Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
SBD: In dreams
This will be an odd sort of Smart Bitches Day post. I’ve been meaning to write up my final impressions of Gabaldon’s Outlander, but I just don’t have it in me today. In a nutshell: technically excellent, entertaining, but predictable. I even read the sneak preview at the end, but I’m not sure I want to continue with this series — I mean, a twenty year lapse? What’s up with that? Where did these kids come from? And what’s with the POV shift? To quote Beth, GAAAAAH.
I often wonder if my subconscious believes everything it tells itself in my dreams. I think sometimes it just wants to fvck with me. Last night, I dreamed I attended a high school writers’ club, hosted at the house of one of the students. One teenage girl bemoaned the fact she had been writing for OVER A YEAR! and hadn’t been published yet.
I heard myself spouting that often-repeated “wisdom” that you have to write a million words before you arrive at publication quality. “In the first five hundred thousand words,” I told her, “you master technique, everything from grammar all the way up to plot mechanics and characterization. That last five hundred thousand words, that’s when you figure out how to write stories that will sell.”
I wonder if I really believe that. I’m in that second-half territory (maybe even beyond a million words, if I count my blog posts). Have I figured out how to write stories that will sell? I hope so. I think my romance is marketable. If I could only finish editing the mofo, maybe I could find out for certain. But, anyway, do I believe all this BS? And is there any truth to it? And why should I give any more credence to things I hear (or spout) in dreams than to anything else I read or hear?
In my dream, the girl was the daughter of a man I despise in real life. She told me that her parents’ idyllic marriage was a farce, and she was really getting tired of all the noise her dad made at night, banging his 20-something-year-old mistress up against the wall, like Sonny and the bridesmaid in The Godfather.
Do I believe it? Is there any truth to it?
Oooh, I dearly hope so.
D.
regarding gabaldon…the twenty year skip is worked in very well. the POV change is a little weird at first, but you get so wrapped up in the story it doesnt make much of a difference. now when you get to the fourth or fifth book where she writes from the povs of more than one character, its a little tough…but the second book is fine. you should give it a try.
and i dont know how you think outlander was predictable! maybe it’s your vast life experience or something, but even when i read it now, eight or so years after the first time, i still dont think its predictable.
Sorry, Shaina, but it was predictable.
SPOILER
She telegraphed that righteous buggering a mile away. It was so well telegraphed I would have been annoyed if Jamie had NOT gotten righteously buggered. Or if he had gotten only mildly buggered and not righteously buggered.
I’ll admit, I was surprised by her pregnancy — guess Gabaldon doesn’t mind a few grandfather paradoxes. (Reverse grandfather paradoxes? Eh, who knows.)
20 years lapse?
Wait, does Outlander include what’s in the UK Cross Stich and Dragonfly in Amber?
Huh? Whaaa?
I’m going to let one of my Galbadonophiles answer that one.
At last! Someone else who thinks Outlander is predictable and who isn’t rushing out to get a copy of the sequel.
If that’s true about the million words, then I’m currently working on my 2nd millionth. I still don’t know how to get a story to sell. I’ve tried to give them away, but that doesn’t seem to be working either.
Here’s what *I* want to know about the subconscious: Does the subconscious want to fvck with you…or do *you* want to fvck with the subconscious? And can other people’s subconsciouses fvck with yours?
The Godfather was an awesome movie. Except for the bloody horse head in the bed scene. There was no need for that. They could have gotten the same message across with fish heads. Still, I hope your subconscious is fvcking with your archnemesis’ right now! 🙂
JMC: Yah, I’m gonna wait and see what the wife thinks. If she wants me to buy the sequel, I’ll buy it. Right now I’m all kilted out.
Amy, I’m with you on all o’ that, but I’ll go one farther — I still have a hard time watching all those murders at the end of Godfather. But then, I’m a wimp when it comes to violence.
I want dreams where the people I despise are being naughty and gross and made mockeries of – in my dreams they usually get the better of me and I wake up wanting revenge.
I’d say get the sequel, it’s a very fast paced and busy book, plus the stuff about Edinburgh was cool, but then I live here so I have a thing about watching/reading things about home (I like watching Trainspotting and saying “Been there, been there, oh that shop’s gone now. Ah he’s in the schemes now, which hospital is he in…”) The first book is more of an introduction to the meat and bones of the last two (I still think of it as a trilogy.) the only scene I hate, to this day I remember it, is Claire fighting off the wolf in the snow after being turfed on her butt from the prison where Jamie is being tortured by Randall. Oh, and that he encourages all his cellmates to eat watercress to keep healthy. I may be mixing up the last two though. I’ll say “Finish what you started, human.”
Oh, the 20-year lapse works. As does the reunion. Some nice heart-wrenching stuff in there, too. Hell, just read it until the reunion. Get it from the library or something.
The later books get to be a bit… long, and spread out all over the place, and I still haven’t read A Breath of Snow & Ashes, but Dragonfly is a good read.
I wouldn’t read it right away, though. I used to re-read the series whenever a new book came out, and the stuff put in so newcomers wouldn’t be lost gets awfully repetitive when you read them back to back. Could be just me.