On Writing

  • I love my Heroes …

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    Watched the Heroes pilot last night. As a comic-book fan and writer, I was interested to see how and if it would work — and if it would be too much like X-Men. It did, and it wasn’t.

    It totally rocked.

    Dug the characters. Dug their conflicts. Dug their emerging powers. And wondered what it all meant and how they’ll come together. I especially loved the nerdy Japanese guy who so desperately wants to be special. Don’t we all?

    What about you? Are you feeling a little Heroes worship? Inquiring minds want to know …

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    Why bad guys are so good …

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    My perusal of new TV shows continues. Watched Smith last night. It’s on CBS and is about a crew of professional thieves. They knocked over an art museum. A woman got tasered. People died. Stuff blew up. And I liked it. 😉

    And the show made me think … why do we like to root for the bad guy? We all do it from time to time. C’mon. Admit it. There’s a villain out there somewhere that you secretly want to win. You want Mr. Bad Guy to kick the hero’s ass, thwart the authorities, and convince the heroine to ride off into the sunset with him.

    Sometimes, the villain is what really makes a story sing. Just look at the comics. Where would Batman be without the Joker? Or Professor X without Magneto? Or Spider-Man without Green Goblin? Snoresville, most likely.

    What about you? Do you want the bad guys to win sometimes? Inquiring minds want to know …

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    Studio 60 and dialogue

    Watched the premiere of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip last night. Really enjoyed it. Great cast, great concept, great execution.

    And really great dialogue.

    The intelligent, sharp, rat-a-tat exchanges between the characters were one of the best parts of the show. And one of the best parts of TV and movies in general.

    The truth is that you just can’t do that kind of rapid-fire dialogue in books. Oh, you can have great dialogue, no question, but you can’t go overboard with it the way you can in other mediums. After a couple of lines in a book or short story, people lose track of who’s talking. Without any visual aids to cue them in … well, it’s just not as thrilling as it is in the movies and on TV.

    What about you? Do you love great dialogue? Or does description make your heart sing? Inquiring minds want to know …

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    782 and counting … and the problem with historicals

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    For those of you keeping count, I read my 782nd book this weekend — Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas. It’s the first book in her popular “Wallflower” series.

    I enjoyed it. One of the best things about historicals is the witty banter between the hero/heroine, which Kleypas excelled at in this book. I also loved the friendship between the four “wallflowers.” I think we’ve all been a wallflower at some point in our lives. I wish I’d had friends like Lillian, Daisy, and Evie to hlpe me through the tough times.

    But I had one quibble with the book, and it’s more a quibble with historical romances in general — why does the heroine almost always have to be a virgin? I realize that times were different back then, but c’mon. People had sex then, too. Men and women. Otherwise the human race would have died out a long time ago.

    I can think of only two historicals I’ve read in recent years where the heroine hasn’t been a virgin — one of the Bridgerton novels by Julia Quinn and a book by Karen Hawkins. The names escape me at the moment.

    Sometimes, when I read a historical, I just want the heroine to have her way with the hero, instead of it always being the other way around. I want her to be the one doing the teasing and chasing and seducing. If anyone knows of any historicals that break the mold a bit, please let me know. I’m always on the lookout for a good, different read.

    What about you? Have you read the “Wallflowers” series? Do you like your historical heroines to be virginial? Inquiring minds want to know …