The Great Write Way
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
Also, this may be just me, but I was pulled out of the narrative a bit by the Law & Order reference--I might make it something a little less specific. But again, that could be just me.
Nope, I mentioned it too; the problem with too many pop culture references in a fictional piece is that they tend to draw the inner eye away from the story itself.
I approve of pop culture references!
But then again, I'm me.
I approve of pop culture references!
I don't mind them judiciously used, or when they have a specific reference to the story. Too many can seem shallow and self-indulgent. Not in erika's case, mind you - she generally does synch them up to the story she's telling quite nicely - but it's rather like taking a department store mannequin and putting three pairs of earrings and nine sweaters on it, and then sticking it in the window. What are you trying to convince the buyer to buy?
I want the story. Just tell me the story.
I changed to something like "Even cast changes on her favorite shows left her a little off-balance." Because that was the point I was going for, even though I, personally,as a L&O fan from way back, find it amusing that no homely women practice law in Fictional New York. But, yet on occasion they get to be judges.(And the whole McCoy/ rat husband analogy...but I only have 2500 words to work in and a deadline. Don't have time for Stupid Pop Culture Tricks, can't waste the words. Everything has to work.) Interesting point about the potato verb. Will rethink. I think the potatoes stay, but what happens to them might change. Kristin, good catch. Grandma cut hair till she was around 75. We spent a lot of time watching her give my mom perms and stuff...if I win I might be the only one to make that pay.(She was disappointed that Mom bagged beauty school and didn't follow her in it, so my story is like an AU that way, with my character having another Archetypal Boomer Name...Linda(my mom's name), Karen, and Cheryl being some I can think of off the top...oh, Donna.)
I changed to something like "Even cast changes on her favorite shows left her a little off-balance."
Yes! Perfect. It becomes about her, not about the show.
Post toasties: I liked that line, but one of the judges is from The Wire, yo. Have to represent. No weak-ass shit, as they say on the corners. Don't wanna be a punk. My fake hometown pride is at stake.:) I write pop-culture cause I think like that. Makes some of my writer friends nuts...one called it scary, how much Buffy I quote. And the Homicide...oy. I asked him "sexy-scary" or Rain Man scary...never found out which.
And the irony of saying that while paraphrasing Stan Bolander has not escaped me.
I write pop-culture cause I think like that.
Me too. And sometimes they slip into my writing without my even thinking of them, and then I look at it and wonder if I should bother explaining it or not. Cause it ruins the moment if you have to clarify what you're making reference to. As long as it makes sense in context, I guess it's all right, and the informed reader merely derives an extra level of pleasure.
And another way to satisfy the jones is to make your characters actually discuss it in a relevant way. I have this scene in the death story set in a comic book store I really enjoy.
(writer lady with iron glove over here)
Yes, my loves, and it is fun, and very often fun to read.
But as said above, when writing it, you have the responsibility first to the story you're trying to tell. And there's an inherent problem with any pop culture: in a few years, it's obsolete.
What happens to fiction entirely based on ephemera? It disappears, along with the sources.
Susan, I just realised, I am scum; I have two chapters of yours, which I will do my very best to sit down with.
Scum, like the scum of someone who just realized she still has a certain writer-lady's prologue?
Man, I'm lame. Will attend to that tonight. Really.
Yeah, I know, hence the ditching.And there's nothing worse than reading one that doesn't make its point, anyway...that's just embarrassing for me when I read that, or see it in a movie, (cough) Tarantino(cough) Sometimes they're brilliant...other times...read a book without pictures, Quentin. There will be another place to write about freakishly babealicious district attorneys if I have to(Another reason why I love Homicide...Ed Danvers not being much to ogle, although ZI might be offended that I would say it that way, but I digress.)
Sometimes, I think that kind of stuff adds realism that people see movies that you don't have to make up and it can be a source of...in my case, usually, comedy, but Deb is right about there not being story enough for it in this instance. I just wrote down the first things I thought of.(Maybe that means my brain is a little impoverished...nah, more like junk in a collectible store...everything all piled up together so that somebody's life crisis calls up Sam Waterston. I'm sorry. That doesn't mean I'm gonna write papers about the philosophy of FrankenTim does it? Cause, yikes, if so.)