Describe Your Taste Example

Hello friends, It's been a while since we last had a Proof of Work (I'm still working on that spiral story, I promise). Last week's writing tool, Describe Your Taste, included an exercise examining books you've enjoyed for common qualities you might want to add to your own writing. I thought it would be helpful for you to see an example of how I address one of those exercises on my own. So here are my notes on three series I really enjoy, and I'm trying to find aspects I want to aim for in the series I'm currently working on.

Task:

• Compare three books you adore, the kind that you would put in a top 10 list if I asked you to list one right now. They don’t have to be your favorite books ever, just ones you really, really enjoy today.
  • First list the things you like about them individually, get as specific as possible for each one and drill down as far as you can.
  • Take each item you wrote, and get more specific about it. Get beneath the surface thoughts to try to define what exactly makes that so good to you. 
  • Now compare those lists and write down the common threads between them. What things do they share that delight you?
  • Does your current work incorporate any of these aspects? Can you figure out a way to incorporate all of them?

Analysis:

Things I love about Dungeon Crawler Carl series - Matt Dinniman

• Clever use of “dungeon crawl” mechanics makes it feel like a good DnD game
• “Edgy” descriptions and language, not just cursing but references and tone.  
• Lots and lots of pop culture references. Takes an everything cool is cooler together mindset.
• Foreshadowing of events down the line visible to both reader and characters
• Foreground and background stories, each book continues the main storyline, but has its own goals and arcs. There are also world events happening in the background that are building tension for the ultimate end of the series.
• Wild, jaw dropping, dynamic battles that only get bigger over the course of the series.
• Characters face enemies that are massively more powerful than them very early on and defeat them using clever twists of the rules
• Does not shy away from the horrors of the events, MC ruminates on his awful circumstances and decides to change them, despite that making things harder for him

Things I love about the Kate Daniels Series - Ilona Andrews

• Clash of magic and tech used for both humor and worldbuilding - Magic is big and powerful, but still can’t replace technology and combining the two is difficult if not impossible. 
• Use of familiar mythologies in new ways, monsters are familiar but grounded in the world they inhabit, New creatures introduced also make sense in the world
• Independent female protagonist who takes care of herself but learns that life is better with friends and people who love you. MC accretes found family over time.
• Main character gets injured/hurt during fights and those injuries affects the rest of the book/series sometimes.
• Dynamic fight scenes using big set-piece monsters that feel relevant to or resolve parts of the plot
• PI - investigation storylines require lots of movement through the world. 

Things I love about the Liaden Universe series - Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

• Differences in social dynamics between cultures are a source of conflict - main character is someone who is conversant with different cultures and can fluently move between them (or in Theo Waitly's case, gains fluency over time but this is one of her main conflict arcs).
• Worldbuilding is discovered when and where you need it to build the story. Nothing is explained without a reason that is directly relevant to what is happening in the current scene. Otherwise cultural and other worldbuilding bits are mentioned but not explained. (honestly this applies to all three, but is especially relevant for this very long running series)
• Family dynamic is the heart of the story. There is never any doubt that the members of the central family care for one another and their actions towards one another are based on love and respect for each other’s abilities. 

Synthesis: 

• Familiar things made strange - In both Kate Daniels and Dungeon Crawler Carl the intrusion of magic onto “our universe” makes things familiar from the everyday world into strange work-arounds or magical devices in their own right. Characters use everyday items in clever ways, or have to cobble together magic to do mundane tasks.
• Familiar stories used in new ways - Both Kate Daniels and Dungeon Crawler Carl use familiar myths and stories and twist them into new forms. The Liaden books do the same thing with story formats, many of them take familiar romance or scifi story tropes and twist them into new forms.
• Social commentary -  all three have an undercurrent of social commentary that uses their fantastic setting to critique the status of things in our current conditions. They take a clear stance that people should care for each other and that we all rely on a community to succeed.
• High competency main characters who learn they need to rely on other people over the course of the series. 
• Main story characters with a love/hate partner dynamic that turns into a deep bond. Thrown together by circumstance they snipe at each other until an enemy arrives and then they attack that together. 
• Problem solving drives the story conflict, the environment as much as the people provide a significant challenge to the protagonists.
• Culture/Life experience differences drive character conflicts, no one's actions are unexplained and make sense for their culture and personality. No stupid fights or stupid decsions just to drive conflicts.
• The main antagonist isn’t a single person, it’s a system that seems inevitable and overwhelming
• Power scales way, way up over the course of the series, but starts fairly small. 
• Big set-piece fight scenes where characters show off their competencies. These take place I'm memorable locations that are thoroughly described beforehand. 
• Surprising and unique side characters that have their own mini arcs and backstories that impact the main arc

So that gives me a lot of things to aim for in the future. Essentially I can use it to build a checklist to be sure that the elements I find fun are included in my own stories. This should help with my enthusiasm for writing the first draft (see Rachel Aaron's 2K to 10K for why that works) and then gives me a list of things to aim for in revisions.

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Image Credit: Via Library of Congress: Highsmith, Carol M, photographer. Rose window high above the nave of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, the capital city of New Mexico. Santa Fe Santa Fe County New Mexico United States, 2020. -12-24. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021755405/.