Writing

My biggest regret

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I am, by nature, a literary packrat. I don’t save “stuff” so much as I save whatever I’ve written. I have some of my early stories from elementary school squirreled away somewhere.

But I find myself regretting one thing.

When I was in seventh grade, I hand wrote a 50 page Lord of the Rings fan fiction. It’s not the fact that I wrote fan fiction that bothers me (shhh, I still do, on occasion). It’s the fact that I recycled it.

I wish I had that rich, terribly written mine of cliches. I really do. It’d be fun to go back and read. Not to mention cower at the sight of all that purple prose.

I worry librarians.

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I dashed to the library today, minutes before they announced that they were closing for the evening. But that’s okay. I was on a mission, questing for research  and a David Ogilvy bio. Alas, I didn’t find the latter.

I can tell the moment I step into a library. The librarians look up from their stocking the shelves, either to say hello (as at my favorite library), or figure out an escape route. Because without a doubt, within an hour I’ll be up at the check out desk with a stack of random books, or at least books on a subject that shouldn’t interest college-aged girls.

Band of Brothers, I could see today’s librarian thinking. Not Twilight? What is wrong with this girl? Oh good, she got a beading magazine and a U2 CD. Maybe these books are for her dad.

Wrong-o.

Libraries are to me as Wikipedia is to XKCD. The random books on the shelves prompt me to grab, open, skim, and either return or continue reading. Thankfully, I’ve stayed away from the foreign language section for the time being.

Do mane characters go to the hair dresser?

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Ah, spelling. The bane of every schoolkid’s existence (second to grammar).

The other day I was bored, and poked about Yahoo!Answers. I came across a question that was, essentially, “What should I name my mane (sic) character?”

That got me thinking (which is not difficult to do).

Main characters, as we all know, are stories’ focal characters. Jim is my current main character. I doubt I’ll determine his mane character.

Mane character is what our hair is like. Let’s use Harry Potter characters as examples.

Snape’s “mane character” is greasy.

Sirius’s (while in Azkaban) is matted.

Dumbledore’s mane character also includes his rather luxuriant, silver facial hair.

Voldemort has no “mane character.” He’s bald.

Ron’s is ginger.

Now, misspellings can bring about other unfortunate mismeanings. I would hate to spend time learning how to be a stylist and apply for a job as a “hare dresser.”

Books, books, more books, and yardsales.

General Geekiness

I love books. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has followed this blog.

Every few years, though, I go through necessary purges. I acquire books. I hoard them. I keep them locked up in a plastic box and forget about them.

We decided to have a yardsale this weekend. My contribution? Close to two hundred books.

As I was going through them, I smiled. Looking at the random collection of books I have, it comes as no surprise to me that my current WIP (or, research in progress) is set in WWII. I forgot how much I loved that era during elementary school/middle school. Its amazing how much I forgot over the years!

And yes, I’m selling them all.

What do you do when neither your character nor you speak a language?

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I’m working on my not-so-epic-yet WWII story.

I’ll divulge a small portion of it (as I haven’t done too much research/plotting yet).

My main character, Jim, is an RAF pilot who gets gunned down over Holland. He doesn’t speak Dutch.

Problem is, neither do I.

I want to convey the lack of understanding between he and his “captors.” My initial thought would be that they would speak in Dutch, and I wouldn’t provide a translation, so neither the reader nor Jim understands.

Hmm.

If you’re going to write an action/adventure story…

Nerds Have More Fun, The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

you had better name your main character “Jack.”

Seriously.

A few months ago, my friends and I noticed that a large quantity of action heroes had the name Jack. I thought I’d share an abridged list with you.

Jack Bauer, 24

Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy

Jack Shepard, Lost

Jack Aubrey, Master and Commander and Aubrey-Maturin Series

Jack Ryan, The Hunt for Red October and others

Jack Harkness, Doctor Who and Torchwood

Jack O’Neill, Stargate SG-1

This is merely a brief selection of Heroes Named Jack. Save yourself the trouble of coming up with new names for your action hero. “Jack” is perfect.