Monday, September 17, 2012

Genre Favorites and Seven Deadly Sins and your Hero: Lust

Ninja Capt. Alex J. Cavanguah who is not really a scary ninja but a really nice guy, is hosting the genre favorite blog-fest today. So, I'm combining this blog-fest with my usual Monday post on writing. To read other genre favorites go here.
Genre Favorites Blogfest, September 17, 2012
One blogfest, four favorites!
List your favorite genre of:
Movie
Music
Books
And a guilty pleasure genre from any of the three categories! 
Now before I begin my favorite genre take a look at the heading of my blog. Oh...can you guess? You're almost there...yup, you got it, Fantasy.

Movies: Okay I'm not such a junky that I go for any of the SciFi Channel original movies. I want quality. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Narnia movies, stuff like that. I'm not into ancient Greek mythology. Did you see Snow White and the Huntsman, wonderful, but the one with Julia Roberts was so bad I forgot the name. 

Music: Do you see my book cover over on the right hand side. My heroine is a flutist, and yes, you can say either flutist or flautist according to the University of Colorado Music Dept. Well folks, it's a flute. I love flutes. Any kind of flute. I may learn how to play one. I also like a mixture of jazz, rock and nature sounds. When I'm writing to music it has to be instrumental. My favorite artist currently are, Josh Groban, Celtic Woman, Sarah McLaughlin, John Denver and a few others too.

Books: Repeat the movie titles here. But I love good writing and my second favorite book to read is Mystery. I also really enjoy Dean Koontz.

Guilty Pleasure: Castleville, a Facebook game. Two T.V. shows, Grimm and Snow White, I don't have HBO or other pay to much for channels so I can't speak for those shows.

And now...

The Seven Deadly Sins and Your Hero: Lust

Oh what a day to visit my seven sins post. If you're new, I've been posting every Monday on a subject for writers. Currently we are in the middle of 'The Seven Deadly Sins and Your Hero.' In previous post we have covered' wrath, greed, sloth and pride. Today we are looking at lust.

You don't have to say anything. I know where your brain went, the same place as mine. However, lust doesn't just refer to sex. It can also refer to any thing that your character is obsessed with. Power, food, knowledge, an intense desire for something they don't have and may not be able to get. Lust is similar to greed, except your character desires lust but doesn't have it.

So, how do you take a lustful character and transform them into your hero? To address this sin as a sin you must make this an obsession. I know I repeated that word, but it's important. Your character simply can't let it go. The 'just say no,' campaign won't work here. To change, your hero must recognize their problem and overcome it. You know what they say, pile on the problems for your hero to overcome. Lust is an excellent secondary problem. I say secondary because it is usually not the type of difficulty that can carry an 80,000 or more word count manuscript.

Example:
Your character is in love with your best friends boy/girl friend. S/he thinks of nothing else. To the point of spying on the couple while they stroll through the park or (need I say it) are engaged in another activity. There went your brain again! What happens next is up to you. Does your character recognize their problem and join a therapy group? Run away to a new place? Get shook up by a new love who is prettier, or average to the object of their fascination?

Or perhaps your character really wants a T-bird in baby blue. The same as his best friend.

If it is knowledge, well...our society regards knowledge as a positive force. To make your character lust after knowledge means that s/he will disregard everything else in their life in the pursuit of knowledge. So your character is always working, always in the library doing research or running away from powerful wizards when his/her attempt to steal the magic book fails.

You get it. Stick something into the slot for their obsession and you have lust. How your character overcomes their desire to be a hero or heroine is up to you.

Picture link: Wikipedia  
Genre Favorite blogfest

Next week: Envy and after that it is gluttony and our Seven Deadly Sins will be over. I will start a series on short stories and flash fiction.

I hope you enjoyed my genre blog-fest entry and my Seven Deadly Sins post. Let me know what you think.
Nancy

PS I'm looking for critique partners, if interested say so in the comments. Thanks.



34 comments:

Denise Covey said...

These are the choices I expected of you Nancy. I'm not going to allow myself to get hooked on a FB game! Great series too, Seven Deadly Sins.

Anonymous said...

My husband and I have just started watching Grimm and we are totally hooked.

Glad to meet another fantasy fan!

baygirl32 said...

great movies choices

Unknown said...

i love strings... musically, but hate the after sound of a piano.. wait is piano part of the string family?

Jeremy [Retro-Zombie]
Howlin' Wolf Records: On-Line Magazine

Bish Denham said...

Like you, if I have music going while I write, it has to be instrumental. I particularly like very mellow New Age meditative music. Soothing to the soul.

Southpaw said...

Good choices.
---
I really love this series.

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Denise
You know me too well.

Nice to meet you Donna
Yup, Grimm is totally addictive.

Thanks baby

Hi Jeremy,
Piano you say.

Hi Bish
Love New Age too.

Thanks everyone for stopping by.
Nancy

Ellie Garratt said...

Great choices. Grimm is one of my favourite shows. Patiently waiting for season two!

Carolyn V said...

Love your favs Nancy!

And ahh, the lust. Such a great sin for a book.

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Ellie
Me too.

Hi Carolyn
Yes, lust is a fabulous tool.

Thank you both for stopping by.
Nancy

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Holly
I didn't see you up there. Your interest and others keep me writing about the 7 deadly sins. Thanks for stopping by.
Nancy

Unknown said...

I went and looked up Castlevillon on Facebook to see what was up with it and it wanted to suck me in. Love your choices.

Patricia Stoltey said...

Hi Nancy -- I'm into top-notch classical fantasy like Lord of the Rings and sci fi like 2001 A Space Odyssey but don't read much in the genre these days. Too stuck on mystery/suspense/thriller I guess.

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Pat
I like mystery suspense as well.
Nancy

Kyra Lennon said...

I came here from the Genre Blogfest, but your blog is so awesome, I got distracted reading your other posts lol!

I used to be addicted to Castleville, now I've moved on to Chefville! :D

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Kyra
Thanks for the compliment. I am doing my best to cut back on gaming. It's hard. Thanks for coming by.
Nancy

Allison said...

I went to see the Hunger Games with some friends in a tiny theater, only to find out that it wasn't playing at the time we thought, so we went to see the Julia Roberts Snow White movie instead. Sooo disappointing. Even if we hadn't had our hopes dashed for seeing the HG, it was really bad.

Allison (Geek Banter)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Your favorite movies and books are fantasy? Would've never guessed!
Thanks for participating in my blogfest.

Annalisa Crawford said...

Lol - for some blogs it's really not been a surprise what the favourite genres are!

S. L. Hennessy said...

I LOVE Dean Koontz. Fear Nothing and Seize the Night are my favorites of his - they're terrific. And I'm a pretty big fan of Celtic Women too!

Tamara said...

I used to be a huge Koontz fan, but not as much over the last few years. I don't know...I just liked his earlier stuff better. He got a little preachy in some of his later books. Just my opinion of course. And it's certainly not like I won't be reading the latest Odd Thomas.

And you're right about that movie. Snow White and the Huntsman was good but Mirror Mirror (God, why do I even remember the name of it?) was one of the worst pieces of trash I ever saw. I can't believe they paid people to make that movie. I honestly felt like burning my eyes out by the time that movie was over.

Aldrea Alien said...

Those are all good movie choices. Ditto on the books. ^_^

And occasionally, I'll get sucked into Grimm. But I'm not into much of the TV we have here now.

Michael Di Gesu said...

Hi, Nancy,

Terrific choices. I really like SNOW WHITE TOO! I thought it was very well done and the acting was excellent.

The flute is such an infectious instrument. It's captivating.

LOVE Celtic Woman. They sound like angels singing.

Great choices...

LynnRush said...

I really liked Koontz Odd Thomas series. I have a couple books to catch up on, but I love that character!!!!

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Allison
I haven't seen the Hunger Games yet.

Hi Alex
Surprised you, not.

Hi Annalisa
Yup, stumped the lot of you. LOL

Hi S. L.
I only just discovered Koontz through the library. I've only read the earlier stuff. After a while though you can pretty much guess their will be dogs and a woman who is an artist. LOL

Hi Tamara
Now that you've said it it's in my brain.

Hi Aldrea
Sucked in is a good word for Grimm. Love it.

Hi Michael
The flute is captivating.

Thanks everyone for stopping by.
Nancy

Unknown said...

Thrilled to meet a fantasy fan :)

Pat Tillett said...

I like your movie choices. Although I don't watch many SciFi "original" movies, I guess there are some folks who wrote the books and are happy they got made into something!
I totally agree with about Mirror Mirror. I walked out and it was free in my living room!

Unknown said...

It was you who recommended Grimm to me and I absolutely love the show! Also Josh Groban sings like an angel! Dean Koontz is also a favorite of mine, but mostly his earlier work :)

J.C. Martin said...

I love Josh Groban and John Denver too! As for fairytale dramas, Once Upon A Time was pretty cool!

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Damyanti
Thrilled to meet you too.

Hi Pat
LOL, your living room won't be the same.

Hi Siv
We had a great conversation that day. Hope to some day visit you on your turf.

Hi J. C.
We agree on all points

Thanks everyone for stopping by .
Nancy

Unknown said...

Dear Nancy,
A quick note: Thanks for visiting and commenting on my post for 'Oh how I hate my beautiful friend'.

Yes, please! I would love to exchange texts and be 'critique-buddies'! What an honour! Or however you want to do it.

I'll be back to read your post for RFW No. 45.

N. R. Williams said...

Thanks Anna
I'll be sending you something soon.
Nancy

dolorah said...

Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors too. He got redundant for a while, but his Odd Thomas series was original.

Having a character obsess over a specific thing is a great character building idea. I think certain beliefs or ideas could also fall into that category.

......dhole

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Donna
I haven't read Odd Thomas yet, but I will check it out.

You're so right about obsessive characters. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
Nancy