Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 98

a reader's trust

I recently read a book where the author lost my trust in the first few pages. It has happened before, and I am sure it will happen again. I knew the moment it happened, and I felt a little bad. I wanted to like the book. I really really did. And the moment I lost trust, I wasn't mad. I didn't think the author had made a terrible mistake. I didn't even think that other readers would notice. It was just me. There was a turn that didn't work for me, or that I guessed, or a bit of information left out that I wanted to know. And then I felt a strange distance from the rest of the novel. I kept reading, but I wasn't as engaged as I wanted to be. And I was left wondering why.

I have read novels where there were problems and I just waited for them to be resolved. I assumed that the writer knew what s/he was doing and that the niggling things would be dealt with. Or books where I guessed something and it turned out I was wrong, or I was right, but the author meant me to guess, or I was right and the author made me feel like I was smart for guessing ahead of time instead of making me feel like I had glanced behind the curtain. So I don't know why this time it didn't work. It might have had nothing to do with the writer, and everything to do with me. Maybe I was just distracted and thinking too much about other things and I was reading while the kids were home and the house was noisy.

But I feel a little disappointed now. I finished the book. It was a good book. I am left still wishing that I still had absolute trust in the author and I don't. I wonder how I can avoid doing this myself to a reader. I probably can't. There are plenty of readers who have guessed things in my books when I didn't intend them to, and they didn't like it. Maybe I just shrug and say that sometimes the magic doesn't work. But maybe I can be a better magician?

schedule

This was my schedule yesterday:

7-9: work on Tris and Izzie trailer
9-11:30: gym
11:30-12: lunch (I hate taking time for lunch!)
12-1: more trailer work
1-3: manuscript critique
3-4: figuring out how to make a bookmark and putting in an order
4-5: kid stuff (lessons, pickups, etc)
5-5:30: piano
5:30-6: lying on couch, moaning because I am too tired to think
6-6:30: getting takeout Chinese
6:30-7: eating
7-8:30: bad TV
8:30-9: bedtime routine, including reading Wimpy Kid with Scottish accent while being begged not to
9-10: good TV

Ideally, I think I wish my schedule was more like this:
6-9: writing 4-5,000 words on new first draft project
9-11: gym (listening to audio books while in pool and treadmill, or catching up with friends)
11-11:30: piano
11:30-12: eat lunch while reading latest YA novel
12-2: more reading while simultaneously knitting and also keeping up on twitter, facebook, livejournal, tumblr, and my email
2-4: revising latest project to be published soon (which uses a different part of my brain than first draft work).
4-6: happy family time during which I help kids with homework, drive them to lessons, and make dinner with healthful ingredients cheaply while singing and smiling all the while
6-7: eat and chat joyfully with husband, then do dishes and keep kitchen tidy--also clean out fridge of deadly items
7-8: brilliant, helpful critique group work, reading other manuscripts and commenting on them with a fresh mind
8-10: have bonding conversation with husband and children, while watching TV and doing yoga or laundry.
10-6: fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and sleep blissfully without nightmares about my academic career or neighbors who hate me

Things that are not on my schedule (and maybe should be?):

dealing with teachers who don't think my kids are reading on grade level
phone or door solicitors
church work
cleaning the house
going to the doctor/dentist
emergency trips to the store
figuring out if I want to wear makeup or not
clothes shopping (even on-line)
bill paying
taxes
snow shoveling
dealing with the toilet that is overflowing into the kitchen
organizing my office and books
wondering what I am doing with my career/life
stalking David Tennant on youtube
just sitting quietly with nothing to do at all

vote on trailers

I have a favor to ask--

Would anyone be willing to look again at book trailers?

I have three slightly different ones up on the website now, with different music.

Go here and you'll see them all. I think all three are better than the first one, but I'd like a few more objective opinions.

The good part is that you will also get to hear my amazing daughter singing, playing piano, and playing cello all at the same time (well, virtually) as background.

Thanks!

Catherine Tate Show

My kids have roped me into watching this, for obvious reasons. I almost never watch comedy shows. I don't like The Office, find it acutely painful. In fact, that is my problem with most comedy. It feels too real to me.

So, the Catherine Tate Show works for me about half the time, which is more than most. I also liked the first couple episodes of The IT Team. I think what works for me in comedy is very light poking fun at real situations. And the absurd only works for me if it doesn't twist too far. I don't know why that is. It has to feel like real people and it has to feel like gentle commentary.

A couple of the skits I like:

Lauren Cooper, such a typical teenager I actually root for her, even though she is making fun of others. I think it works for me because I feel very connected to the teenage mindset and I remember how I thought about other people. I also know that it is curable. Adulthood mostly.

Posh People. Oh, I love this. I think it works for me because I see a lot of this around me, but it isn't mean comedy. Does that make sense? I really dislike comedy that shows people as too dark or too stupid. It's just what matters to the Posh People is so small, because they have so much. And who doesn't like cinnamon and gooseberry yogurt?

The Woman Who Screams at Everything. I don't know. This just gets funnier and funnier to me as I watch it. It's not mean. It's not too absurd.

The Annoying Office Lady. She always wants you to guess. In a way, I think it's the straight woman who is the funny one here. I love it when she guesses that the other woman ran 50 miles the night before. I love it partly because I have run 50 miles. And when she answers that she ran 8--00--meters. Oh, so hilarious.

Don't like Nan. (Except when David Tennant comes on as the Ghost of Christmas Present and does the Ghostbusters Dance.) She's just too mean.

I love the skit with Daniel Craig where he is so in love with her, and she is bored too death with him. That depends on him doing a good job, too. I don't know--I've never been impressed with him as an actor, but this part fits him well. Very low key.

My kids love the "Last Touch" skit, mostly I think because it's adults acting like children and that is always funny, isn't it?

small stakes

I've been thinking about big stakes vs. small stakes in TV, film, or books. I can't say that I always prefer small stakes. There are some really big stakes shows and books that I love. But I like small stakes sometimes. I like for the whole universe not to be ending, for the only thing that matters is for one person to get what he/she is trying to get for the future, to fall in love, not even to be rich but to have enough for one more day.

Why does it bother me if there are big stakes?

Well, does it have to be about the end of the universe every time?
Sometimes I just get exhausted caring about the end of the universe as a consumer.
Sometimes it stretches the imagination to believe that every time this character steps out into the world, he/she has to save the universe. Like, what would happen if he/she wasn't always there? And what kind of curse is it to have to save the universe all the time?
What about real life? What about the kind of life that I have? Isn't that important, too?
A big stakes story tends to gloss over the little people and I like the little people.
There are too many stories to be told in a big stakes world. I like a single viewpoint.

What are the problems with small stakes?

Well, sometimes they are just too small. I put the book down. I don't care what the ending is. Or I can guess what the ending is.
The main characters just are not compelling enough. I don't want to spend that much time with them.
It feels like it has become a literary novel, where no one changes and nothing happens that matters and everyone is going to get divorced in the end and write a novel.
It feels too much like my own world, and I want to get out of my world for a while.

I think I get a little tired of the season ending Dr. Who episodes where it's "end of the world" time. You keep having to raise the stakes and they are already so high, there's no where to go to raise them again. So I like some small episodes like Amy's Choice or Family of Blood or Tooth and Claw or New Earth. Yes, those episodes have the problem that they don't change things a lot, but I like them anyway.

I like small novels, too, sometimes, like Ella Enchanted or Half-Magic or Summers at Castle Auburn or The Thief. They still have stakes, but it doesn't always have to be the end of the whole world. Maybe sometimes just the end of the world the pov character cares about.

new recommendations up on my website

You can go here to see all my new recommendations for the last six months.

Also, for all those who have complained about the hard-to-read background, I have taken it off everywhere. Yeah! Go look here .

Dear Izzie vlog

So, as a promotion for Tris and Izzie, I'm putting together a series of vlogs called Dear Izzie, an online video advice column for magically challenge high schoolers. They can write in and ask Izzie questions and she'll answer them online.

You can go here to link to the first couple.

new website for Tris and Izzie

I've got a new website up at least partway, if you're interested in poking around in the world of Tris and Izzie. There are recipes for various potions, warning signs of having been given a love potion, a first chapter excerpt, and a ton of teacher resources like some reader's theaters, discussion questions, and some essays on the history of the legend of Tristan and Isolde, some related Arthurian stories, and one on medieval love.

It's here.

Do I like sad stories?

I have been pondering whether or not I like sad stories, using Dr. Who as a jumping off point. I suspect the reason that I have certain favorite episodes that I like to rewatch is simply because they have happier endings. Ones that I know are good, but I can't rewatch, tend to have sad endings. I think this is largely true of my reading, as well. I love poignant novels, but I won't reread them if I feel like they are too sad.

15 thinks that the best Dr. Who is The Silence in the Library. I can't stand to watch it again. I know it's a good episode, but it makes me too sad when River dies. I have to fast forward through parts, or just watch bits and pieces. And then it's even worse with Donna and her children and the man she loves in the library. Wasn't one ruined romance enough? No, you have to give us two.

Whereas I think Family of Blood and Blink have happy-ish endings, so I am willing to watch them over and over again. Cathy finds love back in time, and so does the policeman. So I don't feel sorry knowing that they are dead in the here and now. And the nurse in Blood doesn't get John Smith, but John Smith isn't real, as much as he thinks he is. The vision of the future he has in potential, not actual, so when it is lost, it's just enough poignancy for me to love, but not feel hurt by. And there's always Martha to go back to. And the nurse has been in love before and may be in love again. And I love it when she asks the doctor if he could change back and he says, "Yes," and she asks him if he will and he says, "No." It IS his choice in the end, isn't it? And he gets what he wants.

Some other examples.

The Queen of Attolia. I reread it all the time. It's not a particularly upbeat book. It's about a thief getting his hand cut off, almost dying, and about the gods conspiring against him because the world is about to end. But the ending is a marriage, and it's largely a happy one. I can stand a lot of unhappy, dark scenes, if you just give me a happy ending. Or at least not a sad one.

I think George R. R. Martin is a genius. I love to read his books once. But they yank out my heart and stomp on it, and I can only go through that so many times.

Lois McMaster Bujold. I reread Shards of Honor and Barrayar again and again, and they have a lot of dark stuff, but they end happily. I think I have more trouble rereading Mirror Dance, as brilliant as it is, because I am not sure that it has a happy ending. Or Memory.

I posted a few weeks ago about how you can't give the audience the happy ending they want, and I still believe that is true. You want to twist the audience's expectations around a lot. But if you can find some kind of happy ending, I think that is important. It's a story, after all. It has shape, a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's not like real life, that starts abruptly and ends abruptly and may have no meaning at all. We don't read because we want real life. We read because we want more than that.

metteharrison @ 2011-01-19T15:15:00

Here is an attempt at a book trailer for Tris and Izzie:



Comments are welcome. I've never done one before, so I know it is probably pretty rough.