Friday, September 15, 2006
Writing Report
OK, the current draft of Skyman has been sent off. Something came to me this morning; I'm seriously considering switching the two main characters. Right now the guy comes along and realizes that the damsel is in distress so he charges off to the rescue. What if the female was the lead character and had to go rescue the guy? I think that might offer some interesting twists on the classic rescue fantasy story.
Posted by
Jeff Draper
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1 comment:
How important is the gender of rescuer and rescuee? Is that what really matters? You could just as well make it two friends of the same gender rescuing each other. Or brother and sister. Presumably you enjoy the capable-male-coming-to-take-charge/female-in-a-situation-out-of-her-control frisson in the relationship. If you make it funny and witty I'm not going to object to that. Your heroine seems a capable lass herself just a tad out of her depth. I don't think you need worry about issues of equality or cliche.
What you could do is change the narrative viewpoint and tell the story from her side if you wanted. I think that could be even more interesting. I think that potentially her side of the story is more interesting than Noll's in some ways. He's just the guy who goes to the rescue. She's the one who's done something to alter the balance between the cultures? Why did she do that? What have been the consequences for her? What might be the consequences for the Bottom Dwellers? How have the Top Dwellers responded? Why is she in a mess now? etc etc
Also, what if you changed the premise of the plot? What if the rescuer finds the rescuee doesn't need rescuing? What if it's all a cunning trap?
Just a couple of thoughts . . .
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