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Post by Jeff Gerke on Jun 8, 2009 8:02:38 GMT -5
One way I realized I needed to develop a system to create better characters was when I reached the end of a story and had decided the character really needed to be of a different gender than how I'd started him/her. I figured this out halfway through and just started writing her as the new gender. It then didn't take long to go back later and change the first half so that she was female throughout.
Though it was easily done, a part of me knew that I shouldn't be able to so easily change something this major in my characters. The terms "cardboard cutout" and "stick figures" came into my own mind.
I've now created "Character Creation for the Plot-First Novelist" to help me (and others) out. When I do the work in that system BEFORE I start the book, I never wonder who this person is and I don't need to change him/her like that halfway through. And if I DO, it will take major reconstructive surgery to do the change (no gender swap jokes allowed [grin]).
Jeff
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Post by morganlbusse on Jun 8, 2009 11:20:55 GMT -5
Funny story about character gender changing... I was at an event where Timothy Zahn was the guest speaker. He told a story about his star wars editor telling him she thought he should change his villain from a male to a female... and apparently in her mind she only thought he would have to change the pronouns. Little did she know...
Since I'm on this thread, he also told a story about his regular editor, after reading his Heir to the Empire trilogy (I think the second book) asking why he kept referring to Leia as Lady Vader. He merely told her to go watch Star Wars Return of the Jedi ;P (and sadly enough, my friend leaned over to me and asked what he meant... she had never watched Star Wars either).
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Post by metalikhan on Jun 11, 2009 2:16:59 GMT -5
Not a glitch, but a scary moment. (More like 45 minutes!)
My husband woke me this a.m. — major computer crash. He was able to pull up a desktop screen but it wasn't our normal one. Most of the programs were gone and *gulp!* the documents file was empty. His work files, my writing files — vanished. It resisted the first couple of recovery attempts, but I finally got it all back.
I'd planned on saving everything recent to cd's this Friday: a short story's final (and only) draft; the rough draft of another short story; the rough & final draft of an essay; and two new chapters of the current novel.
Never mind Friday — I saved it all tonight.
I felt like barfing half my internal organs until the recovery efforts worked.
The moral: don't put off for Friday what you should do right now.
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Post by Christian Soldier on Jun 11, 2009 12:15:44 GMT -5
Yup. I recommend having a thumb drive with your work(updated), an online copy, and a copy on your hard drive. And maybe a physical one as well, but that's because I like to hold my work. I like to hold it, and squeeze it, and cuddle it, and... well, you get the idea.
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Jun 12, 2009 8:35:59 GMT -5
Get that boy back home to his wife!
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Post by Christian Soldier on Jun 12, 2009 13:07:11 GMT -5
What... my work and I have a purely platonic relationship. I won't disagree with you, though.
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