or try to reinvent the wheel, but this is something I think about while writing.
I freely admit that not every single thing I've written passes the Bechdel test. Considering my primary genre is romance, the vast majority of it heterosexual, I don't feel a lot of self-loathing about that and I'm not going to kick myself down a shame spiral. However, I do often try to write exciting plots outside of the romance, and considering how plot-heavy this current project is, I've been examining the characters' personalities and actions more closely.
Let's take a look at a very short snippet from Chapter Ten:
Mielle raised her eyebrows. “I still don’t get it,” she said. “What’s so special about these things?”
“First of all, they’re not things, they’re people.” Ro folded her arms across her chest. “It’s easy to say they were people, but I know that whatever Zedek does to them in his lab, he can’t fully erase what they used to be.”
Her words hung heavy in the room. No one responded. “However,” she continued, “they’re designed to be deadly. They’re stronger than us. Their reflexes are faster than ours. They can sustain more damage than us even if we go in wearing full body armor.”
The redhead blinked her long lashes. “So how do we get around them.”
In the following chapter, Mielle seeks out Ro to apologize for possibly being insensitive, and then they have a chat about a couple topics, not all of them about a man. So yay for passing the Bechdel test (which had already happened earlier in the book anyway), but the scene got me thinking - if it were a male character, would he have come to apologize? Would the original exchange have been more heated? Would the following conversation have been any different if it had been between a man and a woman?
I don't know. Obviously by this point, the characters are fleshed out enough in my head that they drive the action and the dialogue. I'd like to think that a male character could be sensitive enough to apologize for a potentially off-putting remark, but does that mean it's bland or almost expected for a woman to do it? If it had been a man, would the resulting conversation have eventually evolved into the characters trying to get into each other's pants? If it had been two men just talking about stuff, would this even be an issue?
The "what-if" games can be crazymaking, but if we don't overthink things, the problems never get better, right? And I know, of course, that I am just one tiny, tiny drop in a vast ocean, but we should all be trying to do well by our characters. Or else they might come after us and exact revenge.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Let's Have a Heated Discussion! - When to Edit
I finished writing the epilogue of my latest book last night. Obviously, I was overjoyed and felt an overwhelming sense of relief. The celebrating was, however, tempered by knowing what's coming up next: editing. Lots of editing. A shitload of editing. Editing.
I have a confession to make: I'm one of those people who edits as she goes. *ducks for cover* For this book, there are five parts and an interlude (Part Five is very short). Whenever I reached the end of a part, I would go through and do a light edit. Also along those lines, I'm one of those people who, when stuck on a particularly irritating line, paragraph, or even scene that just isn't coming together, I will stay there until I can pick it apart and work it out. I know myself, and if I say "Oh, I'll just deal with it later"...I won't. I will gloss over it and it will be crap, and I may not have the ability or drive to un-crap it later on.
I know that there are writers out there who are clutching their pearls at my grave sins. I know a lot of people suggest, or even recommend, just sitting down to writewritewritewritewritewrite and just get the damn words out, and you can always fine-tune it later (or trash chunks of it completely). It's not a bad plan. If it works for you, awesome! It's not my style. While I'm always looking to improve, and I'm not opposed to forcing myself to break bad habits, for now, I'm going to stick with this routine. And if that sometimes means I'm going at a snail's pace when it comes to my writing, I can live with that for now.
Those of you who read that blurb to your right will see that I'm a knitter/crocheter. Years ago, I read in some knitting book or magazine that it was a good idea to take the time to take a good look at your work-in-progress every now and then. Sometimes, it's just to say, "Wow, this is nice! I'm so talented!" Sometimes, unfortunately, you notice something that just isn't working and needs to be fixed or changed before it has a negative effect on the whole project. Sure, you can always fix that ugly ribbing on your sweater later, but doesn't it sort of bug you knowing that it's there?
That said, I know that doing some editing as I go along doesn't really cut down on the editing I'll have to do now. I know my aforementioned bad habits. I half-joke that my final word count will go down by about 10,000 due to all the unnecessary words I'll cut. I'll probably have to go to the fridge and grab a beer for at least one brutal "what the FUCK was I thinking when I wrote that?!" moment.
Editing is rarely fun. It's usually an ego-deflating pain in the ass. (I'll do my best to remain chipper here, though!) But I owe it to my characters to make sure their story is told to the best of my ability. Considering that some of them have the ability to smite me without breaking a sweat, I'd better do a good job.
I have a confession to make: I'm one of those people who edits as she goes. *ducks for cover* For this book, there are five parts and an interlude (Part Five is very short). Whenever I reached the end of a part, I would go through and do a light edit. Also along those lines, I'm one of those people who, when stuck on a particularly irritating line, paragraph, or even scene that just isn't coming together, I will stay there until I can pick it apart and work it out. I know myself, and if I say "Oh, I'll just deal with it later"...I won't. I will gloss over it and it will be crap, and I may not have the ability or drive to un-crap it later on.
I know that there are writers out there who are clutching their pearls at my grave sins. I know a lot of people suggest, or even recommend, just sitting down to writewritewritewritewritewrite and just get the damn words out, and you can always fine-tune it later (or trash chunks of it completely). It's not a bad plan. If it works for you, awesome! It's not my style. While I'm always looking to improve, and I'm not opposed to forcing myself to break bad habits, for now, I'm going to stick with this routine. And if that sometimes means I'm going at a snail's pace when it comes to my writing, I can live with that for now.
Those of you who read that blurb to your right will see that I'm a knitter/crocheter. Years ago, I read in some knitting book or magazine that it was a good idea to take the time to take a good look at your work-in-progress every now and then. Sometimes, it's just to say, "Wow, this is nice! I'm so talented!" Sometimes, unfortunately, you notice something that just isn't working and needs to be fixed or changed before it has a negative effect on the whole project. Sure, you can always fix that ugly ribbing on your sweater later, but doesn't it sort of bug you knowing that it's there?
That said, I know that doing some editing as I go along doesn't really cut down on the editing I'll have to do now. I know my aforementioned bad habits. I half-joke that my final word count will go down by about 10,000 due to all the unnecessary words I'll cut. I'll probably have to go to the fridge and grab a beer for at least one brutal "what the FUCK was I thinking when I wrote that?!" moment.
Editing is rarely fun. It's usually an ego-deflating pain in the ass. (I'll do my best to remain chipper here, though!) But I owe it to my characters to make sure their story is told to the best of my ability. Considering that some of them have the ability to smite me without breaking a sweat, I'd better do a good job.
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