Goal Post: No Writing For Me

Posted on September 14, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

To be fair, I do plan on starting the edits on Darwin & the Demon Path. My original plan was to start Friday night, but I decided to write this post instead.  Well, I ended up having a glass of whiskey while I cooked dinner and it went right to my head.  It hit right after I stopped working with fire and hot oil.  It was a homemade Korean Beef Bowl, but that’s not important.  Anyway, maybe I did tackle the prologue before bed, but it’s more likely that I decided to call it an early night.

The reason for my not being able to write was that this week was crazy busy with work and parenting.  Not to mention I’ve been cooking dinners every night, except Tuesday because it was a busy day.  So, no time to dig into the book.  It was work, home, parenting if I had my son, cooking, Pokemon Go, and then bed.  That’s basically how my week is going unless I can get to the park before work.  I need to do that more often and leave my non-parenting weeknights for editing.  Maybe next week if I have the energy, but I only have Thursday to attempt it.

I won’t say my time was entirely wasted.  Managed to get about half of the November blog posts scheduled AND worked on ‘Phi Beta Files’.  Thankfully, my brain wasn’t scrambled so much that I couldn’t do notebook work.  Oddly enough, I seemed to be better at coming up with character names and ideas since my mind was already drifting away from my daily issues.  Not that I want to make this a habit since this isn’t healthy.  On the plus side . . . I got nothing since I also burnt my mouth on the Korean beef bowl.

That’s pretty much the theme of this week too.  Actually, the best analogy to my week is how I started every morning.  A spider keeps creating a web between a bush and the car parked at the end of the driveway.  Started this on Monday and I have blindly walked into the web every morning since then.  Just stumbling into one sticky situation and stressful event after another this week.  This is why I didn’t have the energy to edit even on the nights I didn’t have my son.  Needed extra sleep and relaxation. I’m hoping next week is easier, but we’ll have to see.   Probably still start the day walking into that webbing and praying the spider isn’t on me as I drive to work.

Really wish I had other news to share on this post.  Started making the ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Lego set.  Been watching this old SyFy series called ‘Eureka’ to give myself a break from anime.  My fresh air and exercise has been Pokemon Go for at least an hour every day.  Finished my son’s Halloween costume and am only waiting for the wig to arrive from China . . . I already did tons of sewing, so styling a wig isn’t a skill I want to test my luck with since the color isn’t easy to find.  Anyway, this is has just been a week of making it to the end.  A really sad existence in my opinion.

Having the house to myself should work to my advantage this weekend.  Aside from a Pokemon Go event from 2-5 today, I have nothing else planned beyond editing, laundry, and cooking dinner.  I should be able to get through at least 4 chapters, especially if I can push myself to 11 PM tonight.  I tried to bring a chapter to work last week, but never had the time or quiet space to start in on it.  Maybe I’ll try again this week, but it’s probably better to wait until I have a clear night like . . . Dang it.  Forgot that a big reason I can’t get time to edit or relax is because of all the appointments I have to attend.  They’ve gotten really bad and I’m not even the one making most of them or involved, but I need to be there for reasons.

Let’s jump to the goals of the week before I keep babbling:

  1. Edit the first 4 chapters of Darwin & the Demon Game.
  2. Complete more November blog posts.
  3. Drink more water.
  4. Go to bed a bit earlier on days when I’m extra tired.
  5. Continue going out for an hour to walk even if it’s to play Pokemon Go.
  6. Laundry.
  7. Work on D&D Lego set if I have time.
  8. Continue working on ‘Phi Beta Files’ outlines.
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Questions 3: When Events Happen at the Same Time

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

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I was going to make this a long post about the topic, but I think I’m going to open the floor to other authors.

Similar to jumping timelines, a story can have events going on at the same time, but in different locations.  This always has the challenge of timing, especially if they are going to influence each other.  For example, you can’t have a character blow up a dam at night and the other one deal with the immediate flood in the afternoon.  Much of this can be fixed in editing by changing the setting, but you still have to remember information from one event to carry over to the next.  Even a conversation between characters explaining what they did can be tricky.

I did this in Tribe of the Snow Tiger where most of the heroes were handling the main adventure in one area and the other three were on a small adventure somewhere else.  My tactic was to give a few chapters to the focal story and then give one to the other one at a point where you could step away.  This seems like a common method and it works as long as one story is more essential than the other.  Can’t see two equally important stories doing this without one coming up short.  You can’t swap every chapter either because that would just be choppy.  Maybe for that, you would have to create separate books/short stories and simply match up the timelines.  Seems safer to do that than risk destroying both ideas.

So, let’s open the floor:

  1. How do you handle simultaneous events?
  2. What is the best handling of the situation that you have read/seen?
  3. What aspect of writing do you think should be focused on with this?  (setting, timeline, character development, etc.)
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Words that pack a punch – part 8

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Greetings, friends. It’s Jan back with another look at how we can enhance our writing by choosing more impactful words. Today’s word is a doozy – …

Words that pack a punch – part 8
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Poetry Day: Maker of Its Makers

Posted on September 12, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Gods from Disney’s Hercules

(Touching on religion and creation here.  Let’s see what happens.)

Genderless being
Both of one body
And an army of forms
It stands
Amid the beginning
Waiting for time

 

Balls of light
Burst into existence
Firing elements
Into the greatest void
Where they coalesce
Into orbs of grandeur

 

The being searches
Following a dream
Choosing
From among the globes
A single ball of dirt
Beautiful to its eyes

 

Creatures stir
Nurtured by its essence
While feeding its great will
They join in symbiosis
Until the being grows old
Decaying to the ground

 

Last ounce of strength
Pushed upon its death
Toward an imperfect beast
Helping it grow
To rule the world
Powered by ancient essence

 

The beasts excel
Their numbers flood the landscapes
Adopting dreams
Like their benefactor
Touching on a truth
That always evades their grasp

 

Time passes on
While the beasts evolve
Deciding on the makers
Naming them
When they had no name
Or any sense of self

 

Pantheons erupt
To give a sense of birth
They touch on its vast forms
Resurrecting it
As a horde of natural divas
That erode as time moves on

 

Another view takes hold
As the pantheons disband
The solitary benefactor
Focusing on the body
That housed its power
And granted it to others

 

The beasts continue
Through the countless years
Evolving their maker
And changing it
To suit their dreams
Granting it an endless life

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

7 Tips to Writing a Story with Two Time Periods

Posted on September 11, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

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First, I will say that I know what day it is.  Last year, I did a regular post and got a few private messages asking if I forgot what today is.  I live in New York, grew up in New York, went to college in New York, and remember EXACTLY where I was and what I was doing when 9/11 happened.  I talk to the friend I was with every year about it since we walked to the same anthropology class that day only to find it was canceled.  As faded as the images are in my head, I still remember the facts and emotions.  Now, let’s get to some tips about writing a story with two eras.

  1. Decide on which one is going to be the centerpiece.  As important as it is to give each time period enough time, one is going to be seen as the present.  The other will be either the past or future.  Normally, it’s the present with scenes of the past showing how events unfolded.  This is easier because people mind’s work this way with foreshadowing, but it can be done the other way if you want.
  2. While the characters don’t have to act the same in both time periods, there has to be some consistency.  If they are entirely different from each other then readers will have trouble connecting them.  At the very least, you need to give hints that a big event happens to change them completely.  Even so, trauma doesn’t always erase a person’s personality completely.  There could be some flickers of their old self that comes through to forge the connection.
  3. While time doesn’t have to be equally divided between eras, you can’t spend too much on one if you want them both to tell a story.  Otherwise, the past will be nothing more than brief flashbacks instead of solid stories.  If you focus more on the past, the present will be flashforwards that simply tell the readers who survives and how the focused events will unfold.  For example, already knowing the world is going to end means any actions taken to stop it in the past are doomed to fail or cause it to happen.
  4. Remember that locations change over time too.  If you’re having a large span of time between eras, you need to make sure places that appear in both look different.  Even slight changes are important.  Think about where you live and consider how many stores have appeared and gone out of business.  The weather pattern might have changed or even the general demographic.  This is normal without the effect of cataclysmic events.
  5. Obvious tip: Foreshadowing is important and NEEDS payoff.
  6. The two time periods don’t need identical plots.  The one the chronologically comes first can be different with hints that it is leading into whatever is the next stage of the adventure.  This is similar to a story having a sequel or prequel, but you’re telling both at the same time.  Again, a difficult balancing act, but one that is possible if you make sure to retain continuity even if it’s just with editing.  An example of this could be the past story is about a quest while the present story is about survival.
  7. Well . . . I don’t have one.  Sorry.
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Extra, Extra, Read All About It! – Using Newspapers to Inform Historical Fiction

Posted on September 11, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Source: Newsboy, Alaska. , None. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016821813/. Hello, Story Empire Readers! Liz Gauffreau with you today. In a …

Extra, Extra, Read All About It! – Using Newspapers to Inform Historical Fiction
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Back in the Real World

Posted on September 10, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

I’ve been away from the keyboard for about six days now. This means I missed a lot of good blog posts, any writing, or even social media. Sorry about…

Back in the Real World
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Teaser Tuesday: Battling the Unseen

Posted on September 10, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Sean Harrington

Here’s part of one of my favorite battles in Quest of the Brokenhearted.  Coming up with fun and unique fights for Kira Grasdon was a challenge.  Thankfully, monsters have a lot of versatility if you don’t stick to the traditionals.

Continue reading →

Posted in Legends of Windemere, Teaser Tuesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Telling A Tale of Two Eras

Posted on September 9, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Fallout

A few months back, I watched a show on Amazon called ‘Fallout’  It was about characters in a post-apocalyptic landscape with the three protagonists having their own stories, which converge.  There were also scenes about the past events leading up to the nuclear explosions, which focused on the guy above.  He survived the events to become ‘The Ghoul’, so he’s a big POV character.  Through him, we get to see the story of the past run alongside the story of the present.  Not an easy feat to pull off.

I’m also reminded of the Netflix ‘Resident Evil’ show from last year, which a friend and I watched.  We went in with hope and left with . . . ugh.  It attempted the same thing with the past being shown to explain the present through one character.  Unfortunately, the character wasn’t portrayed as relatable as one would want.  There were inconsistencies in behavior and more interesting characters surrounding her as a kid.  As an adult, she seemed to make one mistake after another to get the plot moving, which undid the whole ‘smart child’ part we were watching.  It really didn’t help that we spent most of the series in the past with blips of the present until near the end when it switched without much warning.

So, you now have an example of it working and not working.  What was different?

In my opinion, it had a lot to do with continuity and time:

  1. With ‘Fallout’, the scenes from the past explained the future and didn’t create any inconsistencies.  You only see one main character (Cooper/Ghoul) in both time periods and the past shows how him became the darker version.  He might not be the same in terms of mentality, but you can see how he got there.  In ‘Resident Evil’, it doesn’t feel like the character you see as a child was anything like the adult version.  Perhaps both of them making mistakes and ‘dues ex machina’-ing their way out of dying is something, but it felt like two character in two unrelated stories.  Sudden personality changes seemed to happen as well, which wasn’t the case with ‘Fallout’.  Continuity was maintained in one, but not the other.
  2. By time, I mean the amount of attention given to each time period.  ‘Fallout’ spent enough time in the past in most episodes to set up the bulk of the action within the present.  There was maybe one episode that was predominantly past to clear up a lot of mysteries, but it worked.  The reason is because it answered questions the audience already had thanks to foreshadowing.  You didn’t feel like you were abruptly yanked from one time period to another as well . . . That’s kind of what ‘Resident Evil’ did.  In fact, my friend and I agreed that it felt like the present, more action-oriented story interrupted the more dramatic past story.  They didn’t mesh and were almost at war with each other for importance.  It was almost like the creators feared not getting a second season, so they combined two seasons into one and made a mess.

It was nice to see that the ‘two eras at one time’ story could work.  I was afraid after ‘RE’ that it was something that simply couldn’t be done.  All it requires is patience, balance, and continuity.  I’ll touch more on it Wednesday with a tip post.  For now, what do you think about this type of story?  Do you like getting two eras at the same time or would you rather one be a prequel/first story?

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What’s Happening in the Writer’s World–Trilogies

Posted on September 9, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Jacqui here at Story Empire with the September edition of “What’s happening in the literary world?” What used to be a simple process of penning what …

What’s Happening in the Writer’s World–Trilogies
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