SFGirl
Scribus Administratus
Global user
Registered: 01-2004
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Posts: 939
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Opinions
Thanks for your thoughts, Jessie, I did write the story--and you critiqued it. 
Sherry
---
Reading: Seeker by Jack McDevitt
Writing: editing The Big Freeze
Drawing: Grapes still life
Listening: James Patrick Kelly's podcast of "Men Are Trouble"
|
|
4/7/2006, 6:33 pm
|
Send Email to SFGirl
Send PM to SFGirl
|
JessieLong
Apprentice
Global user
Registered: 01-2004
Posts: 20
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Opinions
And I liked it a lot, too 
---
Reading: Mostly comic books...
Writing : Electric Ladythief
Backburner: Scion and Ratface; The Rose and the Sword (books); Seekers (comic book series)
|
|
4/10/2006, 3:31 am
|
Send Email to JessieLong
Send PM to JessieLong
|
Michael Wulf
Apprentice
Global user
Registered: 10-2005
Posts: 41
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Opinions
Characters who don't change must already possess all of the tools to succeed. If they already possess all of the tools to succeed, I sense three immediate problems with the work.
1. It's hard to identify with perfect characters. I mean, it's hard for imperfect people like me, at least. That's why I like to root for the underdog.
Seriously, I have met an olympic athlete and a world class genius. They were unfathomable and we have no common ground to even hold a trivial conversation about.
2. How do you spin intrigue and suspense for a character who already has all their ducks in a row? He will undoubtedly perform just as the reader expects. Where will the surprise be?
3. How do you make such a character believable? As I said, I have met some people with their act together. Reflecting on meeting them, even a few minutes after leaving, the experienced hardly seemed real. They hardly seems real.
Can it be done well anyways? Can these questions be answered in an interesting and sellable way?
Surely I don't pretend to know.
But now you have my one and a half cents.
---
Writing: HavenShade (NaNoWriMo)
Reading: The Tower at Stoney Wood (McKillip)
|
|
6/26/2006, 10:14 pm
|
Send Email to Michael Wulf
Send PM to Michael Wulf
|
David Meadows
Junior Scribe
Global user
Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 165
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Opinions
Characters who don't change: can it be done in a sellable way? Yes, and the proof is in the huge commercial success of episodic TV drama, where the main characters come out of the situation identical to how they went into it, with the big red reset button pressed ready for next week's 45 minutes.
Is this lack of growth what divides "TV trash" from "high literature"? Maybe, and maybe we should strive towards producing something better... but you can't argue with which one sells better.
---
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard those who think alike than those who think differently."
-- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, _The Dawn_.
|
|
6/27/2006, 5:09 am
|
Send Email to David Meadows
Send PM to David Meadows
|
McDoogle
Scribus Moderatus
Global user
Registered: 01-2005
Location: Cloudy Cold Cleveland
Posts: 309
|
|
Reply | Quote
|
|
Re: Opinions
I've found that once I have a beloved character I enjoy and follow, and then the writers change the character - I get frustrated. It's not the char I fell in love with. Of course in this example, I'm using a well developed and grown character.
Still, even with a brand new character in a new story I don't think it's required that the char HAS to learn something new about themselves everytime. Some people are more resistant to change than others - that's realistic. Biblo got out and saw the 'world' in the Hobbit, but did he really have any eye opening revelations about himself? I think it was just a fun adventure.
I think....
---
Now Race Reading vs. nephew: Furies Of Calderon
Slightly Writing: 'Resume for a Gladiator' (2005 novel)
Watching: Pushing Daisies (X- Canceled!!)
|
|
2/2/2008, 4:33 pm
|
Send Email to McDoogle
Send PM to McDoogle
|
