To be honest, I’m not talking about the Earth actually spinning. I’m talking about the dizziness I have Friday night while I write this. This week was busy, stressful, and ended up a day that was both horrifying and amazing. Don’t worry. It will make sense when I explain.
Last Saturday, I was put on a medication for blood pressure. I’ve been bouncing around 127/82 and 145/99 a bunch. Really it’s the 82-99 bottom number range that was of concern. So, I was put on a medication that was supposed to be mild and only have swollen feet as a common side-effect. The first night had a headache and I woke up with some disorientation. I didn’t take the ashwaghanda gummy or Zzzquil. Second night was with the gummy and I had more disorientation in the morning. Third night was the Zzzquil and that had the same thing. I figured it was just me getting used to things, so I eventually tried all three. A little rough sleeping, so I stopped the gummy again. I had the same effect the next . . . Let’s just jump to Thursday night.
I took the blood pressure medication, gummy, and Zzzquil as I did before. I’d had a stressful day with my son having another final, us running around with errands, and a field trip at work. Maybe that was a factor. All I know is that I wasn’t in bed for more than 30 minutes before I realized something was ‘off’. I still fell asleep, but woke up after midnight feeling like I was going to die. It wasn’t pain, but a sense of terror that my body wasn’t functioning correctly. Went to the bathroom, did breathing exercises, and even took the ‘when needed’ anxiety medication. My blood pressure wasn’t any higher than normal, but I was freaked out. I’ve had panic attacks before, but this was a new breed that had me texting friends because I was terrified. I eventually passed out, I think, and woke up feeling like my brain was scrambled.
Now, I still went to work because one of our students was having his graduation ceremony and the others were getting yearly awards. I refused to miss that and I knew this had something to do with the blood pressure medication. Ended up being functional by the time I got to work and was feeling good, but drowsy by 9:30 PM. Everything looked like it was going good until I started heading home and got hit by fatigue, a weak cough, and a sense of panic. My blood pressure ended up leaping to new heights (over 100 on the bottom) and I was starting to freak out again. Made it to therapy, which helped and gave me the strength to not take the medication again. Couldn’t get in touch with my doctor though. I spent the rest of Friday struggling to function and having no appetite. Since I’m writing this on Friday, I don’t know how well I slept.
Needless to say, I’m still scared and confused. I looked up the medication and saw that there were only mild side-effects listed. Then, I found a site where people reviewed drugs and found people talking about the same stuff that hit me. Sometimes it was even worse and it looks like it was just bad luck of genetics. The medication has a small chance of making anxiety worse, which is what it did to me. The other things I take to help me sleep may have interacted with it, but I don’t sleep well with the blood pressure medication alone. So, I’m going to have to figure out another way. Potassium is supposed to help lower blood pressure, so maybe supplements like I’m doing with Vitamin D.
What else happened? Well, I finished the outline for Darwin & the Beast Collector, which I will start writing at the end of the month. At least I’m going to try as long as I’m healthy enough. Fine-tuned the Amazon site for Do I Need to Use a Dragon?and hoping it does well. Helped my son with studying for tests, which had him stressed out and irritable. Classes for him and me ended up Tuesday, so he had half-days and my students do too. I have to stay until the end of the day though. Anyway, most of the week was a hodgepodge while I tinkered with the medications.
I get a 3-day weekend to recover and hope that this isn’t something worse. Really want to be healthy because my graduating student is having a party tonight and we’re all invited. I want to make it to Father’s Day brunch with my family tomorrow too. That’s why I’m going to try and rest today. I don’t want to destroy myself, which would cost me the party, Father’s Day, my son’s graduation this week, and put our upcoming trip in jeopardy. I could still go, but would be a useless lump that won’t be leaving his room very often. Not a great outing, so I’m going to be careful.
As you can see, Friday pretty much overshadowed everything else. It was great to see one of our students walk with his cap and gown. My son got passing grades on his tests throughout the week. As far as writing goes, I really only tackled a few October posts, which is the obscure monsters I wanted to highlight. Might do more of those if I have the brain power this weekend and next week. So, let’s get to the goals:
(I end the three big sections by touching on short stories. These tend to work differently than full novels, so I felt they should get their own entries. This is part of the one for the ‘World’ section.)
Before we move on to the ‘Character’ section of this book, I’m going to touch on the challenge of world-building on a smaller scale. Spoiler: I’m going to get into short stories at the end of each section. The reason is because these types of pieces operate differently than novels and series. You have more restrictions, but also more freedom depending on how you look at the situation. Also, authors of any genre may indulge in a short story when they have an idea they know can’t last for a novel, but feel it is worth telling. Some even use short stories to enhance their established worlds by introducing concepts and locations that will appear down the road. Regardless of the reason, there is an itch to scratch here, which still requires some level of world-building.
The difficulty with a short story really stems from having a limited amount of time and space. If you make it too long then you’re into novella and novel territory, which can result in stretching what you have to make yourself feel comfortable. There are these weird areas of page and word amounts where authors aren’t sure what they made, so they will either butcher or extend what they have to get out of that zone. It can work to make a stronger story, but it’s more likely to come off as either empty or padded. This is why many find it difficult to do a short story, but a novel is easy. With the latter, you don’t have to worry about crashing through a wall and finding yourself in the ‘wrong’ category.
People typically go by word count too, which can add to the confusion and attempt to fudge the numbers. For example, people will say a short story is less than 20,000 words and a novella is between 20,000 and 40,000 words. An author aiming for a short story may focus more on the word count than the actual content. In truth, these are guidelines and there is plenty of wiggle room. Your average reader won’t know the difference between a short story and a novella. They just want to enjoy the story.
We’re going to stay on the disadvantage side in order to end on a high note. The limitation of time and space means you have to work with less. Events may have to move faster because you can’t have much in the way of meandering scenes. The main plot has to be moving at all times. Subplots need to be ignored or intertwined with the central story in a way that they can both advance with the same actions. For example, one of the stories I wrote in The Life & Times of Ichabod Brooks has the titular character and an enemy trapped on an island from the beginning. There is the main story of finding a way to escape and two subplots, which are them getting along and them surviving a strange beast. To escape, they need to advance the subplots, which coils all three together instead of having them handled one at a time like you may see in a novel.
To achieve a quicker pace, you can use these three tools:
Discover the list when you buy a copy of Do I Need to Use a Dragon? on July 3rd!
(This was a thoughtful poem I made after discussing faith with someone. It really does make one wonder about the concept. I don’t mean if you believe in god or a religion, but believing in anything. We tend to think that faith only connects with religion when you can have it in whatever gives you peace of mind. A lot of people have trouble seeing that the faith and religion are two different things.)
Everyone
Believes in something
To their very core
Whether it be God
Or something more material
We all have the need
To cling to faith
Absorbing strength
And will
From the focus of our belief
*
Can a man survive
Without a sense of faith
Can such a man exist
For one that swears
Upon his heart
That he believes
In nothing
Does he not believe
Beyond all doubt
That he has no faith
(This subject had to be tackled. I was surprised how often it came up in conversation. Maybe I shouldn’t have been.)
One of the staples of fantasy is having a world with unique creatures. You may go traditional with orcs and trolls or mythological with centaurs and satyrs. Other authors create beasts from scratch using a variety of methods. We don’t normally question the use of monsters in fantasy because it’s seen as a given. In fact, many readers and authors use their existence as a neon sign that this isn’t the real world. Kind of hard to think you’re reading a history book when you’re reading about a dragon rampaging through a farm. Not unless the author is talented enough to get you to believe this was a fairly common problem in the past. Highly unlikely, so we’re talking all about fiction this time.
Can you do a fantasy story without monsters? Yes, because their usage relates to several factors. If your story has no space to insert a creature then you’re less likely to use them. They may appear in the background of a scene to help paint the setting or be used as mounts by the characters. These aren’t necessary and are done entirely for world-building, so an author can skip them if they have more important things. No reason to avoid squirrels and horses when you’re only going to have them mentioned in passing. The creatures of reality won’t take away from the overall magic of the world. After all, we usually still have humans in our worlds.
On the other side of the fantasy spectrum, a story that is all adventuring and quests is going to have a bigger use for monsters. They could be guarding treasure or roaming the wilderness that needs to be traversed. Readers may expect there to be a threat that needs to be battled, but isn’t another human. This is where a monster can be placed to create a challenge that breathes, thinks, moves, and eats. Note that I said can because you could always use a real-world animal such as a lion or a rhino if you don’t want monsters.
Another deciding factor for using creatures is the level of magic in the world. Many times, people associate bizarre animals of fantasy with magic because that’s what they think caused their appearance. The monsters feed off the existence of magic even if that is never stated in the book or part of the author’s plan. We connect the two fantasy staples so often they can be intertwined at times. This is why a world with low or no magic might not be swarming with monsters. You may have a few here or there, but they may be rare or stated only as long-forgotten legends. Due to the connections, an author who wants a low magic world may avoid these things because they run counter to the concept. You also have a tradition of many monsters, especially the undead, requiring certain spells or enchanted weapons to be defeated. It can’t be done if magic doesn’t exist unless you create a technological replacement. For some, it’s easier to cut out the monsters and focus on other types of threats.
Let’s continue with the belief that we are going to use monsters. Otherwise, this chapter will be very short. Not to mention those who would want to use monsters will be sitting there feeling left out. Don’t worry because the rest is all about using them.
Now, there are three uses for monsters in fantasy:
Find out the three uses by getting a copy of Do I Need to Use a Dragon? on July 3rd!
World-building has to be one of the toughest parts of writing, especially when you aren’t working on Earth. That’s why Do I Need to Use a Dragon? has a big section on it. As you can see, Fizzle needed to bribed with apples to set still for the picture. So, let’s get to the questions:
What was the biggest challenge you had with world-building?
What is a common mistake you see authors do with world-building?
What is your greatest victory with world-building?
(Let’s dive into the World section of Do I Need to Use a Dragon? There were a lot of sections to choose from here.)
At the start of Beginning of a Hero, I touched on a cliché of fantasy because I didn’t know any better. A character is in a tavern and is hit on by an elf while a bunch of dwarves tease him for the encounter. Why did I do this? All because I was much younger and I never thought about going away from the overused cliché of elves and dwarves hating each other. It would be years later that I looked at the scene, which still worked for what I needed, and wondered why I took such a path. This racial feud never popped up anywhere else. In fact, I had a half-elf running a school where one of her senior staff was a dwarf who was one of her dearest and oldest friends. This relationship made the earlier scene even stranger unless one sees it as a bunch of drunks teasing a stranger being hit on by a woman. I went on to realize how often fantasy goes with the multiple races hating or distrusting each other. Why is this?
For one thing, fantasy has many racial traditions authors and readers accept without thinking about them. Elves hate dwarves, orcs are always evil bandits, humans are always seen with some disdain, and all vampires are monstrous killers. This brings uniformity between worlds, but it also shows a level of unoriginality when it comes to interspecies relations. It isn’t surprising though because this is a very sociopolitical area, which is easiest to do if you have everyone hate each other.
Personally, I think we gravitate towards this for more reasons than it being a fantasy tradition. We see plenty of hatred and distrust in reality, which doesn’t have the wide variety of species like fiction. It’s all humans here and we can be downright toxic to each other for many reasons that end in -ism or -phobic. So, an author and readers may not find a world where everyone gets along as believable because that isn’t how civilizations work on Earth. If a human hates other humans for something like skin color, then one wouldn’t expect our species could be friends with a pointy-eared, nearly immortal elf.
Of course, this idea isn’t always consistent in worlds where such animosity exists. The proof is that you have half-breeds. This set piece is typically done with two specific races and humans. You have a long tradition of half-elves because an elf and a human either fell in love or had a one-night stand to produce a child. The second type are half-orcs, which are usually made by a human being raped. Both half-breeds are treated as outsiders to both worlds, but half-elves tend to be accepted more by civilization. These two cases show us both sides of the interspecies relationships. Half-orcs conceived this way demonstrate an idea that different races cannot truly coexist without conflict. Half-elves show there can be love and unity between different races even if there is distrust. This makes the interspecies relationship issue more complicated. You can’t show that groups despise each other and then have tons of half-elves born from actual couples. A limited amount could work, especially if it’s a forbidden love thing, but then they’d be treated negatively. This is a big thing to consider if you want to go with the traditional bad blood between species. You could effectively eliminate the possibility of half-breeds if you go too far.
Authors who use this world-building tool may argue this is the only or best way to create tension in a story. They aren’t wrong. If your story involves a group of heroes who come from different species then interspecies issues is a useful character evolution tool. They will have to get over their biases and pre-conceived beliefs in order to work with their new friends and claim victory. This doesn’t mean it is necessary or without risks.
Read the rest on July 3rd when Do I Need to Use a Dragon?goes live!
Legends of Windemere 