Goal Post:

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

The song above was the first thing that played after I turned my car on after work and it’s fairly appropriate.  This was a rough week with a lot of stress, pressure, high emotions, and general ugh.  It means I can’t really talk about the details, but I will say I’m going to be happy when next week is over.  Last full week of classes, which means we’re almost at the kids have half days.  Course that means preparing for summer, but I think I can handle the manual labor side of things.

As far as writing goes, I didn’t do anything this week, but I didn’t expect to.  Appointments, work, and chores stopped me from tackling Darwin & the Avenging Elf.  I’ll be starting those hand-edits today with some breaks to play Pokemon Go, which gives me fresh air and exercise.  I’ll be happy to get through the first 3 chapters by the end of the weekend since I’m exhausted.  Any more will be a bonus since I won’t be able to touch it again for at least 1.5 weeks.  Used to be able to bring it to work and do some editing during my breaks, but that hasn’t been possible since early January.  I might still bring a chapter along just in case I get the time, but I won’t hold my breath.

I had my son last weekend, which was a 3-day due to Memorial Day.  We played a bunch of Pokemon Go and watched some movies.  The big outing was last Saturday when we headed to the park for Fleet Week.  All I knew was that they would have some military helicopters, which they do every year.  Never went, but I had the time and we got there early enough for parking.  Took a bunch of videoes of the helicopters coming in for a landing.  There were 5 of them and we got to check them out, but my son was too nervous to get on.  Here’s a video of one of the demonstrations:

Speaking of local events, we have a big one going from today until June 12th.  If anyone is watching the Cricket World Cup then know that I’m shaking my fist at the stadium built in the park.  I know it will bring in money, but the park has been divided by fences and closed to locals for 8 out of the next 12 days.  The roads and traffic are going to be a mess, which makes me worried about my commute.  Last weekend, my son and I ran into groups of who I think were tourists.  All I know is they didn’t speak English and some gave me their phones to take pictures.  I’ll find out later if this is going to impact my ability to get pizza from the place near the park.  At least there’s another park for Pokemon Go . . . It’s a 15-20 minute drive and much smaller, but it’ll have to do.

The only other big thing to talk about is the cooking I did throughout the last two weeks.  I tried 6 new recipes and had a few old ones.  Forgot to take a picture of the classic Sloppy Joe dish (last minute meal) and the Honey Glazed Chicken (new one made during chaos of laundry and homework).  The rest I’ll put as thumbnails below.  Out of the 6 new ones, 5 worked out and one failed.  I will note the failure:

Some of the new ones will be easy to do when I need to make a quick meal.  Others are called Restaurant Style Chicken Lo Mein and take A LOT more prep work than the recipe makes it sound.  Sweet and sour meatballs aren’t much better, but fewer ingredients make it feasible after work.  The lo mein was just a crazy rush of adding, removing, putting back, and mixing. Fun and worth it, but not something I can pull off all the time.  Wish I could have gotten some of the leftovers of that one, but my son claimed it all for his school lunches.  Him asking for something other than Mac & Cheese isn’t something I’m going to mess with.

There isn’t much of a plan for this coming week.  My son has studying, a Regents, and an award ceremony.  I have work and various appointments until Friday.  Both of us are hoping to get a little Pokemon Go in on most days.  Really hope we can do some next weekend since that’s going to be the big studying day.  I’m going to try to get into the August blog posts too since I finished July.  It’s something on the days I can’t get to editing due to only having 30-40 minutes before bed.

Goals of the week:

  1. Get some sleep.
  2. Help son study for tests.
  3. Edit Darwin & the Avenging Elf this weekend
  4. Play some Pokemon Go.
  5. Get through work.
  6. Puzzle work when too stressed.
  7. Have pizza.
  8. Pick a new show or anime to watch.
  9. Start August blog posts.
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7 Tips to Using Nonverbal Communication in Your Writing

Posted on May 31, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

There are definitely more than 7 tips that one could give.  Nonverbal communication is essential and complicated.  So, know that this is the tip of the iceberg tip.  After all, I always stick to 7 tips and making it longer would break tradition.  Let’s get going!

  1. Take some time paying attention to the nonverbal communication of those around you in order to get an idea of what to include.  Yes, I’m starting with research since this is something we don’t typically notice.  Notice facial expressions, gestures, voice tones, and whatever else portrays emotions besides words.  Connect them to personalities and speaker’s moods to get an idea of when to use them.
  2. A variation of dialogue tags can help portray voice tone.  This also avoids repetition when you have multiple characters speaking in a scene.  There are plenty of lists of dialogue tags beyond ‘said’ out there.  Try to collect a few for each emotion and keep the list on hand.
  3. Try to limit the amount of times you have characters sigh . . . I really need to remember this one myself.
  4. There is a difference between creepy staring, disgust staring, sexy staring, and general eye contact.  Try to make sure you establish which one it is if you want to bring attention to it.  Facial expressions can alter this as well.  For example, you could have a character simply looking at someone’s face during a conversation like normal.  If you suddenly have them lick their lips, you can change the tone. Now, the reader might think it’s either going to become romantic or cannibalistic.
  5. Hand gestures and arm movements can be very important.  If you don’t mention how a character’s body is moving during a long dialogue, the readers might have issues conjuring the scene.  The characters are just standing there talking like statues, which can hurt the scene on some level.  Think about how we might shift when nervous, bounce a bit when excited, or let our bodies slump when relaxing.
  6. Touch can be very difficult to pull off because it depends a lot on the situation, relationships, and general tone.  Unlike the other parts of nonverbal communication, this involves crossing boundaries.  Doing so can make a character feel either violated or comforted.  So, going for touch communications without a second thought can result in messing up a scene.
  7. Eye rolling . . . This is more of a pet peeve because I’ve learned that I react to this fairly often.  This action can be frustrating for a character who sees it.  I’ve noticed that most times it’s used to show how one isn’t interested in a conversation or showing disdain, but there isn’t typically a reaction.  Eye rolling has a lot of impact since it breaks eye contact, denotes negativity, and causes the target to realize that they should stop talking.
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Let’s Ramble Today

Posted on May 31, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Hi, gang. Craig with you once more. I’ve been known to post the occasional rant, but I do so with the hope of helping you with your fiction. I’ve …

Let’s Ramble Today
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Poetry Day: Invasion of the Unwanted

Posted on May 30, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

(This was written after a week of bugs getting inside.  They always found their way to my room and buzzed me in my sleep.  Moths, flies, and mosquitoes a plenty.)

Buzzing among the lights

Skittering in the dark

The infestation has begun

They strike without a care

Causing pain and strife

I try to stop their entry

Yet they also slip inside

Finding holes I did not see

Or waiting by the door

To scuttle in as I come and go

I hear them in my sleep

And find them when I wake

Destroying all I find

But there is always more

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What Is Nonverbal Communication?

Posted on May 29, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Guess this is from ‘Hitch’?

I’m always surprised by the amount of people who forget that non-verbal communication is more potent than verbal.  As authors, we can easily forget this because we work with words and think of their power.  We focus so much on the ‘perfect’ words to use to carry our stories that we can get tunnel vision.  So, we don’t necessarily include the other aspects of communication when writing.  This can make a scene stiff and bland because the reader might imagine all of the characters being wooden.  Not the way we want to go and it’s easily overlooked.

Nonverbal communication is essential because it can trigger responses from people without them knowing why.  Eye rolls, crossed arms, sharp voice tone, and the like will make a person become defensive.  Smiles, gentle touches, soft voice tone, and a relaxed posture will put someone at ease.  It is a power that all humans have over each other, but not everyone understands or controls.  Once we are in an emotional state, we tend to let nonverbal communication go wild too.  Another reason an author might not remember to utilize these categories.

There are apparently five types of nonverbal communication, but the fifth is physical appearance.  I won’t be touching on that one since character descriptions are typically done and cover this.  The others are what we can forget.

Haptics or Touch

This is any physical contact made between characters.  Punches and slaps are obvious ones since they denote anger.  We don’t really think twice about these, but there are less violent ones that get the same treatment.  I’m talking about romance here.  Caressing a cheek, hugs, kisses, and holding hands show love and affection.  These can be done in a less romantic method between parent and child to show tenderness and care.  We all know how these touches feel or should feel, so we can relate.  There are others that we might overlook as well.  For example, I use shaking hands and touches to the shoulder to reveal comradery.  People take these for granted in real life since the emotional reactions are almost instinctive.

An important aspect for haptics is duration too.  The length of contact can tell a reader the depth of the connection.  A small pat to the shoulder can mean ‘good job’ between two people.  A longer one may mean ‘I am here for you in your time of need’ without any words being said.  Kissing is another example since we have pecks on the cheek, quick ones to the lips, and full-on tonsil hockey.  Each one has its own meaning.

Finally, not touching can mean things as well.  This makes this aspect of nonverbal communication unique.  If a person refuses to touch another then it could mean hatred, fear, disgust, or even anger.  This shows that not doing something in a given situation can communicate an idea just as much, if not more so, than doing it.

Voice

When writing a dialogue, you can adjust your tags to show the tone.  Yells, screams, whispers, coos, exclaims, mentions, and the rest of these words can go a long way in showing emotions.  In reality, we hear this aspect from the volume and tone of a person’s voice.  It can make us react to what is being said more than the words themselves.  A sharp tone can hurt even if it’s being done with a compliment since that could be perceived as sarcasm.

Type of voice can be helpful too.  We react more positively to those who have a naturally soft and calming voice.  Those with more of a rasp or growl can put us on edge.  This cannot always be controlled by the speaker too.  It’s why voice tone cannot be solely depended on until you get to know a person.  Once you discern their natural timber and tone, you can figure out when there are changes to their mood.

Body Language and Gestures

This covers a lot of ground.  Posture, arm movements, space from people, firmness of handshake, and general physical demeanor fall under this category.  The thing is that we all know about body language and gestures.  We are taught about this from a young age such as sitting up straight and no hands in pockets during conversations.  It’s stated as good manners, which are to make a person friendlier in appearance and not cause others to feel distressed.

A challenge here is that various gestures and body languages mean different things in different cultures.  Some people are okay with wide arm movements or a lot of gesturing with the hands.  That is normal to them.  Others can be reserved and see such things as rude or aggressive.  Authors have to pay attention to this possibility and add other nonverbal cues to body language to clarify what they mean.  For example, a character who swings his arms while explaining something can be shown as excited by giving them a wide grin.

Facial Expressions

Finally, we have facial expressions.  This includes eye contact since those are part of the face.  Similar to body language, we tend to have an innate understanding of this, but don’t always add it to our stories.  Part of this could be due to us not always noticing when a facial expression triggers us.  We always recognize smiles and frowns, but subtle variations can bypass our senses to set off our instincts.  A smirk can make one uncomfortable even if they don’t realize it’s that instead of a smile.  This is a big reason why nonverbal communication is so essential to our species, but not talked about or taught like one would expect.

A lot comes from the eyes too.  The length and solidness of contact can be the difference between intimidation and romance.  Avoiding eye contact is a sign of nervousness, shame, or inferiority.  I think this aspect of nonverbal communication can be very useful since we hear about it in regards to animals.  Don’t stare into the eyes of a predator or they may see it as a challenge.  Stare into a prey animal and they might freeze to see if you’re going to try to eat it.  Probably isn’t that different when doing the same with humans.

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Creativity and Writers

Posted on May 29, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

If you’ve been writing for a while, you’ve no doubt experienced being “in the zone.” We don’t notice distractions, lose track of time, and it can …

Creativity and Writers
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Questions 3 and Looking Back at ‘Warlord of the Forgotten Age’

Posted on May 28, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

When I reached Warlord of the Forgotten Age, I felt both happy and sad.  I’d spent nearly 15 years working with these characters.  Now, it was time for me to give them their final adventure.  The temptation to find a way to continue was there, but it would have been to the detriment of the story.  Sometimes, an author needs to accept that it’s time to retire some characters.  This really did help me realize that I need to be able to let go, which is a lesson I keep reminding myself.

This story involves the champions going to face Baron Kernaghan in the Chaos Void, meeting their destiny, realizing that free will still plays a factor, and having the biggest battle of their lives.  I had to give everyone moments to shine and show off all that they’ve learned while making sure the Baron was still a threat.  I couldn’t have them trounce him with ease or stand on par with him without breaking a sweat.  This is an immortal who was once a god and still makes the gods nervous.  So, I took my time writing all of the battle scenes and deciding on how one would blend into the other.  Adding downtime to show characters who were away from the actual combat, but still involved, was another piece that I had to juggle.  A fun challenge for the finale.

Warlord of the Forgotten Age had two major headaches though:

  1. The first was figuring out the final fate for all of the heroes.  I didn’t want everyone to have happy endings or sad endings.  I wanted to create a mix.  I also wanted all of the heroes to lose something over the course of the final battle.  Whether it be their lives, body parts, sanity, or powers, I didn’t want any of the champions to reach the end unscathed.  So, I needed to sit down and make several scenarios for each one and choose as the story progressed.  This way, I could see which ending would work best as the battle progressed.  Only one was slated to die from the start and another slated to live in some fashion.  So, the rest, including a handful of supporting characters, were up in the air for a while.  Kind of nerve-wracking for someone who likes to know exactly where he’s aiming.
  2. The other headache was figuring out who would be the one to get the final blow on Baron Kernaghan.  I didn’t like the idea of everyone hitting him at once in some ‘power of friendship’ move.  Nothing was prepared for that to happen.  Everyone would do their part to weaken and defeat him, but I needed to figure out who would be the one to end him completely.  That would determine how the end of the battle played out as well.  Every champion had a good reason to get the killing blow too, so I couldn’t say that one definitely should get it over the others.  Almost reached a point where I was going to flip a coin or pull names from a hat, but I figured it out.

Nothing I would change about Warlord of the Forgotten Age.  I’d be afraid that any changes I make would be done so to be nice and timid.  That would just hurt the story and future Windemere adventures.  So, it is what it was meant to be.

Question time!

  1. How do you feel when you come to the end of a series?  (As an author and/or a reader)
  2. Do you prefer happy or sad endings for characters?
  3. What is a piece of advice you give someone about ending a series?
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When Your Hero Hides Their Face

Posted on May 27, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Dredd

This week’s topic stems from months back when I kept stumbling onto short videos and articles about the ‘Halo’ TV series.  First, I had no idea there was a series based on the ‘Halo’ games.  Second, the whole thing was about how they removed Master Chief’s helmet, which was never done in the games.  It created a big uproar among fans and that’s as far as I went with my exploration.  Mostly because it reminded me of my generation’s ‘helmet removal’ moment.

Long ago, there was a comic character named Judge Dredd.  He was judge, jury, and executioner in a dystopian city.  It was a dark science-fiction series with a hero whose face was never seen.  The helmet was always on and that was one of the reasons so many people enjoyed him.  A sense of mystery was added to the character as well as a subconscious urge to put yourself in the his place.  Without a face, a reader might be more likely to picture him as a version of themselves.  Stan Lee mentioned something like this when asked why Spider-Man had a full body costume and mask.  He said it was so that people would never know what he looked like, so people in his world could all connect to him.  Not the same as Dredd though since he was more of a vehicle for the reader to plaster themselves onto.

This kind of came crashing down when the first ‘Judge Dredd’ movie came out in the 90’s with Sylvester Stallone.  It was campy and goofier than the dark source material, which could have been handled on some level.  The biggest issue was that they had Stallone and decided that you needed to see his face.  Now, Dredd was Rocky/Rambo/John Spartan instead of a faceless anti-hero.  The mystery was gone, which added to the changes of tone and general atmosphere of the world.  I believe the argument for this was the same I heard for Master Chief:

‘The audience will have trouble connecting to a hero if they cannot see their face.  So, the helmet had to go.’

Forget that both characters existed in a visual medium of comics and video games, so people were already connecting to them when they had helmets.  Forget that you already had Boba Fett with a fan following before the first ‘Judge Dredd’ movie and ‘The Mandalorian in recent history.  Basically, a decision was made to capitalize on an actor’s face instead of doing it for the story.  One could even argue that there wasn’t any faith in the writing to carry emotions without the actor’s face.  That’s a shame since helmeted heroes have been successful in the past.

Then again, maybe too many people have issues with a character whose face you can’t see or those who are listened to have issues.  You may have noticed that the picture on this post is ‘Dredd’, which was the 2012 ‘Judge Dredd’ movie starring Karl Urban.  He didn’t take his helmet off and it kept the dark, violent tone.  People who knew of the character beforehand praised it even if it had some flaws.  Those who didn’t know the character ended up complaining about various things, including that you never see his face.  It wasn’t even that they couldn’t get emotions or tone from Urban’s Dredd, but they were really upset that he kept the helmet on.  The movie didn’t do as good as it should have, but R-Rated action films usually have trouble.  Personally, I think TV stations suddenly showing the Stallone one drove some curious people away because they thought it would be the same thing.

There are difficulties with a helmeted character though.  At least in a visual medium like games, shows, movies, and comics.  Novels have an easier time because the author can reveal what a character is thinking or facial expressions beneath the mask.  The other mediums cut off either all or part of those expressions, so you lose an aspect of human communication.  It’s noted that 70-93% of how we communicate is connected to voice tone, facial expressions, and body language.  The words we use don’t matter as much as how we say them and act while speaking.  I mean, look at how the impact of an f-bomb can change depending on how you say it.

Personally, I think there are many ways you can communicate emotions with a character whose face you can’t see.  It can be a challenge, but there are other vehicles to use.  It would be like writing a character who is missing one of their senses.  You adapt your style and get them to interact with their surroundings in other ways.  I’ll be trying to explore this concept more during the week.

So, what do you think of helmeted heroes?

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Happy World Dracula Day!

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Saw it at the bottom of a holiday list and had to make a post about it.  Love these obscure holidays.  Definitely helping me out of a jam when I forget to make a Sunday post in advance.

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Goal Post: Almost Forgot This One

Posted on May 25, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

This week was so crazy that I nearly forgot to write this post.  Woke up at 6 am and realized I never took the time last night to do it.  This is what happens when I have a busy week and then Friday off.  I’ll share what I can because a lot of the chaos was drama that I can’t share here for a variety of reasons.  Mostly, I don’t want to anger certain people in my life who are working my last nerve.

Well, my parents left for a trip last Saturday, which means I’ve had the house to myself.  It means I had to do all of the house and yard work such as watering, vacuuming, dishes, mowing, and remembering garbage/recycling/lawn stuff pick up times.  This is on top of all the craziness of work and appointments, so I didn’t get a lot of relaxing until I was off yesterday.  Not that I didn’t spend most of Friday doing errands and chores, so I could enjoy my 3-day weekend with my son.  There really are times I feel like being convinced adulthood is cool and you have freedom was a trap that we need to stop feeding kids because they’ll just be disappointed.

I did manage to finish typing in the hand edits for Darwin & the Halfling Hunt then print out Darwin & the Avenging Elf.  Won’t be able to tackle the latter until next weekend because there’s a lot to do this week.  Still, it was some progress in spite of having so much else to do.  The flickers of free time I got during the week were used to make July and August blog posts.  I’m hoping to get those mostly done soon in order to free up the summer for editing on top of work.  Yeah, I’m doing the summer session, which means I get 1.5 weeks of break before it starts and after it ends.

Unfortunately, I got very little fun time with me son this week.  Monday was a big homework day and Tuesday was only slightly better.  Me having to do all of the cooking and cleaning impacts this as well.  I’m trying to juggle it all, but him getting distracted by certain people and things ends up throwing everything off.  So, I’ll be sitting there with a finsihed dinner while he’s stuck on the phone or still trying to do homework.  This all adds to my frustration since my son and I don’t get a lot of downtime with each other these days.  It’s primarily homework and then other people end up scrambling to spend as much time with him as possible before he’s back with his mom.  This really eats away at my morale and mood.

With cooking, I’ve been trying 6 new recipes and I’m going to add a slideshow to next Saturday’s post with all of the meals.  This includes the tried and true ones I’m sticking with, but not the take out.  So far, I’ve tried 3 of the new recipes and only one of them has been a disaster.  The other two have been highly successful, so I hope the other 3 follow in their footsteps.  Tonight, I’m going to try to make ‘Restaurant Style Chicken Lo Mein’, which is going to be work intensive.  Put all of the non-frigerated ingridents on the counter last not and there’s a lot.  Probably the biggest recipe I’m going to attempt and one that I won’t be repeating very often if successful.  Fingers crossed.

The only other big event that I can talk about is how our students did with the Unified Basketball Championship.  Our team was undefeated for the season, but this was a difficult game.  The Life Skills students had a big field day trip earlier, so they had already spent about 3.5 hours in the sun and heat.  So, they were tired and reaching their limits when the game started.  The adults who were on the trip weren’t doing much better and the other team showed up to win.  It was a physical game, but our students won 31-30 to clinch the championship.  Really proud of them for working hard, keeping it together, and showing good sportsmanship.  A well-deserved win and nice highlight of a difficult week for all of us.

The next three days are going to be spending time with my son.  Helicopter landing and event in the park this morning then haircuts before Pokemon Go.  Tomorrow is a Pokemon Go event and then we have dinner with my sister, brother-in-law, and neice.  Monday is going to be relaxing and possibly more Pokemon Go if he still needs to get things done, but maybe someone will have a BBQ for the holiday.  After that, it’s back to school, work, and appointments.  Can’t say I have anything exciting planned beyond finishing those blog posts and making some dinners.  Trying to finish a puzzle in order to clear the table for a summer of big Lego sets.  Probably need to decide if I’m doing a solo trip to Oswego in August too.  Kind of scared about doing a long drive on my own.

Okay . . . My computer just crashed and had to reboot with no explanation as to what happened.  Monday might require getting a new machine.  Let’s get to the goals and put this post out there.

  1. Spend time with son this weekend.
  2. Possibly buy new laptop.
  3. Get haircut.
  4. Cook dinners to avoid starvation.
  5. Puzzle time.
  6. Pokemon Go time.
  7. Work on summer blog posts if computer functional.
  8. Sleep when possible.
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