Jen Black's Blog, page 9

More about gore

British psychologist Dr. Lee Chambers has been quoted as saying that because we hopefully never see gore in real life and so it we can test our responses to it in a safe environment by watching a film or tv drama. 

Horror is a close friend to gore, both are linked to evil, which again is something few of us (luckily, in my view) ever get to experience in real life. It might be thought of as something of a novelty in our usually over-protected life these days where playing a game of conkers is thought to be dangerous.

Remember too that adrenaline, endorphins and dopamine are released when we are stressed, and they give us pleasure. In other words, we enjoy being scared. It is also worth remembering that gore can be so astonishing that we forget the detail around it and just remember the gore itself. 

Badly used gore can turn people to laughter rather than horror. I remember something akin to that when watching vampire and Dracula films long ago. As soon as we saw the heroine in a flimsy nightgown take a candle in her hand and open the door to a shadowy corridor, the hoots and giggles would begin.

Cozy v Gore

 What distinguishes the cozy mystery from crimefiction?

 It ignores gore. Murders take place out of sight, and detailsare few.

Cozy murder mysteries have been around a long time. They tend tofocus on the puzzle of how the murder was executed and by whom. We all remember Nancy Drews, Dorothy L. Sayers and Miss Marples of older pre-war detective fiction. The darker edge crept into crime fiction inthe 1940s and ’50s. It has grown  and grown ever since until now we have two extremes - gentle cozy mysteries and hard-edged gory crime.

The modern popularityof cozies is a bit of a surprise in this  decade and they may be an antidote to the harsh conditions of the world today. They appeal to readers who may well understand that life can be harsh, but chooseto avoid the gore and pain in their reading. They want to enjoy crime fiction without worryingthat they will have nightmares about sadistic scenes and horrific murders and if they are accused oflooking away from the violence of realcrime, then so be it. 

The cozy detectives don’t work late into the night or indulge in plain-speaking conversations with the forensicexperts. I've read that it isn’t unknown for a cozy sleuth to invite a suspect over forsupper, but I have not read that one. Readers of the harder crime fiction claim they seek reality.They want news stories and documentaries that give the hard facts and  want the same hard edge in their fiction; they say theytest their feelings against the harsh reality of crime.

Too much gore?

 Crime writing is now my thing.

I got to the point where I couldn't find any new historicals that really held my attention and sampled one or two L J Ross books. I lost interest in them around number six, I think, but I wouldn't swear to that. Then I tried Joy Ellis. Still reading them now and waiting for the next to hit the shelves. 

 I moved on to Val McDermid. The Carol Jordan, Tony Hill series caught my attention, though the other VM titles I've tried did not hold my interest. Bogged down in 1979 twice and I won't try again. Life's to short. 

Went back to the Kate Daniels series by Mari Hannah, and enjoyed them, which is strange because I tried the first years ago and gave up because I found it bitty and disjointed. Strange how we change; this time around I found it smooth and flowing and went on to read the others in the series. I haven't tried any of her other heroines/heroes series yet.

After that came Helen Fielding, whose storylines are so horrific they almost put me off. It seems the public has a taste for gruesome, and its almost as if authors try to outdo each other in gruesomeness. Or perhaps its the real life villains who do more and more gruesome things. Apart from the LJRoss series, the protagonist is a female detective inspector. Now that is not a deliberate choice on my part and to be fair some of the JE titles have a male DI. 

My latest venture is J Cartwright and his first half dozen books, which came out astonishingly quickly, were bright, new and chatty with a good storyline. The one that came out the beginning of this month I have not managed to finish yet. The storyline is wavering and Freya seems at war with everyone.

Concurrently I am watching re-runs of the Wire in the Blood series and enjoying it. I remember this when it first came out and I did not continue to watch all the way through because it was too horrible - man dying on spike - ugh! But now I watch and wonder if that means I have changed and become more bloodthirsty, more acclimatized to gore. There is certainly a lot of it about in TV. It is hard to avoid. This makes me wonder about watching something making a person more prone to doing something...

Is it Luck?

I wanted to know who sold the most books last year, 

so I asked Google. 

Back came the answer: Colleen Hoover.

Who? I consider myself a reader, yet I have never heard of the lady.

So I had to look further. CH is an American who writes in the romance and YA genre. Best known for her 2016 title It Ends With Us, she had sold 20 million books by October 2022. Her debut novel was Slammed which she wrote with no intention of getting published. (They always say that, don't they?) she published it in 2012 so her mother could read it. (Mum had just got a Kindle.)

A book blogger gave her five stars, and sales rocketed. Atria Books picked up the novel and republished it on August 10, 2012. A decade later, the author is the most successful  of all. It seems that once again, luck plays a huge part in who is successful and who is not. 

Mosaic floor

 It's a tv  day today. 

Already walked Mala 4,651 steps, had breakfast in bed, showered, and dressed ready to go downstairs and switch on for the king's coronation.

One of the things I shall be watching is the Mosaic floor under the coronation chair. Also known as the Cosmati Pavement. An amazing piece of workmanship from the late 1200s. 

Completed in 1286 to be precise. 

I have actually seen it during a visit to Westminster Abbey in January 2011. Follow the link:

https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/05/06/royal-coronation-what-is-the-cosmati-pavement-king-charles-iii-will-be-crowned-on

and there are some wonderful pictures as well as more information.

I love her writing

Food for Thought

Omniscient perspective may be out of style these days, but reading through the Lymond Chronicles, I keep being struck by how useful it is, especially to the would-be writer of an epic.

If I may butt in here - and I may - it is my blog! I've always admired the way Dorothy Dunnett uses viewpoint without ever confusing me as she darts from one person's VP to another.

I don’t mean the type of omniscience you may remember from children’s books, ... I mean the sort that has full range of movement, sometimes drawing in close to give you a certain character’s thoughts for an extended period of time, other times shifting to give you several perspectives on the scene, and occasionally pulling all the way back to give you a god’s eye view of events.

Yep, that's exactly it.

The benefit this offers to an epic fantasy writer can be demonstrated any time Dunnett has to discuss the larger board on which her pieces are moving. She can, with a few elegantly-written paragraphs, remind the reader of the political and military forces moving in France, Spain, England and Scotland—and she can do it actively, with lines like this one:


“Charles of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor, fending off Islam at Prague and Lutherism in Germany and forcing recoil from the long, sticky fingers at the Vatican, cast a considering glance at heretic England.”

One of the reasons I love her writing - so much information (in a short sentence) and characterised too.

The plain expository version of that would be a good deal more dull, robbed of personality and movement, because it could not show you what the Holy Roman Emperor was doing: it could only tell you. To liven it up, the writer of third limited would need to make her characters have a conversation about Spanish politics, or else jump to a character who’s in a position to see such things on the ground.

Yes, tried both those routes.

And that latter choice offers two pitfalls of its own: either the character in question is a nonentity, transparently employed only to get this information across, or he gets built up into a character worth following… which rapidly leads you down the primrose path of plot sprawl. (I was a longtime fan of the Wheel of Time; I know whereof I speak.)

But the omniscient approach lets you control the flow of information as needed, whether that’s the minutiae of a character’s emotional reaction or the strategic layout of an entire region as armies move into position. In fact, it permeates everything about the story, including many of my following points—which is why I put it first.

The entire piece, written by Marie Brennan, is to be viewed on this link. below It is well worth reading.Writing Epic Fantasy the Historical Fiction Way: Lessons from Dorothy Dunnett’s The Game of Kings | Tor.com

Some confusion plotwise!

 Why didn't they ask Evans on ITV in 3 episodes.

I watched it, and liked the production, the clothes, the old cars, the sense of humour but thought the first episode was too slow. 

It is not a Christie novel I have ever read, so I came to it with few expectations. The opening was good. Sharp exchange between young man acting as caddy to an older man on the golf course.  A few minutes in and we have a body falling (or was he pushed?) over the edge of the cliff. But from then on, the pace positively crawls and interest focussed on the character of Lady Derwent though I cannot even recall how she came to be involved at all. But from that point on, she held the piece together.

In the last episode, the plot got rather faint, and how Knocker managed to find them in the dire situation they were in was never explained. Likewise  no one explained how the three of them got out of a locked house that night and then seemed to forget there were two Dobermans guarding the garden.

All the way through the hero was drooling after the blonde but when he discovers she is actually the villainess, he turns about and next thing we see is he marries Lady Derwent. Some confusion plotwise, all in all, but pleasant to watch. Makes me concerned for my own plotting!

A Germ of a Plot

 

LalindeTo write a novel you will need: 

astory plus a character.

A characterneeds:- a personality, abilities and at one major motivation.

History,hangups and goals.

Relationships –to career, family, friends, lovers and pets.

Some sort ofattitude to love and marriage.

Motivation is the thing thatpushes us to attain our objectives and whether we acknowledge it or not, motivationdrives most of us. We may not have a name for it but it gives meaning andpurpose to a life worth living. It can be the spirit of competition or a needfor social connection. Its absence can lead to mental illnesses or depression. Manyof us will have concrete goals – to win a prize, marry a rich spouse, achieveexcellence in something be it figure skating or writing poetry. Others may havemore diffuse desires. A fictional character must have a strong objective, butit can be anything the author likes.

The plot needs:

A plot goal

A conflict

Characterforced to face difficult situation.

Obstacles thatprevent character obtaining their goal.

A setting –place, culture, time period plus the characters attitude to that setting.

Just remindingmyself of the basics. Sometimes a good thing to do!

Internal dialogue is vital

 

A  famous New Zealand wineryLife is a learning process.

Things have changed in the popular fiction world over the last decade.

Ever noticed how much internal dialogue is now used? 

The simple reason is because it replicates real life.

We never stop thinking. It is hard to hold onto an empty mind in order to meditate or sleep because thoughts drift in without our permission and keep us awake - things happening around us, a problem we need to solve, what are we doing for dinner - all sorts of things. Characters begin to feel real to readers when the same thing happens to them.

The point-of-view character has to react to important events in the story and their thoughts draw readers with them. Sharing their private feelings means the reader understands them better and why they do the things. they do

The POV character would hardly be human if they did not like/dislike/hate the people they encounter in the story. Internal dialogue reveals their private thoughts and also their own personality - which may be quite different to the persona they present to the world.

The same technique can create anticipation and give the readers a space in amongst action sequences. In other words, the POV character reviewing an action or pre-viewing the next step helps pacing, and  at the same time minimizes confusion by revealing motivations.

The reader needs to know why the POV character acts as they do, their plan and why they’re pursuing it. Internal dialogue answers this perfectly.

Dodgy characters who deceive everyone around them may well act one way and think another. These characters are not usually the POV character, but the POV character can contemplate what they do and what they say and note contradictions. Sometimes backstory that influences the actions of our characters is told via internal dialogue.

I'm beginning to wonder how much I use internal dialogue in my own stories!

Characters and charisma

 I read an interesting statement this week: 

there are only three ways to influence others: 

force, reason, or charm.

I must remember that when thinking about characters in a book. What do I think the  word charisma  actually means? Too many folk are labelled as celebrities these days. Most of them are unknown to me, so it seems celebrity does not mean global recognition these days, but recognition in a rather small pond. 

If someone is charismatic they are often described as magnetic, charming and beautiful or handsome. Biographies of these people often hint that at rock bottom they are simply greedy and one of those three words - force, reason or charm - to get what they desperately need. Underneath the charm, they are often found to be bullies, or narcissists and most have a need to win any battle that comes their way.

This sort of thinking has come to the fore recently and the buzz word is narcissist; the name Markle comes to mind. 

Authors can build these traits into a character. If your latest creations, like mine, are about crimes and working police, then you have lots of scope, for charismatic people choose jobs that bring them what they need. Many are lawyers, and police figure on the list, along with chefs and surgeons. The villains are often  tarred with the same characteristics. Remember all those murderers who charmed ladies into victimhood?