Literary Analysis
Feb. 6th, 2015 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdSo, after a great deal of talk, we have hit on where I've been going wrong, why I'm a has-been and how I need to get out of it.
Too many of my personal beliefs are creeping in.
Not my ideas. Nikolai was full of my ideas and projections, extrapolating from where my research took me. But my beliefs. My ideas about how the world works. These are becoming intrusive. "You can know a lot about an author just by reading their books." We trace the rise and fall of Laurell K Hamilton's marriage and divorce and love life through Anita Blake. We can track Stephen King's various addictions by the quality of the books, and the fears he addresses. And I am not different.
--Despair.
This shows a lot in Hard Reboot. The world is almost unchangeable. There will be no great revolution that destroys the arcologies. If Sean and Niall fought their way in, killed Zara and Gemini, the board of directors would simply appoint a new CEO, and probably be relieved to have the actual heirs out of their hair. And Leda Corp would continue. It's more my comment on a corporatocracy than an actual love story.
The DJ'verse suffers from this as well. DJ is smart, tough and making a living on the Nightside. Except the story ends up constraining, confining and making her dependent. As one of my readers said "She's the most obvious self-insert I've ever read from you, and I hate what the stories you tell about her say about your life."
Even Barbarossa's Bitch has a hopeful and happy ending. Humanity is back to being a going concern and starting to get something like modern civilization happening. Our hero gets an almost impossible fantasy come happily true. (and he's a daddy to three little girls as well) The older men of the group find a place to live in peace and practice their Before trades instead of riding with a motorcycle gang and being vigilantes.
But nothing I've written since has worked so well. And even as far back as Alive on the Inside, I've been wanting my books to be more than they are. But once I write everything in me on a subject, I'm dry. And it's never enough to make a good book.
--General Misanthropy
"Every man in Adventuresses is a rotter, a rapist or generally horrid. But every woman in every book is either a doormat or a high-iron bitch. I can't decide who you hate more."
In my experience, there are very few types of women. There are the dull mice. There are the manipulators, who act nice, but shiv you in the back every time. And there are the outright bitches. We may be mean or not, brilliant or not, but we take no shit and give no quarter. I write what I know. And I detest manipulators.
DJ is a bitch. She admits it freely. Sara Brown, in the Lord Withycombe adventures, revels in it, and is egged on by her equally bitchy male secretary. Lillian, ditto. She is a nonconforming woman and doesn't care. She has enough money to get away with it. Fran, likewise. Flossie appears to be a mouse, but turns out to have a bitch streak in her. And all the women in the Cyber'verse and Eight Thrones are terrifying.
I don't write men well, in conjunction with women. Men on their own, they do fine. But once women are introduced into a storyline, and especially as romantic interests, the men turn stupid and brutal and possessive. It's one of the reasons I don't write heterosexual content on a regular basis. I don't want to encourage what I see every day.
No woman I know has ever been better for having a heterosexual relationship. It always ends up damaging or destroying something in them.
--I'm not much of a plotter.
I do great characters, workmanlike action sequences, great quick-sketch descriptions that make the reader feel they are in a place without overwhelming them and snappy dialogue. But I'm not good at plot.
So, I improve what I can, root out my personality from the books, and quit tipping my hand.
Too many of my personal beliefs are creeping in.
Not my ideas. Nikolai was full of my ideas and projections, extrapolating from where my research took me. But my beliefs. My ideas about how the world works. These are becoming intrusive. "You can know a lot about an author just by reading their books." We trace the rise and fall of Laurell K Hamilton's marriage and divorce and love life through Anita Blake. We can track Stephen King's various addictions by the quality of the books, and the fears he addresses. And I am not different.
--Despair.
This shows a lot in Hard Reboot. The world is almost unchangeable. There will be no great revolution that destroys the arcologies. If Sean and Niall fought their way in, killed Zara and Gemini, the board of directors would simply appoint a new CEO, and probably be relieved to have the actual heirs out of their hair. And Leda Corp would continue. It's more my comment on a corporatocracy than an actual love story.
The DJ'verse suffers from this as well. DJ is smart, tough and making a living on the Nightside. Except the story ends up constraining, confining and making her dependent. As one of my readers said "She's the most obvious self-insert I've ever read from you, and I hate what the stories you tell about her say about your life."
Even Barbarossa's Bitch has a hopeful and happy ending. Humanity is back to being a going concern and starting to get something like modern civilization happening. Our hero gets an almost impossible fantasy come happily true. (and he's a daddy to three little girls as well) The older men of the group find a place to live in peace and practice their Before trades instead of riding with a motorcycle gang and being vigilantes.
But nothing I've written since has worked so well. And even as far back as Alive on the Inside, I've been wanting my books to be more than they are. But once I write everything in me on a subject, I'm dry. And it's never enough to make a good book.
--General Misanthropy
"Every man in Adventuresses is a rotter, a rapist or generally horrid. But every woman in every book is either a doormat or a high-iron bitch. I can't decide who you hate more."
In my experience, there are very few types of women. There are the dull mice. There are the manipulators, who act nice, but shiv you in the back every time. And there are the outright bitches. We may be mean or not, brilliant or not, but we take no shit and give no quarter. I write what I know. And I detest manipulators.
DJ is a bitch. She admits it freely. Sara Brown, in the Lord Withycombe adventures, revels in it, and is egged on by her equally bitchy male secretary. Lillian, ditto. She is a nonconforming woman and doesn't care. She has enough money to get away with it. Fran, likewise. Flossie appears to be a mouse, but turns out to have a bitch streak in her. And all the women in the Cyber'verse and Eight Thrones are terrifying.
I don't write men well, in conjunction with women. Men on their own, they do fine. But once women are introduced into a storyline, and especially as romantic interests, the men turn stupid and brutal and possessive. It's one of the reasons I don't write heterosexual content on a regular basis. I don't want to encourage what I see every day.
No woman I know has ever been better for having a heterosexual relationship. It always ends up damaging or destroying something in them.
--I'm not much of a plotter.
I do great characters, workmanlike action sequences, great quick-sketch descriptions that make the reader feel they are in a place without overwhelming them and snappy dialogue. But I'm not good at plot.
So, I improve what I can, root out my personality from the books, and quit tipping my hand.
The D-Man Checks In
Date: 2015-02-08 05:02 pm (UTC)DJ's a bith. Yes. And she has good reason to be. Life dealt her a real crumby hand, and she has no choice but to play it, all the while knowing she will likely never get any better cards, because she knows the deck is stacked against her and the whole damn game is rigged. Writing her as anything but a bitch would be unrealistic.
I personally find DJ & Caitlin your most believable (and sympathetic) female characters. Sara Brown? Zara Broine? Lillian? Captain Fran? They're all just a little (or a lot) too fantastic & skewed to the right, making them neither truly believable nor sympathetic.
All the women in your cyber-verse are terrifying?
No. Caitlin has a heart. Caitlin is fallable. Caitlin loves without calculation nor manipulation. Caitlin can be vulnerable. Caitlin can actually love & accept love. Caitlin can be (and was) broken. Caitlin has skills, but they are not over the top with no realistic explanation for how she got them. Caitlin can be underestimated by her foes. Readers can actually like Caitlin, and root for her to succeed, or to at least survive.
You don't write men well?
Maybe you actually write them too scary accurate.
History is rife with great, powerful, savvy, intelligent men who were undone for want or love or lust of a woman. You tap that in your stories. This is bad... How?
It is a fallacy to think you encourage what is going to happen (in real life) anyways. You may as well think you can encourage the sun to rise. Reality is what it is. Men will be men. Deal with it. Write it. Make a profit off it if you can.
Re: The D-Man Checks In
Date: 2015-02-08 07:24 pm (UTC)She was a Tanis, so OF COURSE the whole universe was mad about her. I think she's clever, but cold, calculating, manipulating, and horrible. She has no heart. She doesn't love Sean, just uses him. She despises Ariel for loving her. She worships David who hates her. She's only ever after money and fame, power and safety. In canon, Sean winds up little better than her servant and blows his brains out on her command.
The only reason I wrote Hard Reboot was that it was an easy entry point to the universe, which would allow me to tell the stories I was more interested in telling, the ones of Zara and the Gemini, of the Wheelman and his operation.
I write men just fine. I just don't write them well around women.
I considered not promoting heterosexuality to be an authorial responsibility the same as not promoting bad/inaccurate BDSM practices or risky behavior. And for the same reasons.
The D-Man Relies
Date: 2015-02-10 11:12 am (UTC)=-=-=-=
The reference to "Tanis" is lost on me.
Google only comes up with it as a site in Egypt, relative to the "Moses being pulled from the water" mythology... or as one of the characters in the DragonLance book series... or as a rdneck humorist & blogger.
The Caitlin you describe here is not the one that comes across in Hard Reboot. She seems a completely different person (a loveable, sympathetic, believable character). As to what Sean sees in her? Love. That too comes across very clearly in Hard Reboot, and for love people will do wildly crazy & even self-destructive things. As much, Hard Reboot might be one of your most believable works.
Yes, you do write men just fine. You also write them well around women, which is to say: Accurately. What I think is bothering you is that your characters/muses behave as "typical males" around women, instead of how you might prefer them to behave. In the end, the nature of the beast always wins out, and that annoys you when you can foresee & would have them act better instead of how they insist on behaving to the contrary (because that is their nature).
Not promoting heterosexuality?
Kinda what makes the world go round, you know? 97+% of the human population, and all that; a fair percentage of which spurn, scorn, or flat out still criminalize homosexuality. It's reality. Deal with it, and--if you can--make a profit off of it. Just don't promote gay-bashing and/or extermination. (Ooops! You're already doing that with your revived Conferaracy. Interesting.....)
Re: The D-Man Relies
Date: 2015-02-17 08:04 am (UTC)I saw very little of anything in the character of Caitlin. She has no personality, having been turned into a sexual appliance, and, when returned to herself, is nothing but vengeful with a need for submission to relieve the stress.
From the original stuff: (original names, and typos left intact)
Sean: You've made it clear you doesn't want me.
T: how, exactly?
Sean: Ya want the list?
T:Yes Yes I do
Sean: 1) Cheating with Zaran. You coulda just asked, you know 2) Hong Kong 3) You never even wanted me back until he was dead. I don't play second fiddle for anyone
T: fine....
Sean: *subsides instantly* I'm sorry,Ms. McLean.
T: Im glad to know... exactly how you feel...
Sean: I shouldn't have said anything. Forgive me for speaking harshly May I be excused, Ma'am? I'll clean out my desk if you like
T: yes, of course. Feel free
Sean: I've said too much And I know too much to walk away from the company.
T: You're free to go I wont stop you... You're dismissed.
Sean: Yes, ma'am. I'll see you in the morning. *will have his stuff packed for incineration* *will be sitting in the middle of it, waiting* So, shall we take this too the bathroom? Blood and brains don't come out of a carpet
T: * brings in workman and orders it all into a packing van*
Sean: I'm not leaving. The only way I leave you again is feet first.
T: oh please... you are miserable here you have no desire at all to be around me
Sean: *shakes his head, stubborn as he can be* Not like I'll be any better elsewhere. *offers her a pistol* *puts the barrel to his temple*
*offers her the pistol again* Been overstepping myself every which way lately. Termination of underlings is your prerogative.
T:*deep breath, then stands straight, slowly* *cold look* do it yourself
Sean: *nods* Yes, ma'am, Ms. McLean. *deep breath, steadies the pistol* *does it*
T:*makes a soft cry and passes out*
Zara: *comes up for something she forgot and finds them* *checks Tara for a pulse, and calles Misha*
Ariel: yes?
Zara: get up here now. The little bastard shot himself in ffront of her
Ariel: oh god...*hangs up and runs* *gets the med team, once more*
Zara: *makes sure Tara isn't wounded anywhere* Just like a man to make a mess for a woman to clean up. That's not coming out. *scuffs contemptuously at a blood spot*
That is where it goes for this couple.