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16 years ago
Having been out of work for the last two and a half weeks has given me a lot of time to unwind, and I find that, in that unwinding process, the joy or writing has returned once more.
I've been working on both the fantasy and detective stories. While progress has been made, it's not nearly enough for me to be satisfied, so, once again, I'm reviewing what I have written and find it to be not exactly up to snuff. The biggest problem, I find, is consistency. This stems from the fact that the more I write, the more it comes out like I actually talk. It's like leaving the Royal Shakespeare Company for community theater -- the point can still be made, it's just not as credible.
To that end, I've gone through and beefed up the dialogue and prose along the way and find it reads better than it did before, or at the very least is more consistent than it was before. Fantasy I can do, that's never been a problem. Being a nerd, I never had many friends, so imagination isn't an issue.
The detective story, on the other hand -- to my recollection, I've never read a mystery novel. I've seen a movie or two, sure, but I don't want to come off spouting cliches. Before I left balmy Oregon for foggy California, I stopped in at the Waldenbooks at the mall and picked up five books. I would have been content with four, but the fifth was free.
The Persuader, Lee Child
Rules of Deception, Christoper Reich
The Sigma Protocol, Robert Ludlum
Whiteout, Ken Follett
The Vanished Man, Jeffery Deaver
The first is the only one I've read so far. To be honest, I wasn't that taken with it for several reasons.
First, it's told in a first person format. Short of epistolary works, there is little reason to resort to an "I did this, then I said that" format; it comes off as a story being related to you after the fact, rather than the wider perspective a third person, limited omniscient view provides.
Second, the character development is minimal and the characters themselves are very broadly drawn. The first issue is due to the fact that there is a series of stories written around this detective, and this was not the first book, so I can let that slide. The second, however, is more unfortunate than disappointing. The book is 465 pages long; about 200 pages in, I stopped caring about the characters and was only interested in whether or not Detective Reacher would get his vengeance.
Third, and this is partially tied to the second reason, it was difficult to care about any of the characters, most notably the protagonist. The man he was after...Reacher had shot him in the head, twice, and he fell off a cliff into the sea. How he managed to survive is never revealed. Reacher himself is like an unlikable Dr. Gregory House with a more militaristic bent, and I pictured him as resembling the lovechild of James Gandolfini and Quincy, M.E. Oy.
This makes me somewhat hesitant to read the others, but I bought them, so I feel obligated to read them at least once. The Ken Follett book I'll read, just because I loved The Pillars of the Earth. I've started The Vanished Man; it's interesting inasmuch as the detective, Lincoln Rhyme, is a quadriplegic, so he has his minions do the footwork for him.
I'm trying to make Sergei more...I don't know...understandable? I'm trying to sand away the rough edges that I'd originally envisioned and which, I'm sure,
rftigermode's sketch for me would convey. I've whipped in a little more personal history and fallibility, tried to bring him down a peg or two, and provide some insight into his thoughts.
Eventually, the story will be posted here. Here's hoping I'll have readers this time around.
I've been working on both the fantasy and detective stories. While progress has been made, it's not nearly enough for me to be satisfied, so, once again, I'm reviewing what I have written and find it to be not exactly up to snuff. The biggest problem, I find, is consistency. This stems from the fact that the more I write, the more it comes out like I actually talk. It's like leaving the Royal Shakespeare Company for community theater -- the point can still be made, it's just not as credible.
To that end, I've gone through and beefed up the dialogue and prose along the way and find it reads better than it did before, or at the very least is more consistent than it was before. Fantasy I can do, that's never been a problem. Being a nerd, I never had many friends, so imagination isn't an issue.
The detective story, on the other hand -- to my recollection, I've never read a mystery novel. I've seen a movie or two, sure, but I don't want to come off spouting cliches. Before I left balmy Oregon for foggy California, I stopped in at the Waldenbooks at the mall and picked up five books. I would have been content with four, but the fifth was free.
The Persuader, Lee Child
Rules of Deception, Christoper Reich
The Sigma Protocol, Robert Ludlum
Whiteout, Ken Follett
The Vanished Man, Jeffery Deaver
The first is the only one I've read so far. To be honest, I wasn't that taken with it for several reasons.
First, it's told in a first person format. Short of epistolary works, there is little reason to resort to an "I did this, then I said that" format; it comes off as a story being related to you after the fact, rather than the wider perspective a third person, limited omniscient view provides.
Second, the character development is minimal and the characters themselves are very broadly drawn. The first issue is due to the fact that there is a series of stories written around this detective, and this was not the first book, so I can let that slide. The second, however, is more unfortunate than disappointing. The book is 465 pages long; about 200 pages in, I stopped caring about the characters and was only interested in whether or not Detective Reacher would get his vengeance.
Third, and this is partially tied to the second reason, it was difficult to care about any of the characters, most notably the protagonist. The man he was after...Reacher had shot him in the head, twice, and he fell off a cliff into the sea. How he managed to survive is never revealed. Reacher himself is like an unlikable Dr. Gregory House with a more militaristic bent, and I pictured him as resembling the lovechild of James Gandolfini and Quincy, M.E. Oy.
This makes me somewhat hesitant to read the others, but I bought them, so I feel obligated to read them at least once. The Ken Follett book I'll read, just because I loved The Pillars of the Earth. I've started The Vanished Man; it's interesting inasmuch as the detective, Lincoln Rhyme, is a quadriplegic, so he has his minions do the footwork for him.
I'm trying to make Sergei more...I don't know...understandable? I'm trying to sand away the rough edges that I'd originally envisioned and which, I'm sure,
rftigermode's sketch for me would convey. I've whipped in a little more personal history and fallibility, tried to bring him down a peg or two, and provide some insight into his thoughts.Eventually, the story will be posted here. Here's hoping I'll have readers this time around.
