Rules of Gore . . . in Storytelling

Posted on February 20, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz
Al Gore

Al Gore

I have a confession: I’m not a big fan of gore.  I get squeamish easily, so this is topic that comes from a person who has a low tolerance.  I’ve gotten better in my old age, but I couldn’t even make it through a Yahoo Image Search for ‘Gore’.  So, you get the above picture in order for me to handle this post.  I’m sure some people find that scarier than the bloodiest horror movie, but let’s avoid politics here.

A few weeks ago I found that there were more Youtube videos of an Anime Music Video mash-up called AMV Hell.  I watched the latest one and saw one clip that had monsters devouring people with a lot of blood.  Now, I’m an anime fan and I remember the spurting of Ninja Scroll and the gore of Elfien Lied.  I made it through that, but something was odd about it.  Apparently, this was a series called Blood-C and it had a habit of upping the gore with every episode.  In fact, some people said it was all gore and no plot until the last two episodes.  I’m not here for a review, but I did check out episode 9 . . . I don’t have it in me to post it:

Basically, the main character is a girl with a sword and can go super powered to kill these monsters.  In the episode I found, a monster is at her school where her class is the only one there.  The first half of the episode is the butchering of every character, except the main one.  Blood, screams, and body parts are everywhere, which was really gross and so over the top.  Yet, it wasn’t funny over the top.  It was disturbing over the top because I saw no reason for it to happen and the main character simply wouldn’t use her powers to put a quick end to it.  Not until everyone was dead, so you add bad character usage in here to make me sick to my stomach.

This made me realize that many people use or see gore as a powerful tool when it comes to storytelling.  It shocks the audience when it occurs, but there is a limit.  Eventually, a person can become desensitized to it.  For a reader, it means they get bored with the death and start seeing it more as a joke.  For a writer, it can lead to upping the gore and methods of demise until it’s so far over the top that it hurts the story.  One has to remember that you can’t keep pushing the same button on a person without it wearing out.

So here are some quick rules about gore that I just thought up:

  1. Do NOT use it every other scene.
  2. Do use it sparingly to get the proper shock value.
  3. Unless you’re making an anime or a comedy, try to remember that blood is not a highly pressurized liquid in the human body.
  4. There is not enough blood in the human body to spurt fifty feet for an hour.  At least I don’t think there is.
  5. Try to stay with only one beheading, one loss of limb, and/or one evisceration per story.  Exception is if beheading is the only way to kill characters like in Highlander or Supernatural’s vampires.
  6. Never replace plot and character development with massive amounts of bloodshed.
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Now About that 4th Wall

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz
Deadpool from Marvel Comcis

Deadpool from Marvel Comics

One of the most popular tricks to do these days is ‘Break the 4th Wall’.  For those that don’t know, this means for a character to interact with the audience.  The 4th wall refers to where the audience is sitting since a stage would have a back wall, right wall, left wall, and then nothing in the front.  As you see above, Deadpool occasionally talks with the knowledge that he’s a comic book character.  So a level of self awareness seems to come into play here.  Here’s one of my favorite 4th breakings, which is apparently really hard to find on Youtube:

I’m talking about Puck’s Monologue from A Midsummer’s Night Dream.  This is when it was done in Dead Poet’s Society.  I see the 4th Wall Breaking as coming out of the Aside, which is when a character in a play talks directly to the audience.  The current version is done more often for comedy like when Bugs Bunny or Groucho Marx used to look at the camera to say something.  Yet, it does come from a place where the 4th wall was taken away to interact with the audience and put a little bit of narrative magic out there.  Then again, Puck also sounds like he’s voicing a disclaimer, which we now do before the movie in case people walk out.

This appears to be a trick that is done more for visual media like comic books, television, plays, and movies.  This isn’t to say that you can’t use it in a book, but I can’t see it working beyond First Person Narratives.  Maybe it can be done, but this is done by a character talking to the audience, which requires a personal touch.  Third person might look strange because it would be someone telling the audience that a character is telling them something.

Colonel Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist

Colonel Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist

A dangerous part of this is going too far, especially if you use it for comedy.  If you have a 4th wall breaking every few pages or every other scene then it loses its appeal.  This goes for every tool, but you can see in present day culture how this is going with the 4th wall breaking.  If the entire gag of a character is that he or she knows their fictional and keep talking with the audience then the overall plot can get hurt.  Why should you be invested in a character who knows they’re not real and seems to be determined to remind you about this fact at every turn?  Part of reading or watching fiction is suspension of disbelief, which means we step through the 4th wall.  A character breaking it doesn’t work into disbelief, but it does hamper it for a few laughs.  Realize that after such an event, you have to work on drawing the audience back into the story.  Too many breaks and you have an audience who will stay at a distance.  They might still enjoy your story, but you risk losing any connection they could have to the characters.  People might also speak only of your breaking of the 4th wall and nothing else.

So, what is your opinion on breaking the 4th wall?

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Gabriel: God of Destiny, Hell, and the Chaos Void

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz
Ashram from Record of Lodoss Wars

Ashram from Record of Lodoss Wars

Some days I’m a little disappointed that the Gods and Goddesses of Windemere don’t get enough attention.  Not just from readers, but from me.  With the Law of Influence preventing them from getting physically involved, I can only use them in brief scenes where they give cryptic messages or discuss events.  Still, their fate is tied into the overall story as it progresses, so I should give the main ones some love.

Gabriel is the most powerful of the Gods and he weaves the destiny of mortals.  He also took over Hell and the Chaos Void before he fully ascended to Godhood, but that’s kind of a side job for him.  Now, the destiny weaving isn’t as black and white as people think as you will see in one of his themes.

Creator of Heroes and Villains

When people hear that someone is destined in fantasy, we jump to the conclusion that this is only for heroes.  This tends to be the focus of the story, so one would never notice that Gabriel is also responsible for the villains.  He openly admits it even though he is preferring to side with the good guys.  As he explains, Gabriel is playing an eternal chess match with himself and he can never win.  Part of the reason is because there is a flaw in Windemere’s destiny system, which is that too much structure crumbles and not enough structure falls flat.  This causes Gabriel to create destinies that are general ideas, but have flexibility for freewill.  For example, Nyx is destined to face the coming darkness, but there is no certainty that she will be the victor or what condition she’ll be in when it happens.  It is because of this balancing act that Gabriel can get frustrated and even slip every now and again.

Not Letting Go

Gabriel is proud of once being mortal and believes that ascended Gods are better than those who were born into the role.  It is this mentality that prevents him from letting go of a few flaws.  His arrogance, egotism, and ability to hold a grudge are incredibly mortal, which will cause issues for him.  A core part of Legends of Windemere revolves around Gabriel not letting go of his past.  This is a very spoiler heavy plot, which unfolds as the series progresses.  As the God who shows up in nearly every big series that I have planned, Gabriel gets the really long game.

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Same Character, Different Face

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz
Yahoo Image Search (Two versions of Sherlock Holmes)

Yahoo Image Search (Two versions of Sherlock Holmes)

I recently watched the first season of BBC’s Sherlock, I love Elementary, and I loved the Sherlock movies.  I also used to watch Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century when I was a kid.  Oddly enough, I still haven’t gotten around reading the original stories even though I own an anthology.  That might be the next thing I tackle after Ranger’s Apprentice.

Now, I know people are already skipping to the comments to declare who the greatest Sherlock Holmes is.  That’s not the point of this post.  My question is about how some characters jump from literature to other mediums and take on multiple incarnations.  I am not talking about characters who change form in their series, but the character is the same and the actor/voice/depiction is different. Sherlock Holmes, Jack Ryan, James Bond, Conan, Batman, and so many other characters have been taken on by more than one person.  Sometimes it’s even another book where the stories continue under a new author like all the people who contributed to Oz.  I think I’m right on that one.

James Bond is probably the most infamous here because there’s a joke about how the villains never realize his face has changed.  Still, I’m seeing a lot of Sherlock Holmes these days, so I’ll focus more on him.  There are personality quirks that one sees in all of his incarnations.  Sharp mind, kind of blunt, obsessive, and nearly self-destructive come to mind.  There’s also the standard of him being terrible at social situations and Watson (with or without boobs) being the only person willing to deal with him.  Though, I’m not always sure why he does this beyond assuming he’s a masochist.  Now, everyone does bring in their own take on this.  The movie version is a very selfish, yet loyal character whose mind goes on borderline precognition.  The BBC version is a very quick mind who seems to be on the edge of snapping and no idea why people have a problem with him for most of the season.  The Elementary version is rude, blunt, and borderline psychotic with a much bigger focus on obsession than the other two.  I do love how the Elementary and BBC versions develop empathy and get rattled in certain situations.  It shows great growth for a character that has been around for so long.  This all personal opinion and I’ve only seen the first season of the BBC version, so I might be missing something that the real fans know.

Personally, I love seeing new takes on established characters as long as they’re respectful to the original source.  There has to be something similar between the characters for me to acknowledge that they’re the same.  Every character has a spark that makes them worth putting into another medium, so that should be held through all versions.  The attitude of James Bond, the aggressiveness of Conan, and the sharp mind of Sherlock Holmes need to be there for me to believe the characters are worth comparing.

So, what do people think of characters with multiple incarnations?  By the way, this is not a call to convince me one Holmes is better than another.  And for anyone wondering about the animated one I mentioned, watch this intro that doesn’t stand the test of time:

I’ll apologize with this:

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Free Weekend Coming Up, Hype Week, and An Issue With Writing a Series

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Sari by Jason Pedersen

First, the free weekend starts next Saturday.  Just to clear up any confusion right away.  I’m going to be having Legends of Windemere: Beginning of a Hero will be free from February 22-24 to celebrate its first birthday.  I thought it was the 24th, but apparently it was the 27th.  That entire 3 day period was a blur for various reasons.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any free sites that could help promote this within the week.  This way I can get a little more out there than my blog, FB, and Twitter.  I’ll be using all of those to promote this while trying to plan for the Family of the Tri-Rune Hype Week.

I don’t know exactly when this will occur because I don’t have the cover art.  I do have a Google Form ready to go to get people to sign up for the Cover Reveal AND the month-long Blog Tour.  I’m going to try to put the posts together as an HTML file this time, so I hope that works.  Anyway, the Hype Week for Allure of the Gypsies kind of bombed after the cover reveal.  The interviews were barely touched, so they’re out this time around.  Still going to try for the Twubs Chat, but it might be me answering questions instead of the characters.  My question here is:

ANY SUGGESTIONS?  Hype Week is to bring in interest and give my audience stuff that they want.  What would people want to see in the week building up to the newest Legends of Windemere release.

Finally, an issue with writing a series is that I can’t post great scenes that I write in the later books.  They’re too spoiler heavy.  I should have an easier time once the fourth book is out as long as I avoid a few pieces of information and one of the newer villains.  I’m writing a scene that depicts the Great Cataclysm, which is going to be awesome.  It’s only that it reveals a future villain, two future heroes, and a big Luke-based storyline if I post it.  Dang it.

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Book Contests & Giveaways

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz

Win, Win, Win sums it up pretty nicely.

chrismcmullen's avatarchrismcmullen

Contest

Win, Win, Win

Being a winner is a great feeling.

One way to help promote interest in a book is to give something away through a contest.

The winners feel special.

It’s different from just giving the book away for free with KDP Select. With a Select freebie, everyone gets the book for free. Through a contest, only the lucky winner gets something free.

When the book is free for everyone, it tends to be valued less. When you win something, it tends to be valued more.

People who enter the contest, but don’t win, have learned about the book. The contest provides exposure, creates buzz, and helps with branding.

As with all marketing, it works best when readers in your target audience participate.

You still have to promote. People won’t come out of the woodwork, marching zombie-style to your contest.

But promoting a contest or giveaway may be a…

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New Release! Beyond Darkness: Shattered (The House of Crimson and Clover)

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz

The long anticipated novella sequel to The Storm and the Darkness is now available across most major online retailers!

BeyondDarknessNowAvailable

Amazon

BN

Kobo

Smashwords

Createspace

Goodreads

Coming Soon: Itunes, Sony, Diesel

Anasofiya Deschanel fled to Maine to escape her mistakes. She learned quickly, and violently, you cannot run from what’s inside you.

Following a series of unfortunate events, Ana finds herself drowning in the consequences of actions which left her heart cruelly divided between the St. Andrews brothers. Jon’s embrace of darkness soon turns to dangerous cruelty, while Finn’s kind heart offers a promise of love she does not feel she deserves. Between all three of them lies a secret with the potential to change everything.

When the truth comes crashing down, Ana is forced to face the same demons she once ran from. As she learns more about who she is, and the situation she’s created, these realizations drive her to a desperate decision that will change everyone’s lives, forever.

Character Teasers

finnteaser_shattered anateaser_shattered jonteaser_shattered

 

The House of Crimson and Clover

The Sullivans, a family of hard-working Irish lawyers, came from nothing and built a life they can be proud of. The Deschanels amassed incredible wealth by siding with the North during the Civil War, betraying their people. Both New Orleans families have a dark and rich history, painted with secrets, treachery, and colorful, supernatural abilities.

The House of Crimson and Clover unravels the mysteries surrounding both families, pulling us further into their tangled, enigmatic lives.

While the series is meant to be treated as one long narrative, each book can stand alone and be enjoyed without having read the other books. I’ve created pages for each of the books in the series, with story descriptions and other info.

Recommended Reading Order:

Series Prequel- St. Charles at Dusk

Book 0.5- Beyond Dusk: Anne

Book 1- The Storm and the Darkness

Book 1.5- Beyond Darkness: Shattered

Book 2- The Illusions of Eventide

Book 2.5- Beyond Eventide: Bound

(More on the horizon…)

Also, read what reviewers are saying about The House of Crimson & Clover

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A Week of Meh

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz

It’s like one week wants to outdo the previous one for levels of suck.  The weather was terrible, which caused everything else to fall apart.  Keep in mind that I work in the house and have no personal space, so a full house means I get nothing done.  There were other incidents too that I can’t get into here.

I do want to unleash a grievance and I’m using that word without looking it up.  On second thought, I’m going to look it up.  Okay, I think it will work:

To me, the LIKE button has a different meaning on different sites.  On WordPress, I see it as an acknowledgement of a post when someone doesn’t know what to say.  A sign that someone saw you within the ether of the Blogging Sea.  I do this especially with poetry lately because I’ve been mentally numb and I feel stupid for saying ‘great poem’ twenty times a day.  Anyway, there is also the Reblog button, which helps spread your post around and gets you added attention.  People love the reblog button and that’s a good thing as well as the smile from the LIKE button.

Then there’s FACEBOOK . . . ugh.  For some reason, I hate the LIKE button on Facebook because it seems much more impersonal.  Maybe it’s because it feels less personal when somebody does that.  With blogging, you’re putting stuff out for people that you only know through the computer.  In Facebook, you tend to have real life friends and family there, so you expect more.  To be honest, I hear more from my blogging friends on FB than I do from people I’ve smelled in person.  Yet, I think there’s an author-based reason I’m having issues with FB.

When I make an FB post about my books on the Writing Groups, I sometimes get LIKES, but I rarely get SHARES.  There’s a freaking SHARE option on FB, but very few people that I know hit the damn thing.  That is unless it’s political, cat-related, bacon-related, insulting Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus, Firefly-related, Dr. Who-related, Sherlock-related, and other things that I’ve come to ignore.  My raffle for this month has yet to be passed around.  It makes me think there’s no real point to promoting on Facebook since it doesn’t seem to get me anywhere.  I’ll hang around a few groups and SHARE sales that I stumbled onto, but this action is never reciprocated.  On Twitter, I see some back and forth, but that’s harder since you have to find a Tweet to Retweet and the feeds can be really messy.  With Facebook, it isn’t that hard and it takes very little effort.  That LIKE has a sense of ‘good luck, but I’m not going to help’.  An Indy Author depends on Word-of-Mouth, so every SHARE is precious.  One could say that on FB, nobody cares unless your book is about a bacon-eating cat who is on a quest to rescue Dr. Who by teaming up with Sherlock and the cast of Firefly.  Guest appearance by Tom Hiddleston as himself.  Seriously, do most of my friends do nothing more than fanboy/girl the day away?

I know what some people are thinking and some have said it: I have no friends who like what you write.  Doesn’t matter.  Think of it as a chain reaction.  You SHARE a post of an author to help and one of your friends sees it and thinks ‘I have a friend who loves these kinds of books’ and they SHARE it.  It doesn’t have to be something you or your friends enjoy if you want to help.  I SHARE a lot of historical drama and erotic romance sales and events on FB, but I’m not a big fan and I’ve gotten one or two complaints from friends about the erotic stuff.  I tell them that I’m helping fellow authors because that’s how this thing works.

Now that the rant is over, here’s the plan for the week:

  1. Avoid duct taping toddler since this is his week off from school.  Mountains of snow and no spending money means library when possible.
  2. Avoid duct taping wife when she’s home unless she fixes her volume button.
  3. Avoid duct taping father by end of week when the two of us have been driven insane by toddler and wife antics.
  4. Write a chapter of Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue, which is becoming a headache.  My outline has become more of a suggestion by this point.  Nyx wiped out an entire chapter, Luke did something with his powers that I didn’t think of, and the sixth hero has demonstrated that her powers are different than I’ve thought for the last 13 years.
  5. Outline a few things if toddler doesn’t allow for full writing.
  6. Really try to keep the biking up.
  7. Get over the mental exhaustion that has made me want to close up shop.  Everyone has a limit and I passed mine a while back with no time for recovery.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , | 51 Comments

Syndicate Spotlight #44: Backwards Compatible

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz

A fun book with a great review.

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Character Origins: Thumtax Elrich

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Charles Yallowitz
Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian

This is another major character from The Elysium Saga and has an odd origin.  For those who forgot, this is the series based off the D&D game I ran in college and it’s currently get a major plot overhaul.  This guy seems to be the only one that is remaining relatively untouched because his story was simple.  Retake his clan’s island from the trolls and then help his new friends in their quest.  He’s entirely about loyalty and honor, which was a big influence on the barbarian culture and mentality.  I’ll be writing more about that during the Hype Week for Family of the Tri-Rune.

People are probably already wondering about the name because it’s rather ridiculous.  It is and there’s a story behind it, which means I don’t care how odd the name is.  I was playing Heroes of Might & Magic II after finishing a paper.  My roommate was resting on the other side of the room after class.  I was playing as the barbarians and this one general of mine kept having moral problems or running into trouble.  His name was Thundax and he eventually lost my main castle, so I yelled at him.  Totally rational gamer behavior.  Anyway, my roommate thought I was yelling at thumbtacks and Thumtax the Barbarian was born.  When my roomie joined the game a few weeks later, he remembered this and created our dear Thumtax.

I loved how this character came out in the game because my roommate didn’t take it very seriously all the time.  He complained for one game about never being taught to read and write then demanded better education for barbarians.  His pet ferret, Gunther, stole nearly every shiny object that the group had.  Thumtax was a force of destruction, but he wasn’t an idiot.  So his attacks had some finesse and thought to them beyond hack until that thing is dead.  Though he did that too at times.  All around it was a fun character to work with and I’m still uncertain that I’ll do him justice.

One of the most interesting things about Thumtax was that he acted like an eye on the storm of chaos.  All of the other characters had gotten into trouble with powerful forces of Elysium.  He was also the only local in the group with the rest being visitors from the outer world, so he had a different perspective.  What they found amazing, he barely noticed.  So there are moments where a reader might wonder why he sticks around these people who get into so much trouble.  Well, that’s where the honor and loyalty comes in and I think that’s going to be a core of her personality.  Along with a wicked sense of humor, which I’ll need to practice.  That’s going to be something to help differentiate him from Timoran Wrath of Legends of Windemere.  Surprisingly tough to make a variety of barbarians while retaining their similarities.

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