Randomness and Thoughts on a WIP

After taking a few days off from blogging (I know) thanks to the bubonic plague moving through my house I’m back!  [Slight exaggeration, but still...  sick and pregnant is no fun, sick and pregnant while taking care of a healthy three year old is a challenge, then being a recuperating sick person who also happens to be seven months pregnant while taking care of a sick three year old just killed my week..]  Anywho, it’s been an eventful week for being so uneventful.  You know what I mean. It has, however, allowed for a bit of time and thought as to my wip.

Even before this rather absurd experience at my son’s pediatrician’s office this past week I have been struck by several issues pertaining to the ms.  It’s not the plot per say, there are no obvious holes or non-world appropriate going ons, but rather it is strangely a treatise standing up for doctors.  I almost intended it that way, kind of.  The issue is that now I am having a hard time thinking of anything positive to say about the industry and, make no mistake, it is an industry.  Never before have I had an issue with this.  Working for doctors for the last ten years had put me in the frame of mind that there are some bad ones, but there are certainly some good ones.  Now, after having personally been treated rather poorly as well as bearing witness to what a pediatrician’s office can do – well, I find myself lacking defense for the profession at large.

To be fair, the underlying premise of the ms still holds (not getting into it right now, tyvm), but my disillusionment needs to be exorcised via a different ms I think.  I’ve given up on my hope of torturing a certain individual only to have now found myself in this quandary.  Being grateful to be writing the pov of the mostly villain right now does help, but the last section was supposed to be the pov of a hero.  A doctor.  Perhaps it’s time to own my own little Inner Geek, embrace her, and draw a doctor in my imagination worthy of heroism.  And if anyone has a good story of a doctor, please, by the love all that is holy, share it.  Puhleeeeeaaaasssse!

Anyone else had these problems?  Earth shaking revelations that shake up your work?  How do you regain the passion and zeal for your current work if/when this happens?

A Bit about that YA Mishigas

First, I plan on spending very little time on that unfortunate WSJ article about the state of YA.  Mostly because it seems to have really caused things to, errr, hit the fan and every other blog post I’m seeing these days is talking about it (this one was what tipped me off to the original article- love her book “Speak”).  As a result of this I thought I would offer up what is merely my two cents about a far more interesting issue.  Subtlety.  There’s no doubt a lot of previously taboo topics that are no longer taboo being discussed across the board in literature (although, if you want to talk about taboo subjects being dealt with DECADES AGO I would highly recommend Heinlein) these days, but the overwhelming issue seems to be subtlety.  This is true of just about all genres.  There are some works/authors who strive to tell and not show, points illustrated through story and metaphor instead of wielding the sledgehammer of prose to get a point across.  Subtlety and art in literature are very rare things indeed and sensationalism is what is encouraged and marketed the heck out of.

I think it is unfair to mix up issues of unnecessarily graphic exposition with dark topics.  Genres have emerged as this new bastion of marketing and so we can not use something so new as a measure of what used to be.  Watership Down, The Hobbit, Lord of the Flies are all books that are typically looked upon as age appropriate to the YA market – but now they’re considered “classics”.  All of these dealt with important themes and, hell, certainly dealt with their fair share of controversial material (well, at least Flies did).  Were they graphic?  Not in the same way much of literature is now.  Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes even dealt with some serious subject matter with detail that haunted and yet it was not sensationalistic in the least.  Graceling, on the other hand, was one that had an out of place and over the top deflowering scene (sorry, I had to – that phrase always makes me snicker).  Unnecessary.  While I acknowledge my pretentious notions of literature not being things everyone cares for, the truth is I like what Orwell had to say on the subject matter:

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

What are your thoughts on the issue of subtlety?  Are the fantastically dark issues addressed in YA too dark?  Is it the sensationalistic and graphic detail that makes them appear this way?  Any older works that fit into the category that blow these notions out of the water?

An Ode to Monty Python Mondays (but the serious kind)

I’m sorry to start off this week with politics.  Even sorrier that it has to be to talk about something that I view as absolutely absurd, too.  Please, bear with me because, honestly, this is something many bloggers might want to be in the know about.  There is a lot of legislation being offered forth regarding copyright infringement and the like and, while I’m not going to get on my high horse and talk about copyright issues right now, I will say that the legislation is BAD.

Here’s the first bit:

If you embed a YouTube video that turns out to be infringing, and more than 10 people view it because of your link… you could be facing five years in jail.

The full article can be found at Tech Dirt.  Now, I don’t know about you, but the first thing that comes to mind is the amount of policing that’s required to make this kind of thing have any teeth; the second is the concerns that this could effectively make many US citizens into criminals.  Easily.

We can always play devil’s advocate and proclaim that OF COURSE it’s going to be one of those laws that isn’t taken seriously, but it is set up to be dealt with rather seriously and as such should not be diminished simply upon the premise of “they won’t do anything about it”.  Added to this issue is the Protect IP Act which is a brain child of Senator Leahy of VT.  I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again – law needs to be considered first for all the bad it can do and ONLY IF that is amenable should the good be considered.  Never would I presume to defend piracy, but I most certainly will always – ALWAYS- champion the first amendment.  Any law that encourages the shutting down of websites upon presumption of guilt without due process of law is against the first amendment.

Any thoughts on these pieces of legislation?  What about copyright law? 

Wednesday’s Post: A Wall Street Journal article about YA literature that seemed to cause quite a hubub. 

 

 

A Conundrum [Aka - Heaven help me if I've used this as a blog title before.]

Slowly but surely I’ve been working on my wip.  You know, the one where all is dark and dreary with the world and people have submitted to tyranny?  Yeah, that one.  Then I hit a holding pattern.  AGAIN.  This isn’t for lack of direction exactly, but more that I’m fighting my inner demons.  You see, I want to kill someone.  Perhaps it would be more fair for me to say I want to torture THEN kill them, but the truth is I really, really, really want to do this.  The problem?  The person is in my reality and has not been made into a character as yet.  Of course, he’d also be made a character solely for the purpose of being wretchedly treated before his oh-so-painful demise (and it would be painful – make no mistake) and that means I’m not writing the bit for the story.

The other problem being that the only way I can get him tortured would be for him to be a good guy and that sooooo doesn’t even work for said catharsis.  Feh.

My agenda is not the same as the story’s and right now that’s kind of a bummer.  This individual quite conceivably doesn’t warrant the kind of treatment I would like to imagine befalling him (goes against my principles anyway), but being as infuriated as I have been by people who can’t do what they’re supposed to demands the violent fantasy.  Not that I’m righteous or anything…  *crickets*  And there I sit at my computer, dreaming up a horrific and beatific sequence of sadism, unable to write it because I KNOW it just doesn’t fit in with the story.

Trying to move on and let go of this wondrous idea has been hard and led me to having my fingers tied up in knots instead of typing.  Have you ever wanted to put something in a story so badly you could taste it but didn’t dare write it because you knew it just didn’t fit and you’d totally be a bad writer if you forced it in there or just wasted your time with it?    Aside from digging out my punching bag (which would be no small fete given the state of my basement) – are there any thoughts on a coping mechanism?  FYI:  I’ve already tried chocolate.  There isn’t enough in my house or the local grocery store to take care of this particular problem.

 

Shameless plug:  My other blog, The Elephant in the Womb, was updated again!  Woohoo!  It will look prettier next week.

A Belated Happy Holiday

Since having a child it seems as though I am always late.  Given my recent awareness in his stalling tactics, earning him the nickname of Delay Fish, I have to now say…  I think I know where he gets it from.  There goes my happy righteous parental moment!

So, back to the blog post.  I hope everyone in the US had a great holiday weekend.  Perhaps some fireworks, good eats, friends, and family were partaken of making it an endeavor in relaxation and all that is good in life.  Given that this was not a long weekend for my family, but one where much stress has been had with the exception of some wonderful kick-your-feet-up-by-the-fire-pit time with neighbors.  I’m pretty sure that they are the reason I’m mostly sane right now.  There’s no need to bore y’all with the details of course and, honestly, I don’t even want to reiterate them right now as they just make me tired and cranky/ier, but there was another wonderful thing that occurred.

First, I started a new blog.  No, this does not mean I’ll be leaving this one – just a way of organizing.  What can I say?  I really need to be organized in at least one aspect of life.  It sure as heck isn’t my bookcase these days!

Second, I will be doing some cross posting on the days I have articles on the other blog site.  At least for a little while.

Third, I have rediscovered my love of Heinlein and am working on getting through Starship Troopers right now.  His wit gives me peace and, while I nod along to it thinking “wow, he so saw what was going on”, there is still a wonderful capacity for joy.

Fourth, facebook messaging is going the way of the do-do bird for me.  There’s no help for it.  As a proud and paranoid liberterarian I can not help but turn my nose up at its new format.  Besides, maybe I’ll actually get on top of my gmail account finally!  It could happen…

Fifth, forward momentum on my wip is being made.  While stress is a creativity killer I have found that practicing my piano again has helped a lot in this regard and the words are more readily available to my mind.

What have you been up to?  How was your holiday?