7 Tips to Writing Touch Attacks

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Shigiraki from MHA

As I said, touch attacks are fairly niche.  They appear in a lot of stories with magic and superpowers.  Yet, they tend to also get taken for granted.  So, what are some things to consider when using them?

  1. You need to be consistent in how these attacks work.  They can’t be 100% lethal in some situations, but leave a scratch during others.  If the touch attacks seem to be entirely at the whim of the author, they will lose their urgency.
  2. Duration of touch should be considered when deciding how they work.  Some attacks need only a slight contact to have full effect.  Others will require that the person hold on for an extended period of time.  You need to establish this fairly early on and stick to what you decide.  If you wish to change it then you need to demonstrate how or why the consistency has shifted.
  3. If this is a power that cannot be turned off then you have to remember that it exists at all times.  The best example is Rogue from the X-Men.  Her power was always on and she couldn’t make skin-to-skin contact.  The writers and artists had to be sure she wore gloves whenever she touched someone.  If she didn’t and her power didn’t work then it would be a clear mistake.  Such a thing constantly happening would result in the power being seen as inconsistent and messy.
  4. A magical touch attack requires some type of catalyst.  This can be an incantation, gesture, or sprinkling something on the caster’s hands.  You really only have to show this a few times before you can make it a given.  Although, if you don’t have a visual effect after the spell is activated, you may need to continue the catalyst to make sure the audience knows it’s around.
  5. Try your best to avoid the MIDAS TOUCH ENDING!
  6. As stated on Monday, remember that having to deliver a touch attack means getting within swinging range.  The attacker is aware of this danger and will know to act accordingly.  This means, they may focus on stealth or dodge around until they have an opening.  Some may even have touch attacks that respond to being struck, which means they want to get in close.  Play around with this downside to see if you can turn it on its head.
  7. On the other side of the coin, characters who know they are up against someone who uses these attacks will be prepared.  They won’t go rushing in if they know that a single tap means death.  This turns some fights into a game of strategy and ‘keep away’, which can be fun if you don’t drag it out for too long.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

In the Trees Shadow by D. L. Finn #newbook

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Today, I am happy to welcome fellow Story Empire contributor and blogging buddy D.L. Finn to Fiction Favorites. She has a new collection of stories …

In the Trees Shadow by D. L. Finn #newbook
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Artificial Intelligence

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Hi, Gang. Craig with you once more to talk about something that concerns me; Artificial Intelligence. (AI) I’m going to qualify myself by saying I …

Artificial Intelligence
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Teaser Tuesday: Eager Recruits

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

War of Nytefall

This was a fun introduction.  At the time, I wasn’t entirely sure where the characters would go too.  Not the way I expected in the end, but it all worked out.  Check out War of Nytefall: Anarchy as a $2.99 eBook or a $12.00 paperback.

Continue reading →

Posted in Teaser Tuesday, War of Nytefall | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Working with Touch Attacks

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Rogue from X-Men

This is probably a fairly niche concept.  Let me first explain what I mean by touch attacks:

A touch attack is usually a power or spell that is triggered by physical contact.  For example, Rogue’s energy draining ability.  This cannot be done from long distance and it typically requires skin contact.  Not always the skin of the target, but definitely the one who has the power or spell.

That covers the general idea and shows why you don’t see them very often.  There are a lot of downsides to a touch attack.  The character needs to get in close and be able to grab their target.  If it isn’t an immediate effect, they would need to maintain their grip until they are finished.  Normally, an enemy won’t stand there and let you do this.  If only they were all this guy:

Pressure point attacks probably fall under this as well.  These might have an advantage over anything that requires long contact.  A quick jab should be enough, but it really depends on the author.  Either way, you still have that issue of getting within reach of an enemy.  If you can hit them then they can hit you.  So, what is the point of having touch attacks at all?

Well, they work slightly better for villains from what I’ve seen.  Heroes having to stay out of reach of the bad guys means that they are at a disadvantage.  Now, that downside I mentioned is on the evil side and turned into a positive.  Villains tend to be fairly eager to draw a hero into their grasp and their touch attacks can be nasty.  Rotting touch, infections, life draining, and the list can keep going.  In fact, one could see how these abilities and spells are geared more towards the darker characters.  Authors tend to use this delivery for sinister effects.

The exception would be healing, but that’s done to allies.  You don’t have a threat of getting punched when you’re tending to the wounded.  Then again, this isn’t even an attack unless it’s on an undead.  Of course, now we’re back to the same downside.  I’m really running in circles here.

I know in a D&D situation, touch attacks are a common thing.  Although, I’ve been in many games where nobody pays attention to that issue.  You also can have plenty of time between your attack and the enemy retaliating.  If your friends take the enemy down or move them away, you’re no longer at risk.  This is why turn-based systems can shield you from the dangers that would appear in a story.  Someone who plays the games might not realize this too.

There are some character types that can make great use out of this school of attacks.  An assassin or anyone depending on stealth would be trying to get close to a target.  In a world where fingerprinting isn’t a thing, a touch attack would be a feasible tool.  This could mean that thieves would have them as well in order to get out of trouble, especially if there are paralysis or sleep attacks they can learn.  So, a stealthy kill or a quick escape are some potential areas where this can be done.

What do you think of touch attacks?  Is it worth even discussing?  I mean, I’ll be doing a 7 tips post on them this Wednesday, so we’ll see what happens.

Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Check This Out: My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

I’m always pleased to welcome the marvelous Marian Beaman on the blog. She’s here to talk about her latest memoir, My Checkered Life: A Marriage …

Check This Out: My Checkered Life: A Marriage Memoir
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Metaphysical elements in writing – essential oils and herbs

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Greetings, SE’ers! It’s Jan again with another post about metaphysical elements, which can add an extra dimension to fiction writing. Today, I’m …

Metaphysical elements in writing – essential oils and herbs
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

The Big, Not Really Bad Wolf

Posted on April 16, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

I’ve hesitant about this animal for a while.  Mostly because I really wanted to do a post on it, but it would be difficult.  The reason for this is because there are 32 subspecies of wolf, which includes 24 New World and 8 Old World.  That’s a really long post.  So, I was happy to find that there’s a 3 species system.  I’ll go with that, but maybe I’ll do some wolf subspecies posts down the road.

Now, people will want the conservation status.  ENDANGERED is the easiest way to say it because many subspecies are in that category.  Wolves have a negative reputation, especially in areas where people make money off livestock.  They are seen as aggressive and dangerous beasts, so there have been many points in history where they have been wiped out around the world.  For example, they were eliminated in Yellowstone National Park and Great Britain.  The former resulted in an elk population boom, which threatened the environment.  Wolves were eventually reintroduced and the ecosystem went back into balance, which shows the important of these animals.

So, what is a wolf?  These are wild canines who are related to dogs.  They run in packs to help with hunting and protecting the young.  Most people know about them due to their placement as villains in kid stories and other media.  Since they are related to dogs, they share aspects of appearance and habits.  Alaskan malamutes are probably the closest breed to their wild relatives.

Big Note– Wolf packs don’t actually have an alpha male and female.  The term was first used by a biologist named Rudolph Shenkel in 1944 while he observed wolves in a German zoo. Do yo see the issue? Wolves, like humans, act differently in captivity than they would in the wild.  This is because they are strangers put together while packs in the wild are family units with the ‘alphas’ being mom and dad.  This is why you don’t see the term used scientifically any more.

So, what are some interesting facts?

  • They run on their 4 toes and not their paw pads.  Their speed are 36-38 mph.
  • Wolves mate for life.
  • Pups are born deaf and blind with bright blue eyes.
  • Wolves can hear sounds from up to 6 miles away
  • Their howls can be heard from around 10 miles away.  They don’t howl at the moon either.
  • They have over 200 million scent cells
  • Wolves have 42 teeth with 20 on the top and 22 on the bottom.
  • Wolves have a bite pressure that is strong enough to break bones and get at the marrow.
  • Due to packs being family units, they typically range from 2 to 10 members with 6 being the average.
  • There have only been 41 fatal wolf attacks recorded in North America . . Ever.
  • There are signs that wolves are stressed out by the presence of humans and dogs as well as the death of pack members.  This is done through studying cortisol levels in stool samples.

Now, what are the three general wolf species?

Eastern Wolf (debated)- Found in the Great Lakes Region

Gray Wolf- Found in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia

Red Wolf- Eastern North Carolina (14 left in wild)

This is for the general wolves, which seems to revolve around the Gray Wolf mostly.  You have others like the Maned wolves of South America, Ethiopian wolves, African golden wolves, dingoes in Australia, coyotes, and the list keeps going.  Many are seen as subspecies of the gray wolf too.  So, let’s go right to the videos:

Posted in Animal Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 23 Comments

Spring Break Comes to a Close

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Technically, I still have 2 days left of Spring Break, but I’m mostly going to be writing and trying to rest up for the week.  It’s going to be a weird period of time going fast and slow at the same time until summer.  Might be easier to wrap my head around since I’m aiming to work this summer.  Then again, this is also my son’s last year of middle school.  He’ll be an official high schooler in September.  Time really is flying by.

This break wasn’t as relaxing as I’d hoped.  How could it be?  The first four days involved Passover, a friend’s son’s birthday, my birthday, Easter, The Dungeons & Dragons movie, and The Super Mario Movie.  As much as I had hoped to get a little writing or July blog prep time in, that wasn’t in the cards.  My son and I stayed up late most nights watching cartoons too.  I was barely able to do my biking.  Before I knew it, my son had to go to his mom’s and I was left with Darwin & the Demon Game.

Well, that isn’t exactly true.  One thing I didn’t expect is that a bunch of appointments turned up.  Most of them were for my son, but I don’t skip those for anything less than a medical emergency.  Writing can wait when parenting calls.  Of course, this meant a bunch of ex-wife encounters and my writing time going from 3 sections a day to 2.  I’m noticing that it’s typically going that way.  Not regretting it though because it means I get to see my son a little each day.

So, how far did I get with Darwin & the Demon Game?  Counting today and tomorrow, I will have finished chapters 11-14.  That leaves 3 chapters to go, which I can finish in 4 days if I pull off 3 sections a day.  6 if it’s the usual 2.  Maybe I’ll avoid pushing this so hard because I need to get the July blog posts ready.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are set, but the rest have to be carefully crafted to help promote Do I Need to Use a Dragon? and the 99 cents sale.  Darwin taking until the end of May wouldn’t be a bad thing if I can get that other issue off my plate.  Probably won’t tackle Darwin & the Beast Collector until June when I can write a bit on weekdays.

Going back to the biking part, I am proud of doing better with that.  I hope I can keep it up, but I see some rough patches coming in May.  There are a lot of birthdays and events that take away my weekends, which are the best times for me to bike.  Doing a 20/20/30 minute split throughout the week is good though.  The first two are feasible on weekdays even when I work.  The third is a weekend push to the end when I have more time.  My legs are still aching a lot from this, but it isn’t severe pain.  I’m staying within 15-18 mph level, which means this counts as heavy exercise.  Is it helping me lose weight?  Doesn’t seem to be doing that, but my diet hasn’t changed as much as it should.  It doesn’t help that all of the diet suggestions I’m hit with cause me to stress out when food shopping, see something wrong with everything I consider buying, and cause me to go home with nothing for lunch.  Seriously, it’s either too much sodium, too much fat, too much sugar, not enough protein, too much protein, has carbs, does not have carbs, has fruit, does not have fruit, and the list goes on.  Stresses me out to the point where I stress eat, which defeats the purpose of it all.

Not much else to talk about with this week.  Saw some great movies with my son.  I didn’t do a lot of TV.  My friend convinced me to binge a British mockumentary series on Netflix called ‘Cunk on Earth’.  It was amusing, but I think I’d have liked it better if I didn’t binge it because I became numb to the dry humor.  I went on to an anime called ‘Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works’.  I’ve seen other series in this franchise.  I’m noticing how the stories seem to be pretty similar.  Not that this is boring since the characters and subplots differ, but the overall story seems to be hitting the same notes.  I don’t know what I’m going to jump to next, but I’ll probably need a new series by next weekend.

Speaking of next weekend, the public library here is doing an anime/comics/video game convention.  It’s a yearly thing and I’ve got my son for it, which means his Soul King Brook costume is going to be unleashed.  Maybe he’ll even enter the cosplay contest that they have on Sundays.  I’ll have to see how he handles the costume because the wig still makes him itchy if he has it on for too long.  Should be a nice bit of fun after our first week back from break too.  Although, he gets Eid off on Friday and I don’t.  Kids really have it made some times.

This is who he’ll be dressed as:

Soul King Brook from One Piece

Goals of the week?

  1. Get my son and myself back into work/school mode.
  2. Write some Darwin & the Demon Game if possible.
  3. Prepare July blog posts.
  4. Biking.
  5. Work on puzzles.
  6. Read more Naruto.
  7. Finally decide on what to spend my birthday money on.
  8. Sleep when possible.
  9. EM-CON!
  10. Try to be more interesting for next Saturday.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

7 Tips to Writing Teachers in Fiction

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Charles Yallowitz

Hiko Seijuro and Kenshin

We did students on Wednesday, so let’s look at teachers.  Getting right into it since there’s not much more of a set up.

  1. The teacher doesn’t have to be an alcoholic, druggie, hermit, or any other type of troubled character.  I know it’s fun to have a flawed mentor, who might not want to teach.  They did it against their will or because they see something within the hero.  It might even be a path to redemption.  Unfortunately, this also pigeonholes you into a handful of personalities.  Try to make a mentor that hasn’t been done before or isn’t broken on the inside.
  2. Teachers don’t have be extreme in their treatment of their students.  This happens a lot in fantasy and anime.  Either the hero is coddled in order to establish a parent/child relationship or they’re put through hellish conditions.  I guess this is mostly for combat or magic training.  Still, you can find a path in the middle where the teacher can still be tough and kind, but not come off as a caricature.
  3. A hero’s teacher doesn’t have to be connected to the villain or any other character for that matter.  They could just be someone who has the knowledge and skills needed to become stronger.  A teacher doesn’t even have to be legendary, which is typically used to show their importance.  If you can find a way for the student to meet the teacher and be accepted without plot contrivance then go for it.
  4. The teacher character can be any age or gender.  People gravitate towards the old man or will change it to old woman to be ‘different’.  Middle age is found rather often as well, but you don’t see many teachers in their 20’s and 30’s.  Why?  It’s because fictional mentors tend to be those with experience.  Does it have to be that way?  No because a person can do through a lot to get such experience even at a young age.  Think about how young a character would be to enter the military.  Imagine what they may see in 4 years of that life.  They may still be a good teacher even if they are in their 20’s.
  5. If you’re going to have multiple teachers, try to give each one a specialty.  All of them knowing everything makes it unclear as to why you didn’t just have one.  A great example of multiple teachers with specialties is from an anime called Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple.  Kenichi is trained by 6 combat masters, but each one uses a different style.  Their personalities and relationship with Kenichi differ like other teacher groups, but now they have individual purposes.
  6. Killing a teacher character shouldn’t be done haphazardly.  It will anger the student, especially if they haven’t finished their training.  Just be sure they can still function or learn what they are missing in this situation.  Most times, this is done to create the ‘I will avenge my master’ storyline.  You see it at the start of a story or in the middle to drive the hero further.  Not a bad idea, but it should be thought out.  You can’t, or shouldn’t, have the dead teacher continue their job unless it’s already established that ghosts are a thing.
  7. A common progression in a series is to work through increasingly powerful and knowledgeable teachers.  Throughout their journey, the student will encounter new mentors to increase their skills.  This is a good idea to help them grow without creating a supporting character who knows everything.  People may wonder why the perfect teacher doesn’t handle the problem instead of wasting time with a student.  On the other hand, you need to make sure each teacher leaves a mark before they are replaced by the next one.  At least one thing should be kept from each teacher to retain their sense of importance in the overall journey.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments