http://faerye.net/tag/undertowPosts tagged with "undertow" - Faerye Net2008-12-08T20:46:54+00:00Felicity Shouldershttp://faerye.net/http://faerye.net/post/little-bit-o-newsLittle bit o' news2008-12-08T20:46:54+00:002008-12-09T10:26:06+00:00<p>Sorry I’ve been a bad blogger of late, folks. I’ll whip something up soon.</p>
<p>At any rate, I wanted to share my little bit of news: check out this list of this quarter’s <a href="http://wotfblog.galaxypress.com/2008/12/2nd-set-of-honorable-mentions-for-4th.html" target="links"> Honorable Mentions in the Writers of the Future Contest</a>. Oh, okay, it’s a long list, I won’t make you search. I’m on there.</p>
<p>I was finally convinced to try sending to WotF for the first time this quarter — I’m still eligible because I’ve only had one pro sale. When I decided to start entering, there were only a few days left before the deadline, so I sent in a fabulist short story from my <a href="http://faerye.net/post/thesis-matters" target="links">thesis</a> even though I wasn’t sure it was a great fit for the contest. But it got an Honorable Mention, so I think that constitutes ‘encouragement’. I feel encouraged, at any rate!</p>http://faerye.net/post/affectation-and-authenticity-not-an-austen-novelAffectation and authenticity (not an Austen novel)2007-03-12T16:01:34+00:002008-06-08T12:14:05+00:00<p>Today I am engaged, one way or another, in writing. Unfortunately, in the world outside Faerye Net, I cannot simply create a bizarre world and genre – Dickensian urban dark fantasy, shall we say? – and expect the reader to like it or leave. Out in the world, it is the reader – editor, professor, etc. – who tells me to leave! This puts me in the position of having to please my audience to a far greater degree than I must here. At the same time, my best work can only come from being true to myself, and who wants to be false?</p>
<p>That brings us to today’s difficulty; rephrasing on the fly. My current project is written from the point of view of a little girl circa 1910. Usually I would use this hundred year gap not only to insulate myself from the demands of realism, but to partially justify my habitual vocabulary and verbal style.<p>
<p>However, today I find myself scratching out ‘likewise’, ‘pinnacle’, uncertainly wavering between ‘octopuses’ and ‘octopodes’. I tell myself that a little girl would not speak that way, regardless of era. I tell myself that by modulating my verbal eccentricity in these few respects, I draw in the reader and win her trust for more plot-crucial, global oddities. I ask myself, is that true, or are you merely trying to please your professor? I tell myself, I am striving for an unbroken impression of authenticity! <em>Authenticity?</em> I hoot, you <em>do</em> actually speak that way! It’s not as if it’s affected for your writing. Ah, says the pragmatic Felicity, but is the way you actually speak affected?</p> <p>Sigh. I am so confused.</p>