Writing the Breakout Novel was actually a really good book. I loved the initial discussion about breakout books from Donald Maass's standpoint. It was nice to see the mid-list complacency debunked. I have seen it many times with writers in the horror genre. Many who were published regularly in the boom, now find themselves in small-press, or not in print at all. I applaud Clegg for what he did. He admits that he wasn't that great of a writer and fell into that midlist complacency. When he got dropped, and could find another publisher, he went back and focused on his craft. He is now one of the best writers in the genre. If he would have done that to begin with, where would he be now? I just tracked down Robert C. Wilson who wrote some great horror in the 80's. He had dropped out of writing to pursue his business interests, now he is finally coming back to writing. I hope the years have given him a better perspective about his craft. His old agent died, his house no longer does horror. This proves to me how long term breakouts can be done. Many times, people don't break out until their third book. Then people go back and look at those previous. If you do moderately well in the first book, but don't follow it up, you may lose that base you gained just when you should be growing it.
I hope to write a breakout novel this time out. I'm trying to toy with things in a way that hasn't been done before in a sub-genre that is as old as time. I know I need my writing skill to be up to par with the premise. I also know I need my logic worked out so there are no holes or gaps that will stop readers, those familiar with the genre and those coming to it for the first time. I think I might have to toy with Jack's character a bit to get him more likable. I want a tough Jon Wayne or Blade likable, not cuddly likable. There is a reason why Lestat changed into a character that is more moral when he became the lead in the Vampire Chronicles. You can have a rough bad-ass, be he still has to be likable. You want the readers to sympathize with the character on some level. I am working in Jack's emotions much more than I first envisioned. He love interest is coming into play much more. I have to watch out not to make him too melancholy though.
The stakes of the book are something I really am having trouble with. Maass brought up some really good points that got me thinking. The take over the world thing is overdone. I can do it to an extent, but readers are too used to it to care that much nowadays. I've been working on what Steve really will get out of being a werewolf. What is his deep-seated drive to do this? Why are these others guys helping them? Do they really want to take over the world? I've also started to re-examine Jack's stake in the whole matter. He is doing this to protect his culture, but he is kind of an outsider into that culture. I've started to think more about the psychology of my characters. I think I'm becoming more interested in Steve than Jack. I found a better link to the werewolfery. I need to write it in a way that doesn't look to contrived.
The time and place arguments are ones I've already looked at. I know flashbacks are hard on readers, but they are necessary in some scenes. The main storyline is present day, something some readers have been unclear about. I might have to make it more clear, but at the same time, I don't want it dated too much.
I love the idea of looking at a character through another character's eyes. I can see how this can really reveal a lot about both of those characters. It deepens the readers understanding about those characters, and their relationship. This is what I want to do in the scene where Steve's parents come to visit him. I've thought about doing something like this with Jack at the beginning of the book. That is hard because he is so much a recluse. I might work it in where the wolf-spirit is noticing Jack and the human entrapments of the trailer at some point. I see Maass's point about the dark characters. I understand the therapeutic qualities of writing out your demons. I've also read books like that and see how they fail. That opened my eyes a little to how I need to make dark characters enticing to the reader. I don't want them to wallow in a moody guys head, but I want to establish that mental anguish. I like the idea of contrasting Steve and Jack, but I also like to provide many similarities. I think that makes a better relationship. It is less B-movie good vs. bad guy that I hate.
Conflict and plot: these things are all important. Even poorly written books can break out if the conflict and plot are strong enough. The conflict ties into what I was saying before about their motives. While there are themes that run through my book that have been done before, I hope to present them in a unique manner. I also think that much of the plot is unique enough to set it apart from the other books in the sub-genre. While I love horror, this book also could be dark fantasy or supernatural thriller. That might help when I go to sell the book to publishers. I am worried on that, that if I go with a more mainstream publisher, I'll have to cut much of the gore. I know that is far down the road, but the thought still creeps in there.
I got The Thrill of Fear in the mail finally and am about halfway through. I liked the part of the cemetery poets. I've always loved that gothic poetry. I had forgotten much of them because it's been over a decade since I really read any. Looking back, many of them were pretty bad. I still liked that dark mood they set. For me, that is what I like about horror. I like the dark, spooky world that automatically tells you you are in a horror work. That is part of the reason I chose to set my book in Detroit. The decayed ruins of the city lend themselves very well to this kind of horror. I like the Detroit of The Crow. That dark descent into the maelstrom that even Virgil won't join you on. The river Styx ain't got nothin' on the Rouge.
I was put off by the long discussions about what is bad, and why. Do we really need a long discussion about the literary faults of Mary-Anne Radcliffe. I get it, she capitalized on how close her name was to the Upolpho author's. That doesn't mean we need to dwell on it. He talks more about the imitators than he does talking about Radcliffe, Lewis, or Maturin. I did like the discussion about Walpole. I did not know how involved with the movement he was. That could be why The Castle of Otranto is still regarded so highly. The novella itself does not hold up. I was wondering about Lewis. Kendrick talks about all these other writers, while only alluding to Lewis. I thought The Monk was the start of real horror, and not just gothic fiction. Then he hits the reader with this big piece on Lewis. It was as if he was teasing the reader.
Much of the history of the genre stuff is actually boring at this point. There is a reason why most writers skip sections of time when talking about the genre. I like that Kendrick did his research. He talks about Shakespeare, but not Webster? I would think he was an important part of that English horror/gore tradition. I also get the feeling that Kendrick's grasp of the French and other continental languages isn't that great. He gets very deep into the English stuff, but only relates the other countries stuff it was very well known, or related in some way to the English. No Lautreamont, Hoffmann only mentioned in passing? The French and German had some great horrific stuff coming out. He breezes over it as he figures much was stolen back and forth, so English would have incorporated much of it. While this may be true for Goethe, I don't see a Maldoror. I know from my studies of the werewolf genre, that French and German schools were looking into such subjects at the time. I have more than a few theses and papers from scholars on the continent during this time. For as much of a quack that Montague Summers was, he did at least know about these. I would not have found many of those studies, or forced myself to read French, if it hadn't been for Summers' scholarship.
This book is very good on background info for what he does get. I can see using this book in lectures if I ever get to teach my horror class. That doesn't mean it is all that interesting. Those pennydreadfuls were, well, dreadful. I've read the werewolf ones, and a few others. I can't say I was at all impressed. The depth of Kendrick's study is fairly exhaustive. I will give him credit for that. Although at times he seems to be proving to the reader how exhaustive his research was. I am used to this in English academic books, but I thought this was supposed to be aimed at the layperson? Oh well, more info for me.
I did like his discussion about the changing sensibilities. While the subject was handled much better in the Jung and Freud Archetypes in Horror book, Kendrick's knowledge of the subject matter did add a depth which wasn't in that book.
I made Erica watch El Mariachi and Desperado. El Mariachi has a great storyline. It shows what you can do on a limited budget. Desperado shows Rodriguez's growth as a director. It also shows what can be done with a much larger budget. I'm glad writers don't have to worry about the budget things that directors/producers worry about. I like being able to control my whole world.
I saw "Eyes Without a Face" yesterday at the DIA. It was a fully restored version by Kino Films. They were the ones who redid Dr. Caligari. They are really doing some great things in video restoration. The movie itself was pretty good. It was a little weird to be lacking most of what makes horror horror. They couldn't have nudity because of the Italian market, no blasphemy because of the Spanish market, and no gore because of the English market. Despite these heavy restrictions, the movie manages to be quite striking. The visuals were cool. They managed to get across the feeling, without being oppressive, although I normally like those oppressively moody black and white films. I liked the slick black long coats. One of the great ways to bring out a character when you can't use color use to use the texture of the cloth. The pleather shining on scene did that quite nicely. It was used with more than one character and really help to set the mood. Only the beautiful women had these coats. Dr. Genessier dressed in subdued tones. His daughter was most often wrapped in flowing dresses that reminded me of the dressing gowns of Dark Shadows. The acting was also pretty good. Many French movies of the period have spotty acting, especially the ones in the horror genre. This one was pretty good from all those involved. The special effects were minimal but pretty good for the restrictions placed on the movie. Many people around me cringed and squirmed when the Dr. Genessier removed the woman's face. I also liked effect of showing his daughter's face. The director did a soft focus, from the point of view of the girl waking up from her drug-induced haze. That way, he got around showing her bloody, sans-skin visage, without having to actually show the gore. It worked, and it fit with how the girl waking up would see her as she awoke. The only thing I didn't like was the score. It was one of the worst scores I have ever heard. The rising notes turned to a shriek far too often. It had that pitch and tone that gives you an immediate headache. I don't know what effect they were going for, but they failed. A good score should just seem perfect for the scene. It should add to the scene whatever effect you intend. The score can make a car-ride a suspenseful voyage into despair, it could turn it into a lighthearted romp. I truly great score is so seamless that you barely remember it when you've left the theater, you only remember the feelings that it invoked.
I watched Sleepy Hollow with one of the classes I subbed for. I loved the black and white feel of the exteriors, mixed with the more lively colored interiors. Even the more colorful scenes weren't awash in color. They had just enough to make it feel warm, and safe. Perhaps this is what Tim Burton was going for. Much of the movie was about false securities and mistaken ideas. What you may think of as evil, is really trying to help. The people you see as aiding your cause, could be the reason for your trials. I'm not a huge Johnny Depp fan, but I felt he really did a good job in this role. He had a pale, slightly sunken appearance that just seemed to fit the Crane of the movie. It is not the awkward, buffonishly gangly weakling of the original Ichabod. This character is active in thwarting the menace, but still manages to be slightly unsure of himself, and not a very powerful man. It is a very tight line to walk. I think it is done beautifully in this instance. The score is highly effective but almost invisible to memory, exactly as it should be. Ricci is quite fetching. I think it fit very well giving her blond hair. I think it looked rather nice on her, even if I do love the sultry dark haired look.
I finished Werewolf Trace today. It was not what I expected. I see very similar lines to The Boys from Brazil. There was nothing that had anything at all to do with werewolves. Werewolf was the code name for the man who might, or might not, be Helmut Goebbels. The British intelligence has a theory that this man is supposed to be the phoenix that will help the Nazi party rise again. Sound familiar? This plot is structured in a way that the reader goes back and forth in their thinking. Cooling, the agent researching Werewolf, has to determine whether the man is Helmut, or a young Hitler Youth given a medal in the waning days before utter collapse, or if there was a switch and that young boy was the one found dead with the rest of the Goebbels family. By the end, I felt more sorry for Werewolf (Joseph Gotterson). Regardless of his past, he had put it behind him. Even if he was Goebbels, he wasn't positioning himself to lead a new Aryan movement. The British try to goad it out of him, but to what end? I liked the cutbacks between Cooling and the Gotterson household. That kept the plot going along somewhat. That said, the plot didn't really go anywhere. There was a supernatural element to the Gotterson's household that really wasn't dealt with enough in my opinion. There was some sort of ghost of a child who died in the house. This was used by the British to freak out the Gotterson's but it didn't come into play as much as it should have. I was really looking for more involvement in that. As it is, it just seems like a plot device to get into Gotterson's head. It is involved in the end, but it wasn't built up to so it feels hollow. The reader doesn't really get much effect from this menace, if it even is one. Why should we care if it is haunting someone else if we really don't have any feel for what that haunting really means. The whole plotline of finding out who Werewolf really was took too long. The entire book is set up to deal with this exact question, and it isn't really answered at the end. This would normally seem like a letdown, but I could get myself up enough to care. Like I said, I had more sympathy with Gotterson by the end. The driving force behind the British seemed like paranoid delusions. It was like they had read Boys from Brazil and were searching for someone who fit the bill of appointed leader of the new Reich. The back plots didn't add too much. They helped flesh out the characters, but didn't help much with their motivations. We do hate Cooling less as we know he has problems with how they are hounding Goebbels, but he doesn't do enough to get him off the hook completely. He is just likeable enough that we are apathetic to him. That is not a great reaction to someone who is supposed to be the hero of your story. He is not really memorable. Gotterson is not fleshed out as much as he could have been, so the reader has a harder time with him. Because we don't really get into his head, mostly to keep the suspense of his true identity, we don't feel much toward him. This leaves the reader mostly apathetic towards Goterson as well. Your two main characters, and the reader can't care about either? That doesn't bode well for a memorable novel. We are set up to hate the Deputy Director for his relentless pursuit of Gotterson, but he is just trying to stop the Nazis from rising again. We see that zealous drive, and can't fault him entirely for that reason. We have no one to hate, no one to love. The premise isn't that striking. The emotions are fairly flat. This was not a moving book. I'm not a big fan of political suspense, but I imagine even in that genre, this wouldn't be counted as one of the best works of this type. The Boys from Brazil was done better, even with its many faults. This was not a bad book, but I had expected more from John Gardner.
I'll talk some more about Manitou later. It's after 1am and I've got school tomorrow. I might wait until after I've hunted down the video so I can see William Girdler's take on the book.
On my writing, I think I might have finally broken my writers block. I wrote 7 sheets front and back while the kids were doing worksheets today, and they weren't crap. I'm thinking about the worries I have with my plot, and incorporating those worries into the plot. If I'm wondering about my characters' motivations, wouldn't the reader as well. I think when I finish working those issues out, the plot will be much more believable, and more solid. I found a way to link Steve and Jack that isn't heavy-handed. I think I can make that work. It will help tie in the minor characters as well and get some of their personalities out. I'm putting in a scene where Steve's parents come down and meet his girlfriend. I liked meeting them, but felt the scene with Jack was a very week scene. It moved the plot but didn't do much else. Now I can use it to bring out all their characters more and show interaction. It will make it deeper and show more about how Steve reacts to his parents. I can also work in stories about his past more easily. What mother doesn't have stories about her son to tell to his girlfriend? It will be a much more interesting scene than the one with Jack. I've also added a long dialogue with Alphonse where Steve has to convince him to help. I've changed Steve's motivation and put many of my thoughts about the subject into the open. I still haven't worked it out, but when I do, it should be fairly moving. Now I just have to write it. I have spent far too much time not writing these last few weeks. It's time to break out the old typewriter and get down to work. Damn. So much for my few quick thoughts before I went to bed.
I had an uneventful weekend. I did get to see some videos I've been meaning to for a while. "Wait Until Dark" was superb. Audrea Hepburn was great. She played a blind woman who has to fight off heroin dealer flunkies. The flunkies aren't your normal toughs. They work out an elaborate scheme to get the doll that the heroin is hidden in. The film does a really good job a showing how the senses are affected when sight is taken away. Things that sighted people take for granted, etc. The final showdown has to be one of the greatest in suspense history. I also saw "Straw Dogs". I was not as impressed as the people who recommended it to me. It wasn't bad, but the motives were a little screwy. I had a hard time getting into the woman's head. Dustin Hoffman was pretty good with the script he was given. I liked that he was a mathematician. It would have been easy, and less effective, to make him a struggling writer who has to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life to do his work. A variation on a theme that still worked for me. I didn't quite understand why Hoffman's character took the stand when he did. Why not for his wife? Why not for himself? Why for the town pedophile? I guess it proves some point about how all humanity is sacred, but it messed up the chi of the move. We also saw "Guru", "The Order", and "League of Extraordinary Gentleman".
I finished Graham Masterton's _Manitou_ yesterday. It was refreshing different from _The Wendigo Border_ that I read last semester. This novel showed how effective a plot could be when the research it done right. Masterton used the Indian lore masterfully. I actually believed in everything he said. He had me in his world, and I didn't get pulled out. This is what I want to do in my novel. He took the legends and tweaked them a bit to fir his plot. I loved the illusion to Cthulhu, and how it was worked seamlessly into the Indian lore. The writing style was very fluid. He had some pieces of great prose in there. The characters were not the stereotypical characters for their parts. The Indian shaman was not all knowing. I liked how the ending relied on the white-man's Manitou. It somehow just felt right for the story.
I also finished Steve Wedel's _Shara_ today. It did not start out with much promise. The prose was rough and the dialogue wooden. There were some minor plot holes that took me out of the story. Once he started to get up to speed, I was engrossed. The story really drags the reader into the world. I think Wedel needs to tighten up that beginning to match the rest of the book. Most editors won't get that far in before they reject it. I know he has it at the major mass-market horror house right now. I wonder if the editor will stick with it long enough to see what the book becomes. The plot does some interesting things. While not all that original, it still manages to be refreshing. I liked how Shara progressed as a character. I know her character was very weak in early drafts. I think Wedel made her much more active and strong, but we get to see her gain that strength. I was worried about how weak she was at the beginning, these fears melted away as I made it into the book. He also said he had trouble with the ending in earlier drafts. I'm glad his teacher made him re-write it. The ending is great. It isn't a let-down, as he says the first one was, but it isn't the sappy life's great ending of many other paranormal romance werewolf novels.
This was also the first book I have read on the computer in its entirety. I learned I really hate reading on the computer. It hurts my eyes. It is a pain to read. It is not portable. That is a big point for me. I carry a book with me. I read during my prep hour at school or other random times. I really didn't like being tied to the computer to read this book.
I finally finished Levin's Boys From Brazil. Insomnia does have its benefits sometimes. It was ok, but not all that great. I caught on to the plot very early on. He didn't hide it very well. When it took characters who knew a lot about Hitler and his cronnies a while, it got trite. When they realized the type of home setting the boys were placed into, they should have known. The dialogue where they discussed them being Mengele's clones was over the top. I think the entire novel could have been shortened to a tight novella. It should be wrought with suspense and leave the reader gasping for air. Instead of a page-turner, I was actually bored at many points. I could see what was going to happen, and then watched as it happened. The ending was a little different than I had expected, but it still wasn't satisfying. I didn't really care that much. I think part of it was I knew Lieberman wouldn't allow the boys to be killed. I knew the plot would be stopped. Levin did set up an interesting scenario though as there were 18 fathers killed, and more would have their fathers die of natural causes just by the law of averages. I don't think that would turn them into Hitler, but it at least leaves it open. I think the postscript actually detracts from the book. I think ending with the filmaker is even more striking. This kid could go on to do great things, a kind of second chance to do right. The kid in the postscript seemed a little too Hitler. There are many things that were overlooked to plot this book. How were they going to get the kid into a war as gruesome as WWI where he will be gassed? How are they going to make sure the kid is a good artist, but never actually succeed in it? How will they get him into minor political office? Many of these things had a much greater impact than the death of his father. It would have been nice to hear a bit about some of those plans. As it was written, it seemed as if this was the final straw that would form Hitler's character. I can't bring myself to believe that.
I'm starting The Manitou now. With my insomnia, I might finish it tonight. We just had a big snow storm and I have no school tomorrow. I do need to brave the snow to pick up a good copy of Elmore Leonard's book. I kinda want a nice edition for him to sign on Sat. I hope his lecture is worth missing a critique group meeting.