Let me clarify the post title. I don't hate inspirational speeches as a general rule. Inspirational speeches are fun to listen to and the effective ones are, you know, inspiring and all that good stuff.
No, what I hate is having to write the suckers for my characters. One of the more common things you see in fantasy stories is the inspirational speech the king/general/hero gives to the army before the massive battle against the villain's forces in order to rile them up and get them to win. Basically said speech-giver is being a big ol' cheerleader for their army.
I hate writing these things because they have to be damn short and get across enough detail to be logical inspiring/pissing off the good army enough that it goes off and shows the bad army what for. Mine always sound weak for some reason. Ugh. Stupid speeches.
And that's it for the whining. Now for the good news: Chapter 21 of CALLARION AT NIGHT is in progress, and I've surpassed 56,000 words on the draft. Maybe this sucker'll be done before the end of January after all. Woohoo!
EDIT as of 2:20 p.m. EST: 58,000 words passed on CALLARION AT NIGHT and Chapter 21 is nearly done.
9 comments:
I've never written an inspirational speech. I imagine if I did it would be oh so weak. Congrats on the progress on Callarion at Night. You can get it done. I'm pulling for you.
I try to avoid inspirational speeches. I go more for inspirational scenarios. I don't really know how to describe it... you'd have to read WIND FURY's pre-battle scenes, haha.
But yeah-- that's because I hate them, too. They always come out sounding forced when I do them. *sigh*
Congrats on the progress!
I bet they aren't nearly as weak as you think they are.
Woo-hoo on your book progress - that IS good news! :)
I hear ya. There are only so many ways one can say 'Go fight good.' Perhaps my next story will be a caveman yarn -- that way 'Go fight good' will be acceptable as troglodyte inspiration.
Wow, yet another reason I should be grateful that I write MG. I'm sure it will turn out beautifully though.
Does the lashing that Gerard Butler gives as King Leonidas at the beginning of 300, just before he kicks the Persian messenger down the well count as inspirational? 'Cause It made me want to kick some a**.
You should watch a bunch of sport/army/underdog type movies for inspiration. Or maybe you should dress in character, I heard that helps :)
That's awesome on your word count. 58,000 words? Sweet.
I. Hear. You.
I had to write an inspirational speech given by Hatshepsut to the army. It's what, three sentences? Four? And it took me DAYS to write. And I had to have a guy help me. And read Queen Elizabeth's speeches from Flanders. I think it was Flanders.
At least I know I should never be a military leader.
Ha, I ran into that problem as well. Part of it (thought by no means all) is showing reactions to the speech. If the characters are into it, and the reader has no reason to despise the speech on its own merit, it's likely the reader will buy into its inspirationalness (inspirationocity? inspiratitude?).
Of course the better thing would be to write something that is actually inspirational. But as you say, that's hard.
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