Sunday, October 21, 2012
Blogger Hiatus
This blog is inactive. I use it to follow blogspot bloggers. My active webpage is LaurenMBarrett.com.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
NESCBWI Conference: April 2012
I registered for the New England Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrater's Conference. I got all the workshops I wanted and I'm volunteering. I'm so ready to network, make new friends, and get all my books signed by guest authors. I can't wait!
...Except that I have a major to-do list to get done between now and April. So, yes, I can wait.
...Except that I have a major to-do list to get done between now and April. So, yes, I can wait.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Watch This!
Watch as boredom gives way to speculation on the TV writing process. Feel free television writers to correct me and then hire me.
Day Five from surgery, only Day 2 back from the hospital and I’m bored with the diet, my video library, my cat, and my sketchbook. The most interesting thing that happened last night was getting into a very offensive fight on a chat with a bunch of sixteen year olds about a character death on Supernatural.
I need something intellectually stimulating. I’m starting to relate to Sherlock Holmes which, if you have read the books, or seen the BBC television show (excellent) or the movie with Robert Downey Jr. (entertaining) is not a great thing. He was nuts. But I see the similarities sometimes. I need to be interested or obsessed with something.
I'm aware that the constant watching of tv is unhealthy. My mother and I were having a very serious discussion and I caught myself sniping at her for not paying attention to the well written fairy tale drama unfolding before us (Once Upon a Time). When my best friend calls me I immediately turn the subject to our favorite tv duo (Merlin) and what they’ve been doing and what’s great and why the writers are jerking us around.
I tell myself it’s research. It is good inspiration fodder. It’s also a great distraction from working on my own stuff. Maybe I should take a class on writing for TV so I can break into the biz and yell at all my favorite shows for not going the very clear and exciting route they left open.
Of course I don’t work that great in a group either and I’ve surmised that writing for tv is all about being locked in a room with other writers like some deliberating jury and being plied with coffee until the script forms out of their collective consciousness and they are thereby released. Well, yeah I’ve collaborated before and it's very hard to steer yourself away from some crazy jump the shark the route that sounds so great at 3 in the morning. (Angel Season 3) with people before. There needs to be a sane person in the room that can steer the ship away from the weirdness.
I’d love to write for a paranormal or fairytale show. That’s my area. Of course there’s normally only one show like that on the air at a time, but right now is the glory age and they have three or four going simultaneously. Not that I could hope to sit in on the writing of one unless I knew someone who knew someone. I wish I had the time to be an apprentice or an intern (and the family money) but alas I do not.
Hoping this stream of consciousness is enough to jump start the writing bug again for a little while and I can get back to my tangled work of a novel. I need a more inspiring day job. Screaming babies don’t leave much room in your brain for intellectual growth, but I can’t not work either. 2 days into my three weeks of leave and I’m climbing the walls. It’s also December, and although it’s warm for that it’s not great weather for going out and doing things. I’m stuck recovering at my ‘ancestral’ home in Plymouth with no car in the middle of the forest. There’s not much to do other than walk and beg old friends for rides to the movies to see "Breaking Dawn" or "Hugo". Purely for research into book to movie formulas and not because I’m a big girl that wants to see a mystical vampire baby eat its way out of Kristin Stewart’s stomach.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
How to Make New Female Characters Non-threatening, courtesy of Fox’s "Fringe"
I’m a little late to the "Fringe" party. A case of the flu left me the chance to catch up. I blew through the first season in four days and I’m on to the second. To my intense instinctual outrage there was a new female character.
Now, I look on new male characters with a similar suspicion, but they never bring out the urge to growl as much as females do. I happen to love female characters when they’re done well. I’ve been burned by television, YA novels, and anime before with a number of vacuous holes they called heroines. As a result, I’m very choosy when it comes to my female character. For the most part if a female character is introduced in the first novel or season, I will give them the benefit of the doubt, but it’s always a lot harder to introduce any new character when the ball is already rolling.
Olivia Dunham, the main point of view character for the first season of Fringe, did not disappoint. She had a lot of personal drama that crossed over into her business life but it didn’t seem to overtake her perspective of cases. She was also a bad ass at combat while the main male characters were more the brainy types. Refreshing change there.
First episode of season 2 leaves Olivia brain dead and has a little upstart NY cop in her place, trying to investigate and join the Fringe Division. Immediately I was on guard.
Was this chick going to join the team? Try to replace Olivia? Mack on Peter?
No, thank you. I don’t need a new female character.
The writing team did a few things right away in an attempt to calm the fans’ inevitable ire.
1) The offending character was outright rejected by all canon characters
In the first scene, the girl is given a tongue lashing by Peter and is shredded in the next one by Olivia’s boss. Her immediate dismissal by all the first tier characters makes the fan relax just a little. Maybe it was a one off, maybe the parallels between her and Olivia are coincidental and it won’t go any further.
2) When she is reintroduced, all former characters have been seen again
Olivia is alive, which means the upstart is not a replacement, so by the time we see her again we are complacent enough to watch the scene without rolling around saying ‘I hate this, I hate this.’ But only just barely.
3) Make her look like an independent thinker
New girl is looking into the Fringe division despite being told no. She’s tenacious; she has all those good character traits you loved in Olivia. Except, yeah, we’ve already seen it. Gimme something else.
4) Obviously has had mysterious encounters with the Recruiters they’re not telling us about
No, I don’t care where she got the mysterious password from. The fact that she had it in the first place just made it too easy for her to infiltrate Fringe division. She’s obviously being courted the way Olivia was to be a soldier, but for which side? Blah blah blah…
5) She rescues the main male from a potentially awkward situation
6) She defends the cute possibly insane old man
7) Unflappable in the face of weird
Now you’re just piling it on. We get it. She’s supposed to be cool, and Olivia’s in the hospital so we need a female agent to get Peter into all the good clubs. …When’s she going to get killed off?
8) By the end of the episode, she proves she is an asset to the original characters
She rescues Olivia from the hit man and has been accepted (not even grudgingly!) by all members of the division. This didn’t just bother me just because she was an interloper, it bothered me that no one else was paranoid enough to look into her before letting her into the Fringe lab.
Come on guys! We just finished season 1 where you could trust no one AND today you were chasing a killer who could change into any face. You’re just gonna let this chick into the lab to eat your custard?
Alright, so these were all very reasonable attempts to make OFC (original female character, whose name I can’t even remember) non-threatening to original fans, and maybe even a little cool. I’ve only seen the premiere so far but it hasn’t worked yet.
Usually when a writing team realizes a character (male or female) isn’t working they will kill them off or conveniently reassign them, ending their appearances in an arc that only makes them slightly more interesting before they’re completely gone forever. Maybe she’ll get killed by shifter!Charlie.
So show writers, try to get your characters all in a row before you launch the show. It never ends pretty when females are considered a threat. Watch a couple episodes of “Supernatural”.
ETA: Upon watching more, NY OFC has yet to again haunt the screen of "Fringe". Score.
Now, I look on new male characters with a similar suspicion, but they never bring out the urge to growl as much as females do. I happen to love female characters when they’re done well. I’ve been burned by television, YA novels, and anime before with a number of vacuous holes they called heroines. As a result, I’m very choosy when it comes to my female character. For the most part if a female character is introduced in the first novel or season, I will give them the benefit of the doubt, but it’s always a lot harder to introduce any new character when the ball is already rolling.
Olivia Dunham, the main point of view character for the first season of Fringe, did not disappoint. She had a lot of personal drama that crossed over into her business life but it didn’t seem to overtake her perspective of cases. She was also a bad ass at combat while the main male characters were more the brainy types. Refreshing change there.
First episode of season 2 leaves Olivia brain dead and has a little upstart NY cop in her place, trying to investigate and join the Fringe Division. Immediately I was on guard.
Was this chick going to join the team? Try to replace Olivia? Mack on Peter?
No, thank you. I don’t need a new female character.
The writing team did a few things right away in an attempt to calm the fans’ inevitable ire.
1) The offending character was outright rejected by all canon characters
In the first scene, the girl is given a tongue lashing by Peter and is shredded in the next one by Olivia’s boss. Her immediate dismissal by all the first tier characters makes the fan relax just a little. Maybe it was a one off, maybe the parallels between her and Olivia are coincidental and it won’t go any further.
2) When she is reintroduced, all former characters have been seen again
Olivia is alive, which means the upstart is not a replacement, so by the time we see her again we are complacent enough to watch the scene without rolling around saying ‘I hate this, I hate this.’ But only just barely.
3) Make her look like an independent thinker
New girl is looking into the Fringe division despite being told no. She’s tenacious; she has all those good character traits you loved in Olivia. Except, yeah, we’ve already seen it. Gimme something else.
4) Obviously has had mysterious encounters with the Recruiters they’re not telling us about
No, I don’t care where she got the mysterious password from. The fact that she had it in the first place just made it too easy for her to infiltrate Fringe division. She’s obviously being courted the way Olivia was to be a soldier, but for which side? Blah blah blah…
5) She rescues the main male from a potentially awkward situation
6) She defends the cute possibly insane old man
7) Unflappable in the face of weird
Now you’re just piling it on. We get it. She’s supposed to be cool, and Olivia’s in the hospital so we need a female agent to get Peter into all the good clubs. …When’s she going to get killed off?
8) By the end of the episode, she proves she is an asset to the original characters
She rescues Olivia from the hit man and has been accepted (not even grudgingly!) by all members of the division. This didn’t just bother me just because she was an interloper, it bothered me that no one else was paranoid enough to look into her before letting her into the Fringe lab.
Come on guys! We just finished season 1 where you could trust no one AND today you were chasing a killer who could change into any face. You’re just gonna let this chick into the lab to eat your custard?
Alright, so these were all very reasonable attempts to make OFC (original female character, whose name I can’t even remember) non-threatening to original fans, and maybe even a little cool. I’ve only seen the premiere so far but it hasn’t worked yet.
Usually when a writing team realizes a character (male or female) isn’t working they will kill them off or conveniently reassign them, ending their appearances in an arc that only makes them slightly more interesting before they’re completely gone forever. Maybe she’ll get killed by shifter!Charlie.
So show writers, try to get your characters all in a row before you launch the show. It never ends pretty when females are considered a threat. Watch a couple episodes of “Supernatural”.
ETA: Upon watching more, NY OFC has yet to again haunt the screen of "Fringe". Score.
Book Report: Vintage
"Vintage" by Steve Berman
I picked up “Vintage” when reading an article about the lack of good gay/lesbian young adult fiction. This is a great example of the genre.
The narrator of “Vintage” is a teen whose personal life is in an upset. Remember all the angsty poetry? Don’t lie. I know you’ve written some.
After being outed as gay to his parents and half his hometown, he finds refuge in a creepy little town in New Jersey where he makes friends with a girl interested in all things macabre. Their favorite pastime is dressing up and going to funerals. Until he discovers that the dead can hear his voice...
When he meets the wanderer of highway 47, he thinks having an attractive dead guy’s attention is exciting, but as his encounters with spirits intensify, this ghost becomes too much for him to handle alone.
-
This read is definitely for older teens and adults due to casual drug use and sexual scenes.
That being said, what I loved about this story was the unapologetic view of the teen experience. There was underage drinking and drug use as casual as I remember from when I was a teenager. There were no “but it’s bad for you” add ins to take away from the authenticity.
The now historic mention of huffing, which peaked in the 1990’s, was a very creative touch.
There was sexual content without it being overwhelming. It didn’t overshadow the rest of the book as it commonly does in romance. This may have had to do with the fact that “Vintage” is also a horror and certain scenes will leave you replaying them in your head after all the lights are off.
I am an avid reader of horror, but even I had to decide not to read a certain scene too close to bedtime. Horrifying rhyming baby dolls do that to me.
Berman’s rules for ghosts and the human mediums they stalk were original and believable. The suspense, horror, and blooming romance kept me turning to the last page.
I picked up “Vintage” when reading an article about the lack of good gay/lesbian young adult fiction. This is a great example of the genre.
The narrator of “Vintage” is a teen whose personal life is in an upset. Remember all the angsty poetry? Don’t lie. I know you’ve written some.
After being outed as gay to his parents and half his hometown, he finds refuge in a creepy little town in New Jersey where he makes friends with a girl interested in all things macabre. Their favorite pastime is dressing up and going to funerals. Until he discovers that the dead can hear his voice...
When he meets the wanderer of highway 47, he thinks having an attractive dead guy’s attention is exciting, but as his encounters with spirits intensify, this ghost becomes too much for him to handle alone.
-
This read is definitely for older teens and adults due to casual drug use and sexual scenes.
That being said, what I loved about this story was the unapologetic view of the teen experience. There was underage drinking and drug use as casual as I remember from when I was a teenager. There were no “but it’s bad for you” add ins to take away from the authenticity.
The now historic mention of huffing, which peaked in the 1990’s, was a very creative touch.
There was sexual content without it being overwhelming. It didn’t overshadow the rest of the book as it commonly does in romance. This may have had to do with the fact that “Vintage” is also a horror and certain scenes will leave you replaying them in your head after all the lights are off.
I am an avid reader of horror, but even I had to decide not to read a certain scene too close to bedtime. Horrifying rhyming baby dolls do that to me.
Berman’s rules for ghosts and the human mediums they stalk were original and believable. The suspense, horror, and blooming romance kept me turning to the last page.
No One Suspects the Children's Writer...
When I returned from Japan last year my goals were very general. Get a job and establish a life in the United States that was as exciting as the one I lived as an international English teacher.
It's been over a year now since I moved back to Boston and took a job at a corporate childcare. The 'anniversary' as they call it when you cycle through a year since your hire date frankly scared the crap out of me. You hear it all the time, someone takes a job that they think is only going to be temporary and then they're in their fifties and still miserably there.
I've accomplished a little since I've been back. I got my certificate in Early Childhood Education and I've sent out about 150 resumes and cover letters. Only a handful of which were very personally rejected by form letter.
I realize it's the economy, but I can hardly say I'm a recent college graduate after three years. Pretty soon employers will be seeing me trying to break into publishing as a career switch when I haven't begun the career I wanted to begin with.
My hobby right now is being a grad school voyeur. I order catalogs from all the schools I want to attend and ogle them at night when I'm too exhausted to do anything but read. I doubt any loan agency in their right mind would give me the money, but I am working on my essay to get into Simmons College again. Looking into their program in children's literature. All roads lead to Simmons!
It's been over a year now since I moved back to Boston and took a job at a corporate childcare. The 'anniversary' as they call it when you cycle through a year since your hire date frankly scared the crap out of me. You hear it all the time, someone takes a job that they think is only going to be temporary and then they're in their fifties and still miserably there.
I've accomplished a little since I've been back. I got my certificate in Early Childhood Education and I've sent out about 150 resumes and cover letters. Only a handful of which were very personally rejected by form letter.
I realize it's the economy, but I can hardly say I'm a recent college graduate after three years. Pretty soon employers will be seeing me trying to break into publishing as a career switch when I haven't begun the career I wanted to begin with.
My hobby right now is being a grad school voyeur. I order catalogs from all the schools I want to attend and ogle them at night when I'm too exhausted to do anything but read. I doubt any loan agency in their right mind would give me the money, but I am working on my essay to get into Simmons College again. Looking into their program in children's literature. All roads lead to Simmons!
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