Too much fantasy in my Fantasy makes me fractious

I was reading this fantasy book series recommended by lots of people on Amazon.  It was billed as a Romance, which I normally don’t read, but it was also billed as an Epic Political Fantasy a la Game of Thrones.  (It totally, totally wasn’t anything even vaguely like GoT, and I say that as an observation, not a judgment.) It was actually an impossible women’s empowerment fantasy romance, and I think maybe I am too cranky right now to enjoy this kind of book.

It’s not that I despise a good Romance, either.  I recently read some fantastic ones by Georgette Heyer that were delightful and witty and left me feeling buoyant and giddy, and I can point you to some fine Fantasy/Romances, so it’s not Romance, per se, that makes me crotchety.

Exploring my testiness about the Romance/Fantasy I just read, first of all, there was a lot of “Gratuitous Plot Advancement” that set a completely unrealistic bar for sexual relationships.  I mean, frankly, if people read these and set their expectations according to them, there is NO WAY they could ever have a relationship in reality live up to this standard. Ridiculous, ludicrous, and eye-rollingly impossible outside of a fantasy world, the frequency, consistency, and physical improbability of their sex life is at best silly and at worst harmful for people who compare their real-world relationships to these fantasy ones.  

On an emotional level, the relationship seems like the sort of thing that comes from a textbook about how healthy, perfect relationships should go.  About how to have total equality in the relationship (as a woman, it definitely helps to have supernatural, god-gifted powers that allow for this), about how consent should look like (pretty sure no one is that perfect, also god-gifted dude), about as far from how things work in reality as possible.  Even the oh-so-scripted, perfectly verbalized/realized lessons they learn from their mistakes seem taken out of a cringe-y relationship advice book about how people should deal with past imperfections and poor decisions.

Maybe it’s that this book series makes it seem like relationships only work if you have main characters (especially females) gifted with god-like strength, magical abilities, power, and wisdom far beyond their years.  It’s not like female empowerment can’t be done well in fantasy; I’ve enjoyed examples (Scott Lynch) of fantasy worlds where the male:female power balance is a little more equitable than it ever has been in the real history of mankind.  The Fantasy worlds that I like better are the ones that have a bit more reality in them: real stakes, people who do wrong thing (a lot), consequences, people who won’t do the right thing, sometimes not even knowing what the right thing to do is, doing the right thing and still not getting the result you hoped for because: people.  

Maybe all that reality is incompatible with the basic premise of a Romance (as we currently define the term) being the meeting and falling in lust/love resulting in a happy ending and hinting at a happily ever after.

Maybe it’s also the length.  If you have a trilogy and everything is neatly tied up in the end and everyone lives more or less happily ever after, I get crabby.  (Maybe I’m just crabby if they have sex in the first book and then a lot after that, in minute and, frankly, repetitive detail, wasting my time while not actually doing anything to really advance the plot or the relationship.)  I’ve read without surliness some longer fantasy series that are pretty far over on the romance continuum, and lots of people are really miserable for significant amounts of time and some don’t get a happy ending (romantic or otherwise) and there’s a decent amount of real conflict and the kind of slow, staggering growth that feels genuine and possible.  I know some people don’t like slow-moving stuff in their Fantasy books, but I certainly feel I have more direct experience with messiness and time healing wounds and changing us.

I think maybe my ultimate problem with these books is that I like Fantasy that asks questions better than I like Fantasy that gives answers.  One of the things that I find compelling about Fantasy is that it can ask sideways questions that are relevant to me here and now while being set in a world that is not the one I live in.  I can think about issues in a Fantasy context that help me get to the heart of what I really think about my real world. I bristle at teachy, preachy heavy-handed moral lessons wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow maybe because I don’t work that way and neither does the world I live in.

I don’t think I have a problem with flat-out escapist Fantasy, either.  I guess maybe I figure if your Fantasy is going to have relationships, I’d rather see something that resembles a real relationship.  I’m not usually enjoying reading Fantasy for the kind of detached-from-reality Romantic fantasy present in this trilogy. I’d rather read something more complicated that gives me hope that change in my world full of real people is possible.

Then again, maybe it’s good for there to be Fantasy stories out there that don’t have questionable consent, rape, and sexual power (im)balances that (negatively) resemble real life.  Maybe it’s worth missing out on some of the other stuff that makes Fantasy enjoyable to me for the sake of having ideal examples and positive representation out there for people to imagine and immerse themselves in.  It’s fine for there to be stories out there that don’t resonate with me; maybe they bring hope to other people in a way that the darker, grittier stuff doesn’t.

To everyone their own.  Enjoy what you enjoy. Just don’t compare something that isn’t at all like Game of Thrones to GoT just to market your book.  It makes some of us pretty darn peevish. But thanks for giving my eyeballs a workout from all that rolling and my abs a workout from the laughing.  Take joy where you find it; there’s nothing wrong with that. : )

Picking Your Fantasy Poison

This is real now, folks.  I have a choice to make, and it's not an easy one.  I'm writing a story set in something that vaguely resembles European medieval times (albeit in a fantasy world), and I have to decide: do I try to make it more authentic to the actual European Middle Ages or do I totally create my own world? 

If I create my own world, it has to be from the ground up.  Everything about the religion of this empire?  All mine to have to explain.  Everything about the politics and history of it and the neighboring countries?  From the aether through my brain to the page or not at all.  Trying to find and balance all of that with the modern mindsets and worldviews of my characters?  ALL ON ME.  Even if I wanted or could afford research assistance, I couldn't USE it.  But I wouldn't HAVE to research in the first place.  I would just have to create things to fill the gaps out of nothing!  And if people hated it, it would feel like they personally hated my soul, which is uncomfortable.

Trying to make it more like the real Middle Ages certainly removes some imaginary burdens.  I can try to apply the more collectivist religious and social aspects of the time and place (after doing a lot of research).  Then I will still tick off the historians, and the new fantasists will hate  it unequivocally because it would have to try to depict things our culture does not endorse, and they see that as a cop out, not a skill.  Many of them believe that there is no value in a story that does not rewrite the past to make it more to our liking.  It IS fantasy after all.  But I have read some absolutely fantastic historical based stuff (Guy Gavriel Kay, Lois McMaster Bujold's 5 gods series, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, etc.), and the things you can get done with it are fantastic! 

It's not as if I get out of work either way.  I just shift some responsibility, and I’m not sure one way is easier than another.  Or less fraught.  It's just something I'm thinking about because I was writing this poem about weird things I had used to mark my place in my Bible at some time or another, and there was this shiny notebook with some bits of a good story I liked and have contributed tantalizing pieces to over the years since I first dreamed it one day in college . . .

Anyway, I will not be distracted (again) by shiny things.  What was I going to say next?  Rats. Can't remember.  Anyway, advise wisely, friends.  Because if you advise certain options, you will likely be pestered with questions and plotline possibilities and the history and social customs of different countries in imaginary worlds until you're sick of it. 

No, seriously, what else was I going to say?  It was important, drat it all!  If you remember, let me know.

Blame the book

I have not been sleeping very well lately.  (It comes and goes with and without the pain.)  I'm not sure if that's why all I've felt like doing lately is lying down somewhere with my legs propped up and reading a book.  It might also be good books making me feel that way.  And summer.  Book book book.  I'll blame the book.  This kind of book is definitely part of why I am not an author.  I would much rather read books like this than even write, and I always have.  Mostly unrepentantly.

Audition, Part 2

When I posted the first part of my audition adventure, one very kind writer friend said, "i don't get why you couldn't audition with what you had prepared, since that was their instruction, right, to be ready with these songs."  First of all, I made an assumption based on the information on the audition sheet that was, in the words of another friend, "Totally understandable but also totally wrong."  I had questions; I should have asked them.  My own fault I didn't.

My kind friend said, "i am assuming you did not get the part, or get a place in this group?  it all seems so wrong, given your beautiful voice."  I don't know yet if I got the part, but I thought that maybe it would help to explain the audition in terms of writing and publishing because there are some similarities. 

When a writer sends in a submission to a magazine or anthology publisher, the writer should know that it's not (only) the quality of the submission that is being judged but how well it fits in with the whole.  Maybe your piece is lovely but just not quite matching the theme or maybe there's another submission that is slightly better than yours and covers some of the same territory.  It's not just the quality of your writing that is being examined; it is how your piece blends in with the whole.

A rejection is therefore not necessarily a judgment that a writer is not good at writing.  (This is why reading through some issues of the magazine or journal one is trying to publish in is highly encouraged: it can cut down on wasted submissions of perfectly good work to places where it just won't fit, which saves time for editors and emotional energy for the writer.)

One way a vocal audition is not like trying to get published is that, while you have a short time to wow the decision makers in both situations, you sometimes have to somehow try to demonstrate the whole stylistic range of your vocal talent in an audition, to show all the possibilities.  You don't have to do that in writing.  In writing, it's okay to just be really good at one style or genre.

Sometimes a person has a lovely voice for one kind of singing that doesn't necessarily translate to being a good fit with another kind of singing.  I have a good voice for sacred choral music (straight tone, resonant in a good acoustic, no vibrato, able to blend well with other parts).  The group I am joining for this endeavor is singing operatic, classical choral.  The quartet I auditioned for would likely be made up mostly of church ladies who are (on the whole) not formally trained and use excessive vibrato or are formally trained and use vibrato.  I knew that going in.  That's why I was kicking myself so much for forgetting that BLEND should have been the thing foremost on my mind and not just getting the notes right in that audition.

I'm not even sure I want the part.  My health still isn't totally reliable, and my voice definitely isn't.  (And if I get the part, it means I have to expend more than normal energy avoiding illness until after the concert.  I'm not sure I even have that energy.)  I think maybe I tried out because the process of preparation is important; I wanted to show myself that I can do that part in case I ever get healthy enough to get back into music more seriously.  Maybe that's why it was so disappointing that I couldn't even get that right. 

In the end, I explained the situation to the director and, unusually, ended up getting a call back for a second audition of the song I had prepared but for a different vocal part, so I learned that and prepped it and then had my audition.  I asked her what she was looking for, and she told me to just sing it, so I did.  She was impressed by my accuracy but seemed dubious  about my ability to blend with the others.  I told her that I was actually a choir chameleon because I could blend with nearly any kind of voice (which was often true in my last choir) and help pull the whole together.  And then I waited for a final decision, something writers who try to publish are very familiar with.  : )

Playing Catch Up with NaNoWriMo 2013!

Wow, do I ever have a lot of catching up to do here.  What with all the stuff I've had to do revolving around healthcare this year, I have had to cut back lots of other activities, and one of those I ended up dropping was blogging.  I had originally intended to do National Novel Writers Month again this year, but I think I will do my own version, so I can reward myself for feeling better while catching up on writing/crafting/posting to eliminate the mathematical guilt I feel when I see how far behind my (super-idealistic) goal I am with two months to go in the year.  So I will write and post up a storm this month, and if I have any words left over, I know which novel I want to do some more drafting on . . .  (The Napkin Epic has been much on my mind this autumn.)  Starting tomorrow, we will commence with the catch-up on these four blogs.  Be ready for it!

Praying for fictional characters

Have you ever prayed for a fictional character while you were reading a book?  I wonder if that's why I like reading stories set in universes where there is room for God: because then my prayers are not necessarily in vain.

What I mean when I post something on Facebook

What I mean when I post something on Facebook: I found this interesting.

What I don't mean

• I totally agree with everything about this.
• You will totally agree with everything about this, and it will not require any critical thought.
• Your friends from your church will totally agree with everything about this, and it will not require any critical thought.
• This didn't offend me at all.
• This won't offend you at all.
• This won't offend any of your friends from church at all. 

Anyone have any other things to add to the list from your own experiences?  

(I'm just cranky about how many things I don't share because I know I'd get another late-night call from my mother because she doesn't like the title of the picture I shared.)

today's excuse

.

I can't possibly

write poetry when the snow

is so beautiful.

.

Not "just escapism"

" . . .through the heart of the accusation that fantastic stories are “just escapism”: “Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?” - Tolkien

"For the growing number of people who believe there is no world outside our present prison, any talk of sunshine, meadows, and mountains has to be plain denial, a way of fooling ourselves about our true situation. Materialists who write about Magic are likely (though not certain) to write about it badly. They shouldn’t try it, for the same reason a Christian shouldn’t try writing porn. It’s hard to do well something you despise." - Lars Walker in "The Christian Fantasy"

I like that he qualifies it "likely (though not certain)."  At first, I didn't realize he had, and I thought, "That seems to require a kind of consistency of thought and action that humans are generally not great at."

Anyone read Walker's book? Be sure to check out the full article (or at least the comments, if you're looking for some good suggestions of what to read next).

When a literary festival takes over your month

I was a reader at the first reading of a month-long literary festival, and it has been taking over my life.  It was organized by a friend of mine, and he's invited a truly staggering number of mutual acquaintances to take part.  This means I have been spending a lot of time in coffee shops around the area hearing writers I already liked and finding new writers I've never heard before.  It also means I haven't been home most evenings to write for my blogs.  I feel like a real slacker.  But I've been writing a lot.

Hearing numerous voices in all sorts of genres does that to me: it makes me pay attention to the words of others, and it makes my brain fizz with words and ideas and forms and topics I want to write about.  Hearing new work from writers I know makes me feel more a part of a community.  I talk to people I haven't seen since that class 6 years ago.  (Okay, mostly I think about talking to them.)  I am inspired again by the things that are important in their lives, the things they write and think about, and the ways they share these things with the world.

And the new voices.  That hilarious zombie piece by the guy in his 70s, the music of spoken word poets from Guinea, that essay about why fiction writers suck at life, or the piece about the travails of being a thug-ish husband forced to wear a shirt with sleeves when being dragged along by his wife to meet the potential Doula (he got ice cream as a reward).  The voices all swirl together.

There is not a single reader who has left me without some phrase or image to write down and mull over.  This is a feast, and I am thankful for its bounty.  So I may lie a bit and back date some of the posts for this month that are based on what I wrote in my notebook but never put in here.  Indulge me.  This dream world will only last for a couple more weeks, and then I will be left with the memories and the notes and the urge to read and think and edit and write, which can only be a benefit here, right?

Getting ready for a reading

Getting ready for a reading is always an interesting experience.  On the one hand, you get to read through your old writing and discover pieces you forgot about or find new meaning in your words now that time has passed and you are older and wiser (or at least older).  On the other hand, you have to read through your old writing, and you usually conclude that you are a total hack and nothing you have ever written is any good at all and you are a total failure and everybody at the reading will be better, and you will be there to serve as an example to others or a foil to provide excellent contrast to the REAL writers.  The best and worst parts of writing and being a writer, right there. 

So I sit here, printing out pieces new and old, trying to construct a tiny book with a purposeful order and flow from one random piece to the next.  It's like a tiny puzzle only your inner editor is in full backseat driver mode and suddenly just really wants to edit everything even though she's been dragging her feet for months when you've wanted her to do that editing.  Now, when it is not time for editing, now is when she is rarin' to go.  So contrary.  Where on Earth did she get that from?  Ahem.

And so, I will choose pieces to fit this time slot and keep a few extra in case the mood is lighter or darker than the main ones I have chosen.  And I will ignore the inner editor as much as I can because the lighting in coffee shop readings is usually dim, and it's hard to read chicken scratch notes you made on your paper when you're in front of people and wound tight anyway.  And I will discover new things to change and edit as I read out loud in front of people because that's how it works for me, and that means every reading is an opportunity to improve pieces I like and make them even better.  This is what I will tell myself because it is true and because I love to write and like to read and share stories with other people.  This will be another good reading.

What do you like to hear in the stories you listen to?

I have a reading coming up in celebration of World Storytelling Day, and I'm trying to get some ideas from people about what they like about stories, so I can be sure to pick/write some pieces that will entertain those who come to listen to us telling our stories.

What makes a storyteller entertaining?

What storyteller behaviors drive you nuts?

What makes a story you're listening to interesting?

What makes a story you're listening to drag?

What kinds of stories do you like to hear?

What kind of characters do you like in a story read out loud (and in under 10 minutes)?

Any other interesting things to say about what you like to hear in the stories you listen to?

5 more things I learned from NaNoWriMo 2012 (2)

1. Once-in-a-lifetime Studio Ghibli film on the big screen marathons make daily quotas difficult.
2. But not impossible over the course of a month so long as you don't get too far behind or let yourself give up after getting somewhat far behind.
3. Thanksgiving break can be a good time to catch up.
4. I have a lot more work to do if this raw material is even going to possibly reassemble itself into something novel-like for next November's draft.
5. There are enough things to write about that I should never run out of ideas for things to draft.

5 things I learned from NaNoWriMo 2012 (1)

1. If I wanted to know whether I'm capable of more sheer output (quality not considered) than I currently produce, the answer is YES.
2. Pre-planning or at least pre-drafting and free-writing are helpful.
3. They make the vomiting of draft material onto the page that much easier.
4. Maybe I should do my reading research in October.
5. Because for some reason it was hard to read as much as I wanted and write as much as I'd committed to on the same days in November.

NaNoWriMo Research: Akeelah and the Bee

My pregnant friends tell me that they cry at the drop of a hat at touching movies.  For this reason, I think pregnant ladies should probably not watch Akeelah and the Bee.  So if you are pregnant and don't want to become a sobbing mess, don't watch Akeelah and the Bee. 

It is awesome.  I knew I was going to love it, so it's kind of a real wonder that I managed not to watch it for this long.  It's just great.  Smart female protagonist who has retreated into hiding is drawn out into the spotlight where her talent can shine if she can just be honest with herself and others and get the help she needs from her family, school, and community.  It's a traditional underdog story, so you will likely not be surprised by the overall trajectory.  There were a few surprises for me, and I realized one twist in advance and felt like the pot calling the kettle black (and also stupid for yelling at a movie character).

The extras were enlightening and helped me write off some of the critics more virulent criticisms (the movie was written a long time before the documentary about spelling bees, so it wasn't derivative) and has a charming underdog story of its own. 

Some of the acting is amazing, and it's a feel-good sort of story, so set your expectations low, warm, and fuzzy, and you will probably enjoy it despite its occasional heavy-handedness.  If you know any tweens, enjoy it with them, too.

NaNoWriMo Research: Shug

Shug by Jenny Han: Shug is a tomboy, but she and her friends are getting older, and now she has a crush on one of them, and nothing is going right with her friends, teachers, or family.  POV: 1st person limited, present tense.

(It's pronounced like the first syllable of the word sugar, something I wish they would have pointed out earlier, so I didn't have to unlearn the wrong pronunciation.)  Another Southern girl novel!  Wow, I really had no idea they were so well represented in Tween lit . . .  This is a first novel and somehow shows it.  Too many smoking guns for something this size and a somewhat clunky, out of gas ending but lots of charm and heart and painful honesty not just about crushes but about transitions and family dysfunction and other things handly less delicately than I've usually seen or assumed. Delicate isn't quite the right word.  Sharper?  They're less blunted, somehow.  More honest while still filtered realistically through the character's point of view.  Totally worth the 3 bucks I paid at the used bookstore. 

NaNoWriMo Research: Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery:  Anne starts out the book as an orphan and then finds a home and friends and family at Green Gables.  POV: 3rd person limited, varied, past tense.

Abridged versions of children's books should burn in eternal fire.  I was only supposed to read this up to where Anne was an early teen, but that self-control didn't hold out well at all.  I find it interesting how much Anne's vanity is irritating to me this time around.  I don't know how many times (or if ever) I've read this book, but I didn't remember Anne being such a girly-girl.  I guess I remembered things like walking ridgepoles and assumed this sort of thing was mutually exclusive to wanting frou-frou dresses.  I failed to remember that most of the tomboy activities occured when she was younger.  (Don't worry.  I obviously didn't hold it against her.)  I wanted to immediately go on to Anne of Avonlea, but I couldn't justify it because of the protagonist's age.  Soon, I told myself, after November you can read it.  After a little grumbling, I agreed.

NaNoWriMo Research: Millicent Min: Girl Genius

Millicent Min: Girl Genius by Lisa Yee: Millicent Min is looking forward to her senior year in high school, but first she has to make it through her 11th summer surrounded by the love and misunderstanding of her family and and the hostility and misunderstanding of her peers.  POV: 1st person limited, present tense. 

I've read this book before, so when I was looking for quirky, smart girl voices to dump into my reservoir, I couldn't resist revisiting Millicent.  She's a unique character with a very unique point of view.  She's sometimes annoying, and this book is quite different from the other bright-girl book I read (Emma Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree).  Where Emma's voice was sort of gentle and whimsical and a bit puzzled but very orderly and rational as she dealt with her peers, Millicient is rough and abrasive and socially clumsy because she hasn't had much experience dealing with her age-mates or her peers because of all the grade-skipping she's done.  I actually read the hilarious Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time first and looked this book up later because it covered the same time period from a totally different point of view, and I like it when authors try this (especially when it really works).  Good stuff.

NaNoWriMo Research: Ten, Eleven, and Twelve

Ten, Eleven, and Twelve (first half) by Lauren Myracle:  Winnie is a regular kid growing up at her own pace one year at a time and learning how to deal with changing friends, changing family members, changing priorities, and her changing body and mind.  She just wishes everything could stay the same.  POV: 1st person limited, past tense.

Each book captures one year of her life with a chapter per month.  Each chapter mainly covers an event that happened during the month, not everything that happened during the month.  The books are mostly light, and Winnie is a fun main character.  She's a late bloomer, and this is handled pretty well.  Her mother is amazing, her older sister is well-drawn, and her puzzlement about the choices her friends are making is really genuine.  Sometimes I feel like maybe the narrator is a bit too old for her years, but, frankly, I don't really care.  (The popularity of these books indicates that most tween girls don't care either.)

NaNoWriMo Research: Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis:  Emma-Jean is in seventh grade, and she is very bright and thinks about the world very differently from her classmates.  She keeps her distance and observes their bizarre behaviors benevolently until the pain of a classmate draws her in, and she starts trying to help others with some interesting results.  This one is told in alternating POV between Emma-Jean and Colleen (the classmate she first tries to help).  POV: 3rd person, quasi-limited, alternating.

I adored Emma-Jean.  The author did a great job of making her point of view read completely differently from really anything I've read before.  I wasn't as big of a fan of Colleen.  I'm still not entirely sure she was needed as a POV character, but I think that may be because I loved Emma-Jean's familiar head so much.  Ah, nostalgia.  Colleen's POV did help set off the uniqueness of Emma-Jean's as well, and I'm sure to the average reader, she was needed as an accessible entry point and someone to relate to.  And there were some twists that would have been hard to show clearly if there were only one narrator.  Overall the characters are quirky and well-made, the twists are pretty unexpected, and the adults are a good mix of nice and nasty and mostly realistic, as are the kids.  Loved it.  Thanks to Joseph for this recommendation.