(We’ve all been there or seen it in action.)
The lonely man watches
As the crowded man plays
With parents, wife, and child
He envies the connections
That he lacks within his life
He wanders off alone
With time he wants to share
The crowded man watches
As the lonely man relaxes
With no one to invade his space
He envies the quiet solitude
That he can never find at home
He is dragged away by them
With no time to call his own
Devil Fruit from One Piece
I’m probably being fairly ambitious thinking I can come up with 7 decent tips. I mean, we’re talking about plants here. So, let’s just dive into it with the most obvious thing:
Irony is one of those literary devices that I personally love as a writer. And yet, for the longest time, it’s also been one of those “I’m not sure …
How to Use Irony in Fiction
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
This book tends to get lost in the shuffle at times. Curse of the Dark Wind didn’t introduce any new, long-standing characters. Part of this might have been because this was when the game started crumbling. So, I was struggling to move from the ‘real’ events to things I was making up. Of course, it was when Luke Callindor was going to be the central focus . . . Kind of.
This story involves a demonic curse infecting the wind of an area and poisoning all air-based creatures. Due to part of Luke’s powers, he starts succumbing to the Dark Wind and the other champions struggle to keep him alive. The is made more difficult by him having to continue traveling and being the one who has to purify the temple. I did enjoy having his friends having to find newer and stronger ways to bolster his energy. For some reason, I really had a habit of debilitating Luke and making his friends save him from whatever has him at death’s door. 3 of the 15 books revolve around rescuing Luke and he needs some major saving in several of the others. Can a main hero also be a damsel in distress?
Fizzle got to rise in importance in Curse of the Dark Wind as well. Prior to this, he was mostly a mascot and I had him hibernate through one story. Part of this was because he was just there in the game and the DM would have him do stuff to show off his knowledge of game system. In the book, Fizzle needed a bigger purpose and he became a protector of the champions. Since I had left him out of so many outlines, I had to revamp everything to give him bigger roles. This would include the occasional scene with very little dialog where Fizzle is doing something on his own. I think this book really solidified the bond between Luke and Fizzle too. At this point, Fizzle was the only remaining member of Luke’s original group of friends.
Character development was really the big thing here. So, all of the locations were fun and spontaneous. My focus was really on getting the champions and their allies to grow. I pushed the Luke/Sari relationship further, which some people didn’t like. It was odd that some complained about the sex in the book when I didn’t write any sex scenes. I mean, you know what happened since they were either making out at the end of a scene or they were resting in bed in a way that you knew what happened. Not much I can do on that front since I had to make it clear that this relationship was moving forward and working off lust a bit. Honestly, that wasn’t even a big thing beyond her having to fight to protect a dying Luke at one point.
Would I change anything about Curse of the Dark Wind? No. I really like that I gave everyone a moment to shine. While the story was about Luke, all of the other characters got some spotlight. It wasn’t always action stuff, but I got to show how much it hurt for one of their own to be in pain. As much as this book ends up getting lost in the shuffle for not being as huge in plot impact as the others, I think this is probably the best one I wrote in terms of character development.
Let’s see the questions:
Audrey II
I realized that I’ve talked a lot about designing monsters over the years. Always a focus on the animals though. A plant-based creature might show up at times, but there are still animalistic characteristics. This seems wrong. An environment is composed of fauna AND flora. So, I want to spend a week thinking about plants.
First, I want to make it clear that I’m not only talking about monstrous plants. This can move than that. You have fairly mundane plants in a fictional world that still serve a purpose. Flowers of unique colors, magical medicinal herbs, strange trees, and the like add to a fantasy world. This gives it a special environment and not a carbon copy of Earth, which some readers might find unbelievable. This can be a plot essential item or part of the exposition when introducing a new area, which is why you don’t always have to think ‘monster’.
We really do overlook plants when doing fiction, but I’m realizing how foolish that could be. It doesn’t hurt a story by minimizing their importance, but there is an amazing facet that can be utilized. For example, a non-Earth or alternate Earth will have some type of medical field. Like in our world, many medicines come from plants, especially when you go back in human history. We worked with what we had, so why can’t the same be done in fiction? If magic exists then it’s not unheard of for there to be plants with special powers, which ancient civilizations could stumble onto. Same can be said in regards to eating (fruits and veggies), building material (log cabins), and whatever else we use plant materials for.
Of course, we still like having plants that attack and kill people. Many people go for the toothy carnivores like Audrey II up there. I’ve seen some pretty cool ones that are dangerous without biting though. Vines that constrict and suck a person dry. Flowers that will sprout from the skin and control its host like a parasite. Poisonous fumes or needles are rather popular in fiction. You have the good old mimic and replace a person or animal too. All of these are viable twists on plant life when you want to create a monster that isn’t an animal.
There’s an extra benefit to plant monsters too. Unlike animals, they don’t always have a central brain or heart. This means, they are harder to kill. Hacking away with a sword can still work, but it will take time. Not like there’s a head to chop off. Arrows won’t be very good without a vital spot to hit. Magic and bludgeoning would be the way to go, which makes it a greater challenge for any heroes who lack those options. It makes senses too because the majority of monsters will end up being animal-based. A hero might not prepare for a plant-based one. Not like everyone will have a fireball or stick of dynamite on hand just in case.
This is something that I really want to explore more in Windemere. I’ve used unusual plants a few times, but not enough for me to really delve into this. One of my future ideas was a short story collection involving the caretaker of a hidden garden. This would be a place with unusual plants created by the gods, which can’t exist anywhere else or need to be released under specific conditions. I should revisit that concept and see if I can flush it out more. Possibly a lot of potential there, which I wasn’t paying attention to until now.
So, any thoughts on fictional plants?
Don’t think I’ve ever done a St. Patrick’s Day post. Since life is still driving me too crazy to do enough research for a good animal post, I’m going to do another holiday. Enjoy.
By the way, I don’t really know much about this holiday. Someone I knew claimed to be Irish and talked about this holiday being important, but they only did Irish soda bread and corned beef with cabbage. That feels like an Americanization of something. What does happen on this holiday?
Sadly, I can’t talk about a lot that happened this week. Work was crazy busy, which left me exhausted nearly every day. The energy I had at the start of the week was used to do Pokémon Go with my son after homework. Once I got over the hump, I constantly dragged myself through my afternoons. Glad I didn’t make many goals that weren’t automatic.
I’m finally getting to Darwin & the Halfling Hunt today. With me being so tired and distracted, I knew I couldn’t tackle it during the week. My hope is to get through at least 4 chapters by the end of the weekend. I have stuff to do this morning, so I’ll probably only make it to 3, but I have hope. Since I’ve never edited this book beyond checking after I finish and random section edits, I know I need time and focus. This is always the big one where I pay attention to continuity and making sure the scenes aren’t bloated or bare bones. All of the books going forward are going to be hefty editing projects, so 2024 might end up being the year of editing. Nothing wrong with that since I crossed the midway mark with Darwin & the Beast Collector. Looking forward to this project too and hope to tinker with it throughout the week.
Work was busy and it ended with me doing a supervision for a big event called Showdown. It’s where the grades compete against each other and I went to support a student. After a rough week, it was great to spend a few hours with this student who is full of energy and excitement. Another student joined us, so we were a fun trio enjoying the event. Definitely the pick-me-up that I needed to start off a weekend of editing. I sure these times are the memories I’m going to hold onto instead of the stuff that happens every day. I mean, that’s how cherished memories work, right?
The only other success of the week was finishing the April blog posts and starting in on the May ones. Not exciting, but I like to get things set up far enough ahead that I don’t have to create blog posts every day. I managed to do this because I kept ending my day with only 30 minutes before I had to crawl into bed. Didn’t feel like enough to settle down and watch an episode. Since Crunchyroll was giving me trouble, I started ‘Resident Alien’ on Netflix. Those are longer episodes, so I couldn’t get further than the second episode before the weekend. Saw that one of my favorite anime was coming to Netflix on April 1st too. ‘Great Teacher Onizuka’ was fun and I think I’ll jump over to it as soon as it’s live.
This coming week is going to be as crazy as the last one. Need to take a day off for medical stuff, which is improving. Maybe I’ll get more editing done on that day too. Beyond all of that, I don’t have much else planned. Pokemon Go with my son as usual when homework is done. March always seems to be this long slog to Easter/Spring Break. Even when it isn’t 6 weeks or more long. Probably the weather not making up its mind if it wants to be the 30’s or 70’s. That could be what’s giving me some health issues too, so it’s on the list to check.
Can’t think of anything else to talk about. I would mention the nightmarish puzzle I’m working on, but . . . Ugh. It’s 500 pieces with a fuzzy picture on the box and pieces. A bunch of sections are pure white with pieces that all fit together. I had to flip the thing upside down to match of the letters on the back in the hopes of getting it right. Took me ALL week to get those white sections set up. Now, I’m struggling to figure out if I’m looking at one character’s arm or another character’s face. Can’t wait for this one to be done, glued, and put in the pile.
Oh, my ‘Best of Prince’ CD came in too. Didn’t realize ‘Purple Rain’ was over 8 minutes long, but it’s nice to have playing on the commute into work.
Goals of the week?
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I don’t really know much about doom omens beyond what they are. These are warnings about disaster approaching. Sometimes they’re specific, but they tend to be vague and riddle-like. I keep thinking of Casandra from Greek mythology too where she has visions, but nobody believes her. That seems to be fairly common too. So, what exactly are the point of fictional doom omens?
I’m not really sure if I’ve ever used them in my stories. Foreshadowing is one thing, but this is a specific declaration made in the story. Maybe Gabriel telling the champions that at least one of them won’t make it to the final battle intact counts? This did make Legends of Windemere fairly interesting to me because my heroes were all continuing on with the knowledge that at least one will die. I always thought of this as twisting the prophecy/chosen one angle in a way that the audience starts to look for clues about who won’t make it. This does sound like a doom omen too, so I guess I’ve done it once without noticing it.
The reason I’m not sure is because I’ve noticed that authors tend to create doom omens that are incredibly vague. Gabriel was fairly direct. Still, I think this may have created similar reactions. The characters are made aware of a looming situation, which gives them a chance to prevent it from happening. Doesn’t really help when it’s vague, but at least they’re on alert and not blindly walking into danger. That is if they believe the omen, which doesn’t happen all the time.
Authors may use doom omens for the audience’s sake too. Even if the characters are ignoring the danger, the readers are now aware that doom is coming. It’s kind of like having eerie music in a horror movie, which plays in a way that you just know a jump scare is coming. Of course, the difference is that you never know how many pages you have to go before the doom happens. A reader can become tense at every encounter by thinking ‘this is when things go wrong’. You run the risk of wearing a person down and they no longer care, but you can also make them think you’re bluffing. Then, the doom happens and it has a stronger impact. Honestly, it’s a lot of juggling and emotional back-and-forth, which can be really tough on the author.
Aside from verbal prophecies like the ‘Ides of March’, you have events that count as vague doom omens. A common usage of this is one appearing when a character destined to cause trouble is born. Eclipses, comets, mysterious fogs, and a bunch of other celestial and weather events are popular. Sometimes an author may go further with another character dying right away in a gruesome manner. Many times its the one wanting to warn everyone about the danger. So, their death turns into the new doom omen, but only the audience realizes what is going on. I do enjoy these types of warning because they are so unclear that you can’t have the characters know exactly what is going on. They just go ‘well, that’s weird and might mean something, but damned if I know’. It feels realistic because we’d all do the same thing. How many eclipses have we seen and we don’t think a child is being born at that moment who will destroy the world? Although, now I’m starting to wonder about that scenario.
Anybody know more about doom omens? Again, I’m just flying by the seat of my pants on this one, so an expert would be appreciated.
Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you today with my second post in the Writer’s Self-Care series. If you missed the first one, you can read it by clicking …
Writer’s Self-Care – Friends and Family
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(Funny meme aside, this was a poem I wrote back in 2011 for 9/11. I don’t remember if it was for a specific prompt or request. Weird to post it in March, but I might repost it on the actual day this year. Forgot I wrote it until now. Yeah, I’m kind of dreading the comments too.)
I remember that day
Though I was six hours away
I was waking for a class
That would never come to pass
A friend said to put on the news
I thought he meant to simply confuse
Then I saw the twin towers fall
And I had many loved ones to call
I hoped that none of them were anywhere near
But hoping did little to quell my fresh fear
I wandered across campus as if I could only crawl
Eventually reaching the large central hall
Filled with students and teachers waiting to hear
If they had lost someone who they held very dear
Many people were crying and weeping out loud
Others were quiet, stunned members of the crowd
I remember the sorrow and anguish in voices
Over the loss of people who were given no choices
Yet something amazing did suddenly loom
A nation united started to bloom
People were nice and friendly to all
We were a nation that refused to fall
A bonding had happened to bolster our hearts
That for many were torn into still-beating parts
Our heroes were honored and held toward the sky
While we called for the villains who we wanted to fry
All those who stood up and defied our waged war
Were answered by primal screams from our core
Though there were signs that something was wrong
A festering curse that would not hide for long
Ten years have passed and something went sour
We fight with ourselves like monsters with power
Our country is hateful and cannot get along
Everyone is singing their own national song
Right against left and blue against red
Does anyone remember that people are dead?
Our leaders point fingers at any opposite mind
Many follow along as if they are blind
The insults and sniping and immature action
Have beaten our unity into crippling traction
I find myself wishing to go ten years past
When it felt that the pride of this country might last
A time when discussing in a big, open forum
Had some level of respect and some type of decorum
I weep for this nation that I leave to my son
Who may never see how a healthy country is run
Yet I hold onto memories that give me some hope
That we will not always ride down this self-loathing slope
I remember this day without being told
And I hope that the unity takes a permanent holdvv
Legends of Windemere 