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Post by marianne on May 14, 2005 23:51:01 GMT
Hi Patchers, I'm delighted to say Kelley will be visiting us soon. Stay posted for dates and check out her website at www.kelleyarmstrong.commdp
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Post by Chirugal on May 15, 2005 2:59:31 GMT
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! *squee!* *ahem* I mean, cool. (All you other wonderful authors who have guested here please don't be offended by my extreme difference in reaction upon hearing this news... it's just that Kelley is my favourite non-Marianne author!) *bounces off to reread the entire WotO series* ;D ;D
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Post by marianne on May 16, 2005 22:13:38 GMT
OK guys! Kelley has confirmed June 1 - 3rd right here!
I heard a little whisper she might even be doing a give away of her new book.
MDP
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Post by Chirugal on May 17, 2005 13:46:45 GMT
This day just keeps getting better and better.
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Post by marianne on May 29, 2005 21:24:27 GMT
I'm going to leave my first questions here a little early.
Hi Kelley,
Welcome to Parrish's Patch! We're absolutely thrilled you could make it. Your Women of the Otherworld series has been a huge success. Congratulations!!
I've seen you quoted as saying that reading Stephen King taught you how to put the 'natural' into supernatural. Would you mind giving us some concrete examples-of/elaborating-on this?
Do you think contemporary supernautral genre is an enduring one? One of the criticisms I often hear is that Cyberpunk is dead. Or that I'm a POST-CYBERPUNK writer. How do you think they'll be describing your genre in ten years?
best Marianne
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Post by Chirugal on Jun 1, 2005 10:52:05 GMT
*waves to Kelley* Welcome to the board!
Here are my first questions:
1) Regarding horror, how hard is it to get the scary ideas in your head down onto paper, and do they end up being as terrifying as you'd like them to be?
2) What elements do you think are important for making your characters as human as possible?
3) Have you received much negative criticism? If so, how do you deal with it?
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Post by KelleyArmstrong on Jun 1, 2005 14:30:38 GMT
Hello! I'm here...and hoping the board doesn't go down for that scheduled upgrade when I'm in the midst of a reply Yes, I did say I'd give away a copy of one of my books. Here's how it works. Ask me a question here, and at the end of my "guest stint", I'll draw a name and the winner gets his/her choice of my books. Now, on to the questions... Stephen King does a wonderful job of putting horror into the everyday world. His characters aren't fighting vampires in Romanian castles...they're doing it in small-town, modern-day America. When writing about something like werewolves, I think the first tendency writers have is to make the setting exotic--put it in the past or the future, in a foreign country, or at the very least in an alternate version of our world, where everyone knows werewolves exist. When I was struck by that impulse, I thought of my favourite horror writer, and decided I could do the same thing--put my werewolves in small-town contemporary American society. Unlike King's work, my werewolves aren't the "enemy". They're the protagonists, like Anne Rice's vampires, but I really enjoy shoehorning them into our world and making their lives seem almost ordinary Funny you should ask that. I've been asked to participate in a new blog project for horror writers. I've never "blogged" but figured it should be something both personal and writing/book related. When I thought of what I'd write, this is exactly what came to mind: the future of my genre and my place in it. Paranormal fiction (esp. paranormal romance a la Christine Feehan and paranormal thrillers a la Laurell K Hamilton) are red-hot. When I was writing Bitten (my first novel) I was repeatedly told there was no market for it. Even after it sold, my publishers weren't sure how to market. Six years later, those questions/concerns seem silly. Just say "paranormal" and it has an audience. Do I think it will last? No. Genre tastes come and go. This too will pass. Does that worry me? Absolutely. I love what I write--that's why I wrote it when I was told there was no market! Ten years from now, I suspect paranormals will be dead. But if they are, and my publishers will still publish my work, I'll still be writing them, even if it is to a much smaller audience. My experience is that they come easily...but don't end up the same on paper. I find true "chills up the spine" horror tough to write. Love reading it, but when I write it, I think "that's scary? to a five year old maybe". There's not a lot that's frightening in my work, but I do slip in bits of "psychological horror," stuff that I find frightening, but if the readers don't, it should pass unnoticed. It's like humour that way...if they don't get my jokes, they're more likely to not notice them than to say "that's not funny", which is just the way I like it ;D Giving them normal lives, normal emotions, normal relationships & problems...in short, I guess, making them completely normal except for that spell-casting or shape-morphing thing. Even their "supernatural-related" problems usually have a normal counterpart. My werewolf worries about giving in to her wolf side...how many people have feared letting the world see that they aren't the nice person they pretend to be? My witch is trying to improve the lot of her race, only to find the older ones don't want to change--a typical feeling for an idealistic 22-year-old trying to change the world. My ghost's biggest concern is the welfare of her daughter, and her struggle to let her go--something every mother deals with as her children age. It's always a mixed bag. With every book, I can guarantee some "this is her best yet" and some "this is her weakest yet". With the werewolf ones, I got comments about them being feminist empowerment fantasies. With the witches I then got comments that my main character wasn't strong/tough enough! I've come to the conclusion that my best source of feedback is readers. After all, that's who I'm writing for. If I stray, they'll call me on it, and I'll listen. And, of course, my editors will do the same
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Post by Chirugal on Jun 1, 2005 17:23:44 GMT
Love reading it, but when I write it, I think "that's scary? to a five year old maybe". FYI, I found the **'HAUNTED' SPOILER AHEAD!** torn-apart guy in the cave really creepy. It's the most freaked out I've been by a book in a while... - Do you ever disagree with the changes your editors want to make? - Do you write your books from beginning to end, or write scenes from the middle before the beginning and things like that? (Wow, that was an articulately worded question!) - How easy is it for you to work out the motivations of your antagonists?
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Post by KelleyArmstrong on Jun 1, 2005 23:21:54 GMT
Ah, so the cave bit worked, did it? For me, that's probably the most disturbing thing I've written in the series. My protagonist, Eve, gave me some trouble. She was too indestructible, not just because she was a ghost but her personality made her hard to rattle. And I had to rattle her, so I came up with that cave bit...which did the trick.
I disagree less than I thought I would. I'd always heard horror stories about working with editors who cavalierly suggest sweeping changes--hey, can we make the main character male instead? I haven't experienced any of that. The changes they suggest never affect my "vision" of the story or characters, which is important, and ninety percent of the time, I think "yep, they're right and I should have seen that". When I do disagree, it's over minor stuff like "you mention it's hard to create a vampire--can you give us details?" and I say "I plan to...later in the series", which they understand.
I'm a start-to-finish writer. The only time I skip out of sequence is if I hit a tricky scene (esp. fight scenes and sex scenes, which require thought and "choreography"). If I hit one of those scenes, and I'm not ready for it, I skip ahead and fill it in later.
I strongly believe that's one of the very first steps, knowing the internal and external motivations for both the protagonists and antagonists. I usually come up with motivations in conjunction with the main plot idea. The biggest problem with antagonist motivations is revealing them in a first-person narrative. Short of having one of those "here's why I did it" confrontations, sometimes I just have to let the other characters spin theories and hope the readers will fill in the blanks.
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Post by Cj on Jun 3, 2005 18:18:27 GMT
Hi Kelley
(Cardinal sin here) But I’ve never actually read one of your books; although I spend a little too long in bookshops wishing I could take them home! (I’m a library girl lately)
But it wasn’t till Marianne said you were visiting us that I went to your website which ROCKS btw (especially the author photo very professional) and I’ve been reading your online fiction Savage soooo deadly! I must say that I find your style more in-depth to the character than in other paranormal fiction I’ve read.
I was wondering how long do you spend developing a character in your head before it becomes book worthy, or does it vary?
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Post by KelleyArmstrong on Jun 3, 2005 19:40:39 GMT
The board is back up! Looks good.
It does vary, but I do spend a lot of time on character development, at least as much as on plot. I've been writing since childhood, but when I started attempting novel-length fiction in my twenties, the biggest criticism I got from instructors, writing groups etc was that my characters were two-dimensional. So I threw myself into character research, and probably ended up overcompensating. I always have a couple of "character" scenes in a first-draft manuscripts that I cut in edits when I crack down on myself and admit that they don't do anything to move the plot along!
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Post by Chirugal on Jun 3, 2005 20:39:54 GMT
Ah, so the cave bit worked, did it? For me, that's probably the most disturbing thing I've written in the series. My protagonist, Eve, gave me some trouble. She was too indestructible, not just because she was a ghost but her personality made her hard to rattle. And I had to rattle her, so I came up with that cave bit...which did the trick. Oh, it WORKED... I guess with Eve you'd have to focus on stuff like fear of paralysis and things like that. Strange to think how most things humans fear are related to pain and death. I strongly believe that's one of the very first steps, knowing the internal and external motivations for both the protagonists and antagonists. I usually come up with motivations in conjunction with the main plot idea. Yep, I'm finding this too. Problem is, my antagonist has NO motivation, so I'm stuck. *random complaint over* More questions... - Which of the Otherworld characters do you think you're most like? (Sorry, had to break out of my 'only-ask-about-general-writing' rule just for a second!) - What made you choose first-person perspective over third-person? - You mentioned you find fight scenes and sex scenes tricky. What is it you find hard about them, and how do you manage to overcome this? (Eek. If I were you I'd have no idea how to go about answering this question!) Sorry for the board being down during the upgrade, by the way. It should all go according to plan from now on!
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Post by marianne on Jun 4, 2005 0:11:51 GMT
The board is back up! Looks good. [I've been writing since childhood, but when I started attempting novel-length fiction in my twenties, the biggest criticism I got from instructors, writing groups etc was that my characters were two-dimensional. So I threw myself into character research, and ! Kelly, writing in first person makes it harder to develop the other characters. You become so immersed in that character and don't have the benefit of third person to round the others out. Do you have any practical tips for that? MDP
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Post by KelleyArmstrong on Jun 4, 2005 11:40:00 GMT
That's a tough one. Someone did one of those "which character are you most like" quizzes, and when I took it, it came back saying "Clayton"....my antisocial, self-professed "local psychopath". I got a good laugh out of that, but the truth is that all my main characters share some of my characteristics, even Clay. For example, for non-personality characteristics, of my three narrators, Elena is the writer (although a journalist) and we're the same age, Paige is the computer geek (I was a programmer), and Eve has a daughter close to my daughter's age. No one who knows me, though, ever looks at them and says "hey, that one's you!" Though my husband has been known to comment on where Clay gets his temper from... I've written in both, but when faced with the prospect of bringing a werewolf to life, in Bitten, I decided first-person was the way to go. For me, the more "ususual" the character, the better it is to go first-person, for believability (i.e. take the reader into that person's head and then it's easier for them to accept that she's a werewolf/witch/ghost). With my short stories, I tend to stick to third-person, sometimes to explore multiple viewpoints, but sometimes just so I don't need to worry about developing a "voice" for that short-lived character They're tough because, on the one hand, I need to divorce myself from the emotions and worry about the choreography," but on the other hand, I don't want to lose the emotion. I usually write them in stages. Take fighting--I'll envision the battle start-to-finish. When I'm done, I'll jot down notes. Then, later, I may flesh out those notes in long-hand, or may jump straight to the computer, depending on how ready I am. Sex is the same basic principle. The hardest part of both is making them, in some way, unique. I can jot off a generic fight or sex scene easily, but I want more than that--I want it to be interesting and reveal more about the character (how does she fight, how does she make love) It does make it harder, because you know you'll be living in the narrator's head for so long that you spend a lot of time making it an interesting place to hang out ;D Then you realize you did all that work, and have only developed one out of a dozen characters! I probably do more character work on my non-narrators at the start. In a way, just inhabiting that narrator's head, and building the plot and characters through their POV does a lot of the narrator character work for me. I ask myself questions like "how does she see x?", "what does she like about him/her?". "what drives her nuts about him/her?", "in what situation would she turn to x instead of y?". At the same time, I'm building up the ways the secondary character differs from the narrator's view of him/her (eg. the narrator is likely to exaggerate that 'characteristic that drives her crazy') And that leads to the biggest problem with first-person narrative and non-narrator characters. Because the reader only sees him/her through the narrator's eyes, some will have a tendency to accept the narrator's word as law, as if it was third-person narrative. For example, if the narrator thinks character x is stupid, some readers will take that as face value, despite evidence that character x 's "stupidity" is just nerves or shyness or a front. All the writer can do is try to reveal the narrator's bias/error through the other character's actions, and pray that most readers will "get it" .
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Post by Cj on Jun 4, 2005 19:49:42 GMT
This is probably way to obvious but i'm always curious, where do you get your inspiration from?
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