New Blog

I have a new blog on blogger to concentrate on the steampunk.  This will be for my library things and more personal things and my writing. 

My new blog is Steampunk World.  It will have writing advice, steampunk info and history. 

I’ll link to it soon.

Rejections

Rejections are supposed to be nasty. Or generic. They are meant to say “no, not interested” and nothing else. I’ve never had those kind of rejections.

My very first rejection…

It is an interesting piece, but regretfully in the end we decided it’s not quite what we after at this point in time. I wish you luck placing your work elsewhere and hope you consider Dark Animus for future submissions.

Not bad, as rejections go. I’m allowed to submit something else, so that is encouraging.

The second one was for a short film script. I sent it to Blue Iris Films

Here it is…

Thanks for sending through your script. I’ve finally read it, sorry its taken so long and have some feedback for you… At the minute i’m not really looking to produce any more shorts as i am trying to move into features and documentary and already have a large-scale short in development. But… Firstly i like your writing style and the cyclical nature of your idea. It reads like a slightly more depressing ‘Groundhog Day’ meets ‘Ghost Town’. I think my first and main suggestion would be that you should really work on the humour and tone of the piece as it could play too dour. Also your girlfriend character is quite a one-dimensional bitch, if shes more likeable in some way then maybe we could understand the protagonists desire for her. Final little thing starting or ending a script with an alarm ringing is a bit of a short film cliche, maybe you could just jump straight into his actions and choices.

Anyway hope this helps in some way and you are not offended by what i have to say.
Good luck and do stay in touch.

So, that’s a great rejection. I think, from these (the only two submissions I have ever made, by the way) I can see I have some talent as a writer. I’ve just been unlucky so far.

Well, here’s to luck…

Updates

As I learn more about WordPress and blogging I find all these cool things to add to the site. How nice.

Crowning Glory

My crown fell off my tooth. Aaargh!

Steampunk Inspiration

Did you know the first upright hoover was invented in 1908?

The first electric trams in London ran in 1903?

The first houses were lit by electricity in 1881?

The telephone was invented in 1876?

I would have imagined these were all later – I didn’t think hoovers were invented before the 30s or 40s. nd I thought electricity and telephones were after 1900. It’s amazing how long somethings have been around for.

I’ve just had eighteen days off work

So you would be forgiven for thinking I should be nearly finished this damn novel.

The way my shifts work I am off for eight days, on for six, off for four, on for two… but when I was supposed to be on for six I was quite ill with a tummy bug and spent five days either on my couch or in the lavvy. Infact, I’m only just getting back to writing now and I’ve been feeling better since Tuesday.

I just bought an acer netbook so I will be writing in my lunch hour from now on. I’m working Sunday Monday and then off til Saturday, so I’ll be writing Sunday Monday hopefully. It should all go well.

I study at the Open University, too, and I’m 2 weeks behind in course work. It will be fine as long as I’m caught up in a fortnight – I have an assessment at the end of March.

Anyway, I have several chapters I’m struggling to write – one is more clockpunk than steampunk, another is set on an airship, and the third involves the Incans, and a ceremony of womanhood. Hard to research.

I’m meant to be writing…

But I’m finding it hard to get into. I had to stop because I study via the open university and I was busy with an assessment on Friday. But now I’m ready to write, I just can’t seem to get the creative juices flowing. I’m going to pour a drink, close IE and get stuck in!

Unhonest

The board isn’t an honest reflection of my personality at this time. I shall continue to post steampunk related info, but I will also talk more about my own work.

How to Make Your Characters Relatable

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I recently read one of the STORM novels, The Infinity Code. It’s a bit like Young Bond but I found the characters hard to relate to.

There’s the 14 year old MC, genius level IQ and at special school of geniuses but not as stuck up as they are. He invents things as a hobby and is adventurous and daring and speaks Russian and has no parents (dad dead, mum ran off) and is a natural leader and is a bit of a Mary Sue. (What are male Mary Sue’s called?). Oh, and he’s the top of every class except one in his school of geniuses. And his dad was in MI-6.

The 14 year old FMC is a genius who beats the MC in Chemistry class but is behind him at everything else. Despite him being SECOND top of the class, she has to regularly explain chemistry things to him as if he’s a four year old. Oh, and she fluently speaks six languages, four of which she learned from books (you can’t fluently learn languages from books) and she has a photographic memory. She liks to blow up schools, her mum is dead and her dads an alcoholic.

The other MC is a multi-millionaire who made his first million by the age of ten. The fourth 14 year old is a physics genius who outshines even his dad (who’s another physics genius).

Obviously the WTF level in these books is high.

These characters aren’t well-written, and they are hard to relate to. So I’ve been wondering, what makes a character easy to relate to, and I don’t just mean heroes.

Nobody’s perfect. We all have faults, some less than others (I, personally, only have one) and we accept that. It’s life. So why in fiction are characters so often faultless. They are never mean or spiteful or sarcastic or wake up in the morning and just can’t be bothered. They are never fat, and never worry about what their eating. So if you want your character to be relatable, giving them faults is a great place to start.

Everybody wants something and if you make your characters motivation obvious, your character will be stronger for it. We all have desires and goals, and if we know your characters goals early on then we can watch how they try to achieve those goals. With those goals in mind the reader can weigh your characters every decision and, although they may not agree with the actions your character takes, they can certainly relate to the decisions.

Add personality. Create your characters personality, complete with faults, and then think how they would react in a certain situation. Don’t think about the plot, about how you need them to react, think about how they would react.

There is actually two ways to practice this. The first is to put your character in a situation outside of your novel, for instance “What would my MC do if a plane crashed? His dog had cancer? A guy he hated proposed to his sister and she said yes?” etc. Or, think of someone you know well, like your best friend, and do the same. How would my BF react if a plane crashed… That was best friend, not boyfriend, by the way.

And an example of how a personality can affect your novel. The story is about a cop who discovers his brother is the serial killer he has been hunting. But have you spent the last three hundred pages describing a man who i) didn’t turn up for his wife’s scan when she was expecting their kid because he put his job first, and is hungry for promotion or ii) puts his family first before his job?

One of those is going to help his brother hide, and the other will turn him in.

Personality, motivation, faults. We all have them, and if you’re characters have them, too, then we can relate to them. Think of the greatest fictional characters you know, or the most famous.

Darth Vader, who turned to evil when he believed his family died, returned to good for the sake of saving his son. Faults are obvious, emotional instability, unable to process grief, and so on. Motivation, he wants to forget, or to perhaps punish those he feels were responsible. Later, he betrays his evil master to save his son. The personality is evident throughout… a character who made that first choice couldn’t have made anyother decision the second time around.

And can you relate to him? How will you react if you lost your partner and your kids. If they were murdered, can you honestly say you wouldn’t become evil and kill their murderer? Would you even think of it as evil?

Think of a more plot based story, like James Bond. He goes on missions because its his job, but why does he work in such a dangerous world? Does he crave the glamour, money or excitement? We are never told and, although guesses can be made (he never stays with one woman long ergo he is easily bored ergo he is in the job for the excitement) it isn’t that important. The James Bond stories aren’t that deep, they are plot driven, and the excitement is the storyline, not Bond’s personality or faults (does he have any?). At the end of the day, we can’t easily relate to Bond.

Well, nine hundred words on how to make characters relatable. Hope that helps.

Oh, and my fault? I spend too much time writing and not enough blogging. Not really a fault, though, is it? Guess I’m perfect after all…

New Rants Coming

I’m going to do a rant on how to keep gun battles exciting. That will be coming in February. I haven’t decided what other one to do in February yet. I’ll do two a month, plus go back to make other posts in between them.