One of the things I love most about your stories is that, like with the beauty spell, they help me understand and appreciate the books better. (Not to mention the historical period--I am always overwhelmed by your research and wish I had that same dedication regarding my own projects!) I was particularly struck by your comment about writing Pevensies you would be proud to have your children emulate. It made me realize one of the reasons I love your Pevensies so much: each one, or parts of each all cobbled together, are the kind of person I want to be. Your heroes are real people, with flaws, but very Good with a capital G, and I deeply admire them. And you for being perceptive and insightful enough to write them!
I think I've come to the end of my ramblings, but have one last comment that I've hesitated to make for some time but feel the need to throw out there. The one thing that bothers me when I read your posts is your reaction when some narrowminded or callow individual comes along and disparages your work or your vision. I fully understand the desire to please readers-but I hope your inner Pevensies can vanquish that particular monster (maybe Eustace could whack at it with a certain second best sword). I don't like the idea of you trying to tailor your wondrous world to someone else's idea of what's right and proper. Whether that involves Edmund, Morgan, and honey or simply word count and more or less dialogue, I want to read *your* story, the way *you* conceived it. Feedback is all well and good, as is constructive (emphasis on the constructive!) criticism. But I hope you can find the balance of accepting the constructive bits while discarding what does not fit. You do not have to be a wardrobe holding all of your readers' expectations inside like Susan's selves! We are the ones entering your story, if I may be permitted to mangle the metaphor, and the choice is ours to embrace it or not, in all its different glory--which, after all, is what the Pevensies did in Narnia and are now relearning to do in England!
Thanks for bearing with me, and as always thank you for the pleasure of reading. ~Syrena
Re: Syrena lets her inner novelist write comments
I think I've come to the end of my ramblings, but have one last comment that I've hesitated to make for some time but feel the need to throw out there. The one thing that bothers me when I read your posts is your reaction when some narrowminded or callow individual comes along and disparages your work or your vision. I fully understand the desire to please readers-but I hope your inner Pevensies can vanquish that particular monster (maybe Eustace could whack at it with a certain second best sword). I don't like the idea of you trying to tailor your wondrous world to someone else's idea of what's right and proper. Whether that involves Edmund, Morgan, and honey or simply word count and more or less dialogue, I want to read *your* story, the way *you* conceived it. Feedback is all well and good, as is constructive (emphasis on the constructive!) criticism. But I hope you can find the balance of accepting the constructive bits while discarding what does not fit. You do not have to be a wardrobe holding all of your readers' expectations inside like Susan's selves! We are the ones entering your story, if I may be permitted to mangle the metaphor, and the choice is ours to embrace it or not, in all its different glory--which, after all, is what the Pevensies did in Narnia and are now relearning to do in England!
Thanks for bearing with me, and as always thank you for the pleasure of reading.
~Syrena