Julia Karr's Blog, page 15
February 22, 2012
February 20, 2012
Mostly Monday – Happy Presidents' Day!
A little motivational movie for Monday!
February 17, 2012
The Friday Five – A little this, a little that…
Ah, when today ends, it's the start of a 3-day weekend for me! (Thanks, Presidents!)
So – here are five little things…
1. Gunpowder green tea is wonderful! It not only tastes fabulous, but it smells so… Green!
2. It can be hard to keep your main character from becoming a Mary Sue - especially if she's basically a really nice, smart, and talented person!
3. But (re: #2) we all have feelings that aren't nice at some point – and I get to let my MC have those feelings.
4. If (re: #3) she acts on them – well… that will be a surprise to everyone! (Hopefully to the reader's delight!)
5. First drafts can be such fun! And, such a challenge! While racing through to get the ideas/story down, it's tough to have to go back, just to be sure you did something earlier that affects what you're writing at the moment!
What are you thinking about this fine Friday? (Yes, the sun is shining!) And, do you get Presidents' Day off? (I hope so!)
February 14, 2012
Sympathy for the devil
Not exactly a Valentine's Day post, but… it's one about showing your antagonist/villain some love.
I'm guessing some of you are fans of ABC's ONCE UPON A TIME. If you haven't seen it yet – you are missing some really good storytelling! And, because it's so good, I thought I'd relate a bit about what struck me in the latest episode & reinforced my love of this show. One of the two main villains gained my sympathy!
I didn't think it was possible. Nope. I didn't. But, Rumpelstiltskin – who nearly had my sympathy in the episode where we found out how he got his power – now firmly has it and maybe for the long run (the jury's still out on that.)
How did the show's writers accomplish this? (Especially in light of the despicable stuff he's done up to now, which is totally worthy of anyone's loathing.) Well, they gave him some backstory. Some really good backstory!
I won't spoil the episode for you – but they showed that he was capable of love, capable of being hurt, and capable of actually thinking of someone besides himself.
What about the evil queen? Nope, haven't seen any redeeming qualities yet. When the writers finally get around to revealing why she is like she is – it is going to have to be good. Beyond good… and also it will have to be believable.
Anyway – when you're crafting a story with a really evil, despicable villain – before you make him a one-dimensional baddie – think about his backstory. You might not want to put it in your book (or maybe just hint at it), but be sure that you know it. Then, when you are writing scenes with this character in it, you will have a sympathy for them which will make them real, believable, and multidimensional – because no one is truly evil through & through (except maybe that wicked queen!)
What do you think? Do you want a villain who's beyond redemption – who has no hint of humanity? Or do you want one that, even when the good guy's taking him down, you feel a twinge of regret? Do you have any sympathy for the devil?
February 13, 2012
Mostly Monday – P. G. Wodehouse & Words
At Christmastime I was introduced to the writings of the incredibly prolific and very funny P. G. Wodehouse. To be honest, I have seen a Jeeves movie, Thank you, Jeeves! – and have been told I must watch the Jeeves & Wooster show – but, I had never read any of his books. I started "The Code of the Woosters" – however, it belonged to a friend of my daughter & she had to return it before I could finish it. The library's copy is on my nightstand right now.
Speaking of libraries – aren't they wonderful things? Oh, in another life I would have been a librarian!
Anyway, I just finished reading Wodehouse's "Something New." (It's not a Jeeves & Wooster book, but it is brilliant!) And, I have to say – I absolutely loved it! Maybe because I'm currently following Downton Abbey (who isn't?! & if you aren't, you should be!) and "Something New" has quite a bit about the proper etiquette below stairs. It's fascinating!
But, one of the things that tickles me about adult books (rather, books for adults – adult books sounds, well, you know… xxx!)… sorry – back to what tickles me is… the language! As a writer, I love words. Love! Them! And, Wodehouse uses fabulous words! Words that make me pull out the dictionary! Words that make me laugh out loud! That in itself is enough to guarantee him a place on my bookshelves!
Tonight's word – the one that had me smiling and repeating it several times was… poltroon. Poltroon!
Let's hear from Webster:
"pol*troon' – (from the Italian – poltrone – lazy, dastardly) An arrent coward; a dastard; a wretch without spirit or courage"
What I love about Wodehouse's writing is that it makes absolute sense that one of his characters would call someone a poltroon. And, there is something so beautiful about that! And so fantastically funny! I do believe that Bugs Bunny has called Elmer Fudd a poltroon (or that may have been "maroon" – which I know he used!) Ah, Bugs Bunny had a really good vocabulary… including that stellar term for beauty, "pulchritude!" (Of course, he pronounced it "pul*cri*tud*y.")
I finished "Something New" and am ready to jump back into "The Code of the Woosters." I'll be reporting back on interesting words and turns of phrases!
Any words you love? Words that make you laugh out loud? Or put a smile on your face? I'd love to know!
February 10, 2012
The Friday Five – all about Dickens
As Charles Dickens' 200th birthday week winds down – I'm offering up five things about the man and his works.
1. The majority of his work contained some humor, even if the story was serious. However, he had three works that are considered his dark novels. Bleak House (with a title like that, are you surprised?), Hard Times (ditto on the title), and Little Dorrit.
2. In all of Dickens' works there is only one female narrator – Esther Summerson in Bleak House.
3. Also in Bleak House, Dickens chose to go against the popular grain of thought and include a case of a person (a very despicable person at that) dying by spontaneous human combustion.
4. Charles Dickens full name is Charles John Huffam Dickens. He was born in 1812 into a large family where he enjoyed much early freedom, until his father was put into debtor's prison. Fortunately, Charles was sent to live with a poor, but, kind old family friend whom he later immortalized as Mrs. Pipchin in Dombey and Son.
5. Dickens fathered ten children – but it is his abundance of characters in his many novels and stories that live on.
Happy 200th, Charles Dickens! I, for one, am glad you were born!
February 9, 2012
Great Expectations – Happy 200th Charles!
We read Great Expectations in the 9th grade. It is one of those novels that has stuck with me for life. There is a reason – when I was a child there was a Miss Havisham-type of person in my life. (I'm not going into more explanation here because I am using her in a novel.) Below is the description of Miss Havisham's room – the thought of which totally creeped me out as a young girl.
"I crossed the staircase landing, and entered the room she indicated. From that room, too, the daylight was completely excluded, and it had an airless smell that was oppressive. A fire had been lately kindled in the damp old-fashioned grate, and it was more disposed to go out than to burn up, and the reluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed colder than the clearer air – like our own marsh mist. Certain wintry branches of candles on the high chimneypiece faintly lighted the chamber: or, it would be more expressive to say, faintly troubled its darkness. It was spacious, and I dare say had once been handsome, but every discernible thing in it was covered with dust and mould, and dropping to pieces. The most prominent object was a long table with a tablecloth spread on it, as if a feast had been in preparation when the house and the clocks all stopped together. An epergne or centrepiece of some kind was in the middle of this cloth; it was so heavily overhung with cobwebs that its form was quite undistinguishable; and, as I looked along the yellow expanse out of which I remember its seeming to grow, like a black fungus, I saw speckled-legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to it, and running out from it, as if some circumstances of the greatest public importance had just transpired in the spider community.
I heard the mice too, rattling behind the panels, as if the same occurrence were important to their interests. But, the blackbeetles took no notice of the agitation, and groped about the hearth in a ponderous elderly way, as if they were short-sighted and hard of hearing, and not on terms with one another.
These crawling things had fascinated my attention and I was watching them from a distance, when Miss Havisham laid a hand upon my shoulder. In her other hand she had a crutch-headed stick on which she leaned, and she looked like the Witch of the place."
What do you think? Have you ever met a Miss Havisham? Have you ever been in a place like this? When the time is right, I'll reveal my own version…
February 8, 2012
A Dickens of a Christmas – in February!
If you've been following my blog for any length of time (or even since Monday! 
), you know that A Christmas Carol is my favorite book. Not only do I love reading it every Christmas, but I also enjoy many of the iterations of it in moviedom. Such as:
A version I hadn't heard of before…
The Mister Magoo version
Henry Winkler's version
the Alistair Sim version
which was my favorite until this one with George C Scott
Is one of these your favorite? Or could it be Mickey's Christmas Carol? The Patrick Stewart version? Or another?
I think I love the George C Scott version because it holds so closely to the novel. And – I do love that book!
February 7, 2012
Happy Birthday, Charles! (Dickens, that is…)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. DICKENS!
From such hard and humble beginnings, to become a world-renowned author who is still so vital in the world of literature (and in the world, period.) I am so glad he put pen to paper!
I can't imagine my reading life without Charles Dickens! At least once every year at Christmas I read A Christmas Carol. Great Expectations is a part of my psyche. A Tale of Two Cities, The Pickwick Papers, Martin Chuzzlewit, Our Mutual Friend… I could, of course, go on and on! (And, tomorrow I will!)
February 6, 2012
Mostly Monday – The Day before Dickens…
The day before Charles Dickens' birthday, that is. I think this will be a Dickens of a week here at juliakarr dot com.
My favorite book for quite some time now (sorry Jane!) is Dickens' A Christmas Carol. But, it doesn't stop there… when I was in my twenties I went on a Dickens binge – reading all of his books! And, no – it wasn't for any class – but that is how I worked my way through many of the classics.
Thinking about this reminds me of my adventure with The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Through my many moves (I wasn't one to stay put), I'd been carting around a very old copy of The Three Musketeers. When this particular movie version came out…
it inspired me to read the book. Then… I had to read the entire d'Artagnan Romances! Finding them was a challenge – especially in the days of no internet! However, the fabulous library where I was living at the time (Thornton, CO) managed to help me piece together a trail of all the books (there are only 3, but at least one of them is at times divided into 3 volumes – one of those being The Man in the Iron Mask.) And so – I read them – followed d'Artagnan from his first meeting with the Musketeers, all the way to his death.
I love those kinds of stories! The kind that tell the entire life of a character! And, I love to – and still do – go on author binges. Do you ever do that? I'd love to hear who you think is a worthwhile author of whom to partake in super-large doses!
