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| Monday, 29 October 2007 |
| The Chosen One |
I've seen Jane Espenson's article on Selling Sci-Fi referenced in several places in the last few days: it was originally posted on tnr.com, though now seems to survive only in the Google Cache version. It's a very specific type of Hero's Journey, the most potent sub-case. It's told over and over again, and it works, over and over again. Dorothy Gale, Buffy Summers, Harry Potter, Charlie Bucket, Luke Skywalker, even Peter Parker, they all fit a very specific pattern. They're living a life, sometimes a fine one, often a troubled one, but certainly one governed by ordinary rules, when suddenly the curtain is pulled back and a whole new world, or a new set of rules of this world, is revealed. And what's more - and this is the important part - in that new world, they are something special. They are The Chosen One.
I'd make the Buffy-Harry connection before: I read too much fanfiction not to have seen it. But I hadn't quite seen the bigger picture like this.
It's good. This has been bugging me about my NaNo heroine, or FMC [female main character] as any good NaNoer must call her: why her? I know that Ordinary Girl Gets Mixed Up In Something Big is hardly unique, but it seems somehow unsatisfactory. Chosen-One-ness feels right.
Which doesn't stop her bugging me. She woke me up in the middle of the night to say that she wants to be called Harriet. I had planned for her to be Asian. Not that an Asian girl couldn't be called Harriet, and explaining why she's Asian but called Harriet *would* add to my word count. But there is the uncomfortable echo of Ms. Vane, and that, I do not like one little bit.Labels: NaNoWriMo |
| posted @ 11:12 |
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| Sunday, 28 October 2007 |
| Hey, hey, 50k |
So NaNoWriMo season is upon us again. Having told myself quite firmly last year that if I didn't finish, I had to give up all pretense and never bother trying again, I will of course be having another go this year.
I think I have it a little more sussed than usual. I know, for example, that walking out of my job on November 1st and devoting the rest of the month to writing means you get finished. Sadly I don't have the freedom to do this again. But there are two things I've picked up in subsequent years about prioritisation:
- writing in the morning is more positive than writing late at night. I am, undoubtedly, a night person: yet hacking through 1000 words before 10am makes for a happier NaNovellist than sitting there at midnight trying to catch up to just-yesterday's target.
- don't quit when you're ahead. Sometimes, I'm on a roll. That's what NaNo is supposed to be about: shutting up the internal editor and putting down the words. When this happens, don't think "I've made today's target so I'll stop" or "I really ought to check my email": just write.
Labels: NaNoWriMo |
| posted @ 10:55 |
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