Did he have blonde hair or black . . .?

I read and critiqued a friend’s manuscript the other week.  I read all of it, from beginning to end, and even though it was really good, the one major thing I had to point out was the bombshell at the end that her protagonist had black hair.  Not a major bombshell, but when you’ve read through the entire book picturing the protagonist as one thing only to find out he’s something else, it's a bit of a shock.  As it turned out with my friend, she was brilliant at describing the weird and unusual – and it was a fantasy so there was a lot of that - but anything everyday and mundane she inadvertently neglected. 

This brought up the topic of description.  Info dumps are never really a good thing.  There are far better ways to add description than by saying “He was 6ft something, blue eyes, black hair and a few days’ worth of stubble on his chin”;

“He brushed a hand through his thick black hair…”

“His blue eyes turned wide with shock…”

I won’t go on.  I’m pretty sure you get the drift.  Anyway, it also helps to actually know your character physically.  For every character I create a little bio.  Nothing mega, just height, hair colour, style, eye colour, age.  This way when you need to mention it and you’ve forgotten it, you don’t have to go hunting through your manuscript trying to find the last place you mentioned it.  It also avoids inconsistencies.

Another idea is to add an actual face to your characters.  By this I mean finding a tv/movie star and basing your characters around them (I call this a dream team).  Sometimes though, if your characters are born before you allocate them a famous face, it can be hard to find someone suitable to fit the role, and sometimes you may have to come to terms with the fact that you’ll never find someone suitable – unless you spend hours trolling the web when you should be writing!

I’ve only found one face for one of my characters.  He’s no one famous.  He’s a model for the firm I work for.  But as soon as I saw him in those images I knew. 

Meet Devon McCormick.  

Image courtesy of Brora.co.uk

Pic of the Week (coinciding with A-Z) . . . Jonas Jakobsson

Today, the A-Z challenge seems to have fallen on J, so even though I’m not partaking, what better way to contribute than by choosing an artist for this week’s Pic of the Week whose name begins with J.

Returning to Jonas Jakobsson with a double J hit.  Check out his gallery on Deviant Art.

And name me a fantasy lover who doesn’t love a Ringwaith.

Have a great weekend J

Your Novel's Soundtrack . . .

Does your novel have a soundtrack?  Is there one song that captures every essence of your story?  Or maybe even more than one?

My new piece does.  This song manages to capture everything about my main character, Reagan, including her sexuality, her darkness and her mysteriousness.  I remember when I first heard it.  It sucked me in and within an instant I knew it was my soundtrack.  I don't know the in's and out's of the song - apparently it was about an ex-girlfriend who was sleeping around - and I'm not saying the lyrics could have been written for Reagan, but the whole feel of the song and the rhythm...

My new piece now has a title:  Blood for Blood, and its soundtrack is Inertia Creeps by Massive Attack.

Enjoy :)
 

Cumberbomb . . .

I was having a pretty lame day at work today until I read the news during my lunch break and spotted this:

Most of us know it was the Oscars last night.  I haven't looked up who won what or who wore (or didn't wear) what, but one thing suddenly jumped to my attention and made me laugh.  Judging from my last post, most of you should know I've become ever-so slightly obsessed with the UK series, Sherlock - and that confession should include not just Sherlock, but Benedict Cumberbatch himself...lol.

Anyway, what better way to cheer up a dull day than with photos of Cumberbatch photobombing U2 last night.  I'm speechless...and not sure if that's due to the grin on my face or my attempts at suppressing hysterical laughter in the office :)  Hope these cheer your day up as much as they did mine.  You can read the full article here:

I love it when stars show a human side.

"No S*** Sherlock..."

Well, it's official.  I am SHER-locked!!!

I've just spent the last few days catching up on Series 1 & 2 of Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman before starting Series 3 for the first time (all on DVD) and I'm hooked.  I don't watch much TV to be honest, which was why I had to recap series 1 & 2 on DVD as there were parts I had missed when they originally ran.  And then I got to watch them all back to back.

Nothing like a bit of 'binge-watching' :)

So what do I like about BBC's Sherlock?  The banter?  The plots?  The characters?  Cumberbatch himself? All of the above and much more.  It's so well written (hats off to Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat) and the dialogue just flows - and how Cumberbatch manages to say his long stints without faltering is beyond me.  I wonder how many takes they really had to do?

Sherlock Series 3 is actually interesting.  A writer friend of mine at the moment is worried that her current WIP is too character driven and there's not much plot.  She's read one star reviews (on other pieces) that say 'brilliant characters but no plot' and she's worried that she has to change her planning to find a happy medium.  But this doesn't have to be the case - and Sherlock is a great example in my eyes.

I can't falter any of the plots for Sherlock, except the second episode in Series 3, The Sign of Three (but then it's not even a fault).  This episode is very much character driven, and you know what?  It works.  The relationship between Sherlock and Watson is so solid.  And you can feel Sherlock's fear as a third member is introduced to their circle, threatening to change everything.  So what I say to my friend - and all others out there struggling with the same issue - is yes, plot is important, but it doesn't have to be the end all.  Character driven pieces work really well too, so don't let this thought hinder you're progress.  Write what you want to write, and if at the end you feel it doesn't work, tweak it.  But you'll never know unless it's written.

So on that note, I've decided to choose two pieces for today's Pic of the Week.  I like them both very much and couldn't decide which to share :)  The artist is Alicexz over on Deviant art, and over the last few years she's been building her own gallery of character portraits for the Series.  Be sure to go over there and check them out.  They're phenomenal...

Sherlock

Moriarty

Have a good week people... :)

Back In The Game...

I’m back on the band wagon.  My muse has returned after a year and half hiatus – and trying to work without a muse just ain’t easy.

He returned a couple of weeks ago – although he’s very shy to give away where he’s been (probably cavorting with all the other AWOL muses out there.  Just where do they go??  It's probably him in the picture, enjoying the attention of all the other female muses, the flirt!)  Still, I hope he had a good time.  I hope it was worth it after the amount of SUFFERING he’s caused.  No thought!  No consideration!  And now he’s back, by golly, I’m gonna make him pay!  I’m making him work overtime, and with 15k words into my new piece – as well as editing my previous piece – he’s definitely starting to pull his weight.  I’m not letting him get off lightly for going AWOL.

So what’s the new piece?  Well, it involves, assassins, romance, danger, everything a good read should have – oh, and a touch of necromancy to darken things a tad.  Just the way I like it J Still working on a title though, but I’m sure that’ll come within time.

So, now I’m back on the band wagon, let’s just hope my muse lets me stay on long enough to enjoy the ride.  

Why Your Genre . . . ???

Have you ever sat down and wondered why it is you choose to write what you write? Why do you like Crime so much? Why Romance? Why Sci-Fi? Why Comedy?

I've often reflected on this. Why do I like fantasy so much? Why do I like to take myself off to strange worlds where mythical things are no longer myth, where danger of the unknown lurks around every corner? Why can't my fantasies take me to places in the real world where I can then shape them to my own desires?

Because for me, that would defeat the object of escapism.

I can pinpoint the exact moment I wanted to write, and the exact moment I realised it was fantasy. Ok, hands up here who remembers the film 'Flight of Dragons'? It's an old animated film from around 1981-82. Baring in mind I was born in the later part of 1980, when this film actually came out, I don't think I would have had much interest, but by the time it made it to VHS, followed by the small screens of our boxed TV sets, I think I would have been around 5, maybe 6 years old - but obviously at a very impressionable age and more than old enough to realise "Holy crap! This is awesome stuff!"

I remember watching it. It was a weekend, a sunny day, and I preferred to sit inside than go outside and play with all the other kids (learning to be unsociable - a necessity for a writer). This film was on and I was hooked.

For those who haven't had the pleasure of this film, it's about a time that lays between magic and logic, where man was beginning to believe in the study of science. This was making the magical folk weak, and so four magical brothers decide to create their own haven, a place where the magical can live without the dangers of science, but the fourth brother decides that he wants mankind to feel the wrath of dark magic, by making them turn against each other, creating war and weapons of mass destruction, yada yada. And so the battle ensues (although, the film does provide a theory as to how dragons can defy the laws of physics and fly - but I'll save that for another post).

I only ever saw this film once, but images of it have been fresh in my mind for years. Haunted by these images, it wasn't until about two years ago that I hunted this film down. I couldn't even remember what it was called. All I had to go by where the images in my head. But I found it :)

Anyway, after I watched this film, my mind must have been so consumed with the possibilities of fantasy that I shut myself in my room and began to write. Baring in mind a girl of six would have many distractions - namely toys. The story I had in my head never reached past two or three pages. A year or two passed and these images were still calling me, so I tried again. Still I failed. A few times I tried but the idea trailed off, until one day when I was 10. I picked up that pen, I wrote and I never stopped. After a year and a half I had my first story. 74 pages long and fully illustrated. I still have this handwritten story locked away in safe keeping.

From there, fantasy has always been a huge thing for me. I've dabbled elsewhere. Throughout my teen years, I wrote drama, thrillers, horrors, but I've always found myself coming back round to fantasy. It's who I am. It's in my blood - although I have no idea where the horror aspect comes from...

And imagine my surprise when I finally managed to track 'Flight of Dragons' down a few years back only to discover that I had practically re-written it all those years ago. Good job I had no intention of ever submitting it to agents...

So what about you? What made you decide what genre was yours for the conquering?