What’s Going On?

Those of you who still keep track of my ramblings on this blog may be wondering what’s going on. I haven’t participated in a few Road Trip Wednesdays, I haven’t been posting as many articles (aside from the regular Sunday School Notes and Sunday Devotionals). Am I getting blog fatigue? What’s happening?

First, no, I’m not getting blog fatigue. In fact, one of the things I’m doing is planning for next month’s A to Z Blogging Challenge. I may not be posting a lot of articles at the moment–but wait till next month! Twenty-six articles in thirty days. Consider this a little respite before the storm.

Also, I’m trying to catch up on some reading. If you’re one of my Goodreads friends, you’ll know that I’ve read some really good books so far this month, including Stephanie Jaye Evans’s spectacular second novel, SAFE FROM HARM, and SCARLET, the second in Marissa Meyer’s “Lunar Chronicles.”

I haven’t neglected writing, either. I’m batting around my WIP–the NaNoWriMo project from last November. As I figure out what needs to be done with all those words, I find myself on the horns of an old dilemma: first or third person. I drafted the novel in first person, but as I re-read it, something’s not right about it. She’s supposed to be a teenage alien, and she sounds like a regular American high-schooler. I’ve experimented with changing her speech patterns, limiting her vocabulary… but that affects the readability of the story. I’m caught between making you believe the narrator is not of this world, and communicating the story. Think about it: I have to describe her alien kitchen in language she would use, which would not necessarily be terms or concepts that you, the reader, would understand. The usual way around this is to either give the alien a complete English vocabulary, which at my alien’s age stretches credibility and detracts from her alien-ness, or give her a friend from Earth who then becomes the first person narrator, which for this story really isn’t an option. Do you know of any books where the main character is an alien and that alien is the first person narrator–and the author succeeds in balancing alien vocabulary with readability? Perhaps that will help inspire me. Right now I’m considering re-writing in third person, which would solve a lot of these kinds of issues.

With that, and work, family, church, and life in general, that’s what’s going on with me.

So, how are you?

cds

Colin D. Smith, writer of blogs and fiction of various sizes.

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9 Responses

  1. Julie Dao says:

    Sounds like things are going great even if they are a bit hectic at times! I struggle with the first or third person battle ALL the time. Sometimes it helps me if I read the story aloud to myself. Let me know what you think of SCARLET – I have yet to read CINDER but am so curious about this series!

    • cds says:

      Thanks for your encouragement, Julie. 🙂 I actually reviewed SCARLET a few weeks ago–you can jump to my review HERE. Having read your blog and the fiction you’ve posted, I think you’d really enjoy CINDER. 🙂

  2. E.Maree. says:

    This is going to sound like an odd suggestion, but have you read ‘A Clockwork Orange’? It’s a great example of how to introduce an entirely unfamiliar dialect to readers without losing them. It’s set in the future with a completely unfamiliar slang in use.

    ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’ is a milder example of a book with its own language.

    If I was tackling an alien first person POV, I’d probably have her lapse into other languages when her translation abilities can’t find the English words to sum up what she’s thinking. There’s a lot of cool words that just don’t have an English equivalent.

    • cds says:

      Thanks for the suggestions, Emma! I haven’t read A CLOCKWORK ORANGE yet (it’s on the TBR), so I need to get to that one soon. Likewise THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO.

      My MC does slip into some of her alien vernacular from time to time–especially when she’s describing things that are really good, or very bad. Using “foreign” words this way hopefully avoids the need to supply a translation–the reader should be able to figure out her meaning. 🙂

  3. Other really good examples of introducing unfamiliar terms in a way that still makes sense are Feed by M.T. Anderson (which is a completely terrifying read if you haven’t yet) and The Diviners by Libba Bray. I’ve had to play around with this a little bit, too, since my WIP is a high fantasy. It can work, but it might take a few tries 🙂

  4. Miss Jersey says:

    I’m also considering doing the A to Z challenge. I say considering, because I’ve not actually thought of 26 topics yet, but I’m well on my way. Once I come up with the last 9, I will be signing up.
    I also agree with the suggestion of A Clockwork Orange. I’ve started the book about ten times, and always got distracted with other books, but one day I will get more than 3/4 of the way through!

    • cds says:

      Yes! Another A to Z blogger I know! 🙂 I look forward to seeing what you come up with, Anna.

      And another vote for A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. I’ll definitely have to check it out. Thanks. 🙂

  5. Ian says:

    I was also going to suggest A Clockwork Orange.

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