Thoughts on writing.
Jun. 21st, 2008 01:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelleAll this crushing on imaginary men has had one good side effect, I now realise.
I've been struggling a great deal with the male lead in my novel. I mean, really struggling. There are times I think he's great, and times I think he's a load of rubbish as a concept. And I think a large part of this problem was that I just couldn't visualise him well enough as a whole. Physically, I'm still a little out as yet, but now I have a much stronger concept of where I went soft and dumb, and where I need to tighten things up.
One of the things that's bothered me for a long time about my own writing was that it just didn't have enough of an edge. I've been too amorphous and vague, and that translates to the page, making an unclear, unreal character. I think that's the trap into which I fell. I couldn't imagine him having a life off the page. I thought I could, but I see now that I need to be able to imagine this guy getting up in the morning, hitting the bathroom, making some tea, reading the paper, blowing his nose. If I don't have that, I have shoujo. I have Harlequin. I have crap.
I now have a sense of how he dresses, how he moves, how he flops down on the couch to work, ratty jeans and t-shirt, and props bare feet up on the wall. There's a slight stain on the wall there, from years of toes. He doesn't really like coffee. He wears boxers. He'll run around with his mates in a half-assed soccer game, but he'll be the first to tell you he's pretty crap at it. He watches TV with one leg thrown over the arm of the chair. He's smart. Not just bright, but unfuckingbelievably smart, and has common sense to go with it. And a smart-ass attitude-- tempered with a puckish sense of humour and a big, infectious, honest grin. He's enthusiastic. He can totally rock a suit. He's okay in the kitchen-- he won't starve-- but he does have this one curry he makes that'll knock you on your ass. In a good way.
Much work to do. Much work to do.
I've been struggling a great deal with the male lead in my novel. I mean, really struggling. There are times I think he's great, and times I think he's a load of rubbish as a concept. And I think a large part of this problem was that I just couldn't visualise him well enough as a whole. Physically, I'm still a little out as yet, but now I have a much stronger concept of where I went soft and dumb, and where I need to tighten things up.
One of the things that's bothered me for a long time about my own writing was that it just didn't have enough of an edge. I've been too amorphous and vague, and that translates to the page, making an unclear, unreal character. I think that's the trap into which I fell. I couldn't imagine him having a life off the page. I thought I could, but I see now that I need to be able to imagine this guy getting up in the morning, hitting the bathroom, making some tea, reading the paper, blowing his nose. If I don't have that, I have shoujo. I have Harlequin. I have crap.
I now have a sense of how he dresses, how he moves, how he flops down on the couch to work, ratty jeans and t-shirt, and props bare feet up on the wall. There's a slight stain on the wall there, from years of toes. He doesn't really like coffee. He wears boxers. He'll run around with his mates in a half-assed soccer game, but he'll be the first to tell you he's pretty crap at it. He watches TV with one leg thrown over the arm of the chair. He's smart. Not just bright, but unfuckingbelievably smart, and has common sense to go with it. And a smart-ass attitude-- tempered with a puckish sense of humour and a big, infectious, honest grin. He's enthusiastic. He can totally rock a suit. He's okay in the kitchen-- he won't starve-- but he does have this one curry he makes that'll knock you on your ass. In a good way.
Much work to do. Much work to do.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-21 07:37 am (UTC)*guffaw*
Date: 2008-06-21 09:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-21 09:47 am (UTC)