(Probably would have worked better on Halloween. Still, it’s interesting to have this contrast with the softer and more serene type of eerie as last week.)
With gnashing teeth
And jagged nails
These creatures lurk beneath
Feasting on forgotten snails
Until the hallowed night
They wait until the sun is gone
Before rising to the surface
And bring about the darkest dawn
Pushing their sole purpose
To forge a realm of fright
Trees are shredded to their roots
By sharpest fangs and claws
Shadows hide horrific brutes
With gaping, gulping maws
Vast enough to devour light
Screams quickly fill the air
When they find a way inside
Seeking flesh to tear
There is no place to hide
From the hungry shadow blight
A towering form joins the fray
Their master has arisen
For this return they pray
His release from arcane prison
World’s end is now in sight
Yes, I’m sticking with fantasy, but I’m hoping the mentality around each scenario can be seen as universal. It’s all about making decisions as a character. Still trying to find a good way to do these things. Hard to get that middle ground between too much and too little details.
Scenario
You’re an adventurer who is starting out and have already survived more obstacles than you imagined. After reaching a town, you are relieved to find that there is nothing out of the ordinary. It’s quiet and clean and . . . A large demon lands in the middle of the square and flexes his bat-like wings. He is easily three times your size and you’re already tired from a previous fight on the road. Your group’s caster is out of magic and the priest isn’t sure he can banish something so strong. Not without needing several minutes to finish the incantation. The demon is walking towards you and you prepare to fight.
Then, the creature starts to talking to you. He’s bored after waiting outside of town for weeks and was happy to smell adventurers coming. Due to not having anything to do, the demon doesn’t even remember why he was summoned. He’s been sitting around talking to squirrels this whole time and wishing he could go back to his family in the demonic dimension. Still, he can’t just go home without a battle, so he’s willing to fake a fight with you. Nothing in return since he has no money or magic items.
The scary creature seems sincere, but he is a demon. Always a chance he could be trying to trick you and is already getting your priest to waste time thinking instead of casting. If you jump into this fight thinking it’s fake, you could die. Yet, if you jump in to kill the demon and it’s telling the truth, you could make it mad. What do you do?
Immortality comes up a lot in fiction. These timeless beings turn up as villains, heroes, love interests, cursed secondary characters, and everything in-between. Many people hate a protagonist with this power because it’s seen as a sign of perfection. They live forever at a perfect age with no physical flaws and an intelligence that allows them to absorb all that time has to offer. To be fair, one could think a person who has been given immortality would also have the natural ability to evolve with time. Then again, they are still human in some way, so giving them Eidetic memory too might be going too far. So, what are some ways to make your immortals work?
Even though they live forever, you should have some way for them to die or be removed from the story. There needs to be a threat to these characters. Maybe a special item can undo their powers or another immortal can do the job. Trapped for eternity can work as well. This is what happened to the Baron in Legends of Windemere and even Dariana to some extent. The real limit on her is that she can still be knocked out, injured, possibly killed, or overwork her body by using her powers.
A physical flaw can help in the removal of the ‘perfection’ tag. A scar or missing body part can be explained as happening prior to immortality or the price. It doesn’t even have to visible, but be part of a big reveal later. Maybe the character is ashamed and has found a way to hide it someway. I will admit that I didn’t really do this with Dariana since she uses her telepathy to limit the attention she gets.
If the immortal is your protagonist then you need to factor in their long life. They should have a lot of knowledge and maybe get confused at times. After a couple hundred years, you get your social etiquette mixed up. Is it still right to high five or is that old news? What phrases no longer mean what they used to mean? Even after being in multiple books, Dariana still isn’t sure about her reactions. She uses old greetings and blessings instead of the more casual interactions of today.
This might be an odd one, but you need to keep in mind that immortals could lose any concept of time. They could always be late or never know what day it is. Maybe they even lack the knowledge of the year because they work off a different calendar. This has mostly comedy effects.
Building off the previous idea, an immortal could have an apathy toward life events like marriages, births, funerals, and other milestones. A mortal will only have about 100 years to have all of these happen, which gives the more impact. Somebody who has gone through hundreds of these events will either not care or try to fake it for those around them. Honestly, there are people my age that have become emotionally numb to life, so immortals would have a higher risk of this.
Like any character, these types should have some kind of goal. There has to be something they want even after centuries of life. For example, Dariana wants friends and to see the world instead of being put back to sleep. There are a few other things that are spoilers, so read The Spirit Well to find out.
Finally: Insanity is always an option. This explains Yola Biggs and Stephen Kernaghan perfectly. Dariana . . . read The Spirit Well to find out!
I couldn’t resist doing a post for this food. Although, I do have a love/hate relationship with popcorn. Tastes great. I love regular, chocolate drizzled, caramel, and everything except movie theater buttered. On the other hand, I once bit into a piece of popcorn that wasn’t fully popped and my tooth broke in half. It was on a Sunday, so I couldn’t get to a dentist until the next day. I’m much more careful now. (All images found in Google Image Search.)
This week didn’t go as planned. Started by me feeling off on Monday, but thinking it was just a little cold. By the evening, I was in bad shape and ended up having to take two days off to recover. Got tested for everything, so it was just a cold. A really nasty one that led me to learn two things:
There 160 different viruses that fall under ‘common cold’. They are similar enough to create the same kinds of symptoms, but not enough for gaining immunity of one to work against the others. This is why a cure or vaccine can’t be made because you would have to make one for each rhinovirus.
Apparently, there are studies that show estrogen might give extra protection against viruses like the flu and cold. This is why women can shrug these off enough to keep working and men can get laid out. So, the ‘man-flu’ could be due to nature deciding women are more important to protect from diseases than men. Makes sense from a survival of the species standpoint since you need more women than men to keep the population going.
Anyway, that curb-stomped my Pokemon Go outings for a bit, especially since it’s cold and about to get worse. Next week is frigid with even negative temps Tuesday morning. We’re getting snow tomorrow too, so driving will be a pain. This annoys me a lot because I learned last year that fresh air helped me recover from disease quicker. I can’t do that unless I drive to the mall and that’s not exactly fresh with all of the people there. I’d have to wake up early to get there before the stores up and only mall walkers are around. I don’t think that will help me much.
I was hoping to get some editing time since my son had late nights at school due to his All County Chorus concert, which was last night. So, I was happy for the moments of clear-headedness and energy. I managed to get through 2 chapters between naps. That leaves me with 5 to go and the icy weather this weekend gives me a great chance at finishing Darwin & the Demon Game. I’ll have to print more of Darwin & the Beast Collector before work on Tuesday, but that shouldn’t be an issue. I have a meeting on Tuesday anyway, so I could push it until Wednesday.
To be fair, I don’t know how my chances are this weekend. The snowstorm tomorrow afternoon gives me time. I have to run errands this morning and will try to get at least one chapter done. With the bad weather tomorrow, I want to get the Pokemon Go event stuff done today, but it isn’t much. I could even do it while grocery shopping and getting money for next week. Monday is going to be a mess, but I have a morning appointment. I might just leave early to do mall walking and then hop over to the appointment spot, which is nearby. That gives me the afternoon. Need to make time for watching the new season of ‘Castlevania: Nocturne’ too. Really have far too much to do even though most of it gets seen as useless hobbies or drivel.
Honestly, the Pokemon Go, puzzles, Lego, and finishing TV shows seem to be filling a void that used to be where writing ruled supreme. That’s the garnering of victories and senses of accomplishment. Since I barely have the time and focus to write or edit, I’ve been doing these things. I keep telling myself that I can jump back into real writing instead of editing once certain situations change. Could be years for that, but I do know that I’ll get more free time at that point. Maybe I shouldn’t expect to finish writing 2-3 books a year and be happy with one until more free time appears. It’s possible for me to finish all of the editing by the summer, which means I can start writing Darwin & the Joy Path after school is over. Fingers crossed, but that’s a long shot where I know for certainty I can accomplish things on the initial list of non-writing hobbies.
Next week is mid-term week for me and my son, but I only get him for a little bit of time on Tuesday before the weekend. It’s all up to his mom this year. I will have my hands full with field trips with our students and figuring out what to do with the two hours afterwards. I considered bringing my laptop and type in some edits, but I might want to save that for when I get home. This is why I want to print out some chapters of the next book and tackle that. It will all depend on how busy things are and if I can find any quiet space. It could make more sense for me to simply socialize and dig into the books when I get home. Going over my schedule really drives home the fact that there are only so many hours in the day. Less when it’s friggin’ winter. December through February has always been my least productive period, so I probably shouldn’t keep beating myself up over the whole thing.
Goals of the week:
Finish typing in edits of Darwin & the Demon Game.
Start editing Darwin & the Beast Collector.
Watch ‘Castlevania: Nocturne’.
Enjoy the one afternoon/evening I get with my son before next weekend.
Stay warm.
Play some Pokemon Go to stay active.
Find healthier food options while on field trips or get stuff later.
Laundry today because I bought compression undershirts that are supposed to help retain heat.
Being a single father, I think about the father/son relationship a lot. Mostly because I’m always hoping I’m doing right by my own son. This gets tougher when I see fiction maintaining the ‘stoic father’ ignoring the son’s issues until they explode or not having the father be in there at all. It can get even worse with adventures because the father tends to die at some point. Come to think of it, fathers are fairly common sacrificial characters if they’re in the picture at all. Anyway, here’s some ideas on writing a father/son relationship in fiction.
If the father comes from a generation where men don’t show emotion or parenting is the ‘woman’s job’ then establish that. Fatherhood has changed over the years with more fathers taking on child-rearing responsibilities. Many show emotions and talk about feelings with their sons too. This isn’t seen as manly by some, but it is how many relationships are these days. So, don’t be afraid to show that if it’s the type of story you want.
The son doesn’t always have to be railing and battling against the father. We know that children test their limits, but something about the father/son challenge turns into toxicity in writing. Authors seem to want the father to be the villain or the son to be the young fool. I rarely see these portrayed as a problem that gets solved by talking before somebody gets hurt. Most times, I see it result in the total destruction of the relationship or at least the disappearance of it until the epilogue.
Fathers aren’t always disappointed in their sons! This is a common trope, which does play out in real life. I’ve always wondered if it happens so often because it’s seen in every genre. Our culture practically demands that fathers criticism and frown at whatever their son is doing unless it’s following in their footsteps. This also tends to make the mother the more understanding and loving parent, which feeds into other clichés.
As stated, fathers are more than able to talk about feelings. An open and comfortable relationship between parent and child is fine. You won’t get conflict between them, but you can challenge them in other ways. The story doesn’t always have to involve the near destruction of the father/son relationship.
Hugs. Nothing wrong with a parent hugging their child.
There should still be some boundaries between the father and son. A child will not be comfortable talking about everything with their parent. You also need to make sure the parent has a level of authority instead of coming off solely as a friend. This can be delicate, but it doesn’t have to be something that causes conflict. Boundaries can be established and respected by the characters. They don’t always have to be pushed and broken.
There’s a rule in society that parents shouldn’t cry in front of their children, especially fathers. Apparently, doing so can be called manipulation, weakness, pathetic, and a long list of insults. I disagree. Having a father cry when one would normally cry makes them human in the story. Otherwise, you end up blocking the emotional connection between parent and child. As stated, fathers can have this too. It isn’t only for mother/child stories.
Legends of Windemere 