Another warm muggy night tonight.

[erastes]

Going to be hot again tomorrow too – lovely breeze though, so I love it. Good English weather.

Burn Notice is continuing to be very good, a classic case of “case that happens in this episode as well as an over-reaching arc” – something I was discussing with Joanne Soper-cook today, coincidentally.

Less tits and arse in season 2, definitely, so probably wasn’t just me who found that annoying. It’s peculiar though that all the men, including Michael and Sam are “not classicly hot” – I know that Geek was the new black recently, so perhaps that’s it. What with Chuck and all.  Michael is rather odd looking, which I really rather like, his jaw and teeth particularly giving him a smile that is convincing but really very scary.

Not much else to report, actually. Have worked a little on MM today. Those of you who have read Standish will know that dialogue wasn’t something I was terribly practiced at, and these last few scenes in MM rely very heavily on dialogue, so I’m working, working and reworking them like mad. Does this sound like an 18 year old Victorian male? Does this sound like someone who thinks the worst of the situation? What does X character do when he meets B character, the one he thinks has done this terrible thing?  I know I have betas, but I don’t want to rely on them to tell me what’s right, I need to explore this for myself – in the same way that I explored themes in fanfic “just to see” if I could do them – themes that I probably would never write about again.  the taboo subjects, you know.RPG certainly helped me a lot with dialogue, but this kind of almost screenplay type of intensity is not something I’ve done before. It’s coming but it’s coming terribly slowly. Literally a paragraph a day, or two. 

Does anyone else get floored by the emotion?  At the moment I find it so bad, doing bad things to good people, that it’s as much as I can do to nip in, write and run away again.  a bit like hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks are on.

 

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Comments

[dcjuris.livejournal.com]

I heart Burn Notice, and for mostly the same reasons. I like that Michael's character is flawed - he's not a classic hunk, he's not good with emotions, etc. He's a big nerd. It's nice to see a "hero" who uses his brain to get out of things. And Gabrielle Anwar is just *sinfully* hot, even if she does need to eat more.

[dcjuris.livejournal.com]

erm. hit post before I meant to. Sorry. As for the writing bit... I tend to see it as my characters telling me what happened, what they thought, etc., which takes the emotional baggage off of me. It's not like *I'm* making things happen to them, they're just telling me how it went. And good or bad, I know all of my characters are fundamentally nice, if flawed, people, regardless of the things they do, so I don't judge them. I rarely ever get emotionally attached when I'm writing stuff down. Now, if I'm discussing my characters... don't even get me started. LOL I can go on for hours and hours about them, but it's from the perspective of the outside...someone watching what happened to this other person. Almost like a tv show. And now I'm rambling. LOL Anyhow... Hope that made sense.

[beckyblack]

Does anyone else get floored by the emotion? At the moment I find it so bad, doing bad things to good people, that it’s as much as I can do to nip in, write and run away again. a bit like hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks are on.

No way! I love to torture my characters! :D I get nervous when I'm being too nice to them, thinking "Something doesn't feel right here. Wait! He's been happy for like fifteen minutes now! This must stop."

Dialogue seems to be something that comes quite naturally to me. I must be lucky enough to have a good ear! Trouble is I think it's one of those "magic" ones too, that I can't give advice to other people about. Some things I can witter on for ages with my advice on how to do it. Others, usually the things I'm good at (dialogue, comedy, homoerotic subtext...;D) I'm more likely to say "dunno, just sorta happens."

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, you admitted to hiding behind the sofa! I never hid from the daleks!!



((i hid from the cybermen...))

[joannesopercook.livejournal.com]

I have literally had panic attacks when doing things to my characters - I killed off a certain, much-beloved character once before and it really destroyed me for a day or two. He died by (suicidal) drowning and I kept seeing visions of his hand dangling over the side of the stretcher...needless to say, it was pretty awful. I kept looking for ways to resurrect him but knew in my heart of hearts that doing something like that would only cheapen the story and...yeah.

I actually cry for him sometimes. I told you, I'm completely mental. :D

[jl_merrow]

I never hid from the daleks. I hid from the horrible big sluggy things in that story with John Pertwee where everyone kept touching the yellow slime even though we were shouting at them not to... *slips into fond memories of nightmares past*

Um, I feel a bit embarrassed admitting this, but I actually find it therapeutic writing serious crap happening to my characters. Fanfic is great that way, isn't it? The publishing world just seems so blinkered when it comes to cannibalism... ;P

Changing the subject rapidly, how do you do your research into historical dialogue? I'm (not) writing a historical at the mo, set in the 1920s, and I'm rapidly sinking into a quagmire of anachronism.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else get floored by the emotion? At the moment I find it so bad, doing bad things to good people, that it’s as much as I can do to nip in, write and run away again. a bit like hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks are on.

For me, it's like watching a movie play out in my head. I write down what I see. Sometimes the scene doesn't work and it has to be rewritten so that it can play out in a better way.

And no, I don't feel guilty. I feel sorry for the characters sometimes, but I don't feel guilty, because a story about nothing but good things happening to good people would be very short and very dull:

Matthew loves Adrian.

Adrian loves Matthew.

All is joy, frolic, bunnies and rainbows.

They get married.

And then they live happily ever after.

And no, I never hid from the Daleks. I hid from the Fendahl.

[chris-smith-atr.livejournal.com]

I hide from the Erastes. Sod fictional characters - you're really and smitey!

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

The dialogue bit seems to be something I'm doing right. I enjoy writing what my characters tell me to write as they've already acted out the scene in my head before I'm allowed to write about it. They talk to me and all I do is type up what they've said. Just as well they do or I'd have nothing to say.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Oh and the torture thing...

The rape scene tortured two people but I enjoyed it knowing that it would make one of the boys get off his arse and start getting himself back on track. Also it was a 'perceived rape' and didnt really happen...but he didn't know that, hehe.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh God yes, give her some PIES!!!! She's painfully thin it makes me ill to see her legs.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

He definitely is telling us what happened, as it's first person, perhaps that's what's making it tough for me, I have to reach right inside him and pull out what he's feeling--I don't feel I'm doing that justice at the moment though. I get too emotionally involved with first person characters, I was a wreck after I finished Junction X.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I usually like to torture mine, too, but I think I'm having difficulties with expressing how Crispin feels at this particular moment--he's had a lot of shocks, and he's not relating to the reader how he's feeling. If he's in denial, which is perfectly reasonable, then he needs to show that. It's probably fine, and I'm worrying too much.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I probably hid from them all, but do remember the daleks scaring me particularly. The fear was so deep-seated I didn't realise how much - until Nine opened that door and found one, and my hair literally stood on end. It was a very peculiar sensation.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I cried for him too. You MONSTER. And now you have to do it again.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*smites*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Nod nod - the film is playing out in my head - over and over, and it would be easier, perhaps, in third person, but there's specific things that Crispin needs to be thinking and he isn't and it's purely my fault that he's not. It's a complicated section - for him - shock after shock and at the moment he's thinking about the letters when Myles has just dropped a YOU WAZ RAPED YOU NITWIT bombshell on him. It'll come, and it helps to talk about it.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, definitely therapeutic. Often difficult though, specially if it's something I've not actually experienced, because you have to work out what the character would be feeling in that case. but hey, if i can do gay sex convincingly, I should be able to cope with emotions!!

As to dialogue, that's an area where text books are of a limited help. Personally I read a LOT of novels written in the era, not ABOUT the era. I don't trust Heyer to be honest, and I'd rather believe Austen and Thackeray and Dickens. Obviously I don't want to entirely copy the way of speech, although some of it, specially Thackeray, is surprisingly modern, but it's a balance of getting the flavour.

Email me if I can help at all, feel free.

[joannesopercook.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. I have to go through that all over again. The end of the third book just kills me, where ----- is with ----- visiting the -------- and the inscription there....ugh. Horrid.

*cries* :)

[jl_merrow]

Thanks for the offer! *hugs*

Mmm, I think you're absolutely right about reading stuff from the era - otherwise you're just trusting someone else's research. It's like Chinese whispers. But things like dialogue do vary so much according to the source, don't they? Which I at first found odd - but then, if you look at modern writers, we're hardly identical, are we? ;D

[erastes.livejournal.com]

very much depends on the location, i should say - 1920's new york is different to LA, different to London, different to Australia, try and find sources that are in the area you are dealing with. sounds obvious, i know - sorry!

[jl_merrow]

Oh, don't worry, I'm going British all the way with this one!
I think my brain would blow a gasket if I tried to write historical and foreign! ;D

[erastes.livejournal.com]

yes, part of the reason Fleury hasn't had his sequel yet - just thinking about America in the 1820s is making my head hurt.