By Wednesday. It’s a short story, entitled “The Watcher.”

Yes, I’m still “blocked.” But I’m finishing it anyway, even if it’s terrible in the end. Because really, it’s time to move on.

One thing about the current protagonist is that he reminds me of the protagonist of a story I wrote previously. Not the characterization, since they are drawn very differently, but the two characters are alike in their circumstances. Both this character and the earlier one are the respected advisors for their respective commiunities, both are experiencing alienation from the thing that is the source of their power, and out of fear, both are harboring a secret.

I wonder if it’s a common thing for a writer to come back to the same themes. And I wonder whether it’s best to just go ahead and write the stories that seem compelling, even if they are familiar in a way… or if it’s better to look for things to write about that are completely fresh.

Andrew Rosenberg over at The WriteRunner has a thought-provoking post about the quality that most distinguishes heroes from villains in fiction. He decides it’s something simpler than good vs. evil, and he uses examples from real life to show what he means.

It’s made me think about my own heroes and villains from a new perspective, and even more so since I’m writing a truly villainous (by this definition) protagonist and wondering if this automatically drains the appeal from the story.

A while back I mentioned in a post that the majority of my POV characters tend to be male. And so it is with my two most recent stories. I don’t know why this is, other than to say that the character whose point of view I use is simply the one that seems right for the story.

Anyway, a new question arises. Are there gender differences in writing? I realize that that men and women often choose to read different types of books (not all the time, I know).  Do they write differently as well? The stereotypical answer would that, with respect to sf and fantasy, in general, males like to write about technology, tough characters and lots of action, while women prefer to write about personal and relational experiences.

I don’t know, though, whether this holds true, even as a gross generalization. Are there differences, do you think? Can you describe them?

Earlier this year I wrote a post about some of my thoughts on coming up with suitable character names. Now I have something else to say on this subject, and it’s really more of a pet peeve: It’s when authors of science and fiction and fantasy novels invent names for places and characters that I, as a reader, am not sure how to pronounce correctly. The English language is filled with inconsistent rules for spelling and pronunciation, and new words can be tricky. Unusual and exotic made-up names are fun and can be a useful part of the world-building, I’m sure. But in my opinion, if you’re going to invent a new name, it’s best to find a string of letters whose pronunciation is not ambiguous.  

Having said all that…

I’m guilty of this, too. I was thinking of using the name Aleka for the female protagonist in my next novel. I was intending the pronunciation to be AL-eck-ah - accent on the first syllable and the first a sound like the a in apple. BUT the first (and only) person I showed the name to thought it was a-LAKE-ah. So I think that makes the name unusable.

I’ve noticed that in my short fiction, I usually write from the POV of a male character. In fact, of the stories which I’ve sold, 12 of them have had male POV characters, 3 of them female  POV characters,  and 1 had a POV which shifted between a male and female character. That’s pretty overwhelming, but really, I’m just choosing what seems best for each individual story. Any other authors out there who tend to select (overwhelmingly) POV characters of the opposite gender?

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And on a sad and glum note, a story of mine (one of my favorites!) earned its fourth rejection tonight. Here are the comments received with each rejection so far. I’m paraphrasing:

Fantasy Magazine said: No on this, but do send another.

Strange Horizons passed on it, without comment.

Abyss & Apex said: No. Good story, but begins slowly. Try fixing that.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies said: Good beginning, but the story didn’t live up to its promise.

Hah! Try reconciling those last two! Actually, I do like this story as is, and in the midst of other projects I don’t feel like going back and reworking the same stories over and over.  Also, I do feel pretty confident that it will be published somewhere, eventually. So I’m sending it off again tomorrow, and going back to the other things that interest me right now.

One of the problems (actually, the biggest problem) I’m having with the revision project is the whole issue of character motivation. The protagonist’s actions get him into trouble, and as the author, I know why he does what he does (or at least I thought I did), but I don’t think it would be clear to a reader. Likewise with the villains, and really (let me be honest) the entire cast of minor characters. Why do any of them do what they do? What determines motivation? So basically, I’m facing the task of not just revising what I already wrote, but actually writing in new information, even entire new scenes.

E. Hartshorn over at Random Walks toward Publishing has started an interesting discussion about revising your fiction in order to sharpen character motivation. If this is an issue for you too, then you should go over and read what she has to say.

I’ve noticed that my short stories tend to be very character-centered, but with my novel it’s all about the plot, that marvelous and surprising unfolding of events.

Of course I want both of these to be fully developed – it’s only that my focus seems to shift according to the length of the work. I wonder if it’s like this for other writers.

Sometimes, naming a character is fun. Sometimes it’s a chore to find a fitting name.

Yesterday, I encountered two opposing points of view on the subject of names.

On one hand, there’s the position that the name becomes the character no matter what. Maybe: there are a lot of stories I’ve read where I remember the general events, but not the names of any of the characters.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Right?

On the other hand, yesterday I read (through a link on Erica Naone’s blog) a rather surreal short story about the power of a name.

A lot of cultures set great store by names. They are power. God gave Adam stewardship over the animals, and the power to name them. What does that mean, anyway? 

Or maybe it’s just a mom thing. Most expectant mothers I know have spent countless hours pouring over the choices offered by any of the dozens of baby-name books found in any bookstore. Because naming is fun.

So which is it, do you think? Are character names important, or are they not?

I kept my baby-name books from when my kids were born, and I use them for inspiration in naming characters. In cases where I have a completely made-up world, I usually need to invent names.

Pop-Quiz: Test your knowlege!

These are some of the male names from my w-i-p. What do they sound like to you? Can you match them up? Anybody care to try?

1.  Loki Brisselthump               A. old man; now in exile

2.  Yori Beene                           B. protag; goes in search of exiled old man

3.  Gao Golog                           C. engineer

4.  Migos Yonadoi                    D. villainous sidekick

5.  Aram Oturos                       E. friend of protag; continues his research

Good luck! I’ll post the answers in the comments.

Many (though not all) of the ideas for my fiction originate as a visual image in my imagination of a single character. These images are emotionally compelling, and I usually feel that I want to discover and tell the story of this character.

For example, the image of an elderly man, standing outside, looking nostagically at pictures on the screen of an electronic book, while his grown grandson watches him from the window of their nearby farmhouse. Just an image, but it gave rise to my story “Covenant.”

The image of the crazy monk sitting out of sight of the door with his knees tucked under his chin and pretending not to be home when a friend came knocking. This became “The Tale of Blue Butterfly Girl.”

There have been so many others: the girl veiled entirely in black but with hands tattooed like the branches of trees and nails painted with the swirled patterns of seashells; the mutated monster wandering through a flat and dusty wasteland looking for his mother; the graying man in the bookstore with a pile of romance novels under his arm, which he is buying because his wife loves to read them, but is too sick to go out.

All of these characters – and others besides – have captured my imagination at various times, and have been the seed-images for different stories.

Now as for the images, I don’t know where *they come from.