I’m a fan of Tolkien’s work, but I was never crazy about The Hobbit. Not sure why. The way it was written… Something was lacking. It’s not that I don’t like stories for kids; I do. But I guess it was so ordinary, compared to LotR and other Tolkien’s work (and yes, I’ve read LotR first). I bet that when you grow up with The Hobbit and fall in love with it, it’s different, but for me… I’m not crazy about that book, and to be honest, I don’t remember much of it.

That’s why I don’t know how I feel about the upcoming movie, or its trailer. I’m one of those people who didn’t really like LotR movies. The novel is one of my favourite books, so the movie was disappointing: eye candy for sure, but Jackson simply failed to capture the spirit of the novel. Luckily, there was Howard’s Shore amazing score: certainly one of my favourite scores and the one that does capture the spirit of the book.

Since I don’t remember that much of The Hobbit, I can’t really say how annoying the trailer is when it comes to movie changes and illogical stuff (which bothered me in LotR). What I can say is that the movie seems a lot darker than the book. The book is a fun story about a hobbit’s adventure written for kids, while the trailer presents is as dark and epic. I guess this is intentional: you simply have to make it earth-shattering and epic to make people (particularly LotR movie fans) interested. And you don’t want to make it into a movie for kids. I get that. And it’s not that I wouldn’t like to see a bit darker take on this story. Still, it looks like this will be another Jackson’s adaptation of Tolkien that doesn’t capture the spirit of the story.

There are good things, though. I really like Martin Freeman as Bilbo. The man is born to be a Hobbit, much more than Elijah Wood ever was. I also think he’d make a great Bilbo. Which is important for the story: nothing sucks more than having an annoying protagonist. I can already tell who the new hotties will be: Richard Armitage (Thorin) and Aidan Turner (Kili)… Luckily, they are better than Orlando Bloom (who will reprise his role… I mean, wtf? His former teen fans are not in their mid-20s).

But despite not being that interested in the Hobbit adaptation, I must admit the trailer made me enthusiastic. Not sure why. It just seems like a movie I’d like to watch, and hopefully, Howard Shore will be there with some amazing music. I guess these movies just make you watch them, even if you cringe at movie changes, illogical stuff or Orlando Bloom.

I bet it will be a semi-crappy disappointing movie, beautiful from the outside but lacking from the inside, just like LotR movies were. But I am sure interested.

Choosing character names for your story/novel can be a lot of fun… or incredible pain in the butt. Some writers obsess about it, trying everything to get the names absolutely right, to the point of being unable to outline or write the story until they choose a name that fits the character perfectly. Others don’t bother that much, and will instantly know how to name a new character. Usually, writers encounter both of these scenarios.

Names are important. Serious academic discussion/research show that words in general have power to shape people’s view of the world. And names are often important part of people’s identities. So it’s understandable that a writer wants to pay attention to this.

A character name should be, first and foremost, appropriate to setting (such as time, place, culture – unless you purposely decide against it). It should also be easily distinguishable from other names in the story. But other than that – and this is where it gets tricky – it should “fit” the character.

What a “name that fits” actually means depends on the writer. Some search for name meanings/origins and try to find the one that fits character’s personality or physical appearance. Others pick names based on people they know (and love… or hate). Some simply try to find a name that “sounds right”, for whatever reason.

I choose character names based on synesthesia.

I strongly associate letters with colours (same goes for numbers, months, days in a week, etc.) It’s always been like that for me. I guess all people do, but it’s quite strong with me that it often makes it seem like a name doesn’t fit the person just because it starts with a “brown” letter and they have blond hair.

Needless to say, my synesthesia influences the way I pick names for my characters. While I try my best to make them appropriate to the setting, the main thing I do is to see (literally) what name goes with their physical appearance (meaning: hair, eye or skin colour; sometimes the colours they like to wear). This way, I often end up with completely generic names, but they fit the characters (in my mind at least), because the colours are right.

For example, my main characters in the last year’s NaNo were named Sarah and Tom. “S” is yellow or light brown, which fits her hair colour. She has green eyes, so a name starting with a green letter (I or K) would also fit. “T” is a blue letter. Guess Tom’s eye colour. And so on. I even had huge problems with myself for naming a light haired guy Mark. “M” is a red letter. So I gave the guy red car to drive (and parade around). Yes, I go that far.

Similarly, if there’s a character that somehow ends up with a name that’s not appropriate for his colours, I will make him wear said colour often. I won’t necessarily describe this in detail, but it will be there in my mind.

I guess this method is as good as any other. But not many people mention using it, and sometimes I wonder if it’s a bit limiting. Or if it makes you pick a name that “sounds perfect”, but isn’t fully appropriate for your setting.

There’s a reason for the lack of updates this time. I was planning this blog post for a long time, waiting for the proof copy of my novel to arrive… Only to realize I couldn’t afford new batteries for my camera to take pictures of it. But then I remembered there was a picture of the cover online, so… Here it is. The long awaited “my copy has arrived” post.

First things first: the proof copy looks amazing and professional. Better than I expected it to be. It’s a prize made by a NaNoWriMo sponsor, Create Space: whoever managed to write 50 000 words by the end of November got a free proof copy of her novel. Sounds great?

Well, to tell you the truth, it sounds both great and lame, because it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s not like you have your novel published, or in print (unless you decide to self-publish it with them). Still, it’s nice to have it as a real book, with your (pen) name on the cover.

And now, the bad news: the novel itself.

It is… Amateurish, to say the least. Well, it sure didn’t seem so when I revised it, so the only explanation I have is: I was stupid enough not to print it and revise a printed copy. Never, never, never attempt to judge your work unless you have a printed copy!

Sounds logical? Yes, but I skipped this step, thinking I was smarter than this (and I couldn’t afford to print 370 pages, but it’s not an excuse). I’m one of those people who have no problems reading text on a monitor, even a long one, so I guess I thought printing the novel before revision was unnecessary.

Wrong. Besides glaring mistakes in the form of “he looked at her with his eyes” (I shit you not), there are so many unnecessary and amateurish things, such as head hopping (sudden shifts in POV), awkward pace and repetitions. And it’s not like I didn’t try to fix those things in the revision! So I guess I’ve learned a valuable lesson: always, always, ALWAYS print your copy before you declare you’ve done with the revision.

Also, it’s slow. And not slow in a literary fiction, Ian McEwan “one day on 100 pages” kind of slow. Slow in a boooring kind of way. It gets better in the chapter 3, and particularly after the chapter 10, but people won’t read that far unless I make them interested in the story.

On the other hand, there are some good things. I’ve managed to capture the setting (a small town) in all its beauty (or lack thereof). Also, dialogue. I used to think I’m bad at it, but now I see it’s one of my strengths. I also seem to be capable of not revealing too much (and making the reader fill in the blanks, which is quite important, since the whole story is basically peripheral: we never learn the big things, only their aftermath, beginning, or consequences). I’m also decent at creating realistic characters, though I’d say I still need a lot to learn in that department.

This was such a good experience, the whole NaNo thing. First of all, it helped me in a very tense moment in my life, and it prevented me from becoming depressed. This fact alone makes the whole thing precious.

And I’ve learned a lot about writing, too. I’ve learned that it’s possible to write on command, so to speak, without waiting for your muse. It’s difficult to wait for your muse when you have one hour of free time to write per day, for example. So you just start writing and… It works. I never believed it’s possible, but it is. So it’s a good thing to know.

I also learned how to squeeze things, so to speak. I still ended at 90 000 words where 70-80 000 would be more appropriate, but I’m learning how to control my writing.

And I learned how to handle dialogue. And how to reveal, explain, and describe using dialogue and action, not mere description (the “show, don’t tell rule”).

I also learned how to write from a male POV, and make the guy seem and sound like a guy (even in sex scenes! Go me!), which is something many female writers are unable to do right (see Simone Elkeles’ Perfect Chemistry … or Twilight for that matter (or better, not). Though a guy sounding like a girl is not the biggest problem with Perfect Chemistry, but it’s another story). Writing from a male POV is very important for me, since my fantasy novel has a male protagonist.

Finally, I learned a few things from my mistakes. The biggest one probably being: print, print, always print your work before/during/after revision.

So I’d say the experience was positive. I will leave this novel for now (though I already penned a few things that are crucial for the second revision), and I’ll focus on the new stuff. I sure want to start writing my fantasy novel (it’s been 8 years and counting, and I’m still unsure if I’m ready), and for this year’s NaNo, I want to face what it seems like the biggest challenge: writing in English. I know I’m not ready for it, but I’ll never be ready unless I try, and fail, and try again, and fail a little less. I’ll probably start with something simple, a YA (young adult) story, and I already have not one, but two ideas (one realistic, and another with a premise so absurd that it begs to be explored).

The Death of the Author is a concept, particularly popular in postmodernism. It’s a very simple concept: facts about the author (such as biography, personal beliefs, gender, race or experiences) should not be taken into account when interpreting said author’s work.

As we all know, this is somewhat fair: who the author is should not influence our opinion or interpretation of the work. But in reality, who the author is matters, and, like it or not, a person can’t escape forming the opinion based on what she knows about the author. If Umberto Eco and Britney Spears both write a book about postmodernism, I bet Eco’s would be taken more seriously than Britney’s (though I’d love to read her view on the matter). A white male’s work about racism is not seen in the same light as black female’s work on the subject. Etc.

So, it’s unavoidable. It’s unclear whether it’s good or not, though. As much as you think knowing the author’s beliefs and experiences can help interpreting and understanding the work, it can also be quite misleading. Some authors hate their work to be interpreted based on this criteria, and that’s another reason for using pen names. It’s definitely one of the reasons I want to use a gender & ethnicity neutral pen name.

Death of the Author proposes that readers are the ones responsible for the interpretation, and that nothing- including facts about the author- should get into the way of someone’s interpretation. Postmodernism believes there are as many interpretations as there are readers (or, even, readings), and personal information about the author is seen as irrelevant, or even harmful for forming the opinion of someone’s work. Therefore, some interpretations might be much, much different than what author originally intended. And it’s fine.

Which leads us to the key idea: the “death” of the author as an authority.

Readers have their own interpretations (that are highly encouraged), and NO interpretation is seen as bad, or less important. That includes author’s own interpretation. It’s seen as no more valid than any of the reader’s. In other words, Shakespeare’s view on “Hamlet” is in no way more important than mine.

Think about this the next time someone claims you “didn’t get what the writer wanted to say”.

Links

Roland Barthes’ essay (he’s the one who came up with this whole thing, so let’s hear what he has to say).

But wait, he was French, and those people have a thing for heavy style that nobody understands. Is there a quick summary of the main ideas?

And what about the hypertext?

Screw it. It’s still complicated. Just get me to the TvTropes, please.

The first thing Sarah Miller did on her seventeenth birthday was to go to the bathroom and shove a toothbrush handle deep down her throat.

This is the first line in my novel, “A Postcard from Hades”, written for the last year’s NaNoWriMo. I’m at the final stages of the (somewhat) exhausting revision process.

There are 27 chapters, and the novel is about 90 000 words long. There were no chapter titles at first, but then I thought it would be a good idea to include them anyway.

So, here they are, the translated chapter titles! Most of them are related to certain sensory impressions, and not the plot relevant for the chapter. That’s why the image they paint together might not accurately describe the novel (same goes for the novel title, btw).

For example, “Vibrations” describe a New Year’s party with the loud music and bass lines vibrating the house. But it’s also the chapter in which my main male character loses his virginity. In “Rain”, characters meet after an argument, and it’s raining, which is quite rare for the climate of their small town. But there are also chapter titles related to the plot, or those that describe my characters (namely, “Alarm clock, bird and fountain pen”).

Ignore sloppy translation, grammar mistakes, etc. One of the worst things is knowing my English is not good enough to actually, well, write in English. But I digress.

Chapter titles

The novel has four parts, with little vignettes between them.

I
1. Waking Up
2. Introducing Aristotle
3. Encounters
4. Behind a Rusty Gate
5. Ethos, Logos, Pathos
6. On the Swings

D.S. Miller: Novel as an Argument

II
7. To Know Each Other
8. Life in Short
9. Little Pink Cap
10. Rain
11. Town Lives
12. In a Narrow Corridor

D.S. Miller interview (excerpt), Northern Journal of Literature and Art

III
13. Vibrations
14. Together, Alone
15. Fists and Blood
16. Preparation
17. The Other Worlds
18. After the Change
19. Sewing Room
20. Two Stories

D.S. Miller’s Writing Advice

IV
21. Punishment
22. Stained Seats
23. Alarm Clock, Bird and Fountain Pen
24. Accepting Reality
25. Life in Short
26. On a Hidden Bench
27. Departure