Goal Post: Where Did the Warmth Go?

Posted on September 24, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

It’s cold today.

Yes, I know it’s now autumn, but I was still comfortably wearing shorts on Thursday.  If you wonder about yesterday, I was uncomfortably wearing shorts.  Today, I’m going to have to see how many of my jeans fit.  Not a fan of this abrupt change.  We had the mid-70’s and it’s the 40’s.  Can’t be natural or normal or acceptable.  Might be why I got 7.5 hours of sleep and feel like crap too.

It was a busy week with school and parenting.  My son had enough homework to make afternoons rather rough.  Mostly reading with annotating, which slows him down to a crawl.  He’s already a slow reader, but adding note-taking means it takes longer and he focuses on vocabulary.  Not sure how much is sticking, so we’re going to have to work on things.  We also had his ‘Meet the Teacher’ night on Thursday, which is when we follow his schedule and find out about his classes.  It was . . . Well, I know what’s going on and that’s the important part.  For one reason, it was a little stressful.  Anyone who knows my life situation can figure out why I was a little stressed.

Work was busy because it was the start of going into the community for work sites.  Life skills classes set up contracts and sites will local companies/stores for the kids to practice in real world settings.  It’s stuff like cleaning, restocking, and fixing up displays for like an hour.  Had to get back into the groove for this because I hadn’t gone out to these sites since before the pandemic.  Thankfully, the kids are great and things went smoothly.  This resulted in a good kind of tired.

There was a downside because I was standing and walking around a lot.  Not fun when you have an injured hip.  Not sure what I did to it last weekend, but it hurts.  Mostly when I finally get home, so I can function during the day.  Just not a fun evening until I pop an ibuprofen or get my hands on the heating pad.  It’s definitely slowed me down a bit, but I finished most of what I needed to.

Okay . . . Let’s get to the writing part of my life.

My goal was to write 8 chapter sections before this coming Monday.  I already got 3 done using Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night.  So, you would think I could get the rest done this weekend.  Probably not, so I’m looking at 5 instead of 8.  Could I push myself today when I’m cold, sore, and have my niece here for her birthday?  Probably, but it might be better to finish the last 2 sections of this chapter tomorrow.  Maybe I can get a 6th and 7th done.  The truth is that these two sections set up the final battle chapter and then the wrap up chapter.  I’m thinking I might want to save those for a weekend where I have nothing else going on.  That or use my non-parenting evenings and times when my son is playing with friends.

So, what will I do today?  I’ve got one more piece to build for my son’s Halloween costume, so I might take an hour to do that.  It involves iron on patches, which means moving the ironing stuff out of the basement.  Don’t want to spend an hour in the cold basement with no entertainment while doing this tedious part.  I can do some November blog posts too, which I should really hunker down on before I have to rush.  So, I won’t be bored or unproductive.  Just shifting to a few other projects given the situation.

Lets see . . . Drama was the rest of the week, but I’m never able to go into that.  Some arenas are getting messy and stressing me out.  I feel trapped there because I can’t put an end to the situations.  So, I’m stuck playing damage control whenever things flare up.  It creates a sense of helplessness and frustration.

Well, we have a 4-day weekend thanks to Rosh Hashanah, so I’m going to enjoy it.  Today goes to niece birthday, blogging, and Halloween costume.  Tomorrow will be writing and we’ll see how that goes.  Then, I have my son for Monday and Tuesday, which means video games, movies, and reading time.  Need to get him to read more often, so we’re going to have father/son reading periods.  He has a test to study for too, but we’ll get a good amount of fun in.  He has to get something done with his braces too, so that means a chocolate shake and probably a movie afterwards.

What did I watch on TV this week?  I was dozing off so quickly that it took me a while to get through things.  Week felt like a month too.  I did finish ‘Bastard!- Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy’, which is an anime inspired by heavy metal and Dungeons & Dragons.  It was fun, but the last few episodes lost a step.  Kept ‘killing’ the bad guy and then he’d be back for them to try something else.  Fun battles to watch, but it got repetitive.  I started ‘Harley Quinn’ season 3 on HBO Max too.  Fun and goofy like the previous seasons, but a little more serious at times.  I like it, but this season has different feel of it.  I’ll probably finish it today and move on to another anime called ‘Spy x Family’.  Keep seeing cosplay and clips of that one.  All I know is that a male spy and a female assassin have to pretend to be a married couple to watch and protect this little girl.  Even that might be wrong.

Goals of the week:

  1. Try out my jeans and get new ones if need be.
  2. 3 day work week!
  3. Help my son study.
  4. Write at least 2 chapter sections of Darwin & the Avenging Elf.
  5. Get through my November blog posts.
  6. Try to take a breath at some point.
  7. Finish my son’s Halloween costume.
  8. Have apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah.
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Questions 3: What If You Woke Up in a New World?

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

Labyrinth

As authors, I think we imagine ourselves in other worlds to begin with.  It might not be us exactly, but we exist in these worlds through our characters.  So, the concept of an Isekai isn’t too farfetched.  Probably why it comes off as a power fantasy for both authors and readers at times.  So, these questions might be fairly easy and fun.

  1. What kind of world would you want to wake up in?
  2. What ability/power/tech would you want to give you an edge?
  3. How would you change yourself while in that world?
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Character Development and Diversity

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

Hello SE readers, Gwen with you today and together we’ll review and conclude the series on diversity and character development. Over the last several…

Character Development and Diversity
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Poetry Day: Casualties of the Morning Drive

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

Duck Hunt from Nintendo Meme

(This always annoyed me when I had a long commute.  After a while, my mind would start picking on various story ideas.  I’d still be focusing on the road, of course, but I would think about these things at red lights.  Most times, I got to work and had to rush into things with no chance to write anything down.  This was always worse than losing dreams that were good ideas.)

As I focus on the task at hand

I hear my voices wander

Whispering of growing dreams

That are rising from my edges

Words rippling across my mind

I must not hold them tight

Or I will forget my place

I can merely hope they last

Until I can stop the car

And write them for infinity

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7 Tips to Writing an Isekai Story

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

Reincarnated as a Slime

Isekai can be tricky even though it looks easy.  People think it’s only about having someone transported to another world and leave it at that.  Makes sense since this means the main character acts as an avatar for the audience.  Still, there are plenty of ways to screw this up, especially now that the subgenre is oversaturated.  What can you do to avoid the common pitfalls?

  1. You really need to show what the main character was like in their old life.  It doesn’t have to be immediately or at once.  This can be information that is doled out in pieces when the character has a memory or concept triggered.  Ignoring their previous life eliminates an essential dimension and weakens the fact that they are a stranger in an alien world.  It doesn’t really feel like they’ve been removed from an old life anymore because the reader has no knowledge of it.
  2. The greatest danger is the overpowered main character.  Typically, the transported person has greater abilities and knowledge than the locals.  They’re not so much a chosen one, but are special.  With fantasy, this tends to come out as incredible magic and powers that dwarf everyone else.  They become Superman on steroids because authors don’t always remember to add a weakness.  You need to introduce a feasible threat at some point.  If they’re wrecking all adversaries for the entire story then it’s an empty power fantasy.  For example, Rimiru in ‘Reincarnated as a Slime’ was defeating everyone with increasing ease.  Then, he ran into an anime that nearly killed him because they negated his strengths.  This revived the tension and changed him from an unstoppable protagonist to one who needs to grow.
  3. Being transported to a different world doesn’t mean the main character changes their personality.  They may do this over time, but they don’t appear and then immediately become someone new.  Part of the story is that they are their old selves and need to grow into a new version to survive.  Some will see it as a clean slate and try to be someone new at the start.  This makes sense, but it shouldn’t be a perfect change and the older habits need to be maintained for some time.  Otherwise, what’s the point of writing an isekai when you can do the same with a confused protagonist from that same world?
  4. Not every transported character needs to be catnip to the locals.  They may be curiosities if their origins are known.  It gets ridiculous when every named character ends up wanting to marry, kiss, hug, or bed the hero.  This happens a lot with absolutely no explanation other than ‘this guy/girl is now cool’.
  5. Even if the hero knows about the world before being transported, you should surprise them.  They might not know the exact physics of the world or the cultures even if it’s based on media in their world.  Think about how we’re told to write a story using only the exciting parts of our characters’ lives.  If we were dropped into any of these worlds, we wouldn’t know about anything that was deemed unimportant.  Daily life events, holidays that did not happen in the story, unessential historical events, and cultural traditions are only some of what can be thrown at the hero.
  6. If the character’s cellphone is going to still work in this other world, please explain how it still has a signal and doesn’t run out of battery power.  I know this one is specific, but I’ve noticed at least two Isekai that involve smartphones.  I only watched one of them, which I didn’t like.  It was the main one either.  Still, I couldn’t figure out how the character was in this medieval setting for two years and his phone still had power and a signal.  In fact, explain how any modern technology continues to work for an extended period of time.
  7. You don’t have to decide at the beginning if the character wants to go back home or not.  Of course, this doesn’t matter if they died and woke up in the new world, which implies that they’re stuck.  If that’s not the case then you can play with both possibilities.  Any person who wakes up in a new world may want to explore, especially if it’s one they recognize from various media.  The desire to go back home may need to be triggered by a sense of that this isn’t a game or fiction.  So, focus on world and character building instead of the finale for a bit.  You can always change from one to the other as well.
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Story Development and Execution Part 11: Mid-Level Self-Editing

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

Ciao, SEers. Today is part eleven of the series, and we’re continuing with self-editing. We’ve reached the mid-level revision. By now, you should …

Story Development and Execution Part 11: Mid-Level Self-Editing
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Guest – Staci Troilo Discusses The Haunting of Chatham Hollow #newbook

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

I am so pleased to be hosting a fellow Story Empire author today. Staci is here to talk about the book she and Mae Clair have collaborated on that …

Guest – Staci Troilo Discusses The Haunting of Chatham Hollow #newbook
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Teaser Tuesday: Do I Hide My Quirks?

Posted on September 20, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

Yahoo Image Search

This part comes from the ‘Author Section’.  Many times, we try to hide who we really are and put on a mask as an author.  Makes sense, especially if we want to separate it from the other parts of our life.  Though, it can be exhausting and some quirks may turn up.  This touches on that urge to either hide or reveal your true self.  Enjoy.

Do I Hide My Quirks?

Much like revealing your inspiration, you will find that you have to put yourself in the spotlight at times. The days of the secretive author churning out books without having to leave their house are long gone. At least for new authors, because you can do that once you become rich and famous. They call you eccentric instead of anti-social at that point. Some might find this part of the path fairly harrowing since you don’t have characters to hide behind. It’s exposing your own life and personality to strangers, which doesn’t mean you share everything about yourself. There is a limit, especially if you have friends and family who don’t want to be part of the public persona. Instead, you have to focus on yourself and that means your quirks and habits can come into play. I’m sure we all ‘love’ doing that.

What do I mean by quirks?

I mean the small things that are unique to you. Favorite foods, hobbies, favorite shows, and author rituals would fall into this category. For example, I talk a lot about pizza because it’s my favorite food. Seriously, it’s delicious and you can choose from tons of toppings. Has all four food groups and I don’t care if that system has changed. Readers and other authors who interact with me have made a connection between myself and pizza.

Does it help to sell books? I don’t know. It does help the other side of promoting, which is creating your brand. Hate to say it, but you are part of your product and that means all of you. This is scary for many of us because we expected to put our books into the public eye. It doesn’t always cross a new author’s mind that they have to go along with their creation. If it helps, this part of the trade gets easier as you progress because you get a feel for yourself and how people will react to your personality.

Of course, you can create a fake persona with a pen name. This is fine and common because it protects your real life from scrutiny. Yet, you still may need to come up with some quirks for this image to make it more realistic. This can be harder than you imagine because it requires that you keep your story straight. If you hate coffee and the pen name is fueled by it then you have to be careful. One negative reaction to coffee and people may start to wonder. Audiences love exposing the real author behind pen names. It’s a game of Hide & Seek with one person hiding and being fairly unaware they are being hunted.

A way to stay in the right mindset is to keep your persona simple and as close to reality as possible. It can be an altered version of you or an exact copy with a different name. Whatever makes you comfortable about stepping out from behind your book and proving that you aren’t a cunning Artificial Intelligence trying to break into the publishing industry.

Your greatest tool in promoting and revealing yourself on your own terms is social media, which is a double-edged sword. The sword is also on fire and has been cursed to either heal or hurt depending on how it’s feeling at the time. As we all know, whatever you put on the Internet will stay there and may affect your books. After all, you are trying to make yourself approachable and worthy of a reader’s attention. You don’t want to come off as a person that one wouldn’t want to meet in a well-lit alley.

If done correctly, you will make connections with readers and authors. This creates a support network every author needs to help promote their books. With a new release, you can announce it beforehand and get volunteers to help as well as early sales. If you are writing a series, you can get a handful of readers who will continue through every book and leave reviews every time. This grants you a solid core of loyal fans who can bring attention to your stories and act as an unofficial promotional team. Having other authors as readers can also lead to hosting announcements for each other, which means a mixing of audiences. Both authors benefit from that type of connection.

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What is an Isekai?

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

The graphic pretty much does the job.  Isekai is the term used when we’re talking about anime and manga.  Yet, this isn’t exclusive to those genres.  In fact, the concept of a person from one world being transported to another is fairly common.  We usually call them by their general genre, but the following would be Isekai:

  • Tron (Science Fiction)
  • Jumanji (Action Adventure)
  • Wizard of Oz (Fantasy)
  • Alice in Wonderland (Fantasy)
  • Chronicles of Narnia (Legendary Fantasy)

As you can see, the concept of Isekai isn’t new or exclusive to anime.  Though, I don’t think it’s ever been given an official subcategory that stuck like this one.  So, what are the cornerstones of this concept?

It’s fairly simple because it only requires that a person from one world (usually Earth) is transported to another world.  It’s typically a magical world, but you also see it done with high tech or mundane worlds.  The whole point is that a person is dropped into a foreign land and has to survive.  Sometimes, they’re trying to get home and other times they’re simply finding a niche with no urge to return.  I’ve seen a lot of Isekai start off the person dying on Earth and being transported in that instant to a new world.  Also getting drawn into a video game and becoming your avatar.  Regardless of the method, you have a person going to a different world.

Before you start pointing at time traveling, there’s a big difference.  Time traveling is when a person is sent from the present to either the future or, usually, the past of their own world.  They have knowledge of their surroundings to some extent, which makes it easier for them to learn.  Isekai has them transported to an entirely different world where they don’t know the cultures and histories.  Even when a character is transferred into a game that they know, it becomes clear that things don’t work the same way.  NPC’s have personalities instead of stock phrases, damage is real, new abilities are found, and the ‘rules’ are more flexible.  So, the transported character has to go through a learning curve even if they’re the most powerful being in the world.

That’s a current trend in Isekai that I want to touch on.  ‘That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime’, ‘Overlord’, and ‘How Not to Summon a Demon Lord’ are all stories where the main character is insanely powerful.  I actually gave up on ‘Overlord’ because I got tired of the way battles had no tension.  The issue here was that the main character had powers that nobody in he went up against could challenge and there weren’t any attempts to really put him in danger.  ‘Reincarnated’ almost had the same issue, but enemies were introduced to give the main character some trouble.  Also, personality is important because an overpowered character with flaws works better than one who seems to be perfect in every way.  ‘Overlord’ guy acts like the arrogant, gloating villain type with only an inner voice of awkwardness that doesn’t effect his actions that often.  ‘Reincarnated’ guy has made mistakes and visibly freaks out, so the power level can be undermined by a flawed mind. It’s hard to avoid that trap with Isekai too because a cornerstone is that the transported character is more powerful and special.

One criticism of this subgenre is that it’s entirely about a power fantasy.  A reason for this is a trend of it being merged with harem plots.  This would be that a male with limited or no social skills gets transported to this new world.  They end up gathering allies who are all attractive women that develop crushes on the hero.  ‘How Not to Summon a Demon Lord’ descended into this issue fairly quickly, which I found frustrating.  The story turns into an analogy for males who are ‘losers’ in our world becoming desirable gods in these lands of magic.  So, the stories appeal to incel culture even if that wasn’t the intended audience.  It ends up feeding that mentality, which creates a lot of controversy.  More so than a standard harem story like ‘Love Hina’ where the male character is surrounded by beautiful women who are attracted to him.  Probably because slavery and other unsavory aspects get added to the Isekai harem as well as the hero rarely having any qualms about indulging in this activity.

So, what are your thoughts on this subgenre?  Ever watch or read an Isekai without realizing it?

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Ambiance and Writing

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Charles Yallowitz

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you on this September morning. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re only three days away from the beginning of autumn—my…

Ambiance and Writing
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