What kills me about so many published novels is exactly this--the main characters are Mary Sues who don't ever have to save themselves or do something on their own, and who come out on top every time. I was taught that in a story, your heroine has to save herself in the book's big climax or it's a ripoff to the reader. You can't have a deus ex machina or someone else saying, "Oh, never mind--it was a paper tiger all along, yay!" What a letdown.
Plant fairies, hmm. I used to have a player-character in an RPG who had green skin containing chlorophyll so that she could photosynthesize if food was short . . . it was nerdy-cool. THAT is my kind of plant-person. Wyenla (the green sprout woman) also fought like a ninja. I do not see the point of decorative wings that don't allow you to FLY. Talk about gettin' in the way.
ANYway . . . you'd like my book _Dulcinea_ if you like stories about ~righting wrongs, growing into talents and wisdom and purpose, traveling and adventuring, having your hard work pay off, and finding friends and a cool romantic partner who appreciate and love you, flaws and all.~ Oddly enough, the major complaints about my body of work (coming from various critique partners and a few agents) are that my characters have to work too hard to achieve, and that they don't "WIN BIG" every time. In my Marfa Lights mystery, everyone seems to want my heroine to inherit the big money, but I've tried to make it clear how poisonous that would be to her, as she'd have to take it away from the bequeather's family and would have to fight for it, and (as she says) "you're never happy with the material things you thought were so important because of what it does to the people you fight." BUT ANYWAY, I know I'm way out of step with the culture. *trip*
Our society admires pretty little veggies who don't have a thought in their heads that the tee-vee didn't put there. Thinkers are notoriously unpopular. Alas!
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Date: 2010-01-21 03:59 am (UTC)Plant fairies, hmm. I used to have a player-character in an RPG who had green skin containing chlorophyll so that she could photosynthesize if food was short . . . it was nerdy-cool. THAT is my kind of plant-person. Wyenla (the green sprout woman) also fought like a ninja. I do not see the point of decorative wings that don't allow you to FLY. Talk about gettin' in the way.
ANYway . . . you'd like my book _Dulcinea_ if you like stories about ~righting wrongs, growing into talents and wisdom and purpose, traveling and adventuring, having your hard work pay off, and finding friends and a cool romantic partner who appreciate and love you, flaws and all.~ Oddly enough, the major complaints about my body of work (coming from various critique partners and a few agents) are that my characters have to work too hard to achieve, and that they don't "WIN BIG" every time. In my Marfa Lights mystery, everyone seems to want my heroine to inherit the big money, but I've tried to make it clear how poisonous that would be to her, as she'd have to take it away from the bequeather's family and would have to fight for it, and (as she says) "you're never happy with the material things you thought were so important because of what it does to the people you fight." BUT ANYWAY, I know I'm way out of step with the culture. *trip*
Our society admires pretty little veggies who don't have a thought in their heads that the tee-vee didn't put there. Thinkers are notoriously unpopular. Alas!