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Posts Tagged ‘Characters’

Sandwich Child

Posted in Culture, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on 23 Apr 2014| 2 Comments »

Captive SlavesI’ve never given much credence to results of “studies” on human social patterns. We’re just too complicated to fit into neat little boxes. However, the other day I learned of one such study which so accurately described me, I had to give it a closer look.

I mention this here because this is the sort of thing that can be used to add depth to the histories of families and characters in my writing.

The study was about birth order and the “middle child syndrome.” Now, “birth order” is not new to me; I heard about it a long time ago but never paid it any attention because, frankly, my family situation doesn’t really fit any common form.

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Not Another Word

Posted in Books, Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 17 Apr 2014| 2 Comments »

Over on Facebook, a reader mentioned a scene in FC:1 that she really liked. I like to investigate this sort of specific feedback–the good and the bad–to see what worked and what didn’t work for my readers.

I remembered the scene she mentioned in general, but not in detail. The main reason I wanted to investigate, though, was that her description of it as dialogue-free was not my recollection; I remembered it as being chatty to the extreme, as two swoony teenaged girls prattled on about how divine it was going to be to see Sarah Bernhardt on stage. (For those of you out of the 19th-century loop, Sarah Bernhardt was the Lady Gaga of her day.)

So, I pulled down my copy of The Year the Cloud Fell and tried to figure out what this reader had meant when she referred to the scene’s “shared communication and not a scrap of dialogue.”

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A Close Shave

Posted in Fallen Cloud Saga, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on 15 Apr 2014| Leave a Comment »

Stack of BooksNow that’s a first.

A novelist friend was complaining about the names she’d picked for her characters (they’re historical ethnic names, and have several diacritical marks). She was wrapping up a long series with these characters, and was looking forward to never having to write those names again.

I thought that was a good topic for discussion. There are lots of bad choices for character names; some annoy the reader, some annoy the writer. Then, halfway through composing my own post, I searched the web for a reference, and got a hit on my own blog.

Oops…I’d already written a post on the topic of character names (and what not to do).

I suppose it was bound to happen; there are only so many one can broach on the subject of writing. Of course, I’m a good enough writer that I could have taken a new tack on an old topic, but I don’t want to recycle subjects…not yet, anyway.

So, instead of boring you with a slightly different discussion on what makes a bad name, how about boring you with a discussion on what makes a good name?

No? All right. Another time, then. 😉

k

Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

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Vignette 25Mar14

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , on 25 Mar 2014| Leave a Comment »

Stack of BooksHe had not wept, not for years, so when he broke, it was as if a mountainside had cracked and slid down, carrying everything–trees, homes, lives–into the valley below. His rage and frustration burst through his controls with a power that surprised everyone, himself most of all.

She was silent, wide-eyed in the face of his despair.

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Not Listening

Posted in Culture, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on 20 Mar 2014| 4 Comments »

Character study…

Some people do not have a volume switch.

Or, to be more precise, there are some people whose volume switch is stuck at ten.

Or eleven. (more…)

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A Penny in my Pocket

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , on 30 Jan 2014| 4 Comments »

Lucky Penny

I don’t really believe in luck.

At least, I don’t believe in luck as something we can affect. Things happen; sometimes they’re good, sometimes they’re not. People who we think have “good luck” are just folks who make better decisions than others. People who have repeated “bad luck” are usually not paying close enough attention to what’s going on around them. Beyond that, it’s just the randomness of life. Stuff happens.

So, why do I have a “lucky penny?”

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Who I Read and Why

Posted in Books, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 06 Jan 2014| 9 Comments »

Stack of BooksWriters aren’t like normal people.

When writers read–be it a book, an article, or sometimes even a headline–we study, parse, and edit. We re-word what we read (“It would be better like this”), we laugh out loud at ugly phrases (“He threw up his hands”), and we will kick a book across the room before we’ll read another page filled with moronic characters and Swiss cheese plots.

This can take a lot of the enjoyment out of reading, but on the flip side, there are joys in reading only writers can experience. We have WIWI moments (“Wish I’d Written It!”) and can find ecstasy in a well-wrought sentence or a surprising image.

We also learn from reading. We learn a lot.

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