How to make a book (but not why).

I was with my friend (the one I'm living temporarily with) having coffee today. We're both looking for jobs at the moment, and she showed me a flyer for an acting/extras/modelling agency. I was interested for about two seconds but then she told me that after the interview, you don't get payed until you get a job.
 "No, I need something that gives reliable money. I'm already doing something that needs hard work way before you get payed for it. I'm not going to have two jobs like that."
From here, this came up:
 "How long does it take to finish a book?" she asked, being a person who rarely reads book-length prose.
 "What do you mean by book?" She was confused, "first draft, ready for an agent, or just before it's published?"
 "Well, before you send it off."
 "Well, before I send it to an agent, I have to finish the draft, leave it a few months, edit it. Then when I think it's okay, I send it to some other writing friends who tell me what needs changing."
 "That's before it's even sent off," she said, her mouth and eyes three round O's already.
 "Yep, then I send it to a few agents, hopefully one of them takes me. Then they tell me what to edit, I edit again. Then they send it to a few publishers, and hopefully one of them takes the book. Then they tell me what to edit, and I edit it again."
 "Woah, writing a book is really hard work."
 "Yeah, at the earliest, my first book will be out when I'm 25. And that's if I'm really, really lucky."
 "And then you have to worry about, will it sell?"
I nodded, "and if it doesn't sell well, the publisher might not want my next book."

So why am I doing this again?

Oh yeah, because I can't imagine doing anything else.

Recurring Characters

I was walking along the other day. I forget where, I think it was somewhere near my Mum's house.
So I was walking along, thinking about one of my characters, and how I had come to realise not long ago that I had got one aspect of her character wrong. And now that I knew more about her, I wondered how I had come to know that about her. I mulled over other aspects of her character, like personality and appearance. And then I realised what had happened.

 Tawny (the character I was thinking about) is a younger, fantasy version of Joss. Joss is a character I wrote about in a short story for class over two years ago now. She is one of my favourite characters, and I've always wanted to write about her more. And then unwittingly, I did, albeit in a completely different circumstance and scenario. It makes me happy, but also makes me feel a little foolish. Have I done this before?

 And just as I was thinking that, I realised that Caroline*, the protagonist from the recent short story, is very similar Molly, from the same WiP as Tawny. Granted, the similarities are less obvious, but they are there.

 Character similarities across different works isn't exclusive to me, because this train of thought reminded me of those personality tests on Facebook. I did two within a short space of time, 'Which Firefly Character are You?' and 'Which Joss Whedon** Character are You?'. I got Wash, then Xander (from Buffy). These guys are almost the same character.

 And there are many other authors and film makers who do this as well as recurring themes and plots. Whether it's a good thing, bad thing, or just a thing, I haven't figured out. But it makes me feel better that I'm not the only one.

Has this ever happened to you?


*Named after my cousin, because she asked me to name a character after her.

**Joss partly was named after him.

Inspired

Just doing one of my rounds of blog-reading*. And I came across this post by Karen Healey. She says so many things on her blog that I agree with (actually, I agree with all of it). The post addresses sex and teens in YA fiction. One element that stood out to me in particular was addressed by this comment in the comments section:

I read a post lately on a blog that claimed to be Feminist in which it was stated that it's okay to call a girl a slut so long as you apply the same standard to men. I nearly swallowed my tongue.*** 


And with this too, I agree. The tongue swallowing, that is.


I am a Feminist. And one thing that gets me with the media and the pressure that is put on women to look a certain way is response to feminists when they call it out. Rather than lessening the pressure, more pressure is put on men**. So of course, we are all equal now! The women AND the men have to conform to what it 'normal'.  


It would be nice if we could all relax and be who we are, and let others be who they are, instead of who we and they 'should' be. Whether that be in body type or sexuality or self expression.




*Unfortunately growing less and less frequent.


**Funny thing, when you look at the moisturisers and 'men's products' that are appearing, the ingredients are all the same as the 'women's'. And most of the ingredients are not all that good for the body or environment. 


***Commenter was Redzolah.