Questions 3: Messages in Writing

Posted on November 15, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

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I know a lot of people don’t like messages in their stories.  Personally, I think there is always something we can learn from a story.  It might not be overt or intentional, but it’s nice to glean even a little tidbit of depth from an experience.  Even a pure action adventure might display themes about perseverance, friendship, loyalty, continuing through loss, and other life events.  With that said, here are some questions to get minds motoring:

  1. What is a story that held a message for you?
  2. Do you think messages are better when they are in the open or hidden?
  3. What advice would you give to an author who wants to include a message? (You cannot say ‘do not do it’.)
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Homonyms with Harmony, Part 9–Commonly Misused ‘F’ Words

Posted on November 15, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

This post explores the origins of homonyms—words spelt and pronounced the same but with different meanings. We’ll discover how we use them in …

Homonyms with Harmony, Part 9–Commonly Misused ‘F’ Words
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Revisiting Origins: Fritz Warrenberg

Posted on November 14, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Fritz Warrenberg By Kayla Matt

Fritz was played by my friend Nate.  Beyond that I’m not really sure where to begin with him.  He is a gnome who is an inventor, illusionist, monster chronicler, and purveyor of fair maidens’ affections.  In the actual game, there were very few female characters before Nyx arrived, so Fritz’s dirty old man side rarely appeared.  Once Nyx did show up, he was using magic to pinch her butt every chance he got.  Sadly, Nate and Fritz left the game soon after Nyx appeared, so I never got to see where he would go.  This posed a small problem for me that the other departing characters didn’t have.  Dave who played Nimby was my roommate for a little while, so I got a good idea how Nimby would work through talking to him.  Nimby also lasted longer than Fritz.  Harold who played Aedyn Karwyn was a stat-based player at the time, so he didn’t have a deep personality.  This gave me a nearly blank slate to work with.  Fritz had personality, depth, and a spark about him that was so endearing that I was scared to screw him up.  Nate created an amazing balance between comic relief and wise mentor that it was incredibly daunting.

So, Fritz began as a character who was there with little depth.  I fine-tuned him and evolved him through my years of editing Beginning of a Hero.  It wasn’t intended to be this way.  It was just that I kept feeling like I screwed him up until one day, he just snapped into place.  He is still close to how I remember him in the game, but more inventor than illusionist.  In the game, you can’t really be a famous and highly regarded inventor as a first level.  Again, the benefits of a book over a game is that a character can start with a lot of experience.  This is where I got more of a feel for Fritz and fine-tuned my own ability to have characters who are comical, but can be serious.  It’s funny because with all of my work on Fritz, I really grew attached to the greasy, womanizing, wise, old gnome.

Fritz is also the character who flushed out the gnome race of Windemere and turned them into a global force to be reckoned with.  They turned Windemere from a Middle Earth type place to something closer to a Final Fantasy world with technology blossoming alongside magic.  As the books progress, you will begin to see various high-tech devices such as indoor plumbing and mechanical bridges that can be turned into high archer posts.  So, the technology of Windemere is really all thanks to Fritz.  He is also to blame for gnomes being able to use half of their mind to do one task and the other half to do another task, so gnomes are true multi-taskers.  The final ability that Fritz gave the gnomes was called ‘The Void’.  Gnomes work with dangerous materials, but they rarely seem to die in the explosions that they are responsible for.  I began to wonder this and noticed that Fritz would occasionally pause while working on something and then go back.  The Void is a form of precognition that takes the form of total blackness in a gnome’s mind.  It is a warning that they are following a path that will lead to their death.  The Void lasts only for a second, but it is the reason why gnomes always know where to stand when something is about to happen.

So, that is the origin and influence of Fritz Warrenberg.

2023 Thoughts– Not much else to really say.  Fritz was the character who I used to set the tone and abilities for Windemere’s gnomes.  Out of all of the Luke Callindor’s friends from Beginning of a Hero, he really did have the greatest impact on world-building and setting.  I can’t have a gnomish character without thinking of Fritz.  It was a shame that I couldn’t have him carry on longer in the overall story than he did, but it was the same issue with Nimby and Aedyn Karwyn.  The players left the game during the second adventure, so I had to phase out the characters.  Still, they all had a purpose and left a lasting impression with Fritz being perfect for the role he played.

Posted in Character Origins, Legends of Windemere | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

When Things are Open to Interpretation

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

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I was thinking about this topic when I overheard a conversation.  It was a bunch of people making fun of the ‘Martha’ scene in “Batman v Superman’.  Many found this to be ridiculous and stupid.  I never really understood this since I saw it as something deeper than what you see on the screen.  What do I mean?

Well, Bruce Wayne is Batman because of the trauma he suffered from the death of his parents.  He has spent the entire movie treating Superman like an unnatural, inhuman alien.  Hearing the name ‘Martha’ shocks him and then he hears that it is also the name of Superman’s mom.  In my mind, this made him realize that Superman is more human than he realized.  He has a living mother who is about to suffer the same fate as his own.  An understanding or mild acceptance occurs.  Unfortunately, you have to come up with this on your own since it isn’t outright said in the movie.  Lots of hinting and a hope that people realize men have an odd habit of becoming friends over some ridiculous stuff.  Seriously, men can bond over almost anything.

For those who haven’t rushed to the comments to argue about the scene, I want to talk about intent.  This is when an author is hoping to bring a point across.  Sometimes, they are blunt and make it clear what they are trying to say.  Other times, they attempt to be subtle and depend on the audience coming to their own conclusions.  This second method is where you run into the following risks:

  • The audience creating different messages and arguing about them instead of polite discussion.
  • The audience missing the message entirely and treating your creation as a fluff, shallow piece.
  • The audience missing the message and making fun of scenes that make sense in specific mental context.

Effectively adding any message to a story requires that the audience does some of the legwork.  Flat out telling them the message ends up removing some of the mystery and depth of the story.  People might not enjoy as much and certainly won’t bother with a second reading since you’ve told them the big mystery.  There’s no more urge to analyze and see if you missed anything.  It has all been revealed.  So, you need the audience to figure at least some of the big stuff on their own.

As I said, that’s where the problem can come into play.  An author knows where all of the pieces go because we made the puzzle and broke it apart.  A reader doesn’t have a clear guide to work with and some of the pieces can be put in differently.  This results in a reader using the information intentionally given and some that were accidentally added to create their own message.  I’d like to give an example, but anything can turn into a hidden sign if a person takes it a specific way.  It’s part of the curiosity that most readers hold since a part of them wants to get a clue about things before the finale.  We don’t like to admit this, but being able to predict the ending is seen as an accomplishment.

So, what can you do?  I would recommend doing an editing run specifically to make sure there are enough clues to make your intended message be the one most likely to be figured out.  There’s nothing you can do to entirely prevent misinterpretations without stating outright what you wanted to say.  So, you have to roll with the punches and try to see where people are coming from.  Maybe what the audience comes up with gives you an idea for the future of the story.  It could very well mix with what you originally meant to say and give it more depth.  On the other hand, it could be so far off the mark that you can’t acknowledge it without ruining the whole story.  You have to love the challenges that come from readers being individuals with their own thoughts and experiences.

Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Tightening our Prose: Redundancy

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Stay tuned! And now for today’s post: Greetings, Storytellers. Diana here with more tips on tightening our prose, which in turn improves our pace and…

Tightening our Prose: Redundancy
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The Crafting of Phi Beta Continues

Posted on November 12, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Road Warrior

There is absolutely no connection between the picture and what I’m about to write about, but whatever.

So, I’m almost done writing Darwin & the Beast Collector, which means I should go back to my notebook.  It’s been in limbo for a while.  I even stopped halfway through designing the last of the squad mentors.  Why?  Well, I’ll explain a bit.

The series in question is being called ‘The Phi Beta Files’ for now.  Not sure if I want to keep that last word, but I can’t think of a better one that starts with an ‘f’ or ‘b’ sound to fit the pattern.  The story is about a group of miscreants who are cadets at a mercenary academy, which specializes in 6-man squads.  The four main characters are put into a squad on their own with the hope that they flunk out or get expelled.  Think of ‘Animal House’, but it’s at a fantasy warrior academy.  Much inspiration was taken from things that happened in my own college days.  At least the freshman year, which is where the ‘Phi Beta’ crew happened.  This is definitely an action-comedy series.

It took me a long time to figure out that I wanted to go with 6 books (Each school year, spring break, and summer session) with a short story collection style.  The stories are connected like chapters, but it doesn’t make me feel like I’m going too far.  I can give the proper attention to each event with the overarching story being carried along by other incidents.  Do I have the stories planned out?  No because I’ve been dragging my feet on this project for the following reasons:

  1. Kept going for my books when I was home.
  2. Tried only doing this at work, but I was always feeling tired and worn down.
  3. Health issues at home made it difficult to work on anything.
  4. Doubt in myself since everything after ‘Legends of Windemere’ have fallen flat.
  5. Misplacing my notes.
  6. Rivendell Lego Set over the summer.

Anyway, I think I’m going to really try to make progress before the end of the year.  I have some half days coming up where I can’t leave work, which I can use to my advantage once I figure out my newest issue.

So, there are the 4 main characters of ‘Phi Beta’ that make up the 6-man squad.  I designed the recurring enemies and the other 5 squads they interact with.  The last of the squad mentors will be done soon.  After that, I have only one thing left before tackling the actual books/stories.  That would be the core supporting cast, which would consist of characters based on the rest of the people I hung out with during the ‘Phi Beta’ period.  This adds another 10 characters to the mix whose roles are to support the main team.  For example, there is an explosion expert, a healer, a bard, a horse trainer, supplier, etc.  It’s going to be a wild and busy house after they’re recruited in the second book.

This also gives me about 17 characters to juggle in some scenes.  I don’t think I want to go that far, but I gave each character a purpose and would feel bad leaving anyone out.  There are incidents in the books after they’re recruited where I would only need a few either specific or random ones.  There’s a point where only 1 of the 4 mains are at the academy and has to pretend to be the others to make sure they don’t get expelled for leaving in the middle of a semester.  The support team would be very important for this to work and it’s going to span an entire book.  Looking forward to that mayhem.

As you can tell, I’m not willing to cut any characters because of the memories that are connected to what’s going on.  I tried, but then I realized the fictional, magical exaggeration of real events required those that I sidelined.  Just wouldn’t feel right to put anyone else in these positions, which I guess sounds stupid to anyone who wasn’t with us during these days.  I think my options for how to fit them in would be:

  • Rotate the characters throughout the stories to give everyone a chance.
  • Stick with whoever was actually there, which means a few will not get much page time.
  • Keep whoever is there and choose another random or two due to exaggerating the events.
  • Just take names out of a hat to see who gets to be in a scene.  This sounds oddly fun because it means the solutions for the problem will be determined by whoever I get for the scene.  The bard will bring a different set of skills than the poison expert.

Has anybody else had to juggle such a big supporting cast and make sure everyone got something more than an introduction?  I’m really curious about this, especially since I don’t want to introduce a character and then they stay in the background.  That feels oddly insulting to them and their origins.

Posted in Character & Book Themes, Character Origins, New Project Progress | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Goal Post: A Whirlwind of a Week

Posted on November 11, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

On the plus side, I did manage to finish preparing all of the posts for December.  The rest of the week was a lot of bouncing around due to holidays, work, and it being the last week of the quarter.  Not to mention a lot of meetings and stuff.  I’m genuinely surprised I accomplished anything creative like a few blog posts.  Looking back, Wednesday was the only normal day.  I’m surprised I’m even functional, but those last 3 chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector won’t write themselves.  They would have done so by now instead of the outline collecting dust.

Work was where most of the busy stuff happened.  We go through Crisis Prevention training every Election Day, so I didn’t get the time off.  It’s not the most exciting thing after you’ve done it before.  This year was slightly better since there were some changes on no more awkward videos from the 80’s.  Still, it was a long day with a lot of reading, quizzing, sitting, and listening.  Left me fairly tired for the rest of the day, which wasn’t much since I didn’t get to spend time with my son until 5:30.  Thanks to Daylight Savings Time, that didn’t give us much of a chance to do anything fun.  Going to be like this every year going forward too.

The other big work event was an unexpected field trip.  Our school had a Unified Basketball team, which is a combination of general education and life skills students.  A nearby high school was having a Special Olympics Summit, so we were invited to do a presentation.  I ended up going with two of my class’s students and we managed to make it through all of the speeches and presentations.  Not an easy feat for these kids.  Maybe it was the promise of free pizza.  Nice final work day of the week since we had Friday off for Veterans Day.  That was just a day of Pokémon Go with my son and a break to watch ‘Diamonds are Forever’.

Monday was parent/teacher conference night at my son’s school.  Not as much time as I would have liked, but it was in-person for the first time since 2018.  The ex-wife and I had to work together on this one instead of it being every parent for themselves.  That was such a bad appointment system for anyone in a co-parenting situation.  My son got glowing reports all around.  His grades aren’t as high as they were last year, but high school is more difficult.  I’m not surprised they drooped, especially since he was never the strongest test taker.  He makes up for it by never being afraid to participate and doing all of his homework, which is good.  His teachers love him too, so I think he’s going to end on a very high note.

Can’t say anything else exciting happened.  I’m still chugging along with the CPAP machine, which has had a wrinkle.  Seems Daylight Savings Time really messes with a person when they’re in the middle of developing healthier sleeping habits.  The CPAP has allowed me to get really deep, quality sleep.  I was feeling more energetic and healthier until the clocks went backwards.  Now, I’ve gradually started to get more exhausted earlier in the day and not feeling great when I wake up.  My hope is that I can reset things this weekend by sleeping a bit longer and not push myself too hard.

So, what is the weekend plan?  I’m aiming to get 1.5 or even 2 chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector completed.  This is going to be tough.  The next chapter is a big chase with the plan to solve part of the problem.  After that, it’s the big revelation chapter with a complicated fight scene.  Doesn’t help that I’m not really sure how to pull some of that second chapter off.  Been jumping around with clues and ideas throughout the writing, which could mean things don’t really work.  I think I may have made a mistake at one point, which makes part of my notes useless . . . Okay, I think I just fixed it by changing a small detail that appears a few times.

The rest of the week is going to be a busy work week.  With Thanksgiving so close, we need to start preparing for the usual Life Skills feast.  So, we have to work extra hard at our work sites as well.  Not that we don’t, but this week always feels busier.  If I have any writing left to do on the two chapters, I might have to attempt some broken nighttime writing.  Not something I enjoy, but I don’t want to leave it hanging for 2 weeks.  I think I can pull most of it off though.  Didn’t get any writing done last night due to being so sleepy, but we’ll see.

Goals of the week:

  1. Finish two chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector
  2. Help son with homework and studying.
  3. Play a little Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
  4. Start getting the January posts ready.
  5. Continue improving sleep.
  6. Use the exercise bike more.
  7. Cut back on eating leftover Halloween candy.
  8. Tinker with ‘Phi Beta Files’.
  9. Continue reading ‘Fairy Tail’.
  10. Make a more interesting goals list next weekend.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

How To Defeat Siege Weapons

Posted on November 10, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

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I was thinking about listing ways to take out various siege weapons.  Then I thought that would be too specific and boring.  Not to mention many of my ideas involved fire.  Instead, I’m going to talk a bit about why you should figure out a way to destroy a siege weapon even if it won’t happen in the book.

First, this requires that you either do some research or at least take time to consider the working parts and processes of the siege weapons.  Yes, you can make it easy with magic spells, dragons, or anything large enough to wipe them out in one go.  That’s not what we’re talking about here.  This is how a character can take down a siege weapon using smarts and tools for dramatic effect.  So, you really need to have at least a general idea of how these things work.

For example, you should know how a trebuchet is loaded, aimed, and fired.  This can give you an idea of rate of fire and how much time between shots the heroes have.  Another possibility is figuring out the perfect time to attack and make the siege weapon break in a more glorious fashion  Maybe cutting the sling rope (whatever it’s called) as it flies up, but do it in a way that sends the fiery shot backwards.  Causing these things to backfire makes for great chaos, action, and drama.

I already touched on the other aspect, which is to make it feel dramatic.  These weapons tend to be terrifying juggernauts on the battlefield and pose a direct threat to whatever the characters are protecting.  Taking even one of them out is a great victory and a shift in morale for both sides.  This is why it should be difficult as well.  Fighting through the work team and any other soldiers should be shown to increase the tension.  Make it as they are preparing and beginning to fire in order to create a sense of dwindling time.  Of course, this doesn’t work with non-shooting siege weapons like towers and rams.  Still, do what you can to increase the impact of the scene.

As for how to destroy these things, everyone can figure out their own methods.  That’s why the research side is important.  Even if you made a new version for your world, you need to know how it works.  That way, your characters can make it stop working.  The method depends on a lot of factors here:

  • Type of siege weapon
  • Setting as in battlefield, defending, trap, etc.
  • Characters’ intention to either destroy or escape
  • Character skills
  • Character equipment
  • Character knowledge of siege weapons or ability to figure out on the fly
  • Magic
  • Type and amount of defenders

That’s a lot to juggle for destroying one siege weapon.  You don’t have to consider all of them for very long either.  I’d say the skills, equipment, and knowledge are the largest pieces of the puzzle.  This is what the characters will be using to accomplish their goal no matter what they are up against.  Makes this no different than any other challenge they can encounter, but authors might overlook this as simple.  After all, siege weapons tend to be viewed as scene decorations, so a person might not give much thought to eliminating them beyond ‘break it with violence’.

Well, that’s the overview of destroying siege weapons.  It really is a complicated, but personal touch to a story.  So, you can’t really say things are definite facts and should be followed.  Although, that goes for writing in general, right?

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WHAT DRAWS READER INTO A STORY

Posted on November 10, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Hi SEers! Denise here to talk about what hooks a reader, reels them into a story, and keeps them turning the pages. When a reader loses interest, …

WHAT DRAWS READER INTO A STORY
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Poetry Day: Futility

Posted on November 9, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

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(The joy of the daily grin?  Probably closer to trying to solve a problem without changing my tactics.  Another option is that I wrote it when I felt like I was in a rut and not gaining anything for my struggles.  That was happening a lot in the earlier days of the writing/publishing period.)

Going around again
Following these steps
As if the result will change
I have lost count
Of my attempts

 

I make the motions
And say the words
That I have said before
Crudely etched upon my mind
Never to be changed

 

Paltry results
Are my work’s rewards
Undone by other failings
That I could not stop
Yet I still take the blame

 

I return home
A vast hollow growing
Underneath my skin
Swallowing all my yens
Until I zombie through my day

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments