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Friday, January 4, 2013
Doing the Impossible, Or Not...
I had a few ideas for this blog. My first Revenge foray of
the New Year! Let’s be inspirational! Let’s rally the crew and surge into the
New Year… But you know, nothing is really gelling for me right now. So, I’m
gonna wing it and see what rises to the surface.
Let me Andy Rooney for a moment.
Did you ever notice how smaller movie theaters show less
previews?
Or how hard it is to write sex for characters who already
exist in the social mind? (Hey, that will work!)
Yeah, I’m talking about Sherlock Holmes again. You know,
when I started working on Homeless, I
figured this would give me a chance to indulge in writing some nice gooey
scenes for the great detective. I mean, in one form or another, I’ve had a
crush on the character forever. From Basil Rathbone to Jeremy Brett to Robert
Downey, Jr. Not to mention how much I enjoy the written stories, by Doyle or
not.
So…I’m gonna have fun! I’m gonna make Holmes have sex! I may
even have him fall in love and have romantic sex, ie, making love! I’m gonna
get him naked!
Picture me, hunched over my keyboard, a gleam in my eye, a
maniacal grin on my face, ready…ready…ready… Come on…ready! READY! WTF?
When it finally came down to it, it was damned near
impossible!
Why!? I mean, I’ve read non-approved fanfiction, I’ve read
approved fanfiction, I’ve seen X-rated movies that portrayed Han Solo as a
brothel owner who really, really enjoyed his job! And C3PO was a sexbot! (I really like Randy Spears...)
But with Sherlock…it was different. It was damned near
impossible. As if the character was so deeply entrenched as untouchable – in
that way – that I waged war with my inner gone-too-far-guard and nearly lost.
I’ve written tentacle sex, for gods sake! And didn’t blink
at it. I wrote orgies, torture…I’ve seen my beloved main characters raped…
Millions of words where I didn’t shy away from anything. But…put Holmes in bed,
or wherever, with a woman. And all the plans I had for stripping away all the
control and showing him as a total animal…didn’t happen.
Oh, I was finally able to write him falling for my lead.
But, damn it! Not the way I’m imagined it.
Why? Oh, why? Is it Holmes? Is it me? I couldn’t take the
character I’d been in love with for most of my life and diddle with him? I know
I spoke about doing with the sacred the things you can’t imagine doing…but what
stopped me from doing what I planned and plotted doing? What was it about
Holmes?
I don’t like finding writing limitations. In some ways, it
was good, it forced me to be more thoughtful and selective with what words I
used and how I set things up. At the same time, it was a little creepy. Like he
stood behind me, holding an invisible leash.
I’m a bit speechless
with this development. I’m not even sure what to ask the crew… I mean, Captain?
You made Lucifer fall in love…did you feel this block at all? Anyone else find
yourself derailed to this extent? Push through it and find it worthwhile? (I
like the scenes I inevitably wrote.) Anybody have any idea why the wall came
up? (Or you just glad it did as you didn’t want to see what I could do to
Holmes?)
Labels:
Maureen O. Betita,
sex,
Sherlock Holmes
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24 comments:
put Holmes in bed, or wherever, with a woman
Don't be silly Maureen.
Holmes was obviously GAY .... He was always moseying around with Watson!
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/07/23/bbc-drama-hints-sherlock-holmes-is-gay/
Now Dr Who is different. He always has a gorgeous lady sidekick.
Just imagine what went on in that Tardis while traversing galaxies and centuries! LOL
I haven't run across this problem. All my characters arrive in my head without any baggage.
But, that's what it sounds like happened here. Sounds like Holmes has some baggage you didn't know how to work around.
I've always read/watched Holmes as kind of OCD, perhaps even a bit autistic. And I could imagine with that kind of extreme attention to details around him that he might find sex overwhelming.
*LOL* I'm suddenly seeing the RDJ version of Holmes where the scene stops and he anticipates everything? And he's got descriptions for the actions like "crack the eggs" and he's racking the guy's balls with an umbrella? Yeah, that's how I see the sex scene going: in thirty seconds, he dissects the whole sex scene AND then proceeds, but rather like that Dr. Moriarty moment, it doesn't go to plan because the other player is just as good as he is. :)
Watson seems quite keen on Mary, his wife...is that not canon? (Hard to make Jude Law gay, I guess.) I mean, if Sherly is gay, are they implying Watson is too? Or that Sherly just had a crush on him? :)
Lucy...Lucy loves sex, so my problems aren't from that. (Other than my usual difficulty from writing sex because I'm the daughter of a deacon elder and I think I write the stupidest sex ever.) But no...that part doesn't make me think "I'm going against cannon." Ah, I did have a version once where God was "God" and I had him as a character. It was iffy writing Him because I made him an irreverent version: he played golf, he rode a motorcycle, I think I had him having sex once (yeah, I'm going to hell), but none of these drafts of chapters have stayed. I've veered away from having "God" as a character. Now it's "The Counselor" and "The Landlord" and "Mr. Big" and "The Creator"--which are all God, same guy, doesn't even look different per se--but since I'm not "invoking" his name, I can write about him fictionally. Yeah, I know.
And I really doubt I'll ever have a scene where God is having sex. Even if he did invent it and must think it's pretty darned awesome.
As for making Lucifer feel guilty or sorry or remorseful--which to some people would be like Voldemort being remorseful--I've never had a problem with that, because I've always saw him as someone who did all this crap for attention. Like some bratty child. And like a bratty child, if he'd just stop and pay attention, he'd realize the only separation from God he suffers from is the separation HE has put there, not God. I don't think of Lucifer as power hungry or money hungry--I see him as wanting to be loved more than anyone else and being pissed off that God loved "humans" more.
Q - I've heard this rumor...and it could be... Somehow, I think it still would have been difficult for me to write, even if I'd been inclined to create a M/M storyline. I've always suspected the TARDIS was the site of intergalactic shindigs. ;-)
Marn - Yeah, I thought it would be fun to write him overwhelmed by sex... But it was harder to write then I thought!
Have you ever had a scene you wanted to write a certain way and had it totally turn sideways on you?
I've read books where Lucifer is portrayed that way...more jealous of the part man played than actually wanting to replace God with himself...
And I love the idea of The Landlord, the Big Cheese...of course, Lucifer would refer to him that way because it makes him easier to keep separate from THE GUY...
So, you never found yourself with pencil in hand, plot bunny ready to pounce and ... and ... and ... it just wouldn't develop the way you wanted?
Maybe I'm the only one where characters just say 'no' to me... I've had it happen in a minor fashion with people all my own...
Maybe I do need that rubber room...
And yeah, Watson and Mary...that was fun to write! In the CANNON Doyle killed Mary off pretty quick, but Watson fell for another woman in the blink of an eye, but I don't think that worked either. It's one of those details the Irregulars like to dig out of the snippets.
No, I have found myself unable to write a scene...but not necessarily with "canon" characters/people. I have had plenty of times had a scene or anticipating what will happen, and it's just not meshing like it's supposed to. I'm having that moment right now.
I know characters sometimes just take over and crush our ideas of what is supposed to happen, but I've seldom had a character say no to a good sex romp.
Sherlock was a romantic...had to be more than a good romp...
Maybe that's your problem more than the character is "untouchable"...the character wants to do something you find more uncomfortable. *shrugs* You indicate SEX-SEX is never a problem for you, the wilder, the better you can write it--but the romantic stuff, you tend to run screaming from the room, you don't seem to like reading it. (Romance books aren't your favorite, though you like some.)
It's the ROMANCE that's killing your muse, not the sex...and not Sherly.
Well, I've written sweet romance, too... and in the end, that is where this novella turned out to work.
I'm heating up cinnamon rolls for breakfast...
Yes, I had to announce that. The house smells marvelous!
In your sweet romance, do they have sex? Or is it closed door?
Okay, not behind closed doors, but it's sweeter than how I normally portray sex... It's making love instead of having sex.
Very interesting that it turned out sweeter. I found in writing my first WIP that I thought I would be fine with the sex scenes, but discovered I'm much more a sweet behind closed doors kinda girl when writing. :) Or at least so far.
It's interesting, I find the longer I write, the more I want to write a sweeter sort of sexual tension. It's almost as if the more books I see that treat sex as only an erotic tool...the more I want to write it from a different angle. Not totally sweeter, but sweeter than the direct pounding it takes in erotica.
It's my contrary
My contrary nature, as I was saying.
Hmmm. No, can't say I've ever had this problem. If I "ship" two characters, my own original characters, or in fan fiction, I generally see them as sexy and attractive. I'm looking forward to that scene; I feel the attraction between the two. Guess this goes back to me being a kind of "method writer" who inhabits my characters' heads.
Now, I'm not a fan of erotica, per say, and I get bored with too much sex in a book. So my approach is usually loads of sexual tension with a payoff much later in the story. So, by the time I get to the smexy part, I'm dying for the characters to get it on.
If I were writing Holmes, and he looked like RDJ, I'd have a whole lotta fun writing the sex scene. Again...because I find him sexy, in all his OCD glory.
Pat, I'm the same, actually. I have always seen Holmes as sexy and attractive, even in his brooding Basil Rathbone days. Which is why I found it so strange to be held at bay when it came to writing the smexy scene...
Sorta like having this crush that has been there forever and on the verge of getting to kiss the guy...I froze.
You know, it puts me in mind of that scene between Zoey and Mal in that episode of Firefly, when Walsh and Mal were tortured and at the end, Mal tells Zoey they have to have sex...and they try to kiss... Hysterical scene, and was sorta how I felt!
Yeah, I remember that scene. :)
Anyway, this sounds like a kind of writerly performance anxiety. Hee.
If I were writing a Holmes scene, particularly channeling a kind of RDJ vibe, it would be heavy on the goofy and fun. Because, yeah, as Hellion notes above, he'd probably try to over-analyze the situation and at some point his partner would have to metaphorically or literally snap him out of it, take charge and get down to business.
With Homeless, I'm concentrating on the sense of being alone that I've always felt radiating from the character. The what he doesn't say or admit to stuff...
I felt like to do it justice, I had to restrain from my normal more crude and lude style. Something Terrio helped me see...which was why the first time I tried to write it, it didn't chime right.
It's working!
Now that everyone else is gone, I can comment. LOL! Been trying all cotton-picking day! Turned out I had a cookie issue. Now I could use some cookies. Sheesh.
I do not write character that already exist so I have no fear of messing with a cannon. However, I do have scenes that simply will not work and only after several hours of trying to make them work do the characters finally tell me WHY it won't work.
Characters are nice that way.
I do think it was more the character than the cannon in my way. If I were kidnapping the RDJ Holmes, I could imagine making him all sorts of sexy. Since I meddled with the character and made him more the way I imagined him...and pretty much threw the cannon out the window, I think it was the character I'd written that looked me in the eye and said, "NO."
Damn contrary characters!
I definitely have had a few scenes go sideways. Usually it turns out that the character was off. Usually I have to go back. If I'm lucky, I don't have to go back far to find out where I derailed. :)
So far, I haven't felt totally derailed and needing a major rewrite...but it will happen, I'm sure.
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