Last week I was walking around the campus at work--or maybe it's more of a compound with all the security and fences and stuff--and I got to thinking of a reboot to The Night's Legacy, which itself was a reboot. Because the thing was, I really liked the first few chapters when it focused on Louise and her mom and her new job and all that stuff. Then I got into all the superhero action stuff and it kind of flattened. So I was thinking about how to redo that. I was thinking maybe since Louise's mom is such a nice person, like a saint, we could make her an angel or something. Angel books are pretty popular right now. Not as popular as vampires maybe, but I've heard of a few.
I tried to work it out for a little while and then I finally just said, "Enough." Then I said to myself, "I'm really sick of this paranormal shit. Why does she have to be a superhero or angel or vampire or witch or any other damned thing? Why the fuck can't I just write a story about two normal, regular people?" And then I said to myself, "Hmmm...that's a pretty good point. Why the fuck can't I do that?"
I think I said it before on my old blog, but I don't read YA stuff. I don't read paranormal stuff either. The last vampire book I read was "Dracula." Incidentally that was only the third vampire book I've read. The other two were by people I know from the Internet. For that matter I haven't read any books about angels, demons, zombies, witches, or werewolves unless you count the Discworld series, which features pretty much all of those at some point.
Actually if you look at my reading history I generally read three categories:
- Literary fiction: You know, stories about more or less normal people.
- Science fiction: But since I grew up in the '80s that's mostly stuff dealing with spaceships or robots or stuff like that.
- Hardboiled fiction: I'm not sure exactly how to classify that. This last year I started reading a lot of Raymond Chandler and then Lawrence Block. They're not all detective stories or mysteries. Maybe I should just say noir novels.
I wonder how many other writers are facing that dilemma right now. I mean how many really, truly like writing about vampires and all that shit versus how many are just doing it because it's the in thing to do? That would be interesting to find out. I'm sure I'd still be in the minority though because I'm never in the in crowd.
I did think of alternative reboot for that story. I was thinking I should just give Louise's mom breast cancer and do this whole sappy Nick Sparks thing with it. That's probably worse than anything paranormal.
My story that's with Double Dragon right now is an angel story. I enjoyed writing it. But it's not an atypical one. Rusty can probably verify that more than anyone right now because he read the short story for it. It's really an archangel story and the plot pretty much can't be told any other way because it's that kinda wierd. But I didn't set down with the idea of writing an "angel" story per se. I just wanted to tell THIS story. And I guess in the back of my mind I'd always assumed it was going to get published as opposed to writing it for a market in the hopes that it would get published. But aside from that one trend, it goes against everything else. It's third-person, has a guy as the main character, and then the guy doesn't like chicks but other men. So...hmmmm. I say write what you are comfy with and you write literary fiction really well. I say do that or do some noir. I'd love to read some noir from you. Like something similar to the t.v. show "Breaking Bad". BTW...I think you should watch it.
ReplyDeleteI might have that show on my Netflix queue. I know it's on the Instant so I can get to it at some point. After I watch the Star Trek Animated Series...
ReplyDeleteI took all the Angel and supernatural stuff out of the last thing I wrote so it just ended up being about a boy trying to find a girl. He used buses instead of wings. The current story is just about a woman and her life. I'm not meeting any trends, but meh. I'm still learning anyway.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michael, write what makes you happy. Trends come and go. Also he's right, you should watch Breaking Bad :-)
Instead of making her an angel or something... why not set it in the near future (though never making this explicit) and write it as a very subtle piece of sci-fi, where for all her humanity, kindness, compassion and wisdom etc, we actually find out come the end that the "mother" is effectively a part-android copy of the genetic original. The biological mother died when the child was very young. Then you get to raise important questions about what constitutes humanity, and love, and compassion, and wisdom, and you get to see the impact that it has on the daughter finding out that her mother is not human. How does that change things? Does it change things? Can you still love a robot like you love a mother?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that's the kind of sci-fi I like to read. Something thought-provoking and subtle, centred around some genuinely interesting relationships.
Of course, it's all in the handling... could just make the mother a troll or an elf.
Holy shit. You watch the Star Trek animated series over Breaking Bad? What a waste of brain cells.
ReplyDeleteI've never had the chance to watch that before and I'm really curious to see if it's absolutely terrible or not. The other day I also bought the complete boxed set of MST3K Gamera episodes, which I thought appropriate for Halloween.
ReplyDeleteAnd since the Tigers will soon be out of the playoffs I'll have more time for TV watching.
Have you ever read Spin? It's a literary book that they snuck into the sci fi section of the store. And its awesome. I do like an exterior, er, something, as a hook (like a spaceship/zombie attack., etc) but it takes the people part to make the story work.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, you gotta do what you want to write.
Oh, Michael's short story is a bit atypical. If the novels are like that then he certainly proves that good writing is more important than fitting a mold.
I like Neil's idea. My mind goes to a Grendel's Mother type that destroys everyone out of her ferocious love for her son and somewhat for sport. But that's been done. Maybe write what you love and that will get great.
ReplyDeleteYou get more commemoration for reading vampire books than I do -- I believe the ONLY vampire book I've read is Dracula.
ReplyDeletePersonally a reboot is not so bad in terms of trying to write something "mainstream." I might not be one to talk, though; my reading interests - and my interests in general - tend to fall outside what is popular.
I like literary fiction; I like science fiction. I'll write what is interesting to me regardless of whether it is considered "mainstream" or not.
I'm sort of against writing for the market. I think that always dilutes the real story that you want to tell. Tell the story you have the best that you can tell it. That's really the only way to stand out.
ReplyDelete