one last Q&A (Q&A 33)

[truepenny]

Q: What is your next project?

A: Well, I'm (allegedly) working on A Reckoning of Men, which is the sequel to A Companion to Wolves that matociquala and I are writing. I'm also (allegedly) working on an episode of Shadow Unit. The next novel--assuming somebody ever buys it--on which I continue to be stuck like Pooh in Rabbit's doorway, is The Emperor of the Elflands/The Winter Emperor/The Goblin Emperor (I'm also having trouble with the title), and I need to look very carefully at Cormorant Child and see if perhaps it would be willing to be a YA book. And then there's the usual milling crowd of story ideas.

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Q: Toward the end of The Mirador, it is Mildmays point of view and they are arresting Felix and you wrote:
Felix went down.
I went batfuck insane.
1) Was it because of the Binding-by forms, because he cared so much for Felix or a combination of the two.
2) I am not a writer, so this may be something writers might know, but I was wondering why you used periods instead of exclamation marks. I did notice that making each sentence it's own line really made it stand out more.

A: 1. It's the binding-by-forms.

2. I avoid exclamation points wherever possible, especially outside of dialogue. I find them incredibly obtrusive and an embarrassingly clumsy way of trying to manipulate the reader.

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We seem (after nine pages) to have come to the natural end of this round of Q&A. Thank you very very much to everyone who asked questions. You are all awesome.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am reading a collection of Louis L'Amour short stories my grandpa owned. So I know exactly how, "I went batfuck insane!" would have struck me. So very much worse than, "I went batfuck insane." Uff da.

[scribblemoose]

Thank you for answering all these questions: they've been fascinating to read and I've really enjoyed the posts.

[almightychrissy.livejournal.com]

I love any time Mildmay talks very calmly about going crazy. "I went batfuck insane" is an excellent example (though in context it breaks my heart.) My favorite, though, is your audio of Chapter 1 of Corambis with "I totally lost my shit." I laughed so hard I had to rewind the mp3 to catch what I'd missed after that.

[remote45.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the grammatical explanation here. I'm not a writer but I've always wondered why and how people who do write choose the words, the punctuation, and the style they do. It gives those of us who don't know a better insight into the processes that go into writing a story.
I'm sorry the question and answer phase is over but I have certainly enjoyed all your explanations.

[gadow.livejournal.com]

About the question about The Mirador: It has always seemed to me that the narrators are speaking to us with a bit of distance from the events, which gives them some perspective and a chance to calm down. Mildmay might have used exclamation points if he were narrating present-tense, but he never struck me as the type to dramatify his story after the fact. And, as others have said, the calm, abbreviated way he describes how he reacted is very effective.

And thank you very much for answering questions!