Everyone is a number in this dystopian near-future where cameras track your every move. Score above 90 and your set for life. Score below 75 and you’re on your own, kid.
The Cycler Series
The Cyler Series: What would you do if you woke up one day as a member of the opposite sex? For Jill McTeague, this is no hypothetical question. It’s real life!
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Or do I? I had very solid, defensible ideas when I began writing Cycler. There were themes, theories, and counter-arguments. There was a three-act narrative structure married elegantly to an underlying moral code. There were layers. But then my characters went ahead and ignored it all. They had their own ideas. My ideas were quaint and pointless to them. Hot air. They had other priorities. I guess that’s what I get for writing about teenagers. The whole process was infuriating. And exhilirating. I was on their journey not my own. This forced me to abandon my neat (alright, I’ll say it, contrived) notions of thematic consistency. I had to surrender to the logic of the story itself. All of which means I may not be able to say a lot of smart stuff about my own book. I mention this as fair warning. I will be posting links to interviews, reviews, podcasts, guest blogs, etc. in the next month or so. I will do my best to be clear and intelligent. But keep in mind, I am subject to the whims of teenagers. P.S. As you can see, I’ve updated my website. I shall no longer be calling my blog Liquid Logic because, really, what’s the point? A blog doesn’t need a name. Also, you’ll notice in the sidebar on the right that I have links for my bio, appearances, and press. 14 Responses to “What’s It All About?”Leave a Reply |
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I’m beginning to do interviews and stuff for Cycler and this means that I have to analyze my own work. I was an English major in college so this should be a piece of cake. After all, I don’t have to hypothesize what the author intended. I was there. I know what she intended.
i like “liquid logic” !!!!!!
Alright, you and I can have a super secret deal. As far as you’re concerned, it’s still called liquid logic.
Your description of the characters leading the way with their own ideas and bringing you along on their journey is consistent with how nearly all writers that I have listened to have described the creative process of writing a novel. There are probably 100 hours of tape in Charlie Rose’s studio of writers saying essentially the same thing. And while I am not entirely unfamiliar with the phenomenon I wonder if it is worth exploring some other, more searching, ways to describe where the art of creating characters and the complex story structures of a novel come from. There can be no denying the fact that it comes from somewhere in the writer. The writer makes all the decisions, even if those decisions are being made in a manner that may not be recognized by the writer as such. Understandably, in the absence of a recognizable decision making process, the writer experiences the sensation (or panic) of not knowing exactly where a certain idea came from or why they wrote exactly what they wrote. The perpetuation of the mythology of living characters is, in my view, a somewhat easy and unsatifying way of explaining away whatever it is that lies behind that sensation. It cuts short the inquiry, just when it promises to become most interesting and most difficult.
You’re absolutely right, Missile. I was actually thinking something quite similar to this just the other day. I know intellectually that I am in charge of everything, but I feel completely out of control. Here’s a more specific example of what it feels like. I have an outline. The outline calls for a character–let’s call her Jane– to go to a party and pick a fight with her best friend over some guy. This moment is essential because the rest of the story hinges on it. So I write the scene and afterwards, when I’m reading through it, it makes me physically sick. Jane would never say those things. Nor would she allow a guy to come between her and her best friend. It feels as if your characters are betraying you, but really it’s the result of a bad outline.
So fix the outline, right? The problem is, you never know exactly who your characters are until you start actually writing your story. In the outline phase, your characters aren’t fully fleshed out yet. They only acquire flesh and blood when you’ve committed to actual prose. And before you know it, your outline is a pointless exercise. So now you’re just out there freestyling. Freestyling leads to wild irrelevant tangents. Wild irrelevant tangents lead to the dark side of the force, etc.
If there is a method for taming this process so that it doesn’t feel as if one’s characters are steering the ship, I have not met the writer who’s found it. It’s possible that this maddening exercise is intrinsic to the narrative endeavor. Also, I fear that if your characters don’t shake you, the writer up, they’re never going to shake a reader up. Leaving room for your characters to surprise you, seems to be pretty essential.
I’m glad I’m not alone in this nightmare. For a while, I thought I’d picked the wrong profession. But apparently I’m in good company.
If I can think of any other way to elucidate the process, I’ll be sure to let you know. It is strange. Wonderful, horrifying and strange.
“It’s possible that this maddening exercise is intrinsic to the narrative endeavor.”
Yes. I think that it is essential. That feeling you describe of being “completely out of control” despite knowing you are the only one controlling things, is facinating. But, making decisions (especially creative ones) does not necessarily mean being in control. That is true in life, so it might as well be true in writing. Maybe the important thing to ask ourselves is not what did I intend, but what did I do.
Congrats on your novel Lauren!!! Fellow HC Crusader here, class of ’87, sadly I don’t think we ever met there. Looking forward to reading Cycler.
Thanks, Jim! I hope you enjoy it.
Lauren,
Kudos to you on your first novel! I’m looking forward to reading it.
Holy crap! Carol Precobb! Wow! Sorry for all the exclamation points but wow. Thanks!
I love the picture of you on the blog formerly known as Liquid Logic.
Thanks, Eugene! It’s convenient living with a photographer. I am amply documented.
Hello!
I just checked out the book from the library (after reading the boing boing article) and liked it so much I read it twice. I’ve ordered the book from Amazon for my library.
As a reader and new fan, I’d really love it if there was an RSS feed that just contained announcements of any new works. I like your other posts and would like to read them when I have to enjoy them. However, if a new book comes out I must act quickly and order ASAP!
Can you create a topic or a page that can be traced by an RSS reader? A mailing list might be another alternative.
Thank you! And keep writing!
Ciao!
Hi The Doctor What. Thanks so much! I’m glad you liked Cycler. I will look into an RSS reader. I’ve been meaning to do this anyway. I can tell you that my next book, a sequel to Cycler, will be coming out in late August/early September of 2009. I’m also planning to post some of my short fiction online when I have a spare moment. In the meantime, I think you can still find “New York City Versus the World” here and “The Perfect Man” here. My short story, “Sheila,” appeared in Interzone and was anthologized in Year’s Best SF 11.
Whoa….in that case, may I suggest you really need a link on the front page to your works? As a favor to us fans and future fans?
I didn’t even know about these other writings. I naively thought Cycler was your first work.
Ciao!