Friday was the last day of the 2022-2023 school year. I’m tired and spending time with family, so I set up some funnies. Definitely need some funnies . . . Also, sleep.
I’m writing this the night before because I’m going to be on the road. Heading out on a trip that is much needed. I’m exhausted and in need of getting away before I start summer school in a week. So, what happened lately?
First, we’re about a week away from Do I Need to Use a Dragon?going live. I even heard that Amazon sent out an email announcing it was going to be released. Did a little spot editing over the last month to put my mind at ease, but I’m definitely still twitchy about it. Been a long time since I published and I’m starting on something that makes me feel fairly exposed as a person. Dreading any typos that managed to survive me, the beta readers, and my final reader. There’s always a few that appear to make me seem like a talentless hack.
Oh, for anyone wondering about the medication issue, I haven’t taken the blood pressure meds since last Thursday night. I had another bad reaction to what was still in my system on Friday and Saturday evening. Friday may have been worse than Thursday because I was sweating and shaking while trying to sleep. I’m starting to wonder if I’m one of those people who can’t handle medication that tampers with their systems. I’ve met others like that and they’re forced to go with natural remedies. Trying to figure out what I can take to lower my blood pressure and how I’m going to explain this to my doctor when I visit in a week. Wasn’t able to get in touch with her because of the chaos. Read something about beetroot though.
Let’s get to the good news . . . I do have some.
This was the final week of school, which hit hardest when it came to going to one of my student’s homes for a graduation party. This young man has been in the life skills program longer than I’ve worked with him. He’s the last of the group who was there when I first showed up and I’ve seen him grow so much. The party was fun and started making me realize that the inevitable was coming. Spent the rest of the week thinking I’ve seen him accomplish. His final day was rough too because it was like he abruptly realized what was happening and flat out refused. He didn’t want to go and we really wish we could keep him in the program. Still, nothing one could do. Roughest part for me was that I took bus matron duty on his last day, so I saw him off along with the Life Skills teacher for the last time. Probably going to be tearing up for a while whenever I run into something that reminds me of him like I did when I got McDonalds yesterday. (First thing I heard in Life Skills was this student shouting ‘McDonalds’ at the top of his lungs.)
Another graduate was my son who is going from 8th grade to 9th. Finally entering high school, which is going to go by far too fast. We’ve been having to make a lot of decisions about his schedule, which has been stressful. Discussions between various parties has not always been clear and polite. Still, the important part is that he graduated and got his certificate this week. Passed his ASL benchmark, so he can stay in that program. All of his grades were in the 90’s, so it looks like he pulled off being on the Honor Roll for 8 quarters in a row. That would be all of 7th and 8th grade. Not sure if we can accomplish that in high school because things are going to get tougher, but we’re going to try. Talking to him about doing a lot of clubs as well.
The celebration for my son’s graduation was simple. Ended up buying him a graduation teddy bear with a bead necklace while waiting to get in. His mother got the bear too, but it was a different color and she didn’t do the beads. This necklace is to be worn for middle school, high school, and college graduation to show how much he has grown. He likes the idea and has it hanging over his desk. The rest of the day was a lunch at Friendly’s and then a tour of his new school. It was my old high school, so I enjoyed seeing what had changed and what stayed the same.
Well, there was one more thing. I put Pokemon Go on his phone and created a monster who keeps having me take him to the park. Yesterday, we went out and it started raining, so we walked in the rain catching Pokemon. Thankfully, we were in an area with enough trains that we didn’t get soaked and could hide during the worst. Still, we need to make some weather rules for our outings. Doesn’t help that rain can bring out certain Pokemon, which might include Pikachu. He got his first one of those and a Snorlax, which was one of the two I asked him to catch. The other is a Charizard. He’s going to be driving me crazy with this game on our trip.
Nothing much to say about the coming week. Going to be on vacation for most of it and then I get a day with my son. He goes off with his mom after that and I take care of a few appointments. Since I start summer school on July 3rd, I won’t be doing more than relaxing and preparing for Do I Need to Use a Dragon?to release on the same day. I really hope that works out. I might start writing Darwin & the Beast Collector since the outline is done. Should contact my cover artist about that series, which I might do while resting on vacation. Need to send her the other link since the sales page looks share-worthy to me now.
Goals of the week:
Enjoy my vacation.
Spend time with son.
Work on Phi Beta Files while resting.
Read some manga.
Start working on Darwin & the Beast Collector.
Biking when I get back.
Figure out what to take for blood pressure . . . Be nice if the causes of my high blood pressure would leave me alone too.
Maybe watch the first part of ‘Witcher Season 3’ even though I have misgivings about its future. Depends on how I’m feeling.
(Can’t write about characters without touching on villains. We all love a good bad guy. Even more than the heroes. This was a fun one to think about. Going to take a chunk out of the middle too.)
Due to their active nature, the villains can be both the glue and the catalyst for the overall story.
Starting with the catalyst, they tend to have made a move that gets the entire ball rolling or at least keeps it going. They might not have intended to activate a hero who will stop them or acted to push their enemies forward, but their ambitions and involvement is what maintains the adventure. Being the source of conflict, they extend events and stop them from turning into ‘warrior walks across a kingdom and does a thing in time to be home for dinner’. That sounds really boring, it is, unless you pepper it with some sort of challenges, but those might not have the same impact. It can make everything become more episodic, which works for short story collections, but not really novels.
Now, as for the glue, this is because the villain either starts or eventually becomes the reason the hero stays in the adventure. If there’s more than one hero then the villain can have a connection to at least one of them. In this way, the story turns into one about a personal conflict even if it didn’t start that way. Events and heroes become connected through the villain’s actions and machinations. One could see that a story continues at times only because the heroes don’t want to lose instead of anything deeper. This is a state the antagonist can drive the story into without it becoming a problem.
If done correctly, the readers will want things to continue just to see the bad guy fail or succeed. The problem is that removing the villain means everything can fall apart. All of the risk and danger is stemming from their involvement even if they’re not the main goal. So, they have become the cog that keeps the story moving since everything is now revolving around them. This is a feat that cannot be done as easily by heroes, who can be replaced if they fall, or it gives a sound conclusion as ‘bad guy wins’. In contrast, the villain being defeated too early means the rest of the adventure is anticlimactic and lacking.
Perhaps the biggest reason a villain can be considered more important is because they can force the other characters to develop. Whether they are aware of the heroes or not, their actions are what turn into obstacles. These challenges will be what drive the heroes to become stronger, wiser, and evolve from their previous states.
It becomes more direct, and possibly even faster, when a villain’s attention is finally aimed at the hero. This is when the threats and attacks are designed specifically for their targets instead of being more general. Due to the actions of the villain, the hero’s development is moved in a specific direction, which is not intentional. It is to make sure the good guys grow into whatever is needed to at least have a fighting chance against the bad guys. So, your villains end up being a major factor in the overall character evolution. Best example here would be a hero learning a new type of magic or gaining a special weapon specifically to face the villain.
Indulge your curiosity on July 3rd when Do I Need to Use a Dragon? goes live!
(This type of poem is called a Sestina. It has six stanzas with six lines each. The final word of each line is reused until each one has been in each position. I loved the challenge of this type of poem because you had to be careful with your word choices. Found it best to use it when telling a story.)
The rain fell heavy upon the town.
As the stranger drew his unused blade.
A battle would ensue today.
Hungry steel would meet a starving fire.
Leaving carnage on the ground
And ashes in the air.
The beast was ready for a fight today.
Its claws tearing at the ground.
Eyes locked upon the naked blade.
Held by the armored stranger to this town.
An eerie coldness creeps into the air.
Threatening the dragon’s eternal fire.
The stranger swings his trusted blade.
His voice bellows a challenge in the air.
To which dragon merely stomps the ground.
People peer to witness the battle of today.
Knowing soon the streets will bathe in fire.
They have little hope for their muddy town.
The dragon launches a spout of fire.
Determined to live and win today.
The stranger feels the energy in the air.
Letting it course along his blade.
Ignoring the quiet from the shabby town.
As he bats the fire into the ground.
The dragon soars into the air.
Leaving footprints made of fire.
It soars and roars above the town.
Always eyeing the stranger on the ground.
A dangerous opponent has arrived today.
One who possesses the fearsome blade.
The dragon darts toward the distant ground.
Aiming for the intruder within his little town.
Hoping to win the day with hellish fire.
Never see a subtle glimmer in the air.
Until its chest is ruptured by thrown blade.
Making the great defender fall today.
( I couldn’t avoid this topic. Hopefully, I handled it well, but you never know.)
This is a question I get asked a lot and it always throws me. Personally, I put my heroes through the wringer regardless of gender. If they’re a warrior then they’re going to be in a fight and get hit. They will suffer loss and know victory to put them into an emotional twister throughout their adventure.
The only time I consider gender is when I’m deciding on clothing, pronouns, and romantic interests. Even then, it depends on personality and preferences of the character. Still, I get asked about this because people think I’ve created some strong female characters and I’m male. Let’s keep that last part in mind too. An author’s gender and identity will color their perspective to some extent whether they realize it or not. So, here we go into a topic that always gets a little messy.
Historically, female characters have been reduced to a handful of roles when it comes to fantasy. You do have some big names in mythology, but those were religions at the time they were first created. It’s really hard to view them under the same lens as modern fiction, which is aimed primarily at entertainment. Hence, there’s more freedom in terms of character design and role.
Even so, women tended to fall into the position of damsel in distress, which is typically nothing more than a trophy with a pulse. Any female heroes who appeared were usually part of a group where they were either a sorceress or a healer. You can find several examples throughout mythology and modern fantasy that designate magic as a feminine trait. I think part of this is because women have the ability to give birth, which people can see as bringing them closer to the primal energy that would be magic. That or male authors genuinely believe childbirth is done entirely through magic. Either way, you would find the majority of female characters in these roles with a handful of outliers who are warriors. I remember there being a rise in female protagonists when I was growing up, but then abruptly stopped and restarted only recently. Not really sure what happened there, except we seem to be starting at square one again.
There is a big social challenge when it comes to writing a female character because people are quick to analyze them. With such a lack of representation, there is a lot of pressure to get it right. Unfortunately, everyone has their own definition of what is right and wrong. I’m not going to get into the details of that because this isn’t really the medium. We’re here to discuss how to write a female character who is more than irrationally molded armor or lack thereof. I will admit I did think women had specialized armor for about half of my life because of fiction, which is a problem. You really need to do research here to separate the real from the traditional falsehoods in order to get the proper depth.
These days, people will swiftly call you out because there’s plenty of resources to help avoid these mistakes. You are bound to make a few on some level, but that will hold true for any character. It’s just that female characters come under more scrutiny due to a history of misuse, trivialization, sexualization, dehumanization, or plain ignoring. So, research is worth the time and effort. If you can’t go wandering the Internet for this information then sit down with a woman and talk to them about what they would like to see in a hero. Tell them what you’re planning and show them your creations to get their insight. It will make these characters more believable and less likely to come off as stereotypes.
Check out the rest of this hot button topic in Do I Need to Use a Dragon? on July 3rd!
Characters are rather important to a story. Even if you only have one, they need to have some kind of personality. That’s why I dedicated a section of Do I Need to Use a Dragon? to this topic. It covered a lot of ground, especially if you’re looking at fantasy-specific concepts. Here are the questions for your own amusement:
What is your favorite character type to write/read?
What is the hardest character type for you to write?
What is an aspect of writing characters that you learned the hard way?
(Now we dive into the Character section. Of course, that brings up the question of comedy, which people sometimes try to jam into a story. It doesn’t always work because there are a lot of factors though. Needless to say, I had to tackle the subject since I try to add humor into my stories without diminishing the drama.)
I enjoy adding humor to my stories. This is a personal preference because I believe laughter is a great way to get people to keep reading. So, I do gravitate towards the thought that it should be in a story if it fits the tone.
Shoehorning comedy into a story that doesn’t work with it will be disastrous. Yes, people may crack jokes to handle stress or grief. That doesn’t mean a somber funeral scene needs to have a pie thrown into somebody’s face. Always remember that context and tone are important, which I would even say is the second rule of adding humor. Consider the mood you want to set and the character personalities before injecting comedy. Now, let’s get to that essential and commonly ignored first rule:
Comedy is subjective and differs from person to person.
Jokes and gags don’t always hit the way we want or expect. This isn’t always due to our own sense of humor being off, but what the reader finds funny. A slapstick moment can be hilarious to one person and seen as purely abusive by another. Word play jokes can be missed by a reader who lacks prior knowledge or strong comprehension skills to make it work, so the interaction appears strange instead of funny. A crude joke can cause a reader who doesn’t like that kind of humor to stop reading. This means with every attempt at garnering laughs, you are going to risk getting the opposite or no reaction. It’s no different than a stand-up comedian doing a set since not everyone in the audience will laugh at every joke.
Now, you may think running the jokes by your friends will help, which is a logical conclusion. This can fail too because your friends most likely either share your sense of humor or get your jokes, so they won’t see any issues a stranger will lock in on. This is why some authors try to steer clear of comedy and keep their stories 100% serious. Well . . . That ends this section . . . Guess not. (To prove my point, I thought this gag was funny while one of my beta readers seemed confused.)
With comedy being a double-edged rubber chicken, you have to use it with caution. Accept that you won’t get a laugh out of everyone, so focus more on the joke working within the scope of the story. Consider these questions:
Do you go out of your way to make it? Then, it’s no good.
Would the character making the joke actually say that? If no then it’s a scene-cracking dud.
Plenty more of this topic, which you can read on July 3rd when Do I Need to Use a Dragon? goes live!
