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Jun. 8th, 2007 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newmoonstarI've re-written chapter 3 of the story I'm working on about five times since I lost the original. I just realized I need to re-write it AGAIN. OMFG. I think I might have a back-up copy of the original on a CD somewhere, but just where is the question. I SO need to find it and I hope it's on there. Because there's a limit to how many times you can re-write something before you go completely insane.
While I'm here, I'd like to take a moment to vent a small vexation I've encountered. Why are half of all historical fiction books on the shelves at the bookstore sequels/prequels/re-tellings/somehow related to Pride and Prejudice? I mean what is up with that? Why are women so obsessed with P&P? Aside from whether it's good or not, which is totally irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make here, I want to know why are female authors still stuck on this one book? Can't they come up with their own stories to tell? I've even seen Mr. and Mrs. Darcy as the stars of their very own mystery series! What the heck is up with that? If you're a mystery writer, go write mysteries; why in god's name bring in characters from P&P? What have they got to do with it? What on earth is it that keeps people re-using these characters? Am I the only one who feels that once the original author dies, the characters effectively die too, and please let that be that? I like humorous fan-fiction just fine, as everybody loves a good joke, but mostly the 'serious' stuff I avoid, beacuse even if it's good, which it rarely is, it's not really 'real', you know? You can write an amazing novel about how Lizzy and Mr. Darcy hopped on an air balloon and went to China, but in the end the 'real' Lizzy and Darcy didn't. Characters are only real as far as the person who creates them moves them, you know what I mean? Maybe I'm just weird that way, but I feel that using someone else's characters is just limiting, because you have all these guidelines that you have to adhere to, and in the end it's hard for you to really know what thought processes those conventions sprang out of for the original author, and therefore it's harder for you as an outsider to follow through on them faithfully. Which is probalby why most fan-fiction doesn't quite get it right. But anyway, I'm babbling now!
While I'm here, I'd like to take a moment to vent a small vexation I've encountered. Why are half of all historical fiction books on the shelves at the bookstore sequels/prequels/re-tellings/somehow related to Pride and Prejudice? I mean what is up with that? Why are women so obsessed with P&P? Aside from whether it's good or not, which is totally irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make here, I want to know why are female authors still stuck on this one book? Can't they come up with their own stories to tell? I've even seen Mr. and Mrs. Darcy as the stars of their very own mystery series! What the heck is up with that? If you're a mystery writer, go write mysteries; why in god's name bring in characters from P&P? What have they got to do with it? What on earth is it that keeps people re-using these characters? Am I the only one who feels that once the original author dies, the characters effectively die too, and please let that be that? I like humorous fan-fiction just fine, as everybody loves a good joke, but mostly the 'serious' stuff I avoid, beacuse even if it's good, which it rarely is, it's not really 'real', you know? You can write an amazing novel about how Lizzy and Mr. Darcy hopped on an air balloon and went to China, but in the end the 'real' Lizzy and Darcy didn't. Characters are only real as far as the person who creates them moves them, you know what I mean? Maybe I'm just weird that way, but I feel that using someone else's characters is just limiting, because you have all these guidelines that you have to adhere to, and in the end it's hard for you to really know what thought processes those conventions sprang out of for the original author, and therefore it's harder for you as an outsider to follow through on them faithfully. Which is probalby why most fan-fiction doesn't quite get it right. But anyway, I'm babbling now!
