Archive for the ‘writing’ Tag
What makes a “dubious consent” story?
Hello, friends!
I have a question for the collective: What makes a dubious-consent/or non-consent story?
I ask because there have been a recent wave of reviews of Blade’s Edge claiming it has non-consensual or dubious-consensual sex scenes in that the heroine and the villainess are chemically altered during the act.
I had thought it was perfectly clear in both cases that the females had already made the decision to have the encounters before imbibing. If I did not, I’d be quite happy to go back and add it. In block caps. In bold. 🙂
There was also a review claiming that the main character only decided to make the relationship permanent while sedated, which also is not chronologically correct in terms of the plot.
Also puzzling, the first of these reviews appeared after the book had been in print for at least a decade. Why is the book being read this way now, as opposed to, say, five years ago during the height of the Me, Too movement?
I’ve always felt that, once a book is released into the wild, it has to stand or fall on its own merits. Reviews are opinions, and nobody’s opinion is wrong—although it could be based on misinformation or misinterpretation, it’s still their opinion.
However, right now I’m sorely tempted to respond to these reviews asking how the readers came to their conclusions. I know that’s an extremely bad idea, so I’m asking here instead. Did they miss the decision points? Was I being too subtle? Is this a delayed change in the general zeitgeist?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks,
Val
That Face When…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: editing, plotting, writing, writing life
Leave a comment You realize you need to completely replot your novel, because you’re at 40,000 words and have run out of things to do…and it’s supposed to be an 80,000-word book.
Every day for the past, oh, month or so, I have opened up my work in progress, the story of Beta Tanaka and Danae Childress’s courtship, and stared at it for an hour or so. Adding a sentence here, taking one out there. And I haven’t substantially changed the total number of words.
This week, I had an epiphany. I’ve told all the story I had. What I really need to do is expand the story, which is going to require expanding the plot, which is going to affect the character arcs and the relationship arc.
So I might as well just come out and say it—I need to replot the danged book. Luckily I’ve had a couple of ideas already that not only expand the external plot, but also both protagonists’ character arcs. They also make the relationship issues (and resolution of those issues) more realistic and satisfying. Well, satisfying to me at least.
So, for those of you waiting on Beta Test/Beta’s Test/Testing Beta (or whatever the final title turns out to be), I’m sorry, it’s gong to be a while longer.
But I think it’s going to be a much better book.
Thanks for your patience,
Val
Spooky Man is in Town
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blocks, real life, Spooky Man, writing
Leave a comment My husband has come down from his mountain lair this week for a visit, a resupply, and to get someone else to brush out the corgi’s undercoat for a while (and he had a magnificent undercoat this year from the mountains).
My six weeks of working from home in peace allowed me to forget how disruptive it can be to have a retiree in the house. He has no respect for my Zoom meetings, deciding he needs to talk to me right as I’m trying to listen to the head of our team giving the daily update from management.
Plus, he drinks two pots of coffee a day, while I go through about two a week. I’ve been to a grocery store three times since Wednesday (because he’s finishing off stuff that should have lasted through the week or longer), when I normally venture out once a week, usually on Sunday. And he wants the food he can’t get in the mountains–sushi, bacon cheeseburgers and sweet and sour shrimp, for example.
He’s adorable, but disruptive.
On the writing front, I’m stuck again, but I’ve got a few vague ideas as to why. This weekend I’ll try to flesh them out and solve them. Have a safe and sound weekend (please don’t defy any public health orders–they exist because people died, and you’re intelligent, thin, and attractive so you know this isn’t a hoax), and I’ll be back at the word mines.
Quarantine: Day 11
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: real life, writers life, writing
Leave a comment Most writers have day jobs. I happen to have a great one: I work as a localization project manager for a contractor at HP. I mention this because we were ordered (all HP employees and contract workers) to work from home on the evening of March 12th.
I have a background in public health, working as an environmental analytical chemist for the state lab for five years back in my misspent youth, so I was happy about this. The next day, as we were all gathering up equipment to go virtual for at least the rest of the month, the first Idaho case of COVID-19 was announced.
So I have been practicing “Social Distancing” since Friday the 13th. One trip to the grocery store (where are people storing all that toilet paper?), one visit from Spooky Man, a couple of trips for takeout—trying to keep at least a bit of the local service economy going without a lot of social interaction—and that’s the extent of my physical interaction with the human species for the last week and a half.
Now I know that any extroverts reading this are probably horrified right now. But I’m an introvert with good Internet service. Between Skype chats and Zoom meetings, I’m good. My cats are quite pleased that the servant is here all day. Other than eliminating the (short) commute, my life hasn’t changed much.
Except that I haven’t written a word of fiction since we went to working from home. And I don’t know why. I just…I guess my coping beans are being used for something else, but I have no idea what. I have given myself until the end of the week to be lazy, and then it’s back into the trenches.
I have to figure out the new plot hole that has appeared in my work in progress. And format the first HD collection (Valmont Contingency, Nobinata Gambit, & Ocasek Opportunity). And work on the historical that my critique partners keep asking about. There’s no shortage of author work.
See you after the quarantine!
In Other News…
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: publishing, WIP, work in progress, writing
Comments (1) I have received the rights back to The Valmont Contingency, which means that I am no longer a Harlequin author. Well, right now.
It will be published in a second edition (the first Wylde Hare Press edition!) in the next month or two—gotta save up for a magnificent new cover and re-edit.
Next up will be The Beta Test, the third book in the Dozen Worlds series. I’m about halfway through the first draft, so that’s going to take a bit of time to be ready for real readers.
Happy dancing over here. February is going to be an excellent month.
Master Class with Screenwriting Guru Michael Hauge—in Boise!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: master class, Michael Hauge, writing
Leave a comment On October 3, 2020, Coeur du Bois Chapter of RWA and the Idaho Writers Guild are co-presenting Michael Hauge on Story Mastery.
There will also be a hands-on workshop October 4th, but that is limited to 12 writers and I think those seats will be snapped up in a matter of minutes. But Mr. Hauge is a master of storytelling, and anything he has to say on the subject is well worth listening to.
This will be his first live master class in approximately two years, so we are giddy with excitement. Michael Hauge! In Boise! In October!
The date and place details have only just been nailed down in the last few days, so I don’t have any information on registration as yet, but the class fee will range from $110-135, depending on early bird status and group membership.
FYI, it will be held at the Hillcrest Country Club, so bring your good jeans or some khakis and nice trainers if you decide to go—they have a business casual dress code.
We’re still working on a block of hotel rooms; we have a hotel, but we haven’t signed anything yet.
I guess that means, technically, that this is a “save the date” post — watch this space, and cbcrwa.com, and https://www.facebook.com/groups/cbcrwa/ for more information.
Michael Hauge! In Boise! This October! Squee!
Dammit Jim, I’m a Writer, not a Robot
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: writers life, writing, writing life
Comments (1) I’ve been seeing a number of items on social media recently about writer burnout, caused by years on the “write faster” treadmill. One thread on, say, a writers’ Facebook group I could ignore. Two, hmm, interesting coincidence. When it topped three separate platfoms and groups of writers, it started to look like a trend.
If you’re a reader, I’m about to say something blasphemous, but it’s meant with love—after ten years of being published, I’m still astonished and ecstatic that people actually read my stories. I’m not a best seller by any means, but I love all my readers and I want to give them the best experience possible.
Here’s the blasphemy: Your favorite authors don’t owe you another book. Not another book this month, nor another book this season, not yet even another book within a year. They don’t owe you another book. Period. They are people, with lives, with problems of their own, and they never have to write another word if they are not so inclined. I’m sorry, but it’s true.
Here’s another dark secret (which is not really dark or a secret): Writers want to make readers happy.
We’d love to be able to turn out great stories like a factory turns out widgets, but creative endeavors don’t quite work like that. And if writers try to force it, bad things generally happen—depression, exhaustion, complete and total burnout showing up as raging writer’s block where they have difficulty making grocery lists.
Writing—using words to create worlds and people that didn’t exist before—is freaking hard. Creating people with real problems who overcome those problems and earn their happy endings cannot be done over the weekend. Dear lord in heaven, I wish it could.
Sometimes, if one is redeeming a villain created as a foil to a previous heroine (Talyn Penthes, I’m looking at you), it takes—wait for it—nine years. Of course, there were other books written and published during that time, but they had difficulties show up, too. My subconscious mind is weird.
And finally, a piece of unsolicited advice: Be kind to your favorite authors. They are working hard to bring you the next story; sometimes, they are working too hard, driving themselves toward burnout. Try, maybe, a social media message like this, “I love your work and I can barely wait for the next book, but please take care of yourself because I also want all the books after that, too.”
May you get all the new books you want for Christmas. My break is over, time to go back to the word mine.
National Novel Writing Month Projects, Maybe
Last week I wrote five longhand pages on the first draft of Beta Tested (or whatever the title ends up being), my first work on Beta Tanaka’s story since August.
I had no idea my subconscious mind was so stubborn. Don’t go there, for that way madness lies, bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah. Conscious mind, yes, but apparently it goes all the way through.
So now that the characters are actually working again and I have a few ideas to fill the gaping plot holes, I think I’ll be working on the book during November, possibly as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short; NaNo for shorter).
Or not, because there’s this other story that keeps floating into my head when I’m trying to go to sleep at night. It’s the tale of Lord and Lady Danbury, coming up on their 10th anniversary when it comes out she wasn’t quite of the age of consent at their marriage of convenience.
Yeah. Another historical, when I vowed I would never write a historical because there’s so much research to do it properly.
Speaking of research, did you know the age of consent in England was 12 until 1875? 12! And I found that out accidently while watching something on the War of the Roses. Gah!
But…maybe I’ll work on that during NaNo too, just to get them out of my head. Maybe. I still have two days to decide, right?
And whatever I decide, I’ve broken the block. Onward….
Best Laid Plans
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: furbabies, writing, writing life
Leave a comment I was supposed to have a first draft of Beta Tanaka’s story finished this week. I don’t have it finished.
I am…disappointed with myself. Not punch-in-the-code-to-make-my-head-explode disappointed (Fifth Element reference for those of you who aren’t old like me), but not entirely sanguine either.
I could give reasons—there are always reasons, from sleep issues to new medications to new routines. (I’m now the only lap for two housecats and I can only be that lap from 5-10 p.m. The pressure!)
But the truth is, and always has been, you make time for the things that are important to you. I need to look at my priorities and decide if I want to get this story told this year. I only have three months left to make that happen.
And of course I want to get it down on virtual paper this year, before the details start to fade from memory. It’s a good story. Beta and Danae save the Dozen Worlds and find a way to overcome the obstacles to their relationship at the same time. Who wouldn’t want to find out how that happens?
So now that September has evaporated (September?! What happened to April!?), it’s time to pull up my big girl yoga pants and get some words down. In the right order.
See you soon, hopefully with a finished first draft.
As my penance, here’s a photo of me on lap duty, while trying to work out a troublesome plot point.
News from the Word Mine
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: plot turns, plotting, WIP, writing, writing life
Comments (4) House purchase accomplished. Furniture purchase accomplished. Now I am back to the word mine, hard at work on about four projects.
First Working Title: Finding the Briar Rose
Set in the Human Diaspora universe. The story of Dane and Aurora Avondale’s courtship; he wakes her up from a century of cryosleep. He’s kidnapped by Saurians (friendly-ish aliens who evolved from their version of dinosaurs). He prevents the kidnappers from killing her after she nearly fights them off.
It is a Sleeping Beauty trope, but it’s Sleeping Beauty done properly. She wakes up with this guy kissing her and punches him, as one does in the real world. Eventually, Aurora kills the evil fairy in dragon form Saurian queen to free Dane, then takes over as regent for the late queen’s offspring that he saved when they were eggs. Hey, the kids didn’t do anything wrong.
I’m having trouble with the middle bit, where they discover they have far more in common than not, and the irritation turns to attraction. Apparently stubborn people live in my subconscious.
Second Working Title: Beta Testing
Set in the Dozen Worlds universe. The story of how Beta Tanaka and Danae Childress re-establish contact with Earth while overcoming their own relationship problems (he’s a customer-relations ninja for the Hauptmann Group, flitting around the Dozen Worlds fixing things; she’s a stay-at-home Zonan art expert–which makes for a really long-distance relationship). Oh, and did I mention alien cephalopoids (evil squids) might be coming to kill them all? Still fighting with this story, so the plot’s a bit murky yet.
Third Working Title: A Married Woman
Set in Regency England. Michael and Elizabeth, Lord and Lady Danbury, are coming up on their tenth anniversary…he was “blackmailed” into a marriage of convenience by her seedy father right before he leaves to be a field surgeon on the Peninsula. They discover she wasn’t quite 12 (who makes 12 the age of consent?!?—England until 1875! Gah!) at the ceremony.
A lot of living has happened since that wedding—both his older brothers died four years ago and he’s now heir to the big title—and he’s fallen in love with her, but she’s not so sure about trying the vows again. I never planned to write even one historical, but this is the second set of characters that refuse to get out of my head, so I’m writing it. FYI, Michael shows up at the end of A Ruined Woman as the physician for the duel.
Fourth Working Title: Temptation of Tetsuo or The Hitsugaya Harridan
Set in the Dozen Worlds universe. If you’ve read The Nobinata Gambit, you know a bit about Tetsuo Nobinata and Yuki Hitsugaya. This is their courtship—alpha male imperial warlord and alpha female survivor of sexual violence. And I’m still plotting it so that’s about all I know right now, but I do know that her strength and resilience is one of the things he finds highly attractive.
I also know Tetsuo is a great fighter but not so smooth with the ladies, and his awkwardness, and to some extent vulnerability, is something she finds attractive about him.
I’ll try to surface about once a week and think of something interesting to type, but…yeah. Those are pretty much the rest of my year if I can keep from getting distracted again. Wish me luck. And let me know if you come up with better titles, because I struggle with them.
