Goal Post: Which Week of School Was This?

Posted on September 16, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

This week feels like it took forever to reach the end of.  There was plenty of drama . . . I think.  To be honest, my hay fever has been so bad that my head is foggy.  It got so bad that I had low grade fevers on Thursday night and took Friday off to get myself tested just in case.  I feel bad about that because I have to take Monday off for a personal thing that I can’t talk about in public.  Think the only times I’m emotionally okay with missing a day with my students and coworkers is if I’m truly bedridden or there’s a big event going on with my son.

Speaking of my son, he’s getting used to high school.  He’s getting better with breakfast and there haven’t been any fights about homework.  Well, not much.  The workload is definitely heavier than middle school even though it doesn’t look that way if you see the assignment list.  Weekly essays and multi-page packets being on the list means more work than he realizes.  Still, we’re finishing stuff and still having time to play Pokemon Go every now and then.  That’s not doing my allergies any good, but it works as a reward to help him focus.  Found out yesterday that masking up reduces the lung devastation, so at least I have a plan for the future.

Looking at my calendar for the week, I don’t see any big events that happened.  That means my time was mostly parenting, working, and setting up November blog posts when I was able to focus.  I did manage to get one section of Darwin & the Beast Collector done yesterday since I was home.  With any luck, I can finish the rest of the chapter by the end of the weekend.  Maybe even step into the next one, which can give me an opening to get a bit more done during the week.  No idea which evening that would be since Wednesday kicks off a long line of events going into the following week.  I’ll be happy with whatever I can get though.

I wish I had more excitement to share.  No big sales.  My son and I are slowly making our way through ‘One Piece’ on Netflix since we don’t get much time to watch episodes that are so long.  We’re only up to the 4th one, so we’re hoping to get further next weekend.  When I’m alone, I’m re-watching ‘Keinichi: The Strongest Disciple’ because I’ve been dozing off fairly early.  It’s easy to stop an episode halfway through and pick it up the next day while I try to wake up.  Not sure if I should be proud or ashamed of that.  I’ve been really tired lately, so it’s not like I have a choice.

That is one thing that’s going on.  I received the sleep apnea home test yesterday and decided to use it last night.  It was either last night or tonight, but I didn’t have any assurance that my allergies would be better.  So, I might as well get it out of the way and do my best.  This machine gets strapped to my chest then gets connected to a sensor on my finger and a breathing tube that sticks into my nose.  It’s not very different than the one I used in 2017, which wasn’t very comfortable.  Thankfully, it only needs 6-7 hours to get a good reading and not 8+.  I’ll send it back today when I decide to head out and then wait for my next appointment . . . in November.  Maybe I’ll get lucky and my readings will be so bad that they’ll rush me ahead of the line.  Fingers crossed?

As I said, this week is going to be busy.  I have stuff at school, appointments for myself, appointments for my son, a birthday party, and then bracing for Yom Kippur.  Needless to say, I’m going to be crawling into the following weekend.  This is why I might not get my hopes up on writing after Sunday.  There will always be the first weekend in October to get more done.  The books aren’t going anywhere.

Goals of the week:

  1. Return sleep apnea test.
  2. Recover from hay fever.
  3. Help son with schoolwork.
  4. Have fun at work.
  5. Continue eating chopped salads.
  6. Continue making chopped salads.
  7. Buy supplies for chopped salads.
  8. Exercise more since not much Pokemon Go this week.
  9. Write this weekend.
  10. Sleep.
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Hero for Fame and Fortune

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Leorio

I can already sense people heading for the comments to talk about how they hate these types of heroes.  They are selfish, arrogant, rude, and/or terrible teammates.  You can usually expect them to make the wrong decision if money or fame is promised for that path.  How can anyone really enjoy characters like this?

Well, that depends entirely on the author.  You can make a vain and greedy hero who wants nothing more than fame and fortune.  They are what the reader sees and have no motivation beyond wanting these things.  Of course, they can eventually turn more noble and realize that they need to be a role model.  They might fail at being a hero because they put money and reputation first, which causes them to reevaluate their choices.  That gives them more depth, but it requires that they change to a Hero of Justice or even a Hero for Fun.  This doesn’t always have to be the case.

In general, a hero who does things for money differs from a villain because they aren’t willing to break the law.  Anti-heroes fall into a gray area here, which I’m saying because I know somebody is thinking about Deadpool.  Mercenaries are a weird group that can go either way, so it’s hard to call them full heroes too.  A hero who wants money and fame won’t intentional shift to evil deeds because they have limits.  They still have a code of honor and some loyalty if they’re well-written. You can shift some of their morality around, but they need to stay on the side of good for the most part to avoid becoming more of a villain.

These types of heroes as have a strange sense of self-awareness if you want them to go the distance.  On some level, they are aware that their fame and fortune require a positive public persona.  Possibly more so than the Hero of Justice, a Hero for Money/Fame is very concerned with their reputation.  If that falls apart, they will no longer have what they want.  So, they can be less likely to cause property damage than other heroes because they don’t want to get blamed or forced to pay for the repairs.  They can be more likely to put rescuing bystanders above other actions because this will earn them fans who will spread word of their greatness.  While their reasons for doing this aren’t pure, these heroes can be designed to have more caution and foresight than their peers.

There are two examples that come to mind when I think of this type:

  1. Booster Gold– For those who know DC comics (isn’t the repetitive), Booster Gold took a bunch of hero gear from a museum and went back in time.  He used his knowledge of past events to be a hero for fame and money.  He was arrogant and rather annoying at the start, which also stemmed from being immature.  Over the years, he has grown into a more noble and dependable hero.  I haven’t read the comics in over a decade, but I remember him saving the multiverse and taking on a Hero of Justice role.  This is because he realized there were more important things than money.  I don’t remember if he also realized that saving the multiverse could make him famous.
  2. Leorio Paradinight– This is a supporting character from the manga/anime ‘Hunter x Hunter’.  He enters an event called the Hunter Licensing Exam to become an official hunter.  This is a dangerous job that can make people rich, which is the reason he risked his life to get it.  One of the first quotes from him is, “For the right price, you can buy not only treasures, but dreams, hopes, and even peoples lives!” His goal is to make tons of money, which sounds selfish.  That is until you find out his childhood friend died of a curable disease because the family couldn’t afford the medicine.  Leorio’s goal is to use the hunter license to help him get into medical school and make enough money to open a clinic where people don’t have to pay to get better.  I think he’s a perfect example of a Hero for Money/Fame that has a perfectly good reason to be that way.

So, you can see how a character can start this way and evolve as well as a way to rationalize their desire for fame and fortune.  This is why an author has to decide on where the character is going to go when they begin.  Do they want them to transform into a more noble hero, keep their motivations for a specific reason, or fall from hubris/greed?  If you don’t put some thought into these types of heroes then they have a high chance of becoming fairly two-dimensional and lose their appeal fairly quickly.  This can force a change or a retirement, so there’s a benefit in thinking about things first.

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Poetry Day: Followers of Identity

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

(I don’t really know what prompted this one.  It deals with people who transform themselves into others.  They don’t create their own identity, but try to turn into a person they idolize.  It can be physical and psychological.  I’ve seen it a lot throughout the years, so this was probably triggered by such an encounter.)

Why do some just follow?
Altering their outer shell
To become another being
A muted copy
Of another that they praise

 

Do they hate their soul?
Disgusted by what they are
Wasting strength
To transform into a butterfly
When they were born a tadpole

 

At what point do they stop?
Settling into a comfortable skin
Putting an end
To the constant flaying
That leaves them a patchwork poser

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A Hero for Justice!

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

All Might

Been staring at the screen because I don’t know how to tackle this one.  It isn’t because a Hero for Justice is complicated.  It’s just that we all know the type:

Superman . . . Batman . . . Spider-Man . . . Punisher . . . All Might . . . *add your own here*

This is probably because the concept of heroes tended to stem from stories involving righting a wrong.  Whether it be fueled by revenge or to protect society, these characters set out to deliver some method of justice.  They aren’t in this for fun or profit.  It’s their desire to deliver justice or at least protect society.  This is where you find many boy scout heroes, vigilantes, anti-heroes, and the like.  So, Heroes for Justice cover a lot of ground here.

I can already hear some people saying that pushing for vengeance or killing bad guys isn’t justice.  That’s because we tend to say ‘Hero for Justice’ when we speak about the pure good heroes like Superman and Captain America.  I think this adds the belief that these types of heroes have to work within society and act as maintainers of the status quo because they are pushing the accepted method of justice.  Yet, that’s only one version of justice, which isn’t as simply defined.  You have personal senses of justice as well.  This can be expanded when you add codes of honor to the mix, which creates an even broader umbrella for heroes.

The maintaining of the status quo isn’t even a solid factor in heroes who fight for justice.  I mean, the biggest example you can look at are the X-Men.  They are trying to change society by making it a safe place for mutants.  So, they are pushing for social justice instead of legal justice.  This shows that it really comes down to being a hero for the good of society or a specific group.  Attempting to protect the lives and rights of anyone means it isn’t being done for selfish purposes.  Well, it usually means that unless the hero is doing solely for attention and money.  If you haven’t guessed, we’ll be touching on those types on Friday.

We also have ‘Brutal Justice’ and ‘Blind Justice’, which can go hand-in-hand.  Brutal justice is when the hero uses a high amount of violence and even kills enemies.  They become judge, jury, and executioner like Punisher or Judge Dredd.  Blind justice is when the person doling it out doesn’t consider anything other than right/wrong and good/evil, so they can be working in extremes.  This can be seen with Judge Dredd, but not as often with Punisher.  You can also see how these two similar characters get treated and viewed differently.  Punisher is doing this in our real-world society, which means he is seen as a big trouble like his targets.  Meanwhile, Judge Dredd is a hero because his society allows and supports the system that gives him such ‘legal’ powers.  This shows that justice can differ depending on the society, but it still counts as some form of justice.

As authors, we can adjust the definitions and parameters of justice whenever we write our stories.  If it’s in the real world then we do have to stay within the law, but we can alter these things for the heroes in question.  They don’t have to believe that the legal view of justice is 100% correct.  Even Superman has had moments where he questions society’s stance on justice and does things differently.  I think this is an overlooked aspect of Heroes for Justice.  They usually start either wanting to help others, get revenge for a personal slight, or earn redemption for a mistake.  This doesn’t always mean that they adhere to the bigger justice system, but the majority of their personal stance may match up.  This is where an author can bring some nuance and conflict into a hero, who may otherwise be viewed as boring.  For example, they might have a specific crime that they have no problem killing over or are exceptionally brutal towards.  They’re still Heroes for Justice, but you have this one area that they go from Boy Scout to brutal justice.

So, what do you think about Heroes for Justice?

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Guest Post – D.L.Finn – Deep in the Forest Where the Poetry Blooms – #newbook

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

I am so pleased to have Denise Finn visit the blog today. Denise writes terrific books and also beautiful poetry. She’s here today to tell us about …

Guest Post – D.L.Finn – Deep in the Forest Where the Poetry Blooms – #newbook
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Tightening our Prose: Dialog Tags

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Greetings, Storytellers. Diana here today to continue the series on Tightening our Prose. As I suggested in the first post, tight prose has a …

Tightening our Prose: Dialog Tags
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Revisiting Origins: Fizzle

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover by Alison Hunt

Fizzle is probably the most popular character of Legends of Windemere.  He isn’t a champion, but he might as well be in the eyes of some readers.  It reached a point where I was getting requests for a Fizzle book.  This is when I tried some ‘Fizzle only’ scenes and I realized that I couldn’t go for very long with him as the central character.  As popular as he is, the little dragon worked best as a supporting mascot and occasional timely rescue delivery service.  Now, who or what is Fizzle in more detail for those who haven’t read the series?

In the first book, Luke Callindor meets this small dragon (called a drite) with red dragonfly wings, a really long tail, hallucinogenic/sleeping gas breath, powerful magic, and the speech pattern of a small child.  That last trait is because he learned trade-speak from a child, so this improved a bit over the course of the adventure.  Fizzle is the guardian of Visindor Forest who decides to travel with his new friend because he wants to be of help.  He has never left his home before, so he is very curious, especially when it comes to his favorite food.  This would be apples and some comedy happens surrounding the fruit.  He acted as a secondary caster and a stealth operative when he could.  As cool as that sounds, his main role was to be used when I needed a non-champion agent to settle something.  This is because he was the main Non-Player Character of the DM in the original game, so he was really stuck in that roll.

That isn’t to say Fizzle is hardly used in the series because I slipped him into scenes as much as I could.  This became much more essential when I saw how popular he was.  I couldn’t give him his own book, but I did rewrite all of the outlines from Volume 5-15 to have more Fizzle.  In the game, he went into hibernation for what would be the 4th volume adventure, so I kept that to give myself time to rethink him.  Drites sleep for several weeks to come back stronger and the heroes were heading back to Visindor Forest anyway.  I had it that Fizzle was gifted with extra ‘strength’, which only appeared in two forms.  One was more obvious than the other:

  1. Obvious one is that he had some resistance to Stephen Kernaghan’s magic.  This wouldn’t last for the whole story, but it was enough to protect the champions when they were weaker.  Fizzle also kind of gained this ‘stealth’ ability where the villains would ignore him and he’d get a sucker punch.  Again, this would lose it’s usefulness once they realized that they had to pay attention to the little guy.  Still, he’d get some good shots in at times and his magic certainly increased.
  2. The less obvious upgrade given to him by Gabriel the Destiny God is that he was able to continue along a fate path that he wasn’t meant to be on.  Nearly everyone else who follows the champions meets bad luck because it isn’t their destiny to do more than support for a bit.  Fizzle goes with them to the very end.  He is able to be a strong factor in events instead of a spectator or innocent bystander.  A few readers were calling him a secret champion, which isn’t too far off.  (Though, another character might have a stronger claim to that title.)

Perhaps one of the best uses of Fizzle is that I used him to ask questions about the world I was building.  I began this tactic with Luke Callindor, but it switched to Fizzle since he was out of his forest for the first time.  Since I write in present tense, I can’t do flashbacks and info dumps of history are clunky.  Having characters ask questions is one of the best ways to do it, so I used Fizzle for this when I really wanted to share something.  That didn’t mean he understood either, but the information came about.  I did try to do some social commentary when he ran into a homeless child in the sewers, but I don’t think that worked as well as I planned.  It would make sense for a creature living in the wild to be confused about how the ‘civilized’ beings let a child suffer, especially when he’s seen beasts adopt abandoned children.  Sadly, I really couldn’t get beyond a conversation between him and Luke Callindor about it because it didn’t fit the tone of the book.  (I think I’ve gotten better at putting serious stuff into my books though.)

A side-note that isn’t much about his origins:  I really wish I knew of a way to make Fizzle plushies.  I’m sure those would sell or work great as swag.  Haven’t had any luck finding a way to do it.

2023 Addition–  Clearly, Fizzle is still going strong in my mind.  After all, he’s the Do I Need to Use a Dragon? mascot.  I will probably have him return in cameos whenever I get a chance.  It won’t be easy though since he isn’t traveling any more.  I have to admit that I don’t think I would really change much about Fizzle if I had to write my first series again.  Sure, I would love to have given him more scenes and stuff to do, but that might have resulted in oversaturation.  The scenes where he was alone were difficult since he was typically alone and it was mostly action.  Those were good for what they were and helped give him times to shine, but I think they worked out so well because they didn’t happen all of the time.  He wasn’t a warrior either, so I don’t think I could have had him in the action any more than he was.  Yeah, I probably hit the perfect level of Fizzle, which is satisfying since I tended to forget about him in the initial outlines.

Posted in Character Origins, do I need to use a dragon, Legends of Windemere | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

I’m Just a Hero for Fun

Posted on September 11, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Saitama

So, I was showing my son the anime called ‘One Punch Man’.  This is about a guy named Saitama who became so strong that he defeats every enemy with one punch.  He lives in a world of monsters, villains, and heroes.  Since he couldn’t get a job, he decided to train and become a ‘Hero for Fun’.  Then the series and comedy begins.  Anyway, his motivation got me thinking about hero types.  Let’s start with Saitama.

I don’t think there are a lot of heroes who fall into this category.  They certainly don’t stay there for very long.  Even Saitama is clearly doing heroics at times to keep people safe and help them out.  So, this could be a fairly common newbie motivation.  It makes sense in a world of heroes or one where hero stories are popular.  A person could focus on the excitement of hero life while ignoring any of the challenges.  This would prompt them to start the path because they want that type of life.  Any monetary or justice factors don’t come into play for them until they get older.

Now, that excitement and adrenaline rush is really what draws them in.  It could also be a desire for a challenge too.  The funny thing is that we tend to see this motivations in villains more often than heroes.  Even if a hero does amazing things to grasp victory, the excitement and challenge aren’t the focus of their desires.  They are by-products that the hero either doesn’t fully acknowledge or wishes to avoid because they tend to come with complications.  Some villains, on the other hand, turn to crime for the challenge and thrill of not getting caught.  This is probably why a ‘Hero for Fun’ eventually shifts their motivation to something more noble.  In the end, the desire simply to have fun and be challenged is fairly selfish.

Does that make this hero a bad person?  No because they are still doing good.  They might be less likely to consider property damage, but you can still rationalize them making sure people don’t get hurt.  There is still a level of empathy and concern in their hearts, which is why they aren’t villains. A hero for fun will take some joy out of saving people because they will get praise and a rush from the ensuing attention.  They would also know that letting people die could get them in trouble and stop their fun.  Property damage might not factor into this because they’ve probably seen many heroes cause destruction, but they never get the blame.  In these kinds of stories, authors just ignore that part of the scenario to allow for heroes to continue having big fights.  The hero for fun can thrive in this situation due to there being no penalty for destruction.

As I said before, these types of heroes tend to evolve into doing it for another reason.  That doesn’t mean they stop having fun though.  Simply put, they mature and put on a different persona.  They might still joke around, take risks, or do whatever else made them stand out as a challenge-seeking hero.  Yet, they temper this with statements and actions that show a newer sense of responsibility.  Maybe they start thinking more carefully before jumping into a fight or try to talk villains out of battles.  They no longer come off as a selfish, prideful adrenaline junkie, but a sensible, noble hero.

Another factor that can change them is boredom.  Using Saitama as an example, he became a hero for fun and now he defeats everyone with a single punch.  A part of the story is that he’s bored and no longer getting a thrill from being a hero.  He even feels like he is losing all emotions because nothing is a threat.  This mentality reduces their motivation to a shadow of its former self, which means they have to either find a new reason to be a hero or rekindle the fun.  The latter would probably be difficult for someone who feels no sense of danger when they are in action, so they are more likely to continue for money or justice.  Sometimes, they may even quit and only come out of retirement if they think a challenge has appeared.

I guess this all means that the ‘Hero for Fun’ type is temporary and kind of ephemeral.  A character usually can’t stay that way for forever.  They eventually have to evolve into a different type or they become stale.  Not only for the author or the audience, but for themselves too.  They would need to find increasingly exciting challenges in order to continue, but there’s certainly a limit.  Inevitably, they will take on a challenge that is so difficult and massive that nothing can top it.  After that, they won’t be having the same level of fun, which is the situation Saitama is in.

So, what do you think of the ‘Hero for Fun’ type?

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Tragedy and Real Events in Fiction

Posted on September 11, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you. Today is the twenty-second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America. Most everyone who was alive …

Tragedy and Real Events in Fiction
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Apple Picking Day

Posted on September 10, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

My family tries to do this every year, but it’s not always successful.  Much of it depends on me having my son on a weekend that everyone else is free.  Well, it worked out this year, so off we go.  Might add some apples to my chopped salad lunches too.  Enjoy some funnies while I’m toiling in the sun. (Wow.  I didn’t realize most memes were making fun of or flat out insulting people who went apple picking.  Seeing this a lot when I search for topics, so are people just more hateful?)

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