Last weekend, I was out at the park from 9:30 am until 7:30 PM. Both days. This was for Pokemon Go-Fest, which was fun even if my luck was bad. My son had a blast hanging out with his friend all day. He had much better luck them me. Totally worth the exhaustion, tan, and aching feet. Needless to say, I entered the weekdays powered by fumes, so things were a slog.
That isn’t to say I made absolutely no progress. I managed to finish the chapter section of Darwin & the Deadland Queen, which I had to stop halfway through. I’m hoping to finish the whole chapter before Monday. If I can get into chapter 3, I’ll be happy. Not sure if I wrote myself into a corner though. My notes on the next section don’t feel right, so I might wing it. It’s a chase/recovery scene with Darwin having a competitor and much of his magic being blocked. Depending on how long family stays, I might even get to write this scene today. That will ensure I make some extra progress. Don’t know if I’m going to get to it this week, but there’s a chance I can finish chapter 3 before next weekend.
I wrote more of the Coven of the Gray outline too. Not much since I didn’t have much time before school started. I’m going to try to slip more of that in this week since I should be more rested. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out if I want to go with chapters or short stories to tell this tale. Some of the coven members are coming and going within a chapter, which feels like they’re getting robbed. Others are sticking around for a while since they wander in and out of the action. Part of the issue is also that my brain keeps thinking I have to do 13 short stories and that isn’t possible, so I’m not leaning heavy into that idea. Maybe I need to suck it up and do short story to see where the outline goes. I know there are smaller numbers that are magical like 9, which is a possibility
Another obstacle to regaining my energy was the heat that kicked off on Tuesday. It was really rough, especially on Wednesday. Bad enough that my son and I couldn’t bring ourselves to go outside for Pokemon. Once the heat starting getting more tolerable, the haze and poor air quality from the Canadian fires showed up. It wasn’t as bad as it was two or so years ago where the entire area went eerie yellow and you couldn’t see very far in front of you. The air was still smokey and made it difficult to be outside for very long. It eased up on Friday, but not enough for my son to go out without a mask and his inhaler unless we went to the coast. Rain today should clear some of it out.
This coming week is going to be messy. Not only because of the rain, but the life event will be advancing. So, I have to put some time aside earlier in the week to go through things and send stuff out. Will this be where it ends? I doubt it, but it will be nice for some closure to appear. The biggest reason I can’t do much writing this summer is because of the fallout from this event. This is more important than writing and it’s draining my mood, which makes it hard to make Darwin a happy, positive character. Being able to free myself from any level of stress would be nice. Another reason I need to rest up this weekend, but I’m really only going to have tomorrow. Family is visiting today and I promised my son I’d take him to a One Piece store opening this morning and then a Pokemon event later.
I’m also trying to think of a new trip to take with my son in the future. It has to be by car, which limits what we can do. Moreso if gas prices get any higher. I swear those things were going down at the start of the month and suddenly they jumped up again in the last week. Anyway, I might use this as a way to distract myself from stressors when I can’t get to my writing. Pretty much when I’m so tired that I lie down, but my brain decides I’m not allowed to pass out. Part of me feels bad that I can’t take my son to places that require plane travel on top of a hotel. That’s just how it is, I guess. Simply existing is really expensive these days, so special things are a challenge.
Goals of the week:
Keep affording to exist.
Write more Darwin & the Deadland Queen.
Work more on Coven of the Gray.
Time with son when he’s here.
Might as well go to work.
Prepare for and deal with life event.
Stay dry.
Get a rice bowl for lunch or dinner at some point. Been a while.
One of the big standards of fantasy adventure books are traps and mazes. The latter isn’t as common as the former and I can already hear some people groaning about the topic because they think these are terrible concepts. Dungeon crawling in a book can be tedious and is more action than anything else. You can have part of a book involve a trap-filled ruin, but you need to try to have it be big, essential, and put some character development in there. Most importantly, the heroes need a real reason to be in there. Rescuing a kidnapped ally, cure for a disease of one of the main characters, returning an artifact that could destroy the world, and things that are larger in scale than ‘find the random, possibly shiny treasure’.
First, mazes are relatively simple in and of themselves. Characters wander and talk while dealing with wrong turns and traps. This can be used for character relationship development, especially if you’ve built up a plot between them that has to be discussed. It helps to draw a crude map of the maze to give yourself a feel for it. Though, you can also get away without giving exact directions. ‘Time passes’ and chapter breaks can be your friend here.
Second, when working with ancient ruins or dungeons or any trap-filled place, you need to consider a few questions:
Is this a place that can be easily accessed?
Is this a place that has been lost to the ages and recently found?
How fresh are the bodies of failed adventurers? Are there any?
The reason these questions are important revolves around the entrance. If it’s well-known and wide open then anyone can go in there and you need to make it look that way. If it’s difficult to get to and you want it to feel abandoned then you need a hidden door or entrance puzzle. These questions also help you figure out the trap types because some people wonder how a trap resets if several people have sprung it over the years. Easy way to solve this is to put a living threat in the ruins that has the ability and instructions to reset the traps. Gelatinous Cubes are not acceptable.
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This brings us to traps, which are one of the standards of fantasy adventures. Any adventures really. From Indiana Jones running away from a boulder to James Bond in a booby-trapped elevator, traps are nasty surprises that an author can have fun with. In fantasy, you have magic to work with and that opens a few interesting doors. Fictional poisons, spells, and monsters can play into this. You have pitfalls, arrow traps, swinging blades, fire traps, water traps, ejection traps, poison gas, boulders, illusions hiding spikes, setting off ghosts, falling into monster-infested pits, electricity traps, eternal sleep traps, explosions, Gelatinous Cubes (the bastards!), force fields, and overly complicated death machines. Just to name a fraction of them. Here are a few general tips if you plan on using traps:
Create the way out before writing. One of the biggest threats to a trap is that the way out is random and ridiculous. It doesn’t have to be clear to you, but have the general idea that a character needs to do a specific action.
Make it believable that the heroes can find and avoid the traps. Ignore if you plan on killing them off with the trap, but then people might realize that when they see they’re on the last page.
Overly complicated traps can have simple answers and probably should. After all, if it’s a terrifying death machine then people will think big. They might not immediately consider a simple, obvious method like looking for a button.
Make sure the heroes can escape without outside influences and remember why that has to happen. People ask what the point of a trap is if there’s a way out and here is my answer. A person who makes a trap would design it with an escape in case they fell into it or it was used against them. All you need is one gnome reverse engineering your electric fire pit trap and you’ll find it everywhere.
Please make most of your traps lethal. Spitting darts the size of a fingernail without poison on them isn’t going to scare anyone.
You don’t have to sacrifice a character to demonstrate the danger of a trap. Standing within a room of death or dangling over a shark pit can do wonders for suspense. It also keeps readers on their toes for if you’ll really kill a character.
Now, a lot of people don’t like these things in literature because they fall into the ‘cliche’ category. My suggestion is to do it if it fits the story and ignore the complaints. The important part is that the traps, mazes, and dungeons make sense within the story. So don’t use them as filler and make sure to give them a purpose.
One of the big things in fantasy books happens to be oddly controversial too. The use of magical items is common, but many people disagree with how they should be used. Some people don’t want them at all in the stories unless they’re an ancient item of great power that is essential to the plot. Others think they should be forbidden items and only villains have them even if there is a heroic spellcaster. On the other end of the spectrum, you have worlds where magic items are commonplace such as Harry Potter. I could keep going with the list of beliefs on magic items, but I’m sure people will voice some more in the comments.
Personally, I think it depends on the world and characters. If it is a low magic world then items of power shouldn’t be common. Of course, the exception would be if the only sources of magic are these items, so they’ve been mass produced. Now a world with magic everywhere like Windemere makes it believable that such items are easy to find. There would be stores for magic rings with high prices and not every magic item will have the power to change the world. For example, there is a class of item called Durable Gear, which means they’re stronger than normal items. As the Lich says ‘everyone and their dog seems to have one of these items’. Nobody said a crafting caster couldn’t be in it for the money.
There is also a question of who can wield magic items, which is another world-dependent entity. I’ve never understood the idea that only spellcasters can use magic items with the exception of scrolls and wands. A magic sword is something that sounds like it can be used by anyone who can swing it. If the system states that one needs to study magic to awaken an item’s power then that’s how the world works and I’ll go along with it. I might question a spellcaster wielding a magical great axe, so I think the items have to be crafted accordingly. I’ve gone for magic items that everyone can use if they are in the proper situation. Luke’s new ring requires a catalyst as do a few later items.
So, what do people think of magical items in stories? Do you want them to be around, limited, or absent?
I have a confession: I’m not a big fan of gore. I get squeamish easily, so this is topic that comes from a person who has a low tolerance. I’ve gotten better in my old age, but I couldn’t even make it through a Yahoo Image Search for ‘Gore’. So, you get the above picture in order for me to handle this post. I’m sure some people find that scarier than the bloodiest horror movie, but let’s avoid politics here.
A few weeks ago I found that there were more Youtube videos of an Anime Music Video mash-up called AMV Hell. I watched the latest one and saw one clip that had monsters devouring people with a lot of blood. Now, I’m an anime fan and I remember the spurting of Ninja Scroll and the gore of Elfien Lied. I made it through that, but something was odd about it. Apparently, this was a series called Blood-C and it had a habit of upping the gore with every episode. In fact, some people said it was all gore and no plot until the last two episodes. I’m not here for a review, but I did check out episode 9 . . . I don’t have it in me to post it:
Basically, the main character is a girl with a sword and can go super powered to kill these monsters. In the episode I found, a monster is at her school where her class is the only one there. The first half of the episode is the butchering of every character, except the main one. Blood, screams, and body parts are everywhere, which was really gross and so over the top. Yet, it wasn’t funny over the top. It was disturbing over the top because I saw no reason for it to happen and the main character simply wouldn’t use her powers to put a quick end to it. Not until everyone was dead, so you add bad character usage in here to make me sick to my stomach.
This made me realize that many people use or see gore as a powerful tool when it comes to storytelling. It shocks the audience when it occurs, but there is a limit. Eventually, a person can become desensitized to it. For a reader, it means they get bored with the death and start seeing it more as a joke. For a writer, it can lead to upping the gore and methods of demise until it’s so far over the top that it hurts the story. One has to remember that you can’t keep pushing the same button on a person without it wearing out.
So here are some quick rules about gore that I just thought up:
Do NOT use it every other scene.
Do use it sparingly to get the proper shock value.
Unless you’re making an anime or a comedy, try to remember that blood is not a highly pressurized liquid in the human body.
There is not enough blood in the human body to spurt fifty feet for an hour. At least I don’t think there is.
Try to stay with only one beheading, one loss of limb, and/or one evisceration per story. Exception is if beheading is the only way to kill characters like in Highlander or Supernatural’s vampires.
Never replace plot and character development with massive amounts of bloodshed.
Months ago, I read that there are fish who can’t swim. I found this very interesting since most people assume swimming is required to be a fish. Then again, not all birds fly and not all mammals give birth to live young. Now, these fish with walk or hop along the seafloor or drift with the tides. There are some that can swim, but either aren’t very good at it (seahorses) or prefer to walk instead of glide (sea robins). Added them even though I’m not sure if they count. Without further ado:
The title really does cover it all. This was the first week of summer school, so I went back to getting up early and heading off to work. The days are shorter, but that also means they’re more compact. Some hours go faster than others. I’m glad the heatwave wasn’t around to give us trouble, but Monday had a big rainstorm. Still, I made it through everything in one piece and have an idea about my general schedule. It’s definitely where some days will be better than others.
As far as writing goes, I did my best with Darwin & the Deadland Queen. I only finished the first section of chapter 2 and got about halfway through the second section. I ended up having a bunch to do to prepare myself for summer school and the horrible heat on Saturday was a pain. Others things kept turning up to draw me away from writing both physically and mentally. I made an attempt during the week to get a little bit further, but I only made a paragraph before exhaustion took over. Next week should be better because I’ll have more time in the evenings.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle was Pokemon Go-Fest. To explain, this is the biggest event in the game for the entire year. Special Pokemon are around and every evening has something going on. I promised my son that I would take him out for everything, especially since one of his friends got back into the game. I wasn’t going to disappoint him, so that was how my week went. Busting my butt at school, rushing back for dinner, and going out for Pokemon. Hard to fit writing into such a schedule, but I really don’t feel bad about it. This was a great father/son week and I’m not going to have too many of those left as he’s almost seventeen. That means 18 is around the corner and he might not have much time for me. Enjoy these events while they last.
I did try to tinker with Coven of the Gray a bit. I’m having some doubts. I like how the characters are coming out, but I’m now worried about the method of storytelling that I set up. I have a chapter book outline, but I found that some coven members are getting more chapters than others. I can’t have them all converge on the hero because he isn’t that kind of warrior. They’d crush him, so he needs to encounter them either individually or in pairs along the road to the fortress. So, I’m not at about chapter 11 of 15 in the outline and still have 6 coven members left. This feels off since I still planned on there being 3-4 sections per chapter like in Bedlam. Maybe I should switch to each ‘chapter’ being a short story where a single coven member (or 2) are encountered and defeated. There are pros and cons to both methods, but the way I’m going now is starting to be a problem.
Another change coming up next week is that I’m going to be cooking dinners on Monday since I get home earlier from work. With Go-Fest over, I’ll be able to get home, take my son out for a bit, and get home to cook. This can also give me some leftovers for school and I’m trying to avoid buying as often as I can. Trying to eat less too, so it’s been yogurt, protein drink, and Nutella sandwich most days. Tuesday and Thursday are turning out to be the cheat days only due to the situations. Either way, I’m going to try to eat better and get back into cooking. So far, penne with vodka sauce, chicken cheese enchiladas, and restaurant style chicken lo mien are on the list.
Not much else I can talk about in public. The other situation is still on-going and I don’t know how long it will take to settle. It’s definitely taking up a good portion of my attention and adding to my stress. That’s probably another reason it now takes me a day to write a single book section. My stress is already high, so writing in my current mental style makes me exhausted fairly quickly. I find that my brain is now trying to edit as I go, so it’ll stop if I overuse a word or subconsciously sense I did something wrong. Not sure if this is a more mature way of writing than when I just went with it and cranked out chapter sections that I would edit later. It does cut down the editing, especially since my fear of messing up continuity forces me to stop for research at various moments.
Anyway, I’m currently rolling out of bed to make lunches and pack supplies for Go-Fest by the time this post goes live. The event goes from 10 am to 7 pm today and tomorrow. My son is determined to complete his list of catches. So, it’ll be eating on the road, lots of hydration, praying for no rain, and having a late dinner. Glad I taught him to do the laundry, which he got done yesterday. That would have been an added headache to the chaos.
Now for the goals:
Enjoy Go-Fest with my son.
Catch a shiny MewTwo.
Stay hydrated and sunscreened.
Eat less and better.
Sleep when needed.
Work on Darwin & the Deadland Queen. Low on list because 1-5 is all the weekend.
Tinker with Coven of the Gray. At least decide on chapters or 10-13 short stories.
Legends of Windemere 