How to Make a Video Using Canva

Posted on February 5, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Image courtesy of Pixabay Hi SErs! Harmony here 😁 Today, I have another Canva tutorial for you. This one is all about using Canva to make a free and…

How to Make a Video Using Canva
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Immortal Wars: Light, Blood, & Tears Part 4

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

(Disclaimer: A warning to those who continue.  This is a sequel to a previous story.  Both of these were written in the mid-1990’s.  While the first one was slightly edited and vanity press published, this one has not been touched in over 20 years.  I figure I should do something with it and people may get a laugh or fright from how I used to be.  Every author comes from somewhere, so this is part of my origin.  To that end, I am deeply sorry for whatever nightmares I will inflict on the literary world and the American English language.  Enjoy?)

PREVIOUS ENTRY CLICK HERE

The Main Hall.  It is one of the largest rooms on the sun base and it is filled with beautiful silk banners and stained glass windows.  The room is filled with multi-colored light because of the stained glass windows.  The only pieces of furniture in the Main Hall are a large, wooden table and several matching chairs.  At the head of the ancient table is a dais with a jewel-encrusted throne of pure gold.

“Has there been any response to our last message to the Glebnoks?” asks Fate, who is resting on the throne.  He carefully fingers a medallion that is an orange gem with nine sparkling stones around it.

“No response.  It appears that they are still mad about the death of the original guardians.  Talk about holding a grudge.  They blame all beings from Earth for the disaster and apparently do not trust any of you.  If it were not for their peaceful beliefs and nature, Earth would have been destroyed hundreds of years ago.  I do have two somewhat important messages for you,” answers SEAS from his red containment diamond, which is set into the top of the throne.

“What are you waiting for?  Tell me already.”

“One is from the Devicors.  They are fairly new race of interplanetary bounty hunters that specifically track down criminals and other space outlaws.  Sort of like mercenaries for justice or heroic vigilantes.  Most of them are very anti-social and deadly, but there are a few decent ones.  Their message is a warning to leave them alone or suffer painful consequences.”

“I see.  A weak threat, but we will do as they say.  Unless they interfere with anything that involves us.  Next message.”

“Adriana.  Not one of her usual taunts that I receive from time to time and I usually just throw out if there is nothing of importance in it.  It is a simple apology for knocking you into that comet with her.  She is also telling you how thankful she is for not being linked to your destiny anymore.  She said that the constant fear and stress was beginning to give her a few wrinkles and a gray hair.”

“She’s not the only thankful one.  Delete both messages and reply to the Devicors with a nicer version of what I said early.  But leave out that thing about their warning being a weak threat.  No reason to piss off an entire race of warriors.  Anything else you want to say before I go check the security cameras.  There was some activity going on in a few of the border sectors.”

“Yes.  I do not know how to put this gently.  So, I will not bother to try.  You, Edward Slane, are acting like the most cold-blooded, self-centered, arrogant creature in the entire galaxy.  No offense.”

“What did you just say!” exclaims Fate as he jumps to his feet and faces the red, glowing diamond.

“You heard me.  Even the sun guardian was not uncaring enough to push his friends and peers away.  That is, he never pushed them away before they were slaughtered by Adriana’s gang,” mentions SEAS.

“I am not . . .”

“Don’t even try to argue the point because I see and know about everything that happens on the Sun Base.  When was the last time you spent any quality time your girlfriend?  Miracle will not wait for her entire life.  Just because you were put in charge does not mean you have to isolate yourself.  Strong leaders are the ones that can spend time and enjoy the company of others.  I know this because I have seen millions of leaders rise and fall throughout the universe.  By pushing your friends away, you will certainly lose the other planet guardians’ trust and friendship.”

“You’re right.  But it’s not like I mean to push all of them away.  I just have too many responsibilities as leader.”

“How about this?  Spend tonight with Miracle and do not do any work.  Try not to do any work for an entire week.  If you do any work, I will personally leave you all alone on a tropical paradise for a full year.”

“Good idea.  But I have to meet with Hydrana first.  I promised her.  Thanks for the vocal body slam.  I think someone actually telling me that I’m being an ass helps a lot more than people just accepting it.  You’re all heart, SEAS,” says Fate with a smile.  He walks out of the room feeling a lot more relaxed and slightly like his old self.

After a couple of quick seconds, something dawns on the sentient computer system.  “But I do not have a heart.”

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7 Tips to Adding Fear Into Fiction

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

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Even if you don’t write horror, you may want to include some fear in your stories.  From fear, we can create hope and relief.  We can also drive people into despair and sadness.  It’s a fascinating jumping point for so many stories.  Yet, one does come off a little depraved if they enjoy the manipulation too much.  Still, we’ve come this far (5.5 sentences) and might as well move on to the advice.

  1. Fear doesn’t always come from gore.  That’s actually disgust.  The fear can come at the beginning because you are surprised by the gore, but it isn’t the main focus.  This may seem like it’s more for movies and shows.  It isn’t because authors add graphic descriptions of violence in their books at times.  Blood being described as it flies from a body and limbs getting hurled into the air like hats at a high school graduation.  Just know that the fear kind of comes and goes in this scenario, so you can’t depend on gore for that emotion.
  2. You can cause a reader to become numb to fear.  If stimulated and kept tense for a long period of time, a person may simply turn off that part of their mind.  It isn’t intentional, but the human body does what it can to reduce stress.  This means, keeping the tension going for too long can result in there being no payoff.  This is the reason why many authors suggest that you create tension in waves.  Add calm and relaxing scenes between the tense ones in order to keep the reader emotionally invested.
  3. Never flat out tell a reader that he or she has to be scared.  They don’t like that.
  4. Have a reason for the fear being in your story.  If you’re writing a romance then repeatedly terrifying your reader won’t help with the plot.  You can have some tense scenes where a touch of fear is involved, but you have to maintain the proper tone for fear to make sense.  It is one of the most powerful emotions that humans have and it has a major impact on tone in a story.  Throwing it in for amusement when it doesn’t match can ruin everything.
  5. Dialogue can be just as important as exposition when it comes to inducing fear.  Think about being told a story in a way that puts you on the edge of your seat.  A character is capable of doing this.  It can be tricky because you may have to depend on adjectives or risk an info dump.  You can’t have them do this with a few quick sentences, but you can’t go on for pages upon pages.  That’s just a story within a story, which can throw readers off.  Beta readers can really come in handy here.
  6. If you can scare yourself then you’re onto something.  Then again, being the author means you’re emotionally invested in the first place.  Don’t take your own sense of fear as proof that you’re doing things perfectly  It’s more that you’re in the right ballpark that you plan on dropping the readers off in.  Unlike them, you know where the story is going, so the fear has an added level of anticipation that can enhance it.  You may miss that you aren’t creating enough tension for a person lacking in your pre-existing knowledge.  As before, beta readers can help here.
  7. Just because Stephen King did it doesn’t mean you should or can do it too.  Fear depends a lot on there being something that a person hasn’t seen.  If you go for an evil clown then you may only scare those with the specific phobia.  Others will roll their eyes and all tension will disappear.
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Music of Legends of Windemere: Charms of the Feykin

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Did I say an earlier book was driving me crazy with finding music?  Well, this one really took the crown.  Legends of Windemere: Charms of the Feykin was a fun story to write.  Yet, it was the hardest to really put through this wringer.  I can’t explain why.  The funny thing is that I was inspired by more music for this book than others, but I can’t really remember the tunes.  I just know that I was listening to a lot while doing the outlines.

This one actually came to my mind first and then I was stumped.  It really made me think of the Delvin/Nyx relationship that gets a spotlight here.  Just can’t figure out which one of them would be singing.  I find that I write a lot of relationships where the people involved get hope and strength from it.  Maybe that’s all relationships?  At least the healthy ones.  I’ve read many stories where they’re just kind of there.

This one came to me when I was just going through really old YouTube viewings.  Makes me think of cults and a brewing war, which is part of the story.  There’s the Feykin-hunting cult and the Feykin themselves who are preparing to attack.  In some ways, they act like their leaders can walk on water and carry them to victory through divine actions.  Of course, this results in some utter disasters.

This might be a cop out, but I couldn’t think of anything else.  Long ago, I was thinking of a design for Delvin’s temple area.  This music video and song guided me through that.  I even had a flying whale at some point, but removed that out of it being too close to what I was looking at.  So, I probably wouldn’t have had Binhadar Falls and the plateau.

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More Thoughts on Fear?

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

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I was starting the theme of this week and a thought came to mind.  Have I done posts on fear before?  Apparently, I’ve done several.  It’s a topic that keeps coming back to my mind as if I never considered it before.  Yet, I can’t shake it.  This leaves me with a challenge in regards to making this fresh.  Well . . . I did think up some curious insights on fear last year, so I’m going to share those.

  1. I think fear is one of the biggest driving forces of human civilization.  We created clothes out of fear of freezing to death or sunburns.  We discovered fear out of fear of the dark.  Locks on our doors exist because we fear that our territory can be intruded upon.  Writing was invented out of fear of history and lore being lost.  It might not have been conscious, but fear was there at some level.  Of course, much of this involves facing and defeating our fear as well.
  2. Fear and anxiety go hand-in-hand, which so many people don’t understand.  Many believe that they are related, but not that closely.  If I’m jolted awake by my alarm, the phone, or cats mating outside, I’m much more on edge and twitchy.  I have been startled and the chance of me having a panic attack by the end of the day has increased.  Also, people use the same phrase of ‘face your fear/anxiety’ for both issues, which does show their relation.
  3. It is difficult for some people to understand the fear of another, especially if it’s something they have no problem with.  I get this with horror movies, which I really don’t like.  I get scared and horrified too easily, but I have friends who love this kind of stuff.  I don’t find being scared an enjoyable form of entertainment and some of them think I’m strange.  So, fear occasionally has a ‘language’ or something barrier.
  4. Inducing fear at a constant rate for a long period of time can cause one of two reactions, especially with large groups.  Some become more distant from the world around them and be terrified of anything remotely connected to the fear.  They come off as highly paranoid and may quickly sever any relations that they think will put them at risk.  Others will become so numb that they will ignore the danger if it is still within the environment.  The two groups can clash over their opposing reactions to fear.

That last one was a stretch, so I think I’ll stop.  What are everyone else’s thoughts on fear and our reactions to it?

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Blogging Breaks: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

Hi, SEers! You’re with Mae today for one of my Good/ Bad / Ugly posts. At the end of 2020, I took a two-month break from blogging. I’d only planned …

Blogging Breaks: The Good, Bad, and Ugly
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#1 Post of 2020: 7 Tips to Writing Characters with Depression

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

(Post originally published April 8, 2020.  Wow.  All 3 mental health posts that came out around my 40th birthday.  Kind of bittersweet here.)

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A few disclaimers here because we’re heading into delicate territory.  I am not an expert on mental health by any means.  I read up on it and have my own experiences to work off, which is what fuels these posts.  Also, I always try to add some humor into my posts, especially the 7 Tip Lists.  I find that humor can relieve tension and allow for serious stuff to be listened to and swallowed more easily.  Finally, this is about actual depression and not a character simply feeling sad or upset.  That brings us right to #1!

  1. Depression does not always, in fact it rarely, has a direct source.  Your character can simply go into a depressed state or be there the entire time.  Of course, it can be triggered by something, but it doesn’t always have such a direction.  Good chance that they can’t even explain it.  After all, if you can clearly explain what is causing the problem then it’s much easier to fix.  Wouldn’t that be a nice addition to the depression diagnosis.  Make my life easier.
  2. You really need to make sure that you don’t equate depression with simply being sad.  A character can use the term since people do, but you need to remain aware of what this condition is.  It is INTENSE sadness with a sense of worthlessness, hopelessness, and helplessness.  You feel like the world is crushing you or that it would be better off without you.  This is debilitating and it lasts for days or weeks or months or years to the point where life is difficult.
  3. Remember the symptoms for your character, but they don’t have to be imbued with everything off the list.  Trouble sleeping and low energy can be there, but maybe they mask their depression with a false sense of optimism.  Having a hard time focusing, being irritable, eating disorders, and an inability to gain pleasure or happiness from stuff are possibilities too.  If you slap everything on your character and them handling their depression isn’t the main part of the story then you’re going to run into a lot of obstacles.  So, consider what the story is before you decide on the degree.
  4. For the love of everything, don’t have the character snap out of their depression because a person gave them a pep talk.  That really doesn’t work.  Maybe it gets them to acknowledge the problem and get help, which is a good thing.  On the other hand, it can just as likely make a person feel like they’re not being understood or even mocked, so they curl even further inside themselves.
  5. If you aren’t sure if something falls under depression or not then either do some research or skip it.  This is like any other delicate situation that you’re including in your story.  Sure, instinct and common sense can work if you’re able to imagine what it would be like for yourself.  I do that with some of my things after reading up on the basics and factoring in my personality.  Still, you want to be careful since people will look at this character very closely.
  6. Depression does not mean the character is useless, but good luck getting them to believe that.  They will have moments where they cannot function and may fail because of their depression, which will make things worse.  They can also have times when they save the day and remain depressed.  This is the nature of the illness.  A step forward can have absolutely no effect on their mental state while even a perceived stumble is the equivalent of stepping on somebody’s newborn baby.  Not that thought specifically, but depressed people focus more on what they do wrong than what they do right.
  7. It’s very tempting for some people to use characters like this for humor or to play the ‘negative’ role.  Yes, a person with depression can be a pessimist because they have trouble seeing the positive side of things.  This isn’t always the case.  A depressed character can also be shy and only speak when they muster up a lot of courage to voice their opinion.  There’s a fear of rejection here that can be played out and create sympathy here.  Again, it also depends on personality because some may be more chatty and open because they’re hiding their pain.
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Goal Post: One Month Nearly Down for 2021

Posted on January 30, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

This week was midterms, so I was busy.  That pretty much covers work unless we count that I did some outlining of ‘Ruins of the Zodiac Gods’ when I didn’t have any students in my proctoring room.  Not as much as I expected because I wanted to do work stuff and I was tired.  So cold in the morning that I got drained fairly quickly during the drive in.  I didn’t bother with lunch either because I wasn’t hungry.  Just water and then I ate when I got home.  Somehow, I didn’t lose any weight on that one.  Okay, I’m rambling, so I’ll  move on.

I’m actually writing this Thursday night because I’m doing a birthday party with coworkers Friday night.  Nothing big and we’re taking precautions.  It’s a nice outing since I haven’t done much lately.  Good to socialize at times when I can.  With the pandemic, my social life has been reduced to a sliver of activity.  I didn’t have much to begin with, but everything is a mess now.  I’m bracing myself for the entire year to be like this because I doubt things are going to change any time soon.  Of course, this causes my anxiety to rise, which stops me from doing any more writing.  At least for the day since things always start again in the morning.  How is the writing going?

I fell a little short of my goal of 14 sections for Do I Need to Use a Dragon?  That would have brought me to 10 sections left.  Monday was too busy for me to do anything and Friday I went out, so that brought it down to 12.  I don’t know how well I’m going to do on Saturday, so I’ll be happy if I get it down to 13 left.  The ultimate goal is to get this project done by the end of winter break, which is mid-February.  That’s the latest since I could feasibly get it done earlier.  Depends on how custody is going to be worked out, the weather, and how I react to the second vaccine shot.  Fun!  I’m at 15 to go at the writing of this post, which seems so small comparted to the 72 sections I started with.  This is going to be big.  I still can’t figure out what to have as the final picture in the book.  I have ‘Legends’, ‘Nytefall’, and ‘Ichabod Brooks’.  Thinking of Fizzle doing puppy-dog eyes being on the cover since he’s a dragon.  Who could be the final one?

Been thumbing through the future book ideas and you should be seeing one get mentioned tomorrow.  I’m back to sorting things and trying to figure out what works and what needs to be cannibalized.  Less of that second category this time.  Settling into the idea that some stories will be short story collections instead of series has helped.  Much of this is toying around until I can get the time to begin outlining ‘Tales of the Slumberlord’.  I’ve been considering the title of that one, but I really do like it.  The volume titles are all ‘Darwin & the-‘ stuff, so they might be long.  Picturing his adventures, I think it makes sense because he does overexplain things.  Using his own logic, of course.  There are already a lot of decisions and thoughts turning up.  Darwin freaking out about things and thinking he can just march into the Channeler Queen’s castle to ask for training.  After all, he’s a caster and so is she, so why can’t she teach him?  I have to get used to a main character that has his own taste of logic.  Not totally off the wall like Lost, but rather straightforward and socially aloof.  Darwin is going to be so much fun.  Can’t wait for people to meet him.

That’s really it and next week is going to be mellow.  A new quarter starts for me and my son.  Winter break hits in 3 weeks too, so I don’t know how busy things will be.  I can already see several big projects on the way for him, which means schoolwork is going to be the focus.  That’s as it should be.  I don’t know what to watch from my lists either.  I finished all of ‘The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’ and ‘The IT Crowd’.  First one is a quirky anime and the other is a British comedy.  I can’t figure out if I want an anime or an hour long show.  None of the popular things appeal to me either.  Keep hearing about the ‘Queen’s Gambit’ and ‘Bridgerton’, but I’m not interested.  Guess I tend to gravitate towards comedies and anything that isn’t that connected to reality.

Goals of the week:

  1. Fun with son
  2. Work hard at work
  3. Write when I can
  4. March blog posts again
  5. Figure out Sunday post ideas.  Future ideas?  Meme topics?
  6. Puzzle as usually.  Finally started making progress
  7. Sleep
  8. Curse the cold in the morning
  9. Ugh . . . Taxes
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7 Tips to Having a Reunion Plot in Your Story

Posted on January 29, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

The Seven Deadly Sins

This storyline might be fairly niche, but it’s caught my attention.  In fact, I think it’s turned up more often than I realize.  ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ and ‘Red’ come to mind.  Both have a reunion plot where most of the characters already know each other.  They have a lengthy history and possibly some fame.  I’ve got a few tips for this, so let’s see what we have.

  1. The heroes don’t need a getting to know you stage.  This can take up a lot of time and patience, especially with a large group.  In a Reunion Story, they don’t have to be introduced to each other.  This connection can be used to introduce them at a faster pace to the audience too.  For example, I was able to show a lot more characters in War of Nytefall since they were already connected than in Legends of Windemere where they were meeting each other for the first time.
  2. With heroes already knowing each other, you will inevitably have some shared stories.  This can be interesting and make for amusing scenes, but there is a temptation to do it a lot.  Your mind can connect to stories that make your established heroes appear larger than life and you may try to top each one as you proceed.  This can overshadow the current story and make the audience wonder why they aren’t reading about the cooler adventures.  While every character can share parts of their past, you can’t have it take the spotlight.
  3. The heroes are established and aware of the world, so they won’t need a guide or mentor.  Of course, there will be some things they are in the dark about since they’re coming out of some form of retirement.  Maybe it’s a new city that appeared after they were traveling or a new creature that they never encountered.  These things will take center stage since the characters will not have to explore the areas that they already know or learn skills from the ground up.  You still have to introduce these things, but you don’t have to draw out an exploration.
  4. Power levels of heroes may be over the top at the beginning.  This is really hard to master with fantasy because magic is involved.  These heroes need to first appear as very powerful and intimidating since they are established.  If they’re legendary like the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ then they’re downright frightening at first.  This can cause a problem with making the audience question if they will succeed.  It’s tempting to keep them at this level too, but then there isn’t much threat.  All solutions are tricky from making insanely powerful villains to revealing limits that didn’t seem to appear at the beginning.  So, you have to be careful here.
  5. You don’t have to introduce all of the characters at once.  Since you can skip the ‘who are you?’ part, you can have the first one that you show go about gathering the others.  It can be a casual encounter or real hunt to figure out where everyone has disappeared to.  This also doesn’t mean everyone will agree.  A character may not want to get back on the road, which creates conflict within the established group.  (I’ll get to this in a second.)  The point is that you can speed up the arrivals, which gives you more time for other things.
  6. No harm in having one of the old heroes be the villain.  The reunion doesn’t have to include all former members.  Some could be angry about a slight that reveals why the team disbanded.  They could be corrupted by an evil force.  The point is that they don’t always have to return as heroes and friends.
  7. This is probably the BIGGEST TIP!  I saved it for last in the hopes that people will reach it and it wouldn’t get mixed in with the others.  YOU NEED AN OUTSIDER CHARACTER!  Okay, maybe not all the time, but you do need a vessel for the audience who are meeting these heroes for the first time.  In ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ this would be Elizabeth Liones who set out to gather the Sins and is being introduced to them for the first time.  Her meeting them and learning about them is what allows us to do the same.  Otherwise, the established heroes meet and any revelations of their past or abilities may come off as forced.  If there is one new face then they’re more inclined to explain themselves.  Yes, this is an introduction, but it is a very limited and low key one that won’t waste as much time as a big, nobody knows each other thing.  Consider how much easier it is to meet a new person that a friend is introducing you to when compared to a blind date.  See?  Much easier and more relaxing.
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How Latin Became Modern Italian

Posted on January 29, 2021 by Charles Yallowitz

In my last post, I explored some ways in which a new language is born. This post examines one of the best-known historical examples (at least for …

How Latin Became Modern Italian
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