Hey, Lexi, you’re my first comment! Awesome. I should give you a prize or something. Do you want a free copy of ‘Chasm’?
I too would like a more in depth explanation from the lovely Derren, but I guess that would put him out of business. Still, I suppose I could piece together all his hints and do the research and put the time in… if there were an extra couple if days in each week.
I think if you did it would turn out a bit of a let-down, as explanations of magic always are. Re prize, I read the sample of Chasm and found it too harrowing. Before I had a child, maybe… Will your next book be of a more upbeat, feel-good nature?
Perhaps, although I’m a great believer in there being writers and books to suit everyone. Within the parameters of what ‘Chasm’ was designed to achieve the darkness was necessary, and I’m fully aware it won’t be to everyone’s taste. But that’s one of the joys of the world of fiction, that one person will find value in something someone else doesn’t, and I don’t think either of us would have it any other way.
No, variety is good. I prefer happy (or happy-ish) endings these days. In my twenties I could deal with the depressing stuff – though even then part of me wished Winston Smith could have evaded his fate. I think Orwell oversold the power and longevity of oppressive regimes.
I wish I could share your optimism about the limitations of oppressive regimes, but history seems to suggest that’s the end stage of most, if not all, ruling parties and regimes. I too would have liked Winston Smith to escape but I think Orwell made the right choice. Sometimes a book needs an unhappy ending for the book to work, to avoid losing the focus of the story. Personally, I have at least one book with a happy ending in the works, and the majority of the others have transformative endings where things are not necessarily happy but something (or many things) have changed, some for the better, some for the worse. I couldn’t do the classic Austen ending where a couple get married and that’s the end of it. I love Austen, but that moment at the end always leaves me a little cold. She was stuck with the expectations of the time, though, and things have improved on that front.
Which is part of the joy of self-publishing, and especially e-books. I love the fact that you read the preview, decided that it wasn’t for you, and moved on. No time or money was wasted, because you could access the preview at your leisure and decide whether it was something you wanted to do more of. The system works and that’s awesome.
I think history supports me rather than you – the Thousand Year Reich was done and dusted in twelve years, I believe. And think of all the other dictators who didn’t last very long. No reason to believe Big Brother’s regime would do any better than Stalin’s. But I agree a happy ending would sit uneasily on the book. What I want is a satisfying ending, preferably slightly open-ended rather than neatly tied up.
In Jane Austen’s day, the alternatives to matrimony for a genteel but not well-off girl were unenticing. Of course Emma could have stayed single in comfort, as she originally planned, but who could resist Mr Knightley (my favourite Austen hero)?
I always read the sample on Amazon, even if the book is free. I really like that feature.
I think we’ll need to agree to disagree on the historical analysis – dictators are far from the only oppressive regimes. History teaches quite clearly that for the greater part of recorded history societies have always been run along lines that result in the vast majority suffering poverty, hunger, disease, wrongful imprisonment, or dying in the brutal petty wars of their rulers. The dictatorships of the twentieth century were just a particularly nasty pinnacle of an age old problem.
In Austen’s work, of course, there is the wonderful simultaneous mocking and wistful jealousy of her own characters getting the outcome she herself was denied.
Goodness, we all do that. I’m still waiting to discover a gorgeous rock star sleeping on my balcony, or be shadowed by a hunky MI5 spec op, or rescue a brooding cage fighter from the snow. Fiction has a lot to be said for it. Jane Austen spent her time in the best company, something I didn’t realize until I started to write.
I think all writers create their best work when writing characters and situations that make them feel strongly, whether that’s people they’d like to be, people they’d like to meet, people they’re afraid of, and so on.
Did you know that the name Derren has moved from 2020th in popularity to 0th? See http://names.darkgreener.com/#derren.
What he says is interesting, but I’d like examples in detail, which he’ll never give.
Hey, Lexi, you’re my first comment! Awesome. I should give you a prize or something. Do you want a free copy of ‘Chasm’?
I too would like a more in depth explanation from the lovely Derren, but I guess that would put him out of business. Still, I suppose I could piece together all his hints and do the research and put the time in… if there were an extra couple if days in each week.
I think if you did it would turn out a bit of a let-down, as explanations of magic always are. Re prize, I read the sample of Chasm and found it too harrowing. Before I had a child, maybe… Will your next book be of a more upbeat, feel-good nature?
Heh, true.
Yeah, ‘Chasm’ is a bit dark. The next book will be less specifically dark – no dead children at any rate…
My daughter is always urging me to make my characters darker and edgier, and her influence is a good one. Perhaps you need the opposite advice…
Perhaps, although I’m a great believer in there being writers and books to suit everyone. Within the parameters of what ‘Chasm’ was designed to achieve the darkness was necessary, and I’m fully aware it won’t be to everyone’s taste. But that’s one of the joys of the world of fiction, that one person will find value in something someone else doesn’t, and I don’t think either of us would have it any other way.
No, variety is good. I prefer happy (or happy-ish) endings these days. In my twenties I could deal with the depressing stuff – though even then part of me wished Winston Smith could have evaded his fate. I think Orwell oversold the power and longevity of oppressive regimes.
I wish I could share your optimism about the limitations of oppressive regimes, but history seems to suggest that’s the end stage of most, if not all, ruling parties and regimes. I too would have liked Winston Smith to escape but I think Orwell made the right choice. Sometimes a book needs an unhappy ending for the book to work, to avoid losing the focus of the story. Personally, I have at least one book with a happy ending in the works, and the majority of the others have transformative endings where things are not necessarily happy but something (or many things) have changed, some for the better, some for the worse. I couldn’t do the classic Austen ending where a couple get married and that’s the end of it. I love Austen, but that moment at the end always leaves me a little cold. She was stuck with the expectations of the time, though, and things have improved on that front.
Which is part of the joy of self-publishing, and especially e-books. I love the fact that you read the preview, decided that it wasn’t for you, and moved on. No time or money was wasted, because you could access the preview at your leisure and decide whether it was something you wanted to do more of. The system works and that’s awesome.
I think history supports me rather than you – the Thousand Year Reich was done and dusted in twelve years, I believe. And think of all the other dictators who didn’t last very long. No reason to believe Big Brother’s regime would do any better than Stalin’s. But I agree a happy ending would sit uneasily on the book. What I want is a satisfying ending, preferably slightly open-ended rather than neatly tied up.
In Jane Austen’s day, the alternatives to matrimony for a genteel but not well-off girl were unenticing. Of course Emma could have stayed single in comfort, as she originally planned, but who could resist Mr Knightley (my favourite Austen hero)?
I always read the sample on Amazon, even if the book is free. I really like that feature.
I think we’ll need to agree to disagree on the historical analysis – dictators are far from the only oppressive regimes. History teaches quite clearly that for the greater part of recorded history societies have always been run along lines that result in the vast majority suffering poverty, hunger, disease, wrongful imprisonment, or dying in the brutal petty wars of their rulers. The dictatorships of the twentieth century were just a particularly nasty pinnacle of an age old problem.
In Austen’s work, of course, there is the wonderful simultaneous mocking and wistful jealousy of her own characters getting the outcome she herself was denied.
S.
Goodness, we all do that. I’m still waiting to discover a gorgeous rock star sleeping on my balcony, or be shadowed by a hunky MI5 spec op, or rescue a brooding cage fighter from the snow. Fiction has a lot to be said for it. Jane Austen spent her time in the best company, something I didn’t realize until I started to write.
I think all writers create their best work when writing characters and situations that make them feel strongly, whether that’s people they’d like to be, people they’d like to meet, people they’re afraid of, and so on.