tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post4933675068024750030..comments2024-03-29T09:09:33.450-04:00Comments on alien romances: Choosing The Age of Your Protagonist To Win An OscarRowena Cherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11839386556697211986noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-34160208584365305912009-07-01T12:07:59.703-04:002009-07-01T12:07:59.703-04:00Kimber An:
The world is changing, true, but human...Kimber An:<br /><br />The world is changing, true, but humans change rather more slowly.<br /><br />Novelists have more elbow room than screenwriters though. <br /><br />In a novel, you can have more characters -- it's not more expensive to have more characters! <br /><br />So you can create characters to appeal to each side of the target audience you're aiming for and it can work commercially (though luck is involved).<br /><br />TV does this with ensemble casts, having different characters of different ages with different problems all going on under the surface as the team tackles some external problem. <br /><br />But like working the 2 POV or "braided plot" this is much harder to execute from the writer's perspective. Readers aren't supposed to see you straining to blend the stories. <br /><br />The trick there is theme. It's the glue. <br /><br />Meanwhile, study what I've been presenting here with the commerciality angle, and let your subconscious soak it up.<br /><br />Eventually, your subconscious will present you with a story Idea you love just as much as what you're writing now, but which does hit the commercial groove at just the right angle. <br /><br />Writers do their best work while asleep!Jacqueline Lichtenberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01613040740264804278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-26666527100398108732009-06-30T19:24:21.459-04:002009-06-30T19:24:21.459-04:00This is a toughie for me, because I tend to create...This is a toughie for me, because I tend to create characters in the transitional borders of genre lines. For example, I have 18 year olds still coping with some teen issues while learning to deal with 'new adult' issues too rather than 17 year olds still in the throes of adolescence or 20 year olds already in the middle of new adulthood. I think I do this because there's so few stories like that and, frankly, I get bored with all the stories having to fit in a nice age category. For me, it's much more exciting to read, and write, stories with protagonists in the middle of major life transitions. It's kind of like 'the fish out of water' story. The protagonist MUST make the leap or die.<br /><br />I read about the 'coming of age' story type, but it seems like all the protagonists involved are male. What's with that?<br /><br />Anyway, I keep trying to color in the lines, but, gosh, it's so much more fun to draw my own pictures. Not a speedy way to paying publication, unfortunately.Kimber Lihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03982239712083114488noreply@blogger.com