Er...okay. Random thoughts entry.

[valis2]

• Found a little piece of paper (they're everywhere on my desk...I write down a note at work and fold it into quarters and then put it in my pocket and bring them home. I have quite a stash of them now) with a thought I was supposed to originally put in the Giant Entry about Writing Fanfiction but obviously forgot.
  
  It says something to the effect of...Everyone wants to believe that their Mary Sue is extremely creative and mind-boggling. I say that it takes more creativity to purposely harness yourself to a character and see through their eyes. It takes more creativity to set up a logical progression of feelings, thoughts, and action.
  
  I really should have put an entire blurb about logic in there. So many times fics can easily go against the grain of believability. So many times I've read fics where characters are zooming from giggly to steely anger within four seconds. There has to be a believable progression and the readers have to believe that the characters would really behave in the manner that they are behaving in the fic.
  
  It didn't take me a long time to fantasize about my Mary Sues. I just thought about what I would like them to have, what sort of neat tricks they could have up their sleeves, and what hidden powers would be the most advantageous.
  
  It took me forever, on the other hand, to come up with a believable scenario for tLS and work it all out properly so that it seemed plausible.
  
  One note down. 2498756249687 to go.



• More thesaurus fun. Excitation:
  
  fan the fire, fan the flame, blow the coals, stir the embers, fan, fan into a flame, foster, heat, warm, foment, raise to a fever heat, rake up, rip up.
  
  flaming, boiling, boiling over, ebullient, seething, foaming, fuming, raging, carried away by passion, wild, raving, frantic, mad, distracted, distraught, bouleversé.
  
  Exciting, impressive, warm, glowing, fervid, swelling, imposing, spirit-stirring, thrilling, high-wrought, soul-stirring, heart-swelling, agonizing, sensational, overpowering, overwhelming, more than flesh and blood can bear.



• I love Kanye West's The College Dropout. It's a great album.

Comments

[pen-and-umbra.livejournal.com]

I want your thesaurus. Or I want to have your thesaurus's babies. Either or, I'm not picky. ;)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's available...my copy is from 1979. Though, being in the public domain, I'm absolutely certain that it is printed somewhere. I'll try to keep my eye peeled for you. It's Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, originally printed 1805, revised 1859. Thing is, this version was obviously edited at some point, probably with the 1859 edition and the 1879 edition, so that it would not be confusing to the modern eye, but still retain the words from the earlier edition (because that's what they do for cheapie public domain editions, they don't want to bother with too much editing expense).

Hmmm...I could scan it in, one page at a time, all 709 trade-sized pages...

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Hee! Moodswing!Sue

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I really, really dislike Moodswing!Sue...Every conversation is a study in extremes. She's happy! She's pissed! She's juggling canteloupes! She's breathing fire! Make up your mind, Suethor...

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Oh you're so boring!

[privatemaladict.livejournal.com]

See, for me, creating my character, seeing the world through his eyes, actually took less effort than thinking up "traits" would've taken. The beginning of my fic is all through his POV, and as I went, he just sort of wrote himself. It wasn't hard. I started out by thinking of how I'd react to a certain situation, and as I went, traits emerged that were unique to the character. Actually, I find creating characters to be my favourite part of writing, and it comes to me most easily.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

But you see, you were "seeing the world through his eyes", which is the important part. I think Suethors are seeing the world differently. They are thinking of cool scenarios and then shoehorning their characters into it. They aren't looking through their character's eyes; they're looking at it as if it is a movie. They are watching from outside their character, and their actions are more along the line of "what would be cool to do next" than "thinking of how [they'd] react to a certain situation". It's more theatrical than realistic.

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's actually kind of fun to write a borderline psychotic character in the first person.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Y'know, what interests me is that the reader is going to identify with the subject of the story (usually), even if the subject isn't necessarily nice. The giant fic I'm writing now, the character isn't really 100% pure, she has regrets and broken promises, and I've given hints about a less-than-angelic past, yet people still identify for her and are upset when anything happens to her. If she were a minor character, I can bet that they'd be a lot less protective of her.

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Yeah the three people who read mine seemed to like her. One poor deluded soul sent me a poem by email when something really bad happened. I felt kinda guilty.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Someone sent you a poem? Wow...interesting.

I once wrote a really crazy passage in a story I was writing in high school. My best friend, who was reading it at the time, read it, and said afterward, "Are you OK? Is there something you want to talk about?"

I was bewildered until she pointed out how insane that chapter was, and then it made sense.

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Well I think she actually sent the poem to the character. I'm not sure which is worse.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

lol! That's great. I'm totally impressed.

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

I was getting sick of the awful bitch really and I did something really awful to her. I guess I overstepped. Oops. She wasn't that bad really. Just--like I said, borderline psychotic.

[privatemaladict.livejournal.com]

It's more theatrical than realistic.

That's an interesting thought, and I wonder if there might be some value in that. Actually, I know there's some value in it - I've read stories which are quite un-realistic, but are still enjoyable. It's that whole "suspend disbelief" thing. I guess the trick is making the cool things that happen, things that other people will think are cool, not just you.

[bat-git.livejournal.com]

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS DAT, KANYE!!"
I love that album too.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Hahahah! Yes, exactly. One of my favorite tracks, actually. I love his little song at the end, which makes me feel happy, like following what you want to do can lead to something rewarding.

[bat-git.livejournal.com]

I didn't think the degree song was funny.

Hit too close to home for us History majors.

*cries*

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yes, and us English majors as well. It depresses me to listen to it, which is why I usually don't. Though I can see where he's coming from. Unlike "Graduation Day", which is uplifting, as I said above.