tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post5106195952447827368..comments2024-03-20T02:26:46.482-04:00Comments on Joanna Bourne: Technical Topic -- How much abuseJo Bournehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13457862962618886252noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-31591059252742597392011-08-28T14:44:19.829-04:002011-08-28T14:44:19.829-04:00Hi Beth --
The difference between story and plot....Hi Beth --<br /><br />The difference between story and plot. So useful. <br /><br />You don't need this stuff to write. People are excellent writers without ever dissecting what they do. <br /><br />It's when you're trying and trying to make the writing work and it is NOT, that you go all analytical about it.Jo Bournehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13457862962618886252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-70316286671155039332011-08-28T14:31:49.833-04:002011-08-28T14:31:49.833-04:00I love the clear way you contrast story and story ...I love the clear way you contrast story and story problem. Such an important difference, and one that not every writer grasps.Bethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08504439129670380071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-56482762884777947832011-08-10T19:08:00.876-04:002011-08-10T19:08:00.876-04:00Thank you so much. I'm very pleased and flatt...Thank you so much. I'm very pleased and flattered that you should like TSL.<br /><br />Oddly, I don't really have a favorite of the books. There are bits and pieces of each that I like or am proud of.Jo Bournehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13457862962618886252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-19097580261152686562011-08-10T18:29:49.040-04:002011-08-10T18:29:49.040-04:00"Sex and violence are a fine relish to food, ..."Sex and violence are a fine relish to food, but they are not the meal of the meal."<br /><br />Love it :-)<br /><br />I love the Spymaster's Lady - that first scene does everything you describe. I immediately got a sense of how high the stakes were (life or death), how brave and bold the heroine was - and what sort of life she had been leading. Brilliant. Still one of my all time favourite romances!Meg McNultyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04985840066083718618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-19958093267448492052011-08-10T14:56:48.299-04:002011-08-10T14:56:48.299-04:00That first scene in Spymaster's Lady --
I am...That first scene in Spymaster's Lady -- <br /><br />I am with you on this. Very violent.<br /><br />I turned the graphic on that up and down a few times, trying to use the least possible. <br /><br />I do not like to see this pain and suffering stuff, myself. I have to kind of set my teeth when I write what's needed in the books. <br /><br />And I especially didn't want some innocent reader walking into that book and thinking my writing is all like that.<br /><br />But I did need to show what the stakes were. I couldn't just SAY -- "She's in deep kimchi," and "He's a real bad man." I have to show it.<br /><br />Because, in the first half of TSL, a major suspense point is that it MATTERS that Annique doesn't fall back into Leblanc's hands. <br />And I only have about two pages to set this up.<br /><br />Thus . . . the violence and abuse. <br />Thus the story decision I made to show this onstage, rather than picking up the story after it happened.<br />I try to show the brutality less in the immediate, blow-by-blow description, than in the responses to the brutality.Jo Bournehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13457862962618886252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-18241275300898282082011-08-10T12:29:03.918-04:002011-08-10T12:29:03.918-04:00@Christine. What you say about the scene in My Lor...@Christine. What you say about the scene in My Lord and Spymaster is perfect. I'm now even more anxious for Adrian's story.<br /><br />Jo, I hadn't really thought about how abuse/violence should be used to contribute to the story in quite this way, but now it seems obvious (as most truths do once someone says them). I think of the dungeon scene in TSL, when all 3 characters choose to resist in ways that we discover are totally consistent with their characters.Anniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00480968583416513772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-1634689904264251042011-08-09T17:59:12.081-04:002011-08-09T17:59:12.081-04:00Hi Christine --
The ancient Greeks gave us melodr...Hi Christine --<br /><br />The ancient Greeks gave us melodrama enough, but put actual violence off-stage, because it was not 'temperate'.<br /><br />Shakespeare, equally melodramatic, held his deaths and sword battles up at the footlights where everyone could see. <br />But see WHERE he puts this violence. How seldom he uses it.<br /><br />You sum it up with 'less is more'. Not the disembowelment -- the groan. Not the rape scene -- the silent aftermath.Jo Bournehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13457862962618886252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-1575617611380223972011-08-09T17:47:25.691-04:002011-08-09T17:47:25.691-04:00Hi Charity Girl --
Sex and violence are a fine re...Hi Charity Girl --<br /><br />Sex and violence are a fine relish to food, but they are not the meal of the meal.Jo Bournehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13457862962618886252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-75466803420569241172011-08-09T14:46:11.554-04:002011-08-09T14:46:11.554-04:00I definitely believe in the school of "less i...I definitely believe in the school of "less is more" when it comes to things of this nature. One thing about most action movies lately is how over the top the abuse of the main character is, by the time he falls off of planes, trains, gets shot etc without more than a couple of bruises I am rolling my eyes. At that point it has become a cartoon to me and the hero/heroine is now Wily E Coyote. I cannot be emotionally involved in their story.<br /><br />In contrast, one of the most touching things in Adrian's story so far was a quiet moment he had on the stairs with Jess in "My Lord In Spymaster" where he made a confession to her about something she had said ( I won't say what- spoiler free!) That one sentence spoken matter of factly by him was so poignant and telling about what his life had been like that no amount of "telling" or scenes of him "suffering" in flashbacks could have been as moving- at least to me. Although Adrian definitely had "hooked" me as a character in "Spymaster's Lady" by this point it made it so I HAD TO KNOW- what was Adrian's story?Christinenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617001.post-67340416950218054252011-08-09T10:20:42.320-04:002011-08-09T10:20:42.320-04:00Beautifully put! Also when characters suffer needl...Beautifully put! Also when characters suffer needlessly and it has no impact on their character or behaviour it has the same impact as sex scenes out of context - it becomes tedious. It's the person the reader is interested in not the act itself!Meg McNultyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04985840066083718618noreply@blogger.com