matril: (matril)
I've discussed both here and on my other blog how Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale. I've written a gender-swapped version of it. It's my favorite Disney animated film. I've explored and analyzed every angle of it. So how can it be, as advertisements for the upcoming live action remake flood the Internet, that my primary response is grumbling annoyance?
Read more... )

Slumping

Mar. 11th, 2016 04:05 pm
matril: (matril)
I find myself in a bit of a slump, writing-wise. This has happened before and will doubtless happen again, yet it always hits me hard.
Read more... )
matril: (Default)
We were at the bookstore the other day (mostly to buy a DVD of The Princess and the Frog, because we liked it and we want to support classic hand-drawn fairy tale movies, by golly!) and Ryan saw the appallingly monolithic displays for Twilight merchandise. He kept pointing out the apple excitedly ("A-glottal stop-l! A-glottal stop-l!") And I kept replying, "Yes, Ryan, that's a poisoned apple." I suppose I was hoping someone would hear me and respond. :P

And... )

Yay

Dec. 18th, 2009 04:02 pm
matril: (Default)
So I'm participating in a round of critiques at Miss Snark's First Victim, and it's been a good exercise. The theme of this particular exercise is "danger." I've gotten enough positive comments about my writing to re-inflate my punctured-by-form-rejections ego, and some useful areas for improvement. I'm amused to see that some people are delighted by the Beauty and the Beast twist, and others are concerned that my main character wouldn't have the proper motivation to help his captor. In fact, she's not technically the one keeping him trapped there. It was too complicated for me to explain in a few sentences. It's interesting seeing how people interpret the scene without the full context.

I had resolved to send out a few more queries before the new year, but on second thought it's probably a bad idea to do that right before the holidays, right when everyone wants a break. I'm not putting it off, really! I'm starting up again as soon as January comes. Gulp.
matril: (vader)
Hooray! I don't have too much to say other than I'm obviously glad that the first movie got made all those years ago (and being in the middle of reading The Making of Star Wars, I'm well reminded that its successful making was far from a sure thing). I wasn't quite born in 1977, so I can't offer memories of its first appearing in theaters or anything. But I was born right in the middle of the whole original craze, and I remember that everyone knew what Star Wars was, and could reference Vader and Artoo and Chewbacca without batting an eye. What a great and lasting contribution to our culture. Also, it's just good old fun. I can enjoy it on an intelluctual level and explore all the deep meanings, but my two-year-old can imitate Vader's breathing and shout out characters' names with great gusto. Its appeal is so universal. Again, hooray for Star Wars!

Thoughts about my novel, largely unrelated to the previous paragraph )

Gulp

Jan. 10th, 2007 10:29 am
matril: (neville)
I made a goal to submit my first novel for publication this year. I finished it probably three years ago, though I've been poking at it with various revisions ever since then. It's long been time for me to swallow my apprehensions and send the darn thing in.

I am absolutely petrified. Not just of rejection. Sure, I'm scared of it. But that's fully expected. Oh, I'm certain I'll still bawl my eyes out when I get my first rejection notice, but still - it's pretty much an essential part of becoming an author. What terrifies me even more than the inevitable rejections is all the little nitpicky, bureaucratic aspects of publishing - agents, deals, formatting, policies, money stuff, blah blah blah. It's not enough to write a good book; you have to know where and to whom to send it, what sort of letter to attach to it, how to address whoever might read it, make sure you don't end up getting into some slippery deal that takes all your money, etc, etc. I suppose an agent is supposed to help with all that, but I've heard a lot of people say that you should first get your submission accepted, and then get an agent. Urk. We got "Getting your book published for Dummies" a while back, and I've been perusing it, but it's really pretty overwhelming. I checked out the submission guidelines on a website for a publisher that specializes in Sci-fi and Fantasy, and my novel meets all the requirements for length, etc., but then they go on about "rich text format" and vague things about cover letters and synopses and I'm just too scared. Grr, grr, grr.

I should just become the close personal friend of the head editor. That'll take care of everything. :P

Stuff

Dec. 2nd, 2006 05:18 pm
matril: (Default)
Attention all and any writers: Drop everything and go now to your nearest purveyor of movies and watch Stranger Than Fiction. It will make you laugh and possibly cry, and make you rethink the writing process in a profoundly new way.

Or not. Maybe it was just me. ;) I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. It really is about writing, and what makes a powerful story, and what has to be sacrificed to do it well. We don't go to the movies very often (last movie before this was Pirates: The Sequel) but this was well worth our money.

So last night while I was trying to fall asleep, and a plot bunny hopped up on the bed and sat on my head. It's still sitting there, so I suppose I'll be writing a new story pretty soon. Longer than drabble-length, but not quite a ponderous novel. And I stil have some drabble ideas left over from last month that I'll probably get around to. It's nice to get a little break from writinge every single day, but I really can't go too long without writing. :D

We took our kids to see Santa at the mall today. Luke squirmed and wouldn't sit still, but he was cheerful for the picture since it was taken quickly. Emma cried her little heart out. Not entirely unexpected - I was terrified by Santa when I was little. My parents will be amused by the picture; the crying girl will be quite familiar to them.

Sneak peek at the Order of the Phoenix movie tomorrow on ABC family...Really kind of silly to go nuts over it, since I'll see the movie all the way through in just a few months, and I can probably own the darn thing by this time next year....and yet, I see the commercials for it, and I turn into a giddy fangirl. ;P

Random

Oct. 20th, 2006 09:12 pm
matril: (Default)
I just feel like blathering, so I'll write whatever comes into my head.

Blathers )


'Kay, I'm done for now.

Joy!

Oct. 11th, 2006 11:47 am
matril: (neville)
My last post was excessively bitter, so it's high time I posted something pleasant. And I have good cause to be happy right now! A few months ago my husband urged me to send a copy of the first novel of my series-in-progress to someone in our church congregation who seemed like the sort who would enjoy reading it. She and her family were actually moving to another state, so even though I sent her a copy of the book it took a while for her to get through the business of settling into a new home, unpacking, etc. A few days ago she sent me an email saying that she was finally able to start my book, and would keep me posted. Now, this novel is over 300 pages - you could read it in a day or two, perhaps, but only if you did nothing but read. Lo and behold, today she sent me an email declaring that she had finished it! and couldn't put it down until she read the whole thing! She had very positive things to say about it, and not just generic gushing, but thoughtful comments that were oh-so-gratifying. I must confess I did a little happy dance, I was so excited.

Finding readers to comment on/critique my work is one step I've been trying to take as part of the eventual process of submitting it for pulication. And here I am...one step closer. Do I dare? It's not the end of the world if I get rejected; in fact, if I, a previously unpublished author, didn't get rejected by a handful of places at the start, maybe that would be a sign of the end of the world - it's certainly never happened before to any typical new author, after all. ;) And if there's any chance that eventually, someone would be interested and have it published - well, that's one childhood dream I would be overjoyed to see fulfilled.

:gulps: Or I could just keep working on the series for my own (and my family's) private reading and never, ever, ever do something daring.
matril: (Default)
My poor little baby is sick. Emma's had a runny nose for a week or so, but now it's branched out into a full-fledged cold, with a nasy cough and requisite crankiness. I wonder if it's related to the anemia. :(

I'm writing the fourth novel in my (entirely, hopelessly unpublished) fantasy series. One of my characters has undergone a subtle corruption, and is now heading over to the side opposing the heroine. It was pretty tricky to write, and I don't know if I pulled it off convincingly. It was also pretty painful; I'm fairly attached to these characters and I don't like seeing them in pain. Yet I torture them nonetheless. :P Also, I'm a little nervous that the corrupted character and his corrupter show marked similarities to Anakin and Palpatine. Well, not nervous really, because there's nothing that could come across as plagiarism. It just makes me think that if I ever do get the stuff published, and someone asks if I just so happen to be a SW fan, one of whose favorite characters is Anakin, I'll give a little smile and say, "Why, yes...how did you ever guess that?" Heh.

I'm tired. I'm probably coming down with Emma's cold. Blech.
matril: (tarpals)
Two quotations from two of my favorite storytellers:

"Being a pessimist doesn't seem to accomplish anything...if I wanted to change the world it was no use saying how awful our society is or how stupid. The way to make things progress is to point people in the right direction, to show how wonderful life can be. Tearing things down, being pessimistic makes people simply accept the conditions that prevail. Whereas if you give them hope and point them in the right direction, things are more likely to get better."
-George Lucas, interview in Once Upon a Galaxy: The Making of The Empire Strikes Back by Alan Arnold

"The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catstrophe, the sudden joyous 'turn'...is not essentially 'escapist,' nor 'fugitive.' In its fairy-tale -- or otherworld -- setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace, never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief."
-J.R.R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories"

Together, that pretty much sums up what I look for, morally, aesthetically and ethically, in a story. Every great story I've read has had that moment when darkness shadows the world and threatens everything of significance to the hero, and the hero turns about and triumphs against despair. To me, a happy ending, or in Tolkien's eloquent words, the Eucatastrophe, is absolutely essential to a great story, and it is neither naive nor contrived, if done right. It is the very existence of a powerful evil that makes the triumph of good so moving. That's why we needed Revenge of the Sith to make Return of the Jedi have so much meaning; that's why things are so bleak at the end of Half-Blood Prince. Assumling JKR follows the same prinicples, which seems to be a reasonable assumption so far, Book 7 will have the Eucatastrophe. In the end, optimism prevails. But it can't be simply sunny and cheerful throughout; that has no meaning. To say, "Yes, things are bleak, and yet I will not give up" is the core strength of every great hero.

Profile

matril: (Default)
matril

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  12 345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 17th, 2025 06:10 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios