What I Write About Redux

I'm not sure what I want to say about this, or, rather, I didn't write it down when I did know what I wanted to say and no longer remember what it was. So instead, let me start with a question: for those of you who read two or more of them, did you find "Chris in Recovery," "Britney Escapes," "Love and Marriage," and "Full Hearts" to be the same story? To me, they're all the same story, and it's the same story I've been telling for years, with only a slight shift in plot details.

You may remember that I was a little shaken up when I figured out what I was writing about, partly because it was my own story: I write about people going away from the people who've known them as children to become their own people as adults and make their own choices, which is what I did with my life. The small shift I noticed as I looked back over the things I've been writing recently is that now sometimes people become who they are in place instead of having to leave to do it. I've been thinking about this again because I brought up this idea that we tell the same story over and over again with my writing group and caused some consternation. (This is like my causing trouble in fandom in the old days - I just say things and they turn out to cause uproar or upheaval.)

I don't want to tell the same story over and over again. First of all, it's boring and/or annoying for readers. Years ago I read one of Elizabeth Moon's sci fi books. I was enjoying the dynamic of the woman with leadership skills who was reluctant to be a leader, and I kept thinking it reminded me of another book. I lost a lot of respect for Elizabeth Moon when I realized that the book it reminded me of was her own Deed of Paksenarrion. Secondly, I think telling the same story over and over again shows a lack of imagination. I don't want to be that kind of writer. I want to be the kind of writer who has an imagination and can tell different stories.

As I was thinking about this and talking to the member of my writing group who was particularly thrown by our discussion, I realized that another aspect of the story I tell is that it always has a happy and/or hopeful ending. It was my wish to do something different that had me trying to write an unhappy story with "No Happily Ever Afters" and "Brokenhearted". I'm not sure I was successful, and I had to work very hard to take plot bunnies I'd intended to be happy and/or hopeful and make them unhappy.

When the stories in my head follow the same well-worn paths, how do I learn to tell a different story?

Ruth's Fannish Facebook Twitter Thing

I'm taking lakeeffectgirl's advice and trying out using Twitter as a fannish Facebook sort of thing. (By which I mean posting fannish status updates.) This is only the latest in a string of social networking type things I was initially skeptical about but joined in eventually. (See also LJ, MySpace, Facebook.)

Anyway, you can find me on Twitter here. It's not protected, so if you're old-school, you could create an LJ feed for it from the RSS feed. (I'd create it myself, but I don't need to watch it, and I don't know if it would go away if I then stopped watching.)

I'm also interested in who you think is worth following. Obviously if you're on my friends list here you're worth following, and I'd love to know your username. Aside from that, are there celebrities you're following who are worth the time and attention?