The curse of self-awareness strikes again.

[mrissa]

Sooooo...once upon a time there was a certain woman who had a habit of writing stories that had cliffs in them. Or cliff-like objects: high city walls, that sort of thing. It was a recurring theme, if you will. Possibly a trope. (Tropes are what you get when you are a finalist for the Nebula Award. For the rest of us they are merely freaky obsessions. Not so for Nebula finalists! They have tropes.)

And this woman had some very mean friends who teased her about the cliff thing. And one of them made her an icon, and some others just made fun of her, and two of them went so far as to suggest that if she was having trouble with a story that didn't have a cliff in it, she could just name a character Cliff, and then all her troubles would be over.

Ha ha, laughed the mean friends. Ho ho, laughed the mean friends. We are so funny, said the mean friends. Name a character Cliff! Ha. The funniness of us.

Until one day one of the mean friends realized that one of the protags in her space opera -- the only story she'd written recently that had no opportunity for tons and tons of snow -- was named Winter.

Um, said the mean friend. Gosh, said the mean friend. Golly, said the mean friend. How transparent these walls look, and I wonder what I should do with this conveniently placed stone?

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, such a cliff trope could then end up being the cover illustration (http://www.czerneda.com/summoned.htm) of a kick-ass anthology, too.

Maybe the same thing will happen with your winter trope freaky obsession :-)

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Now, where could I get away with a Marie S. Cliff, who almost certainly would never in the actual text reveal that the middle initial stands for "Shag" ?

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, laughed the teased friend. There is justice!

[brooksmoses]

You know, I could do with more cliffs in the things that I read. There's sort of a scarcity of them, and that's a sad omission.

And winter too, now that I think about it. There's definitely a scarcity of it out here.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Ha ha, laughed the differently mean friend, and held her sides, and laughed belly laughs and chest laughs and right ventricle laughs, and awaited the day a character named Ocean showed up to say hello.

[ringwoodcomics.livejournal.com]

Billy Ocean?

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Okay, I know where you live.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of Danny Ocean when she said that.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

The Billy Ocean/Danny Ocean mismatched brothers buddy flick, I do not need to write.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Yes! You do!

[callunav.livejournal.com]

From over here, it kind of looks like you might.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

All right now, everybody, stop trying to lead rysmiel into temptation.

[redbird]

Quite: if I recall correctly, rysmiel already has half a dozen active projects, not even counting "The Importance of Being Hamlet."

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Definitely enough active projects that it is unlikely that further passing ideas will get away with mugging me. Not impossible, but unlikely.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

At this point I can find it perfectly well on my own.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

oh yes you do.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

I think I'd rather have Danny Ocean than Billy Ocean.

[ckd]

Perhaps he really meant that song to be called "Get Out Of My Dreams, Get In To My Manuscript".

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

Or perhaps, "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Writing."

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

So funny. I have been that mean friend. I had a writer friend who always wrote stories involving college students and dormitories. We teased him mercilessly. Another one always had cigarette-smoking Filipinas (although this was somewhat conscious on her part and she was proud of it). Seems like most people have these things going on. What is strange is that I don't. Me and the other mean friends put our heads together and couldn't find *any* recurring or obsessive themes in my work. And it made me a little sad. *sniff*

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I can have tropes now? Who knew.

Honestly, the pay is crap, but the side-benefits are astonishing.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Campbell Award winners get them, too, and World Fantasy almost certainly. You can have all the tropes you want, at this point. No one can stop the juggernaut that is your tropes, should you so desire.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Oh good. So the eye-plucking thing, and the angel thing, I'm okay with that?

Oh. Hmm.

One-eyed angel.

And I know just where to put him, too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

See, sometimes thinking about your tropes is good.

Or even about your freaky obsessions; whatever gets you by, I say.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

*loff*

[timprov.livejournal.com]

As long as they all come out of it with intact ankles, I think we'll be OK.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The ankle-ban is still in effect, I know, I know.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

*giggles*