Urban Fantasy – Pass or Fail.

I am taking the Urban Fantasy Masterclass, and I have just read the first section of the very first email, and it talks about Urban Fantasy conventions and rules that apparently most UF writers live by. The teacher of this class also says that “it would take an exceptional book—and a brave editor—to bypass them”:

• Urban fantasy is told in first person. (Fail. Not even close. Told in 3rd Omnicient.)
• You need a strong willed and feisty female protagonist. (Yeah? No. Fail. She’s more of the antagonist.)
• Urban fantasy must have an urban setting. (Mostly Achieved. Apart from trips to Antarctica and the Amazonian forest)
• You need lots of action. (Well… I hope that I have achieved this. Let’s wait and see….)
• Sex sells. Give your protagonist a love interest multiple love interests. (Um. Fail. Antagonist apparently likes sex though.)
• You need a compelling villain. (*sigh* I have no idea if they are compelling or not. I can no longer see the forest through the trees. But I’ve got my fingers crossed.)

Apparently a few of these conventions can be broken, which is kind of a relief considering I have obviously already done that. Might just make this trilogy a little harder to sell…. apparently?

Oh, and one more rule that every Urban Fantasy novel should have: Magic. Of some form.

So… I guess that in terms of taking this class, I am hoping to seek some sort of guidence with world building, action scenes, and anything else that I can possibly glean from this course. I would like to start the first major edit of Talent -Book I soon, and anything will help considering I have never written Urban fantasy before.

Who knows what will happen to my imagination after this. It may run rampant with future Urban Fantasy stories… or I may just quite while I’m ahead. Writing Urban Fantasy, that is.

Oh, and just for the record – there will still be no stoned fairies in this series. Just saying…

 

Procrastination

There is just so much that I could say right now, but once again – that would be procrastinating.

A lot has been happening in my life lately, some things that I just wasn’t prepared for, and other things that I have been avoiding. Like finishing this book, for example. Never fear – it’s so close, I could almost touch it. In fact, if I knuckle down today – I might just be able to finish it now.

But, since I haven’t blogged for a while, I may as well catch you up on everything that has happened over the past couple of weeks.

1. My house is warmer due to all the underfloor insulation that has been going in over the past three weekends.
2. My house is now spotless, because I have been refusing to clean it with all the fibreglass crap that has been all over my house – and knowing that more will be distributed with the next lot of insulation going in. All the washing has been done, as well as the dusting, and I have bought new linen for our bed because the other stuff was pissing me off. I couldn’t understand why I was putting up with it, until I realised that I am not actually poor… so there was no reason why I shouldn’t just go and buy something we liked.
3. One of our cars is getting fixed. This car has been seriously broken for a while now. Six months. It’s only costing me $1000 bucks to fix it as well. *choke*
4. The other car has cost us $600 to get it to a warrantable standard, or else that was going to be an epic fail as well.
5. I have been to visit all of the family that live in the region over the past couple of days, because I have been avoiding them and living like a hermit. Including visiting my grandmother, who I haven’t seen in a month. Not cool. Usually I see her at least once a fortnight. Bad granddaughter.
6. Oh, and I have watched a lot of movies lately. Mostly good ones too.

So… that’s where I am up to. Fingers crossed that I can finish up this book today or tomorrow. It’s been going on too long now, and I just want to put it aside and start editing.

And everything else that I wasn’t prepared for can go on the back burner for a few days until I work this book out. Then I will sort the rest of my life out. Book first, life later. Everything else can shove it. Writing is what is important to me and my happiness, and I think that it’s about time that some people just figure that out.

Oh, and one last thing. I’m really looking forward to the final instalment of Harry Potter this week. The end of an era, and the conclusion of one. Ciao ciao for now.