Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Born into fame
And desperate
To prove his worth
Trained and untempered
A youth will lie
For the chance to shine
Protecting
An unknown charge
Chaos shall ensue
Demonic killer
Undead caster
A headmistress feared by all
Luke Callindor
Needs some friends
Or his first adventure
Will be his last
Awhile back I featured the cover for Saint Ivy by the awesome Laurie Morrison. But Saint Ivy, published by Abrams, has now debuted, so here is Laurie…
Check This Out—The Debut of Saint Ivy: Kind at All Costs
Thank you, John, for having me here today to share the news about my final children’s book, “Tree Fairies and Their Short Stories.” In Tree Fairies, …
Tree Fairies and Their Short Stories by D.L Finn #Newbook
Rhymes and rhythm
With on music
Beyond the inner beats
Of those who read
*
Flowing of words
With no reason
Other than beauty
And revelations
*
Some are rigid
Others are wild
In both form
And focus
*
Poems
Stem from the soul
To infect
The hearts of others
Hi SErs! Harmony here 🙂 Today, I’d like to take another look at dialogue. Because this is such a large topic, I have spread the topic over a few …
Don’t Talk Like That: Quotes and Paragraphs
Just picked a random picture for this post, which connects to the weekly subject of autism. Last year, I mentioned that I might be creating an autistic character because I noticed he had similar behaviors to my son. To be fair, I played this character in a game back in 2001-2002 and have been designing him since. So, him and his behaviors predate my son. That is actually not what this post is about though. It’s just that it seems to always come up.
Anyway . . .
The challenge I’m having is that Darwin Slepsnor could be autistic, but I’m not sure and I don’t know where to go with it. I worry because he is kind of a comedic character even though he’s the main hero. This is because he’s impulsive and jumps to conclusions that he refuses to let go of, so he can be kind of silly. So, I worry that I’m not heading in the right direction, but this is a key part of his personality. Unlike Luke Callindor and Clyde, Darwin was a helpful, carefree goofball who was excited to be on an adventure that he barely comprehended the scope of. He was with friends and had fun with a slight emotional distance from the negative things. It will definitely be a different hero than what I typically write. Yet, there are what could be autistic tendencies:
Those are what Darwin can do, but I really don’t know if that means he’s autistic. Weird how I’m analyzing a character in my head. The problem is that he doesn’t really have meltdowns and I haven’t given him any sensory overload issues. From my own experience and training, those with autism do best with routine and stability. So, would someone with autism go on a series of adventures where there is no routine and an almost constant stream of new experiences? That sounds insulting, especially after taking my son on trips, but those didn’t involve magic battles and demons. We also had an itinerary that gave him an idea of what’s happening. These adventures could be Darwin trying to push out of his routine since he now has magic and gets a taste of helping others. I feel like I should give him some meltdown triggers if I want to go this way such as sensitive to smells or a tactile issue. A restricted diet could work, which makes him difficult when camping. Again, I have to figure out if he’s going to be on the spectrum or not then if such a person would go on an adventure.
Could I be overthinking this? I won’t be using the term in the book because I don’t think it would get used in Windemere. That also places a lot onto Darwin’s shoulders, which is dangerous for a character I write with humor. Maybe I should just write the character and see where the pieces fall. The outlines are coming along slowly and I’ve made marks of areas where I can put things if I want. Guess I just needed to vent a bit because I don’t want to insult anyone, but I also want Darwin to come out right. Feels like this is a part of him that I need to figure out and he’s being difficult.
One more month of the school year. More importantly, the schedule goes back to the normal one this coming week. Last time my son and I had this schedule was February 2020. Things got shaky in March and then the pandemic came in like a stampeding herd of bison. Both of us are really happen that normalcy is returning to our lives, which means his anxiety may be reduced. Honestly, I feel like some of my own stress is disappearing because this is a better system for him. This is going to give me the energy to get through the rest of the school year.
Surprisingly, we only have 3 weeks of classes and then finals left. Feels like the end of a marathon for many people. My mind is having trouble wrapping around it, especially with the summer being off. I’ll either get a lot of writing time or it will be tons of outings with my son. Both are good. My original plan was that my son would be in camp for most of the summer and I would do writing then a trip in mid/late August. Well, things are still screwy, so we’re going to have to roll with the punches. The trip might end up being a casualty to finances and other things too.
Writing this week wasn’t what I expected. Work was so busy that I didn’t get to outline during breaks and came home exhausted. It doesn’t help that I’m at the part in the series where I have to rewrite things, so my notes are useless. Finished one on Thursday night by staying up late. Didn’t get much done on Friday with the other outline, so I won’t get to these until next weekend unless I’m lucky. Got my son for Memorial Day weekend, so he gets my full attention. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch gets his full attention. That’s parenting these days. If I can get this outline done then next weekend could just be for the finale. The rest of June will be used for editing the next War of Nytefall book, which clears the summer for potential book writing.
Let’s see . . . I had yesterday off, which was fun. Helped move furniture around and got to have lunch with a friend. Been a really long time since I got to do anything like that, so it was nice. I should really do it more often. With the pandemic stuff settling down here, I feel like I can go out a bit. Still nervous, but I need to get my social life back in place since I’m a mental wreck these days.
Health! That’s something I tried to focus on. Sadly, the diet didn’t change much, but I’m trying to create a healthy snack stash in the room. Dried fruit and nuts mostly. Really enjoying dried cherries, but they’re hard to find. Dried pineapple is even more difficult to locate. I’m going to up my water intake, but trying to drink 3 liters of seltzer a day. I wish I could afford a soda water machine to decrease the amount of bottles I’m using, but maybe some day. Also, the cartridges for those are expensive.
Trying to get back into biking at a more consistent rate. Long ago, I used to do 30 minutes a day. That was when I was able to lose weight. I don’t have that amount of time any more, so I’m trying to decide between 30 minutes/3-4 times a week or 15-20 minutes every day. Both are difficult to carve out time for since the mornings are a rush to get to work and the evenings are filled with exhaustion. My son comes back earlier, so I can’t get it in before he gets home like pre-pandemic. School meetings and errands tended to make this activity inconsistent too. This is why I’m leaning towards doing 15-20 minutes a day after my son goes to bed. Cuts deep into my writing and resting time, but I need to do something.
Television has been only one show, which was a slog. ‘Hunter x Hunter’ is an anime based on a manga that is known for lengthy hiatuses. I really enjoyed both and finally got access to the whole anime. I was curious because the story arc I could finally watch was as long as the first 3 combined. Well . . . I want to love it, but it dragged at so many points that I lost interest. There were emotional highs, especially near the end, but I felt empty because I was just watching to get it over with at this point. Forums talked about the deeper meanings, but I felt this was a class on how NOT to do ‘show, don’t tell’. I don’t need to be told that two doors are opening or a character is crouching when I see it. Not to mention, a slew of new characters were introduced and I couldn’t connect to most of them. One-armed guy with self-esteem issues? I forgot he was around until he had a big fight, lost, and then I forgot about him again. Guy with glasses? He’s . . . around? The villains didn’t make any biological sense either and this is now a rant. Getting through this anime took a lot of time, so I’m not going to do a second watch to see if I do better. Guess it’s a good thing I let the ex-wife take the manga too.
Now, to finish watching the new episodes of ‘Lucifer’. Musical episode with Deborah Gibson with definitely something.
Goals of the week:
Dragon Ball Z Again
Sticking to the theme here, which is really turning into a pseudo-analysis of the Dragon Ball system. We did energy attacks and powering up, but another thing that comes about are the power levels. Once Dragon Ball Z showed up, characters started getting numbers connected to their overall abilities. This is very much like stats in a video game, but not broken down into categories.
There are pros and cons to introducing a leveling system to your story, so let’s get into it:
Wow. I guess I burnt out on the pros and cons already. Those are really the big ones since all 4 cover some ground. Personally, I’m not a fan of these, especially when it comes to novels. Video games work with this because the audience can manipulate the stats on their own. Beyond that, you’re going to lock a lot of things down.
So, what do you think of power level systems? Any pros and cons you can think of?
Hi SE friends! Gwen with you today, and we’re going to explore another element of typology as it relates to writing. You may recall that my prior two…
Hidden Diversity Among Writers
Yeah. I forgot to set up an Immortal Wars post. So I rushed and scheduled this over breakfast. Oops. Also making block-based posts on the WordPress app is an utter nightmare. (Looks like it didn’t work. I’ll fix it when I get home.)
Legends of Windemere 