In Book Reviews, filmmaking on
25 July 2010 tagged book, filmmaking, Helen Jacey, review, screenwriting, The Woman In The Story with no comments
By Helen Jacey
Another excellent resource from MWP, The Woman In The Story, while aimed at screenwriters, will help anyone to write better female characters. But this is not a quick wash and brush-up of the female myth, although those elements are present, rather Jacey explores female characters from several perspectives taking into changes and attitudes in sociology, in psychology, in education and in economics - not just from the female point of view, but from the point of view of people towards women.
The book starts by discussing different types of femininity to establish different types of heroine and then moves swiftly into what Jacey calls the Memorability Factor, or M-Factor for short, where you start to build up traits to create a memorable female character. We then go on to cover female role types from Heroine to Nurturer, Dependant to Believer and so on and here there is some interesting talk about ‘acceptable stereotypes’ which was a revelation to me as we’re normally told to avoid stereotypes like the plague, but it was at this point that I began to realise that the inter-relationships between female characters and other characters are far more complex than I had previously imagined, mother to son, wife to husband, sister to brother, to lover, to friend, to rival and so on and in domestic situations these relationships can occur simultaneously.
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In Book Reviews, Fantasy on
25 July 2010 tagged book, fantasy, K J Parker, novel, review, The Folding Knife with no comments
By K J Parker
This was my first K J Parker book and I’ll state right now, it won’t be my last. The Folding Knife is the story of Bassianus Severus, Basso for short, a precocious boy and son of the First Citizen of the Republic of Vesani. Basso grows up and takes over his fathers banking business, proving himself a much shrewder and much more calculating businessman than his father ever was, and eventually is elected as First Citizen in his own right. As a politician and a businessman it seems he can do no wrong, even when plans fail he has an uncanny ability to ride his extraordinary luck, reversing his fortunes and coming out on top. He is the most popular First Citizen in memory and everything seems perfect in Basso’s well-ordered life. But eventually he does make a mistake, and that one wrong decision will come to cost him everything.
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In Book Reviews, Fantasy on
18 July 2010 tagged book, City Of Ruin, fantasy, Mark Charan Newton, novel, review, second, sophomore with no comments
When we left Nights Of Viljamur, Chancellor Urtica had successfully seized control of the throne but Rika, the rightful heir, and her sister Eir had managed to escape execution and flee the city in the company of tutor, dancer, swordsman and petty criminal Randur and his old friend Denlin. As we begin City Of Ruin, Brynd Lathraea, Commander of the Night Guard is in the northern city of Villiren trying to muster an army to repel the impending invasion of the mysterious Okun who are amassing just off the coast. His job is made doubly tricky as he battles against the criminal gangs that not only run the city, but are threatening to expose his homosexuality, ruining his reputation but, more importantly, irrevocably damaging the reputation of the Night Guard. Inspector Jeryd of the inquisition is also in Villiren, exiled to the north due to his incorruptible nature, and is investigating the mysterious disappearance of Villiren citizens.
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In Book Reviews, filmmaking on
5 July 2010 tagged Anatomy, book, filmmaking, review, screenwriting, story, Truby with no comments
The world of screenwriting books is roughly split into two categories. In category one you have the standards, the books from acknowledged gurus like Syd Field and Robert McKee that espouse traditional 3-act structure and the major story elements that go into those three acts, and then there’s category two…basically, all the others. Enter ‘The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller’ by John Truby; right now it falls firmly in category two but it has a very strong idea at its heart and is written with enough depth and shows enough genuine insight that it could, and should, end up in category one
The main conceit of Mr. Truby’s teaching is that three-act structure has had its day. Firstly it’s not flexible enough for modern storytelling and secondly, knowing you should have three acts - essentially a beginning a middle and an end - falls way short of understanding the elements necessary to write those three acts, the upshot of which is that too many writers end up with 100 pages of script and only 50 pages of story which is why they get lost in act two problems and all the other things that daily plague most writers. So what that nice Mr. Truby has done is come up with 22 steps - building blocks, if you will - and he claims that by getting each if these steps right you will have written a much more solid story with a sound structure.
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In Book Reviews, Fantasy on
21 June 2010 tagged author, book, debut, fantasy, M D Lachlan, novel, review, Wolfsangel with no comments
Authun, mighty warrior, king of the northern vikings and descendant of the god Odin is cursed to sire only female offspring because, supposedly, Odin fears the strength a son of Authun would possess. But Authin will not be denied an heir and, acting on a prophecy of the witches of the Troll Wall, he leads a raid across the sea to a Saxon village to snatch a new-born infant he can raise as his own. But instead of a single child he finds twins, two boys, and not caring to choose, he takes them both along with their mother.
Leaving his men to their deaths so that no-one will know what he has done Authin takes the twins, Vali and Feilig, and their mother to the witches. One is taken by them, to be brought up first by berserkers, where he learns to fight and build and make fire, then by a wolf-man, living among the wolves, barley speaking and hunting by smell, killing with his bare hands, where he becomes hard, tough and capable. The other is brought up as the son of a king, taught to hunt and sail, to fight, learning weapons and tactics in a much more orthodox fashion but rather than grow into the warrior prince his father wants and his people need, he would rather spend his time with Adisla, a farm girl and the love of his life whom he would marry and settle with, if his father would allow it.
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In Book Reviews, Fantasy on
20 June 2010 tagged book, Escape, fantasy, Kathmandu, Kim Stanley Robinson, review with no comments
I’ve never been the biggest Kim Stanley Robinson fan, and having read the Arthur C Clarke nominated ‘Galileo’s Dream’ I couldn’t see that changing any time soon, but I’ve had this book sitting unread on my shelves for a few years and after taking some stick for clearly lacking the good taste, refinement and education to understand his writing was cajoled into reading it as the ‘antidote’ to my KSR thinking, and I have to say, it’s a hoot!
Clearly a big departure from his usual work, Escape From Kathmandu is a collection of four novellas, ‘Escape from Kathmandu’, ‘Mother Goddess of the World’, ‘The True Nature of Shangri-La’ and ‘The Kingdom Underground’ featuring the same motley cast of characters in a bizarre mix of boys-own adventure stories, hippy philosophy and left-of-field humour that is hugely entertaining and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny.
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