Like I said yesterday, I’m writing this in early September. Shows how much faith I have in the rest of . . . the year that shall not be named. Seriously though, I post about my weekly goals every Saturday. This is just a yearly one and I’m going with a simple list. No reason to go into details because last year was an absolute crushing of that kind of wishful thinking.
Spending as much time with my son as possible.
Continue working hard at the day job and enjoying it.
Write Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips)
Finish outlining and start writing Tales of the Slumberlord.
Tinker with other ideas as usual.
Become more consistent with biking.
Try to lose some weight.
Try to become more positive . . . I’m not holding my breath on this one.
Revive the social life to some extent.
These are simple things. As usual, the real focus is on parenting, working, and writing. Good luck to everyone this year. Hope to continue traveling along with you.
Well, here we are at the end of 2020. Hopefully. I think. Look, I’m writing this in early September just in case there’s a reason I can’t at this point. You know what I mean . . . Unless we somehow reached a point where there are multiple reasons that could explain why I can’t make a post closer to the date. Seriously, this year has been bad at nearly every level of life. It’s hard for me to remember all of the stuff that happened as if my mind is blocking a bunch. Whatever it takes to keep the psyche semi-intact. Keep slapping tape on the thing, mental defenses!
I can’t say I learned any lessons in 2020. Spent most of it in a state of anxiety and ‘what else could go wrong’ even before the ‘you know’. On the plus side, I managed to write the rest of War of Nytefall. Got a bunch of outlining done too. I’ll touch on the plan for next year tomorrow when most people are trying to sleep in or sober up. This is all about 2020 . . . May you be the epitome of societal horror and everyone coming up is a slide towards peace and stability.
Almost done with 2020, so let’s think of the future. We have one, right? I’m always iffy on make detailed plans outside of my stories. Still, you need to consider what you hope will happen, especially after this year. Let’s get right to it.
What do you hope will happen in 2021?
What do you hope remains in 2020?
Is there any event you’re looking forward to in 2021?
My answers:
Anything good and positive.
The divisiveness, but I’m sure that’s here to stay for a long time.
I’d like to go back to a movie theater, especially for ‘Venom 2’. The reason for that one is because I started collecting comics with the ‘Maximum Carnage’ story in Spider-Man, so Carnage has always had a special place in my heart. To see my favorite villain of all time on the big screen will be great.
Today we have the three songs that I connect Legends of Windemere: Curse of the Dark Wind. Without any spoilers, there is a curse that involves a dark wind. I know, totally shocking. I found these a little easier to do that the previous two because it went back to Luke Callindor, who I noticed has a more direct evolution when it comes to books that focus on him. Enjoy.
This is from the anime called ‘Rising of the Shield Hero’, which I wanted this year and really liked. The song has this sense of determination and becoming the hero that one is meant to be, which fits with Luke Callindor. He is pushed to his limits and has to make a choice as to what kind of hero he will be. Perfect choice in my opinion.
Couldn’t get this one out of my head when I was thinking of songs. The dark wind curse is very much something in the air and has a forebodingness to it. There are also events that connect with the ancient prophecy, so the song touches on both of these factors.
I know this isn’t the original, but I really like this version. While it came out after I published this book, there was something that made me think of the story when I listened. It wasn’t the words, but the mood. I think a lot Curse of the Dark Wind involves the overall mood. There is a sense of despair along with hope and friendship because it is a very difficult challenge that the heroes face. I can easily imagine them facing the dark wind curse while this is playing.
Here we are for the last ‘Crossing Genres’ post unless somebody requests pairing another one off with ‘Fantasy’. I’m open to any that I can slip into January. Not sure any will be as difficult as this one. One genre is completely fictional to the point where you have to build an entire world from scratch. The other is fictional with a solid base in reality, so people can connect to it. Still, there are overlaps that I can think of. Not much, but the advice for one can still work for the other.
FANTASY & HISTORICAL FICTION
World Building
This might throw you off a bit because many don’t connect world building with Historical Fiction. We know it’s a big part of Fantasy, especially if your story takes place somewhere that isn’t Earth. You need to design cities, magic systems, histories, cultures, landmasses, oceans, religions, flora, fauna, and the list keeps going on. Even if you use Earth, you need to design pieces that don’t exist in reality because you need a Fantasy element. It could be magic or monsters, but there has to be something different that doesn’t fall into science or diverted timelines. Now, some authors make it up as they go along while others flush out the world before they dive into the adventure. Either way, you need to create a consistent world for your stories to take place in. Compared to all that, Historical Fiction should be easy, right?
Not really. Yes, you have actual events to use as a foundation for what you’re about to do and you don’t have to add Fantasy elements. The story could be about a person who didn’t exist surviving a specific battle in history. No reason to add dragons or spells to that since it would be strange. After all, most of your readers are going to have some knowledge of those events. If not when they read then they may become curious enough to see what inspired you. Here is where world building tips from Fantasy can help. You CANNOT depend solely on the historical record to get the setting and story across. Much like drawing someone into a non-Earth or magical Earth world, you have to hit on multiple senses to create the scene. Don’t just tell people what they see and hear in a boring manner because ‘they already know’ or you focused too much on the historical part of things. Go as deep as you can to really set the stage and make the characters feel like they’re part of an organic world instead of a casual retelling.
Connecting to the Characters
In Fantasy, you need to create characters that the readers can travel along with in some fashion. It could be as a fly on the wall or an invisible ghost standing among them, but there needs to be a connection. Through this bond, the reader can get a better understanding of events. It isn’t a person seeing events that don’t have anything to do with them, which means they might not care about what happens. You want them to care about the characters and world, so you need to forge these bonds. In Fantasy, you can do this through heroic plights, tense action scenes, failures, and anything that reveals the personality of the characters. Now, this could be said for all genres, but I’ve met many who don’t think this pertains to the other half of our discussion.
Some think that Historical Fiction characters are nothing more than place settings to carry a person through events. This is very true when an author shows a fictional version of a real historical figure. We expect them to act a certain way and can become hyper-critical if they deviate from the established mode. They can become annoyed if they go too far into the more legendary aspect of a figure such as Vlad the Impaler in ‘Da Vinci’s Demons’ being ridiculously macabre. It seemed too much for some. So, this preexisting persona for both known and fictional characters can become an obstacle as much as a bridge. The way to make it more like the latter is to do what we did with Fantasy. Make these people human instead of ghosts from the past that are locked in a mold. Show their emotions, thoughts, dreams, failures, and victories to make the reader start to wonder how they would live in the era that the story takes place. Don’t expect a reader to do this automatically because you’re working with history. It would be like a Fantasy author expecting people to accept everything simply on the premise that fictional worlds have no rules. There are rules and one of them is that you need connections.
That’s really all I have for these two. Might be more generic that previously, but that might prove my overall point. Advice for one genre can be used to help with another, so don’t just ignore authors who don’t write in your circle. You never know what you can learn from them.
The title says it all really. These are the drawings that my son has made over the last few months. It was difficult to find time since school was crazy for both of us. Schedules were a mess and we spent most weekends doing other things. I won’t get into the details because you can probably guess given the state of the world. We do have two different categories though. The first ones are Pokemon where he wanted to draw all of the legendary birds after he did a regular Pokemon. Then he got into a bunch of ‘Fairy Tail’ characters that we found videos for. I put those in the order he did them. They were tough because it’s the first time he’s really done human faces. Some came from Art for Kids Hub and others came from Cartooning Club How to Draw. Enjoy.
First, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. If you don’t celebrate then I hope you had a relaxing Friday. Also that you found a place to get food because most places close early or don’t open at all. I always forget that part of the holidays.
Honestly, my Friday was spent doing laundry, writing, and watching anime. The weather was all rainy, so it took most of my strength to stay awake. Got some biking in too, which gave me some energy. I think I’m coming to the end of my energy for the year. Part of it is caused by the cold and miserable weather. With no real reason to get out of the warm bed and stay away, I’m hard-pressed to be productive. Keep in mind that I had work for the first three days of the work. So, I might have been a little drained from that since there was a lot to do before the holiday break. Thursday was my first day off and my son was here, so he made sure to get plenty of time with me. Mostly because his break started Wednesday, which annoyed him. He voiced his opinion that I needed to ask for the day off or that it was unfair for me to be at work when he had off. Gotta love the logic of kids, especially when it’s because they want to spend more time with you.
Yeah . . . That was my week in a nutshell. A bunch of standard or minor events that I can’t really go on about at length. It doesn’t help that my head is foggy lately. Nothing to worry about, but it’s clear that my brain is done with 2020. It’s focused more on having fun with my son, working more on Do I Need to Use a Dragon?, and relaxing. As of this post going live, I have 39 of 70 sections left to go on that project. I finished the tips on ‘The World’ and moved into ‘The Characters’. I probably won’t be touching it again until next weekend. I thought about New Years Even when I’m alone, but I doubt I’ll have the mindset to be productive. If I work on anything during the week, it will be the outlines for ‘Ruins of the Zodiac Gods’ or March blog posts. Finished February, so I might as well keep things going. March and April will hopefully be promo time for War of Nytefall: Savagery. Need to find out about cover art and getting another set of eyes for editing the book.
You can tell that I’m in rambling mode here. There are things I want to say and they’re bleeding together. For example, I got a few presents that included chocolates, a margarita, and various gift cards. I’m so unused to getting things that I never know what to do. Torn between getting what I need and what I want, which sucks when I’m not really sure what I need. This time, I ordered some new slippers, a new pair of sleeping pants that have Carnage from Marvel Comics on them, and 7 manga from various series. Found out that ‘Toriko’ Volume 16 is nearly impossible to find, so I had to stop with that one. I got myself caught up on ‘My Hero Academia’ and bought more volumes of ‘Seven Deadly Sin’. I started with the first 3 volumes of ‘Dr. Stone’ too since I loved the anime.
Speaking of anime, I finished watching ‘Hellsing Ultimate’. It’s very violent and gory since it has vampires. Reminded me a lot of how I did fight scenes in War of Nytefallwith all of the blood and not as much dodging as one would expect. A few of the episodes didn’t click with me because they were very speech heavy or over the top with violence. Yet, the final episode managed to hit an emotional note at the end, which was surprising. The next anime on my list is ‘Sorcerous Stabber Orphen’, but the newer version since I’ve watched the original a bunch of times. I’m really going to be biding my time until my son is with his mom for a week, which is when I can safely watched ‘Harley Quinn’ on HBO Max. If that kid hears the names Harley Quinn, Pamela Isley, or Poison Ivy, he’ll be in the room before I can get to the remote. Safer to watch when that’s not a threat.
People may be wondering about the 99 cent ‘sale’. The last big day was the 12th with 11 sales. I’ve had a few days where one book has sold. At least I know that pricing wasn’t the problem, but I’m selling more than I did when they were more expensive. I’m guessing the big jumps were from people who were monitoring my books and waiting to see if I ever went to 99 cents. By the way, this isn’t a sale like people keep calling it. I really have no intention of raising the price back to $2.99 any time soon because nothing moved at all at that level. The whole ‘sell for what you think you are worth’ isn’t working for me since it’s clear I value myself at a higher level than potential readers. Even after 8 years of publishing, I’m still an unknown and high risk purchase, so I might as well minimize the financial risk. Maybe things will change next year.
Beyond all of that, I have very little planned for the week. Tomorrow morning is a special virtual meeting that I set up for my son. He gets to meet three animals at the zoo with 2 being surprises. The other is going to be a Binturong as long as it’s willing to be part of the meet and greet. He gets to ask questions too. ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ is on the docket as well since we have HBO Max. Video games, drawing, pizza, play dates, and going to a Magic of Lights show are all on the list. That’s the thing with Holiday Breaks and Winter Breaks in this area. The weather is typically miserable, so you can’t go outside like with Spring and Summer Break. Covid reduces activities even further. Resting and relaxing for a week and a half isn’t a bad thing though.
Oh, this is a binturong, which smells like buttered popcorn:
Not really writing based. Unless I remind people that War of Nytefall: Ravenousis still for sale and will be forever. That has nothing to do with this post. Since we’re coming to the end of the year, it’s time to reflect. 2020 has really left its mark on most people, which means if there was any year to do this then here we are. Time to find the optimists, pessimists, realists, and whoever else is out there.
If you had to describe 2020 in one word, what would it be?
What was the best part of 2020? (Stop laughing.)
What is the one thing that you would remove from this year that isn’t the pandemic or general hate/division? (Come on, we’d all pick those two.)
My answers:
Crushing
Getting to see dholes at the zoo with my son.
Going to go way back. The Australian Wildfires because of all the people and animals that were affected.
This year, I got into a series called ‘Dr. Stone’. It is about how humans are frozen in stone for 3,700 years, so civilization collapses. The first to awaken is Senku, a Japanese teen who was obsessed and highly skilled with science. His goal is to recreate all of human civilization by reviving every aspect of science. From the picture and reading reviews, I thought this would be a really high action series. In fact, I didn’t even know about the science thing until I began watching. So, what did I run into?
The action (fighting/chasing/etc.) in this series is minimal. I can’t say more than that without spoilers.
The tension and suspense is still very high.
I binged ‘Dr. Stone’ as best as I could and I’m watching it again with my son whenever he is here. There were times during the initial viewing where I watched an extra episode and ran the risk of not getting to either errands or a decent bedtime. Just couldn’t stop because I wanted to see what happened next even when a story arc was done. They didn’t have any detailed previews either, so all I had was a strange title like ‘Stone Wars’ or ‘A Flimsy Alliance’. The second time through is just as good, but I’m trying to analyze how a series with minimal action is able to have the same affect. Not that hard since it was clear the first time, but I’m trying to sound professional. I’ve noticed three important factors that kept me engrossed.
Interesting Characters
All of the characters had interesting personalities and there was a sense that all of them had the ability to change. Senku converts a lot of people to the idea of science without really trying, so you get to see different reasons for a person to side with him. Even some of those who are aggressive soften at points. You also have the ‘villain’ who simply wants a different type of world than Senku, so there’s a philosophical aspect where you can kind of see the point of each person. For example, Senku wants to revive everyone with science regardless of how they were while the other guy feels like certain groups should be destroyed or left in stone. It’s a battle for the future of Earth that keeps you thinking even when it isn’t in the forefront. You also get to see characters learn about science and ‘get excited’ (A commonly said phrase by Senku), which is an aspect that catches my son’s attention. All of this is done with minimal action scenes.
Tension
It is made clear early on that science is not perfect and there is a lot of failure that comes with experimenting. At one point, you learn that it took Senku, a genius, weeks to make a spearhead and months to figure out pottery. Time and again, they run into obstacles and even failures. One can see that the characters learn from their mistakes, but it leaves you with some tension when they are working on a project. After seeing a few attempts fail at the last second, you can end up holding your breath until Senku declares that it’s done. Even then, you aren’t 100% sure. So, the action-based tension is replacement by the uncertainty of success. It’s like watching a tightrope walker even with a net. They aren’t jumping around or fighting, but you can become engrossed in the fate of the person because failure is more than a mere stumble.
This tension is abundantly clear in ‘Dr. Stone’ when they have to make a medicine, but it takes over 20 steps. They rocket through a few, but there are big ones that take a lot of work and other advancements. I believe it was 8 episodes for the ‘Sulfra Drug Story Arc’ to end and this is a 25 episode series so far. That’s a lot of attention to something that is primarily chemistry and pharmacology. Big steps are shown with major challenges and sometimes it’s made clear that failing means the whole thing is over. Limited resources or needing to get a piece that requires risking their lives drive home an amount of tension that you don’t even notice. This is because of pacing and the third aspect that I almost missed until I started writing this post.
Character Emotions
It’s so simple, but it might be more of a TV or movie thing. The sense that the characters are excited or worried causes those emotions to appear in the viewer/reader. You already have the tension and characters that are appealing. Now, you have an emotional connection to carry you along. A victory is met with clear celebration and failure is met with a variety of frustration and sadness. Some characters are more positive than others and you have some comedy to keep things from getting too dark. Yet, you really feel how the characters are coming through, which invests you in their fate. I think it’s harder to do as an author because people tend to shout ‘show, don’t tell’ and that’s a challenge with writing. Not everyone picks up on the signs of a real person being sad, happy, or anxious much less a fictional one. So, this is much more difficult than getting someone’s attention through physical action, which is why one might use the second option more often.
So, this does seem like more of an analysis of ‘Dr. Stone’, but I think it does give an overview of what you need to get high tension with minimal action. Hope you enjoyed it.
