Word love: on eyes and orbs

I love words and thinking about words and how they're put together, especially when it comes to description because I think there's a trick to it.  Just because you can replace one word with another doesn't always mean you should and the choices one writer might make on word choice can really effect how someone (okay me) might view their work.

So, in that vein, I present one of my biggest pet peeves.  It is the use of the word “orbs” to describe eyes. It drives me absolutely nuts.

                Orb                                                                                          NOT orbs




 



  

It is an elementary literary technique.  Seriously. When you first learn to use other words to describe words you want to use, the very first word people come up with is the word ‘orbs,’ when they’re describing eyes. It makes sense (sorta). They’re both round, and one doesn’t use the word ‘orb’ in common conversation so…why not? But it’s so commonly used and (as will be discussed) doesn’t really apply that its not impressive when it is used and therefore adds nothing to the writing.

Terrible metaphor. Metaphors are powerful thing in descriptors. They can be great for the flow of a story or to evoke an emotion. However, in this case, not so much. Why? The two things aren’t very similar. Literally, an orb is a sphere- so in that case yes, the two work…however, as writers, we know darn well that just because a word means something doesn’t mean the connotation that goes along with it matches. Gigantic means huge…but we all know it means huger than huge. In the case of the word ‘orb,’ there are two places where I usually come across it, which brings about my contextual understanding of the word. First, in reference to space. When we talk about planets or the sun we find the words ‘orbs’ ‘spinning orbs’ ‘great orbs’ things like that. But, no matter what, we get the idea that they’re big. Second place is fantasy, when orbs are usually along the lines of crystal balls for a loose example. So in both of these places, we get orbs denoting bigness, or something of a pretty big size. Something definitely not along the scale of an eyeball. Additionally we get something that, no matter how you slice it, is extremely inanimate. Thus, when someone says “She looked at him out of blue orbs,” I’m thinking…how is that possible? Does she have crystal balls installed in her eyeballs? And this is combined with the fact that the scale of bigness (within context of the word) throws me off. I don’t believe the two are close enough to really be switched one for the other.

Clunky word. As writers, words are our biggest tool (shocking I know) so it’s important we know how to use them. For me, words are tactile. How they sound to us and how we have to say them are important in the flow of a sentence. Soft sounding words are used for softer romantic scenes, harsher words for harsher scenes. So, lets look at the word ‘orb.’ First off, it’s short. I’m not against short words, but it shortens itself further by ending with a ‘b’ sound. It’s a short sound that cuts off almost immediately, leaving a choppy, start stop feeling in the middle (or end) of a sentence. Now unless you don’t want your sentence to flow smoothly, this is a bad thing. Second thing that’s bad about this word- especially for eyes- is the ‘o’ at the beginning. First the sound of the ‘o’ is a long sound, which seems very cut off by the short ‘b’ at the end. Second, it takes effort by the mouth to form and ‘o.’ Try it, say ‘orb.’ You have to open your mouth, wider, it seems, than for other letters and make your lips form that circle. Just doing that sort of makes the mouth bigger with adds to the idea of the bigness of the word and the idea that it is a circle. That ‘o’ alone adds even more bigness than just the connotation, and since it takes more effort in saying than the rest of the sentence it, again, disrupts the flow.

The word ‘orb’ has its place, that I won’t deny, but I try to avoid using it whenever possible, if not simply for its disruptive ways.

A Confession

It's time for a confession.  I have been reading trying to read A Darkness Forged in Fire.  I gave it a good solid attempt, I really did but...I gave up.

I can't do it.

I can't finish it.

I'm honestly and truly just too bored by it.

Let's start out with a few pros, because, even I have to admit, there are some.

1) Alwen.  This was the only character in the entire book who I felt was actually three dimensional.  He had emotion, he had a past, he had reasons for being and doing what he was.  Yes, you could say this about  most of the characters but he was the only one I felt seemed actually real.  Not a tired stereotype.  He felt like a real person with real problems.  How an actual boy with no experience, who wasn't really a soldier, who joined the army, would really and truly feel.  Mr. Evan's made me care about this character and I felt like I had a connection to him.

2) Military research.  I would hope this was done well since this is what Mr. Evan's does for a living.  If you are a person who is really into military history etc I'd give this book a shot because Evan's really does weave the feeling into the book.

Ummmmm yeah I think that's it.

I'm not going to rehash the issues I wrote about it my first chapter review but I will have to mention them because those issues didn't improve.

1) Lack of research when it came to his metal forest.  Yes I know, I haven't finished the book, but most of what I read through the first half gave no indication that this improved at all.

2) The scary halloween font.  Seriously.

Other things that bothered me about this book, and what did not make it a good read were mainly character issues   If I don't get drawn in by your characters I won't get drawn in by the book.

1) As I mentioned before the characters are basically archetypes.  They don't go beyond it and as a result the characters are flat and lifeless and honestly a bit boring.  When I think back on this book, I don't really think about the characters name, or really any good personality, but rather- oh he was that kind of character who played that kind of role.  Of course you can do that with lots of characters in literature, but usually I have some sort of other reaction to them than just the role they were playing.

2) Chris Evan's writes female characters as if he is afraid of offending women.  Period.  There's no getting around it.  As a result they're annoying and any attempt at romance is laughable.

3) It seemed to me as if this book was written by someone who really doesn't read much fantasy, but rather only has a vague stereotypical concept of it.  Fantasy isn't just about quests and defeating an evil.  It's about people, it's about deeper meanings, its about struggle.  There's a lot that goes into a good fantasy other than just surface work.

4) I couldn't get a grasp on if this guy was trying to write something serious or satirical.  I have no problem with humor in serious novels, but the 'humor' written within this book was so slapstick it seemed ridiculously out of place to me.  As a result I felt my intelligence was being a bit insulted.


5) He never really established, at least from what I read, what the star actually was.  No, you don't have to tell your readers everything, but when its the big thing your characters are going after, it would be awesome to make that clear.

I have heard from other readers that the point of the star is a little unclear, and also a bit of a red herring, but since I haven't finished the book, I can't confirm or reject that rumor.

Would I recommend this read?  Hell no.  I would be embarrassed to.

Book Review: The Pluto Files by Neil deGrasse Tyson

This book review is a little bit different from any other one I may do, because I like to read, write, and discuss mainly fantasy.  However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was written by one of my favorite scientists Mr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, therefore because of that, and because I am a nerd, I think it deserves a spot here on this blog.

The book, The Pluto Files, chronicles the life of Pluto as a planet, from its discovery to its ultimate declassification to 'dwarf planet' in 2006.  Mr. Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, was at the center of the debate and one could say that he and his colleagues, with the help of the New York Times kicked off the manic Pluto/anti-pluto frenzy.  Truly this wasn't their intention.

When I was a kid, lets say elementary age, I have to admit Pluto was one of my favorite planets.  Later as I got older it was quickly replaced by Neptune.  I mean its blue, it has rings and it has a Great Dark Spot...how can that not be cool?  But even throughout my childhood it was obvious something was up with Pluto.  I remember in high school Earth Science, when talking about the grouping of planets we had the terrestrial, the jovian...and then my teachers would go, 'Okay and then there's Pluto.  It's a bit different from the rest."

I was blissfully unaware of the main Pluto frenzy that seemed to have gripped portions of America with only the faintest notion that there was one going on.  When the news finally came around that they had demoted Pluto to a dwarf planet, I remember wondering why, thinking for a moment that it was sorta sad, then deciding that a panel of astrophysicists probably knew what they were doing and got on with my life.

Then, earlier this year, I saw an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Daily Show.  He talked about his book, The Pluto Files, and spoke about the scientific reasons Pluto was an odd ball and thus demoted.  He also talked about the public backlash that caused him to receive hate mail from elementary school kids.

I was immediately fascinated...okay and I wanted to see some of these letters and put the book on my Christmas list.

I read it in a night.

Clocking in around 160 pages (plus another 25 or so pages of appendices) the book isn't exactly long and, besides the text, is filled with comics, diagrams, and of course letters, that make the book an interesting and entertaining read.  Mr. Tyson chronicles the earliest days of Pluto along with setting up all the reasons Americans are so fond of it and why the public backlash was so great.  From there he discusses the discoveries of the outer solar system, and the conundrum when deciding how to organize the new Rose Center in the Hayden Planetarium.

The book, while in a way a science book, is very easy to read.  Mr. Tyson doesn't try to astound the reader with fancy science terms, nor does he try to leave out pertinent scientific information.  He is not self aggrandizing but still reports the events with personality.

Not only about science, the book shows what went on behind the scenes when it came to the politics and the need for a decision.  By the end, I understood completely why they made the decision that they did.

I'd recommend this for any one who enjoys science, astronomy, or even just likes to understand cultural phenomenons.

Merry Christmas...in literature?

 

Merry Christmas!  Since it is Christmas, and while I have time waiting for my brother to come over to our house, and while my three-year-old niece is stealing Christmas candy, I figured I could do a quick post about Christmas or festivals or what have you as plot devices.

Since I usually write fantasy, I can't really have cities or characters celebrate Christmas per-se because that's a convention of our Christian world, but literature has been able to get around that.  Many times you'll find a mid-winter festival, or a New Years celebration because most worlds have some way of measuring the way time passes.

Writing a festival is a great way to practice writing a description or, even better, a great way to get to know a particular city or culture.  In our world, every culture celebrates Christmas differently and can serve as a great source of inspiration.  While not copying something directly, images or traditions can certainly spark creativity.

Ornaments in Munich

The Christkindlmarkts in Munich and Nuremburg, and in my own little village of Neubiberg, helped me picture the City (formerly Immerhaine) in my own story during a festival time.  I'll always remember walking back to my house from the bus or train station, passing the little shop fronts with their carved wooden stars and the lights shining like little stars.

Christkindlmarkts are best at night, when the lights are shining from all the little booths and ornaments, like those above, sparkle with candlelight and their own colors light up the night.  People standing at high tables or walking around drinking Ghluwein (mulled wine) and Kinderpunch.  Even though the air is cold everything is filled with light, and color, warmth and life.

I took complete inspiration from all of this.  I took the feeling I got, the jewel tones and the feeling of the crowds and molded it into my own sort of festival at the beginning of the story.  I didn't specify what the festival was, that wasn't really the point, but I was just trying to capture the feelings by different things that inspired me at the Christkindlmarkts and putting it in my own world.  I think, and I hope, the feeling was certainly unique.

If your into the darker side of festivals, like the Festival of Dead Gods in Godstalk, or even cutthroats or ghosts, there is the German figure of Krampus that can also inspire a writer.  Krampus is so German...because its so crazy...and random...so very German.

If you've never heard of Krampus, well...this is Krampus:

Merry Christmas courtesy of Germany

He's Santa Claus's evil counterpart.

Yeah...you read that right.

Krampus is a creepy fellow (if you don't believe me just google image search him) and comes with Santa to punish naughty children.  His image alone is almost demonic if you want to write the dark side of a festival.  He's really big in Southern Germany and Austria, mainly in the Alpine regions, and most villages have what's called a Krampusjagt.  During a Krampusjagt--literally Krampus hunt--children chase down someone dressed up as Krampus through the woods or through the city.  It can be really odd if you come upon one and don't know what's going on.

Besides getting inspiration from Christmas of other cultures, simple festivals are great tools for a plot.  It's a great time for characters to meet each other, although that can sometimes be a bit contrived it becomes your job as the writer to be creative.  Maybe not a meet for the first time, but perhaps start a conflict, or have one character see another up to something shady.  Perhaps its a time for a character to spot a love interest or time for love interest to grow.

If the festival is a particularly happy time, and you want to make a big impact with readers, its a great time to have something bad happen to a character.  The contrast of the happy festival can contrast with whatever the negative thing is that the negative is magnified and can really pull on the readers emotions.  Just think how you feel when people die around Christmas time.  Same principle.

The great thing about festival is so much is going on that you can use them as a distraction if a character needs to do something secretive, or you want a character to get captured with no one noticing.  You can have a whole subtle plotline running beneath the drama of the festival, and again, since its a festival, certain actions might be able to take place that wouldn't take place when everything is working in non festival times.

Lastly, festivals can just be great fun to write.  Really.  I would add more to that but my own Christmas is calling and I do have a cake to ice.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays.

Opinion is opinion is opinion

My adviser is a smart guy.  Like really ridiculously knowledgeable.  He knows so much that after a meeting with him, he'll ramble about so much I'll walk out of his office and go...huh?  What the heck did we talk about?  Important things related to my thesis will stick sometimes, but once and a while some other things will really stick with me.

Once, when our conversation led to ramblings about policy, as they usually do, he mentioned how in one of the many government panels he served on, he watched two well known, well renowned scientists get into a shouting match over a data set.  One of those was Orrin Pilkey so you can only imagine how funny that must have been.

(Orrin Pilkey's a rock star...no pun intended)

Anyways, he was saying how both of those scientists were so passionate and both knew they were right about what this data set meant, even though both of them were arguing different things.  But the kicker was both of them were absolutely right.  Depending on how you looked at the data, either conclusion could be considered accurate.

If something so concrete as data can still be so debatable, imagine how it is with something as subjective as writing.

Opinion is opinion is opinion. When it comes to how to write a style, or a character, or a plot, several writers can look at the same piece of writing and all have different opinions...and all be completely right.  I think for writers and reviewers to remember that.

Now, it is important to remember that there are some basic ground "rules" or basic things that make one piece of writing good and one not, but when it comes to smaller things, I think humility is a good thing to have.  I admit it's hard for me sometimes when I review things.  Sometimes the style is too choppy or I find the subject matter boring.  As much as I want to change the sentences I have to ask myself "okay is there anything *actually* wrong with it?  Is the flow that bad?"  And then I have to make the decision if I want to bring this up to the writer, if I think it will make their piece stronger.  If I do, ever the scientists, I have to have evidence for why I think there might be something amiss.  However, again, it still comes back to my opinion and if something to me, as the reader is wrong, I still have to make the decision of what to tell the author.

It's a hard line to walk, because if every reader feels the same way then the author should rethink what they are trying to write, so they should be able to get said opinion.  But then at the same time the reviewer should acknowledge the writer's voice/style etc and that it *is* okay but maybe doesn't work for them, or for some reason reads awkwardly, but let them know in a respectful way.  On the flip side, the writer needs to remember it is only opinion and the opinion may not necessarily be taken as truth.  After all, with writing, what really makes anyone an expert?

Nothing really triggered this post, but its something I've noticed over the years as I watch reviews and people speak about writing. Sometimes I think egos get involved when it comes to writers, and some feel as if their opinions are more qualified than others.  But writing is subjective and comes down simply to opinion opinion opinion.

Chapter review: A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans

A week or so ago, on the Writer's Digest forums, several members were discussing the book "A Darkness Forged in Fire," by Chris Evans.  Their reviews were good, if even an omgthisbookisawesomeexcepttheendingsucks.  I'm always looking for a new Fantasy book to read and since I am, apparently, going to be snowed in for a day or two I figured sure, why not? It's gotten good reviews so far.

Luckily my library had it--and I say luckily because, judging by the first chapter, I would have been angry that I paid for this book--and today I started it.  Originally I was planning to read the entire thing and then do a nice little chat about it and of my general opinions, etc., but after reading the first chapter...I have to admit something.

I'm kinda on a rampage.  An angry rampage. Granted I'm not sure if there's any other kind.

Let me first put out there that this is not typically my kind of Fantasy.  First off it involves elves.  I know, that sounds silly.  It's fantasy, of course elves are in fantasy, but I, personally, think most elves in most books today are Tolkien-esk elves...and Tolkien elves should stay in Tolkien.  It's a bit of a silly position to take, and I'm the first one to admit it.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with elves in fantasy literature, its just not my cup of tea.  However, I recognized that with this book, put it aside and thought, whatever, I don't care...bring it on!

The second thing that makes this not my typical Fantasy read is the book starts out with this looming in your face evil.  Like hit you in the face with a brick evil.  Like stamp on the book OMG SOMETHING EVIL IS HAPPENING,  BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO BE OCCURING, THIS IS AN EVIL PLACE DUN DUN DUNNN.  Again, for me, I like a bit more understanding of the world, meet a character with some subtle hints, and then hit me with the evil.  And I like a bit more of something to puzzle out. But that's purely me.  It has nothing to do with the quality of work or the ability of the writer.

I want to get those two things clear, and also want to make very clear that I realized after reading the first page or two that, okay...it was going to be one of those books.  I can accept it, lets see where it goes.  I want to make it very clear I began this with a very accepting attitude.

And then that attitude went to hell.

Chapter one was full of confusion and irritation for me.

The book starts out with the falling of a Star that signals the beginning of some prophecy.  There is a wizard disguised as a squirrel in an iron forest...or forest with trees made of metal.

Okay that part is cool.  The metal tree thing...very cool.  Especially how its described:

"... yet the forest survived, its roots boring ever deeper into the rock, suckling on the bitter ore it found."

So I read this and think...cool!  Because the trees feed on the ore of the mountains they're made from metal...well that and there's probably evil stuff at work that helps them live too, but the concept is pretty cool.


That, I think, is the only thing that's worth any merit in this chapter.  After this, well....

Let's start with the lack of research, which is the biggest reason I'm rampaging.  If you're dealing with metal, understand how it works before randomly throwing around descriptors...otherwise I get confused, things make no sense, and I lose respect for you as a writer.  What am I talking about?  Please see the following.

The bark on these trees, that I thought were so cool, crystallize.  Whaaa??  This is ore.  Ore doesn't crystallize...metal does not equal crystal!  That makes no sense.  I read over that a few times before thinking it could be a mistake, but then I came to the following line on page 3.

"Glinting, obsidian-shelled acorns covered the ground beneath it."

*sputters*

Really, Chris Evans, really??  Now you're trying waaay too hard.  Notice he didn't say that the acorns looked like obsidian...he said actual obsidian-shelled acorns.

This is obsidian:

This is where obsidian comes from:

 

Yeah a volcano. Obsidian is volcanic glass.  How on earth are you getting a tree...that feeds on ore...to get obsidian covered acorns?? Okay...lets pretend for a second that you get the minerals/elements in the magma chamber that form obsidian to magically come together to form an ore...nevermind the fact that obsidian isn't an ore, or in the mountain those minerals/elements would take a long time to cool so you'd get honking big crystals and therefore not obsidian which is crystal-less...because it's...glass. But...whatever.  Say they magically form an ore, the tree sucks it out and puts it on the acorn.  How does this ore transform into obsidian??  Minerals have to be really hot, and then cooled superfast to form that obsidian...trees aren't known for what I would call speedy growth.

What kills me here is that, yes this is a fantasy world, but if you are going to use minerals, ores, etc and acknowledge the fact that certain ores turn to iron by our world terms then you can't just start throwing the other rules of geology out the window.

I know what some people might say.  How many people are really going to know all the facts about obsidian?  Probably not everyone BUT that doesn't excuse the author.  At all.  That's just sheer laziness.  It was almost 'hey obsidian sounds cool, lets just toss that in!' without any thought at all.  I feel, as a writer, its a little dishonest and it weakens and cheapens the novel.  I shudder to think what the rest of the book is like.

Now lets get to some confusing statements and poorly connected ideas.

"The mountain shuddered and sent chunks of rock cartwheeling down its side, as if trying to shake the forest loose.  Just in time the wizard hid in a crevice until the avalanche had passed.  He poked his head up a moment later and prepared to make the final dash into the trees.  It didn't look promising--arrowlike twigs splintered against rock with a sound of ringing iron as the trees now hunted among the shadows."

Okay, we'll ignore for a moment that an avalanche involves snow--which added to my confusion as to what was going on, but hey--and look at the last sentence.  While as neat as "trees now hunted among the shadows' sounds, it pretty much makes little sense.  Are the trees alive and moving about? Like people? I thought so judging by that last sentence but nothing ever indicates that the trees move again.  In fact, its more that they're stationary.  Yeah it seems their branches attack people--a fact I gleaned after rereading some things and reading ahead-- but they're not physical romping about.

Lets look at another paragraph of confusion and poorly connected ideas.

"He knew the Wolf Oaks well, good nuts, but this one was wholly unlike the tall, majestic trees in the Great Forest of the Hyntaland on the plains below.  Those trees were tall and proud, their limbs strong and supple in the nurturing sun.  This tree tree shared none of those traits, growing low and wide across the rock, snaking its jagged limbs out in every direction to ensnare its progeny in a thicket of wild, dark hunger.  Glinting, obsidian-shelled acorns covered the ground beneath it."

"The forest was expanding."

"The wizard felt the sudden urge to get off the ground..."

 Ugh.  What threw me for a loop was that 'The forest was expanding' line. Where the heck did that come from?  The paragraph above is taking time to describe one tree. One important tree.  By no means does one tree equal a forest.  That one tree having impossibly formed acorns on the ground does not equate to the rest of the forest expanding.

The paragraph following that line has to do with that wizard/squirrel, nothing to do with the forest expanding.  So that one line is hanging out there, tripping me up and confusing me.  It would have been better placed when talking about, oh, say the forest.

Okay last thing I really want to discuss, the thing that makes me roll my eyes in distaste comes on the last two pages of the chapter.  Now, something you have to realize is that Mr. Evans made it very clear throughout this chapter that this place was evil.  Really really clear.  Apparently, he didn't feel it was clear enough, however, because when the evil villain speaks, they have to speak in scary halloween font.  No...I'm not kidding.  In fact, I would try to reproduce it but the scariest font blogger has is Courier.

Honestly, why is that necessary?  To me, it looks very very immature, as if you're not sure we got the fact this thing was evil.  Every other piece of literature I've read, that's not written by third graders, uses italics for that sort of thing.  It leaves a very bad and stupid taste in my mouth.

Maybe if this chapter had been a prologue or something I would have looked on it more favorably.  Actually no, I wouldn't have.  Never mind.  But at least if it were a prologue I would have though eh, the book itself might have some potential.  Am I going to keep reading?   Yes, maybe this was a fluke and I'll get really involved in the rest of it.  Once characters are introduce this might vastly improve so I'm going to continue and post a follow up.  But for now I'm just going to leave this thought:

Don't make your first chapter suck.  Especially when its only 6 pages long and all the suckage is cramped in that one small space.

Pete and Repeat: A word on repetition

As I've floated around, reading and reviewing things I've noticed that sometimes people have a negative attitude toward repetition.   Generally, in writing 101, they say repetition is a no no.  However,  can it be worked into literature and be okay?  Abso-tutlelutely.   Well, at least in my humble opinion :)

I think it’s all dependent on style and story and tone.  Since repetition is a poetry device, if you have a flowing, gentle style that has a poetic flair, repetition works perfectly.  Also if the thing you are repeating is important, repetition is a perfect tool.   Example:

The Wizard Heald coupled with a poor woman once, in the king’s city of Mondor, and she bore a son with one green eye and one black eye.  Heald, who had two black eyes as black as the black marshes of Fyrbolg, came and went like a wind out of the woman’s life, but the child Myk stayed in Mondor until he was fifteen.  Big shouldered and strong, he was apprenticed to a smith, and men who came to have their carts mended or their horses shod were inclined to curse his sullenness, until something would stir in him, sluggish as a marsh beast walking beneath murk.  Then he would turn his head and look at them out of his black eye, and they would fall silent and shift away from him. ~ The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip

“Black” is repeated 5 times in this paragraph.  Three of those times are within the same sentence.  Oh heaven forbid!  And yet this is from, not only a published author, but a book that won the World Fantasy Award.  So why does it work?

To me it’s style, story, and tone.   I think this beginning has a fairy tale quality to it, as well as that poetic flair I mentioned earlier.  The repetition helps establish a flow, as with poetry, so the reader starts to flow over it and hit the beats. Also hits you with a brick that these eyes are important, establishing a theme or rather a common thread for the rest of the novel.  It’s almost like a thesis statement in a way.  Whenever black eyes are mentioned, it brings the reader back to that beginning, that lineage and the air of mystery and magic.

Now let’s look at the uses of the word ‘black.’  80% of the time (4 out of 5), the word is used to refer to the eyes.  Okay, let’s take what we said before about the thesis statement of the eyes.  So anytime black refers to eyes let’s throw out because its part of that thesis statement.  When we do that we’re left with ‘black marshes.’  I can see some folks wanting to change this, or even throw out the word ‘black’ and just leave ‘marshes’ behind.  I don’t think I would personally change it.  First of all, if that’s what they’re called in this world…then just call them black marshes for Pete’s sake.  Second, it adds to the air of mystery, a black thing from a black place.  It serves as a *gasp* relation!  Lastly it served as a tool to introduce a place!  Perfect.  At least to me.

So what’s the best way to determine good repetition from bad repetition?  It seems the best way for me is, not counting words in a paragraph, or number of times a certain word is used, but stepping back and reading and asking myself ‘hey does this sound good, and if not why.”  I think counting words doesn’t have much of a place because it takes the words out of the context of the story, style and tone.  I think there is a definite danger with repetition of getting too technical with a story and forgetting what makes it live, and repetition is part of that life.

Does repetition always work so smoothly 100% of the time? Of course not.  I don’t think any technique in writing works 100% of the time.  But that’s a topic for another post.

Character Spotlight: Jamethiel Knorth

Book(s): Godstalk, Dark of the Moon, Seekers Mask, To Ride a Rathorn, Blood and Ivory (short stories), Bound in Blood (out Mar. 2010)

Author: P.C. Hodgell

Jame hesitated.  Many of her people had such talents if not far greater ones, but those that did were feared and often compelled to enter the priesthood.  Apprehensively, she recited the charm.  It usually took Cleppetty half an hour to ready her bread for the oven; Jame’s rose in five minutes.  When the widow sliced into the baked loaf, however, they discovered that its sudden expansion had been due to the growth of rudimentary internal organs.  That was the end of Jame’s apprenticeship in the kitchen. ~Godstalk

I got to thinking about female characters today, specifically about strong female characters.  I, for one, and firmly against the idea that just giving a female character a sword makes her strong.  This, in turn, led me to thinking about the female characters I enjoy, and that inevitably led me to Jamethiel (Jame) Knorth who is quite probably my favorite female character of all time (sorry Briony Eddon!).

Jame reminds me over and over again that what makes a character awesome is not necessarily their accoutrements (which Jame does have some cool ones), or even their gender, but rather their core personality.

Jame is smart, relatively level headed with the exception of when she gets really mad, but incredibly, incredibly relatable.  She tries to find her way and stay true to her morals and good sense when she’s thrust into a new place and has to remember who she is and what the hell she’s doing.

The first book opens with Jame wandering, beat and confused, into Tai-Tastigon, on the night of the Feast of Dead Gods.  

Aka the worst night EVER.

 It’s the night when all the gods whose worshippers have left come out looking for sacrifices.  Like I said…the worst night EVER.

Anyways, after falling into a random inn and terrifying everyone in the joint, she starts her recovery in the same inn, cared for by the staff and soon becomes a part of their family. 

Big hunks of Jame’s memory are missing.  Big important hunks.  Like where she’s been, and why she has dreams of beribboned beds and a snakeskin cloak.  The only thing she knows for certain is that she must get her dead father’s ring and sword to her twin brother, Torisen, so he can claim his rightful place as head of the Kencyrath.   However she’s stuck in Tai-Tastigon until the passes open for the summer.

As the books goes on you learn more about Jame.  She’s a Kencyr, and therefore has a strict sense of honor and cannot lie…and yet despite this she becomes a thief.  An honorable thief no less. This is an important point about Jame…she’s always walking a line between honorable and dishonorable which begs the question of what honor is anyways.  She never aims to do intentional harm, and always do what’s right, but sometimes what is right leads to harm, which is again an important point of all the books.

Did I mention she’s an unfallen darkling?  And she has extendable razor sharp nails?  And she dances out people’s souls?  Yeah she does all that.   Not that she’s proud of any of it, but she does it.

She’s also a Highborn Knorth woman. Knorth, the head family of all Kencyrath.  Which means she should be stuffy, a little arrogant, and shut up behind the doors of the woman’s world. Should be.   Luckily this is the opposite of Jame, who actually questions her people’s choices to hide their women and makes easy friends with a Kendar (a lower class Kencyr).

I’m a big fan of Jame, and I sometimes use her as inspiration when I do group writing.  I tailored one character to fit a piece of group writing and made her a dancer in honor of Jame.  The only thing I’m not really a fan of, which I’ll briefly talk about, is the romance with her brother.  Yeah.  That.  Not such a fan.  It’s not made explicitly clear until ‘To Ride a Rathorn,’ but we could all see it coming and I can grudgingly accept it, even though it weirds me out.   The brother-sister thing makes perfect sense within the society and the world and most importantly the history.  And there’s the fact P.C. Hodgell’s been forshadowing it so hard she’s almost been hitting her readers with a brick.

I would love to speak more about the things Jame does, like her dealings with Kencyr women, and her experiences at the Randon college, but I don’t want to reveal too much of the books.  But I will say that what makes Jame, Jame are the choices she makes, they way she handles herself, and the way she reacts to different situations.  And, most importantly, the way she thinks and the way she questions.  Ms. Hodgell doesn’t emphasize her heroics in battle or any sort of spicy saucy temper *coughCnedracough*, or any sort of condescending remarks about men.  That to me makes her an uber strong awesome character of goodness.