Thief of Literature

[scribblemyname]

I find an interesting thing about the languages I choose to use in my stories. Not unreasonably, I often prefer to use languages I’ve already started, but for some reason, it still surprises me when I do it. I used to create a language at the drop of a hat, and sometimes I still see one starting to sketch itself out, but at the same time, I find myself more and more reaching for old bones and stretching them into new shapes.

In Splintered Gates, I pulled two sigil names straight from ancient (in my personal real time, that is) Senetari Shuril, a very old version of Vas’hehr, the secondary language of Vardin (I think they have four or five main languages they tend to use). Well, almost straight.

Ditraka is pulled straight from Senetari Shuril and means essentially, speaker of truth, caller out of truth, doer of truth, etc. The verb can vary as it’s a partial construction, something common to the language but not to any other language of mine. “Di” is often rendered “out of” in the sense given above, e.g. caller out of truth. “Traka” is literally “truth.”

Cyvahdo is a mixture. “Ahdo” I made up as “rider” on the spot, but “cyv” means “sky” and was one of the first vocabulary words I had.

Why do I find this so particularly interesting? Besides the fact that I’m overly self-analytical, I mean. Because the more I write, the more the bones of my worlds are starting to bleed. I can see why some authors have a hard time not repeating themselves.

I’m not too worried yet, but it is something I have to keep an eye on. Oddly enough, this also only really became an issue when Kingdoms and Thorn cropped up. There was no way to stop the bleed with Vardin because they were born from literally the same bones, the same story, the same premise, the same characters. I just played it out several different ways and picked Vardin to write. Then K&T happened and there was the second major branch. Then Splintered Gates happened and I can keep it separate, more easily than the rest actually, but I hit the third major branch. It’s only safe to write because I split out the other reusable part of the branch into the Alliance storyworld instead. It reduces the room for bleed. A bit.

I find all this very interesting from this perspective: five years ago, I wouldn’t have tolerated it.

When we were kids, I made a fine art of hiding the origins of my characters and stories in bending certain key details, burying others, and mixing and matching far disparate fandoms. I rarely fanfic crossovers, but if you could see inside my mind, you’d see that most of my original fiction is incredibly crossed over. There’s a fine tradition for this in literature.

“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.”

― Stephen Wright

I steal from many, even myself. My stories and poems reference other literary pieces, sometimes rather obliquely. I homage and recreate and interrogate and adapt and decry and protest in the form of another piece of fiction, and then to top it all off, I do my level best to hide most of it so thoroughly that no one will ever figure out my layered upon layered secrets.

In short, I find this strange but interesting. It’s a habit of childhood, and only now am I beginning to be okay with bleed and small revelations. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad or indifferent, but it’s interesting.

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Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[trovia.livejournal.com]

I've had very similar experiences, but as I've grown older and seen my own writing evolve (I'm thirty and I've constantly written since I was eight, so that's 22 years of writing to compare, no matter the first ten years or so weren't exactly shining examples of art), I've also come to accept that bleed is okay. Reusing old stuff in new contexts is okay; it's new because the context is new. (I remember reading this fantasy novelist as a kid, name of David Gemmel I think? - no idea if he's any famous - who had massive bleed between stories, really massive. I used to try and figure out the chronology of his novels until I realized there was none, everything was a reinvention of an old thing, the protagonist of an old story would appear as a supportive character in another story, set twenty years later, having the same age but a slightly different name. It calms me to know that while this distracted me a little as a reader, it also never stopped me from being utterly absorbed by his stories) On a more abstract level, story interests tend to stay the same for a long time but your understanding of them grows, you learn different aspects and new facets, your POV on them changes, you learn what works and doesn't work from writing them on a technical level. So you might want to do it again but differently and that's also fine.

I'm personally such a sucker for war veterans - characters who've done that shit before but have to do it again, despite bad memories. I remember having written my first seventeen years ago and am now working on my most recent. It's such a specific thing that things will necessary reappear, no matter if the protagonist of the hour is a wizard or a robot or a Cold War spy. Or Spartacus. I've attempted Spartacus. :p But it's my feel good trope, so I'm gonna keep doing it. It's not just themes but also specific things, McGuffins, plot twists, little moments or idioms or weaponry that I'm familiar with and that's all okay. Each of them is a different story, as if your writing is your own little genre with its own quirks.

(finally I'm getting to use my Wolverine icon where it makes sense :p)

Btw, I don't know if you saw this little announcement that I made on my LJ, but I did think of you as somebody who might be interested when I made it, so give me a shout if you want a link to those articles. I know lesbian fiction is totally not your genre, so I'd totally understand if you want to give them a wide birth, but most of the intel as such is gonna be pretty general.

[scribblemyname]

On a more abstract level, story interests tend to stay the same for a long time but your understanding of them grows, you learn different aspects and new facets, your POV on them changes, you learn what works and doesn't work from writing them on a technical level.

Definitely, yes. I get very interested in certain themes and ideas and stay interested for a very long time, though the list gets longer.

Each of them is a different story, as if your writing is your own little genre with its own quirks.

I love that and so right!

I love your icons.

I've thought about going and looking, but I didn't ask primarily because I'm just so not interested in marketing right now. I will be, but I'm not just yet. That whole get-something-written first bit?

[trovia.livejournal.com]

So what are some of the themes and ideas that hold your interest? :) I'm realizing I don't have a good idea of the big picture of your writing.

because I'm just so not interested in marketing right now.

Heh, yeah, I get that.

[scribblemyname]

I could go dig up my post on it, but I'll wing it off the top of my head:

• relationships of all kinds, but mostly family and true love romantic relationships
• sacrifice
• power and restraint of power
• identity in relation to culture, responsibility, and family (also in relation to power and sacrifice and the choices we make, go figure)
• mastery of self
• impossible hard choices
• brokenness and healing
• irrevocable bonds (tie that into impossible hard choices)

I know there are more, but they escape my mind just now. These lead to blood and fire and glass/mirrors showing up as symbols in a lot of my work, especially the poetry.

[scribblemyname]

So I did go fish it up, unedited:

I said it once before: I write fascinated. I have found that I am interested in the same things that differentiate literature I love from that which I fangirl. I am interested in cost and sacrifice, power and strength, and mastery of oneself. I prefer the twists of complexity, characters who make hard decisions and pay high prices but accomplish their goal. I love order and making logic of chaos and impossibility. Fiction puts my world into perspective: it enables me to see the underlying patterns and constraints grant the freedom to make those hard choices. Selflessness, love, resolve, endurance, the ability to stand persecuted and not defend oneself—these things are power and a power I wish I had.