Tuesday, January 31, 2012

quick post

In one of my favorite Krazy Kat strips, the mouse asks the Kat if he's been keeping a diary these days. "Not these days, Ignatz," the Kat replies. "Because s'all I can do to keep myself."

Well, that's a nice convenient explanation for my lack of blog posts this past month. (The real explanation is probably something more like "I've been reading ancient comic strips when I should be getting some writing done.")

Lately I've been wondering just how much Google knows about me. Creepy, the way this company seems to have a claw in every area of the internet. Including this one. That's right, my literary haven, my sweet new little Blogspot blog, is accessed via my Google account. I fully expect to have it deleted and purged after Google's totalitarian regime takes the reigns of the world.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But I'm kidding with a tremble in my voice.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Characters as Chemicals

One of my favorite examples of character chemistry comes at the beginning of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. The author explains that Bilbo is a hobbit, and hobbits are, for the most part, easygoing little creatures that love nothing better than their comfy, ordinary lives and avoid adventure like the plague. Bilbo is no exception, a textbook hobbit--but wait, his mother was from a family of rather notorious hobbits who were famous for their wild adventures. So he's got that blood in him--a tiny little bit of adventure. Maybe it's dormant, maybe he's aware of it and in denial, but Tolkein makes sure we know that it's there.

In comes Gandalf the wizard--and before anything even happens, the author makes sure we know that Gandalf is a legend. He roams the country shrouded in mystery, tales are told about him…but most importantly, adventures happen everywhere he goes. He causes them with his mere presence.

So here's an determinedly ordinary guy with a little bit of potential adventure in him, and he's about to meet an extraordinary wizard famous for causing adventures. It's as if a person with a tiny bit of kerosene powder in his bloodstream is about to meet a pyromaniac. What's going to happen?

The answer is predictable. It's also unpredictable, hilarious, exciting, terrifying, and incredibly satisfying. In fact, the answer is the entire story.

So here's the cure for writer's block--make your characters into chemicals that compliment and contradict each other, and then put them into a vat, snap the lid, give it a shake, and throw it as far as you possibly can, cackling with maddened glee.

If you can turn out characters so fiendishly potent that you just can't wait to combine them, you're probably a very successful author.

This is my new blog

It might still change its name. Or its color. Venturing onto "settings", I was delighted to find that I could alter my background to match any color of sherbet ever craved by a mortal tongue. But this one will do for now.