I don't usually explain my writing in an author's comment-- I feel that it should stand on its own, but this one does need a little backstory.
What you're reading in "Unbounded Rage" is actually a character description. I originally wrote this in 2008 as the prelude to a Dungeons and Dragons 3ed campaign that a friend of mine was running. Davian Urthradar was my character, a member of a new class called sorcerer that may be the only thing the writers have gotten right in the DnD settings since they left behind all pretense of tabletop gaming and made the world's first role playing game with a fucking physics engine!
You'll have to pardon me. I started playing DnD when I was six years old and recovering from a broken knee. That was in 1980. I watched the game improve in 2nd edition, and expand mightily with the dozens of sourcebooks that offered new rules and even new ways to develop your characters.
Then I saw TSR get sold out to the assclowns at Wizards of the Coast, inventors of the Magic: The Gathering game. From there, the game has gone straight downhill. Worse than that, WotC has gone on to purchase every RPG they could get their hands on and convert them all to their overly complex d20 system. The original Star Wars RPG once had the simplest rolling system ever devised-- and the rest was in your imagination.
WotC has largely forgotten (if, indeed, they ever knew) that RPGs are about imagination. You don't need 400 skills for each character to roll. What you need is the imagination to play out the scenarios rather than simply rolling dice. When you add a mathematical percentage to everything, what you get is a tabletop video game. It leads to fewer arguments of the "But I critical hit that ancient wyrm red dragon! He's dead in one blow!" variety, but it also depletes the splendor of the game.
Having bolted along that tangent about as far as I want to for today, I want to return to "Unbounded Rage." Sorcerers use the same spells as regular mages in AD&D 3ed, but they create the magic spontaneously. Xykon, undead lich of the Order of the Stick webcomic (See the link to the right) is one of my favorite examples of a sorcerer.
I'm explaining this in order to tell you that sometimes the words are only part of the story. In the case of "Unbounded," the original draft scattered the words across the page, making it look more like a prose poem than a piece of general fantasy fiction. I wanted it to look almost as if you were in Davian's head, trying to make sense of his scattered, scarred memories and flashes of linkage between them.
While I love Blogger, it does have some limitations. One of them is that it took my random scattering and arranged the lines neatly instead. The result of this is that I think much of the impact of the actual piece is now gone. Instead of a glimpse into a young man's questions of memory and self, you're instead left with a rather stale freeform poem with too many ellipses, most of which are in the wrong spots.
Anyway, if this ever hits paper publication it'll be published the way God intended: free and without clothes (Like me!) or rules (Like Obama and Pelosi!). I may try to monkey with it and see if I can make it look something like it's supposed to look, but I don't want to completely bork it, so we'll see what happens.
Write on!
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
Showing posts with label author's comments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label author's comments. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Author's Comments: Calling Home
First I want to give a little shout out to Jon Strother of Mad Utopia. Jon's put together a really cool idea called the Friday Flash. This is a list of online stories that authors post links to on his web site. Every Friday these examples of short fiction are released on a flash list, which you can find on twitter and other places by searching for"#fridayflash."
Last week my horror story Awakening was my debut contribution. It was written in response to the writing prompt I tweeted last Monday.
Every Monday there's a writing prompt, and every Tuesday I'm posting my response to it. Yesterday's prompt was: "Examine the cliche of a soldier who fled from battle. Does he redeem himself or punish himself or..."
Calling Home is the story of a survivor, a man who made it through combat without a scratch-- that shows.
Every battle has a story like this. Every war has a tale of woe and dread. It doesn't make war unforgivable, as some people suggest, because there are times when societies, like people, have to defend themselves.
What is important to the author, though, when making a believable character, is to recognize that battle changes people. Whether it's a fistfight in a bar that turns ugly or an all out invasion of a planet, even the survivors die a little... or a lot.
*****
Last week my horror story Awakening was my debut contribution. It was written in response to the writing prompt I tweeted last Monday.
Every Monday there's a writing prompt, and every Tuesday I'm posting my response to it. Yesterday's prompt was: "Examine the cliche of a soldier who fled from battle. Does he redeem himself or punish himself or..."
Calling Home is the story of a survivor, a man who made it through combat without a scratch-- that shows.
Every battle has a story like this. Every war has a tale of woe and dread. It doesn't make war unforgivable, as some people suggest, because there are times when societies, like people, have to defend themselves.
What is important to the author, though, when making a believable character, is to recognize that battle changes people. Whether it's a fistfight in a bar that turns ugly or an all out invasion of a planet, even the survivors die a little... or a lot.
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Author’s Comments: Awakening (Prompt 3/15)
As I post the writing prompts each week I'm hoping to give people ideas for scene settings and character development, but they say that the teacher learns more than the student. (It would be extremely difficult to learn any less than my students, that's for sure.)
One of the reasons this blog exists is for me to work on developing my own fiction. After twelve years writing more or less continuous non-fiction, returning to the storytelling framework is a hard and ignoble path to travel.
So, when I post weekly writing prompts to my twitter account, (http://twitter.com/ChrisRivan or use the link to the right.) one of my writing goals is to complete the assignments right along side you.
Awakening is my first attempt to respond to my own prompt. I once had a bizarre night of nightmares, vivid, lifelike, and terrifying. I'm not one to usually have nightmares of the "monster" variety. Usually my most terrifying dreams are somewhat asstasstic, like being chased through a mall by a giant Super Mario or waking to discover that Barack Obama won the presidency.
These dreams were different. They were horrifying in the sense of the genre. I must have leapt awake six or seven times that night, sweating, panting, heart in my throat. Once I started so violently that I literally almost threw myself out of bed.
The little dream I've recounted here was the second to last. I woke up from this one and said, "Screw this noise." I got up early, about 4:15am, and took a shower... where I discovered to my horror that I was not awake and taking a shower at oh-dark-stupid, but actually still asleep and in the middle of another goddamn lifelike nightmare.
I may write the last dream down (they are the only two I remember) at a later date. It sort of crossed from freaky-deaky scary to "ZOMFG that's disgusting!" I'm not sure if shock fiction is the way I want to go, since I'm obviously not John Watterhouse. (For one thing, I can grow a better mustache.)
Write on!
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
One of the reasons this blog exists is for me to work on developing my own fiction. After twelve years writing more or less continuous non-fiction, returning to the storytelling framework is a hard and ignoble path to travel.
So, when I post weekly writing prompts to my twitter account, (http://twitter.com/ChrisRivan or use the link to the right.) one of my writing goals is to complete the assignments right along side you.
Awakening is my first attempt to respond to my own prompt. I once had a bizarre night of nightmares, vivid, lifelike, and terrifying. I'm not one to usually have nightmares of the "monster" variety. Usually my most terrifying dreams are somewhat asstasstic, like being chased through a mall by a giant Super Mario or waking to discover that Barack Obama won the presidency.
These dreams were different. They were horrifying in the sense of the genre. I must have leapt awake six or seven times that night, sweating, panting, heart in my throat. Once I started so violently that I literally almost threw myself out of bed.
The little dream I've recounted here was the second to last. I woke up from this one and said, "Screw this noise." I got up early, about 4:15am, and took a shower... where I discovered to my horror that I was not awake and taking a shower at oh-dark-stupid, but actually still asleep and in the middle of another goddamn lifelike nightmare.
I may write the last dream down (they are the only two I remember) at a later date. It sort of crossed from freaky-deaky scary to "ZOMFG that's disgusting!" I'm not sure if shock fiction is the way I want to go, since I'm obviously not John Watterhouse. (For one thing, I can grow a better mustache.)
Write on!
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
Monday, March 15, 2010
Essay: Organizational Software For Writers
Something I find critical to the writing process is a good organizational method. When I wrote my first two non-fiction books, I wrote them as an already recognized expert in the field I was taking on. It was easy to break the books into chapters and write each chapter as an essay with an introduction, lengthy body of explanation, and a final wrap up.
Fiction, especially good fiction, is a wholly different breed of animal. Writing good fiction means making copious and thorough notes and having a good memory. Errors of continuity jar the reader out of his suspension of disbelief, and that suspension is the foundation of the storytelling process.
Here are a couple of examples where authors have botched the job. Consider the Star Wars trilogy by George Lucas. After thirty years of fan belief in the Force as an all-powerful, mystical connection of energy, Lucas turns this on its head in Episode I by creating "midichlorians" microscopic organisms that live in all things and give a Jedi his power.
I wasn't the only lifetime Star Wars fan sitting in a theater in May of 1999 to yell, "What the fuck?" In fact, two people in front of me got up and walked out during that scene, muttering loudly.
To make matters worse, later in the series (Episode II) Lucas has a character explain that "Bail Antilles of Alderaan" is stepping into an office in the Galactic Senate.
The problem here, for the fans who have followed the series even peripherally, is that Princess Leia's adopted father, a senator from Alderaan, is named Bail Organa. Antilles is a surname of Luke's wingman in the first assault on the Death Star in Episode IV. His first name is Wedge, and he goes on to be a squadron leader and wingman to Lando Calrissian in the assault on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi (Episode VI). Lucas had to issue a statement saying that the two Antilles were not related.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that no author should ever have to retconn or explain his work. If it doesn't stand on its own then it doesn't stand. The only acceptable reply to a criticism or comment on your writing is Thank you.
These blunders of continuity are inexcusable in any author, but particularly so when the author knows he has literally millions of fans, hundreds of thousands of which are so devoted that they annually attend conventions and dress up as the most minor characters. For thirty years, authors such as Michael Stackpole and Timothy Zahn have developed rich and thorough storylines in the Star Wars universe. They took the time to do the research to keep things consistent, why couldn't Lucas? (Admittedly, Lucas also authorized the development of Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy, which has to be the worst piece of Star Wars fiction I've ever seen on paper, potentially the worst fiction. They remain the only books I have ever actually thrown away after reading.)
I could easily make this essay entirely about the blunders of authors. One of the most famous errors in all fiction occurs in Robinson Crusoe, when the title character strips naked to swim out to the half-sunken shipwreck, and once there immediately descends on the galley and stuffs his pockets with biscuits-- which must have hurt, given that he was still naked at the time.
However, while these examples serve to show the need for effective notes and story development, they aren't really helping you get the job done. All writers know to avoid continuity errors--and you hardly need me to tell you this. The trick is making it happen.
Enter two pieces of software I recommend for you. Both are either open source or freeware. Both are effective means for constructing what is essentially a database of notes about your stories. (Unfortunately both are also for the Windows platform, which I have recently returned to for my writing, despite doing most of my computing on a MacIntosh. For Mac users, I recommend the commercial software Scrivener.)
yWriter is a free software that was developed by a fiction author. I tend to gravitate towards software of this type for the simple reason that an author knows what an author needs. I think it's foolish to buy a wrench designed by a professional rice picker. I'll stick with one created by a mechanic, who knows what he's trying to do and is looking for the most efficient tool to get the job done. I got plenty of the other type of tool in the military, where our equipment was continually designed by civilians with no idea what the task required, and approved by officers who were political appointees and had also never been at ground level trying to get the job done.
yWriter allows you, the author, to perform several tasks with ease. First, there is character development. While it's fine to simply write dialogue and see where the characters take you (I am continually surprised at the stuff that comes out of Tad's mouth in Crossed Swords.), as an author you must have an instinctive understanding of your character's motivation and goals. This, in fact, becomes even more crucial when you are writing from the first person point of view, where the audience can only see and become aware of the points and observations that your narrator personally makes.
I, as the author, know why each character chose the character archtypes they did. Why did Mark choose to become a ninja-like fighter? Because the real-life Mark Ferrier is a martial arts instructor and MMA fighter in Washington State. That's easy, and it's explained in the book when the characters are selecting their classes, but why did his brother, Steve, become a mage? And of the mages, why choose sage, the least powerful in combat?
Because I write using Dave's voice, I can tell you why he chose wood walker, but I have to show you why Tad decided to be a minstrel. This would be impossible without some kind of notes and documentation on his character, and these points are not particularly subtle aspects of their characters. In fact, they are the most obvious and salient characteristics of each person.
The problem comes when you are trying to demonstrate subtle motivations for complex actions. Unless you know each of your characters thoroughly, odds are you're not going to really explain their actions, and even if your plot is consistent, your characters won't be.
yWriter also gives you the ability to make similar notes about your Macguffins. In XS, the heroes are trying desperately to find the fourth and final piece of the Lionjade before the servants of the evil god can do so. The problem with a Macguffin is that it's easy to lose track of where you put the damn thing. After all, this fourth piece of the crystal has been missing for 4,000 years already, so remembering where I put it is a bit of a chore. So far I've moved it three times... because I lost my original notes in a move in 2002.
Further, yWriter also allows for you to write chapter summaries, to break chapters into scenes, and list what characters appear in what scenes of what chapters. These can become really important if you're trying to check on facts and items you've laid out as foreshadowing. For example, I sometimes use elements from Dungeons and Dragons to aid me in my writing (an essay on that, later). I developed a "random encounter" as a means of blooding my characters, and then after the fact decided to make it less random. I felt it added a nice plot element to the story-- the idea that Sjjarr had not only discovered the heroes, but deemed them so unworthy of his time to destroy that he sent a ragtag group of bandits to wipe them out.
The problem is, I had to search through several chapters in order to find the specific point where I wanted to insert Sjjarr's contact. It would have saved me more than an hour of writing time if I could have simply looked briefly at a chapter summary list and moved on from there.
yWriter was originally written as a standalone story editor, so it offers all of the tools you need to write your novel or story right there in the program if you choose. On the yWriter website, K.M. Weiland published a very nice basic tutorial video that covers the foundation of yWriter, although she points out that she uses MS Word as her editor, and only uses yWriter to keep notes. (I use it the same way.) K.M. Weiland, by the way, is a very successful author who maintains an excellent blog on writing (You can find her in my blog list to the right.)
A second piece of software that I recommend is the open source Storybook. Unfortunately for me, I got used to using yWriter because I discovered it before Storybook, but I have to admit that some of the Storybook features have me considering a change.
Storybook offers a number of different views, including the all-important timeline view. As a linear thinker, I tend to consider things chronologically. Because I also use the "connect the dots" writing technique I detailed last week, this makes it easy for me to screw up my timeline if I'm not paying close attention. yWriter offers a timeline, but not a timeline view, and it doesn't help me to note that Scene A took place at 3pm on a Wednesday when we're discussing a quest across months and possibly years of travel. It makes more sense to be able to lay out the timeline and say, "Scene A took place before Scene B, but the plot elements in Scene C should probably come before Scene A." This allows for a much more freeform editing manner.
Because I don't actually use Storybook (yet!) I recommend that you check out their BASIC FEATURES.
Note that there doesn't seem to be a place for "items" such as MacGuffins or other types of 'props' you might need to use. In thinking about seriously using this software, it occurs to me that a properly developed MacGuffin, like the statue in the Maltese Falcon, may be thought of as a character in its own right, for all that it doesn't move a bit under its own power.
Interestingly enough, Storyboard also includes a character Gantt chart. This interesting chart, usually used in project management to denote completion timelines, actually shows you your characters' life cycles. This is a great tool if you're going to be doing some basic character assassination as you move along. You can tell at a glance where a character was involved in the timeline, and for sweeping epics (think of Simon Green's 1.4 million word Deathstalker series that covers some 250 years of galactic history) it's critical to remember who was where, when.
There are other charts that Storyboard offers, but there were two specific ones that leapt out at me. (By the way, I prefer the archaic word "leapt" which is more onomatopoetic than the modern "leaped." It's how I roll.)
The first of these two charts is the "Appearance of characters by scene," which shows which characters are used in which scenes.
But my favorite chart, and the reason I may eventually move from yWriter to Storyboard, is the "Who, Where, When?" chart, that shows characters in a strand-date grid. It's the answer to questions like: "Was Homer at the Atomic Power Plant on March 17?"
This is critical when you're trying to remember who was in the dining room when Doctor Matheson told everyone he was going back to India. Remember that a lot of the time we have characters interacting as virtual scenery-- Eriond, one of David Eddings's characters, goes more than 75 pages in the Mallorean without saying a word, and when he finally does, it's to point out something that no one else can remember. That's an example of perfect continuity.
If you're one of those people that covers a desk with post its and keeps your notes there, then these two pieces of software probably won't help you. However, if you're like me, and I know I am, odds are you're always trying to look for ways that your computer can help you. You've got more computing power sitting in front of you than man used to put an astronaut on the moon. With the right software, it can help you cut through what I consider the 'busywork' of writing so that you can concentrate on what you need to get done: telling the story.
Write on!
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
Fiction, especially good fiction, is a wholly different breed of animal. Writing good fiction means making copious and thorough notes and having a good memory. Errors of continuity jar the reader out of his suspension of disbelief, and that suspension is the foundation of the storytelling process.
Here are a couple of examples where authors have botched the job. Consider the Star Wars trilogy by George Lucas. After thirty years of fan belief in the Force as an all-powerful, mystical connection of energy, Lucas turns this on its head in Episode I by creating "midichlorians" microscopic organisms that live in all things and give a Jedi his power.
I wasn't the only lifetime Star Wars fan sitting in a theater in May of 1999 to yell, "What the fuck?" In fact, two people in front of me got up and walked out during that scene, muttering loudly.
To make matters worse, later in the series (Episode II) Lucas has a character explain that "Bail Antilles of Alderaan" is stepping into an office in the Galactic Senate.
The problem here, for the fans who have followed the series even peripherally, is that Princess Leia's adopted father, a senator from Alderaan, is named Bail Organa. Antilles is a surname of Luke's wingman in the first assault on the Death Star in Episode IV. His first name is Wedge, and he goes on to be a squadron leader and wingman to Lando Calrissian in the assault on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi (Episode VI). Lucas had to issue a statement saying that the two Antilles were not related.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that no author should ever have to retconn or explain his work. If it doesn't stand on its own then it doesn't stand. The only acceptable reply to a criticism or comment on your writing is Thank you.
These blunders of continuity are inexcusable in any author, but particularly so when the author knows he has literally millions of fans, hundreds of thousands of which are so devoted that they annually attend conventions and dress up as the most minor characters. For thirty years, authors such as Michael Stackpole and Timothy Zahn have developed rich and thorough storylines in the Star Wars universe. They took the time to do the research to keep things consistent, why couldn't Lucas? (Admittedly, Lucas also authorized the development of Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy, which has to be the worst piece of Star Wars fiction I've ever seen on paper, potentially the worst fiction. They remain the only books I have ever actually thrown away after reading.)
I could easily make this essay entirely about the blunders of authors. One of the most famous errors in all fiction occurs in Robinson Crusoe, when the title character strips naked to swim out to the half-sunken shipwreck, and once there immediately descends on the galley and stuffs his pockets with biscuits-- which must have hurt, given that he was still naked at the time.
However, while these examples serve to show the need for effective notes and story development, they aren't really helping you get the job done. All writers know to avoid continuity errors--and you hardly need me to tell you this. The trick is making it happen.
Enter two pieces of software I recommend for you. Both are either open source or freeware. Both are effective means for constructing what is essentially a database of notes about your stories. (Unfortunately both are also for the Windows platform, which I have recently returned to for my writing, despite doing most of my computing on a MacIntosh. For Mac users, I recommend the commercial software Scrivener.)
yWriter is a free software that was developed by a fiction author. I tend to gravitate towards software of this type for the simple reason that an author knows what an author needs. I think it's foolish to buy a wrench designed by a professional rice picker. I'll stick with one created by a mechanic, who knows what he's trying to do and is looking for the most efficient tool to get the job done. I got plenty of the other type of tool in the military, where our equipment was continually designed by civilians with no idea what the task required, and approved by officers who were political appointees and had also never been at ground level trying to get the job done.
yWriter allows you, the author, to perform several tasks with ease. First, there is character development. While it's fine to simply write dialogue and see where the characters take you (I am continually surprised at the stuff that comes out of Tad's mouth in Crossed Swords.), as an author you must have an instinctive understanding of your character's motivation and goals. This, in fact, becomes even more crucial when you are writing from the first person point of view, where the audience can only see and become aware of the points and observations that your narrator personally makes.
I, as the author, know why each character chose the character archtypes they did. Why did Mark choose to become a ninja-like fighter? Because the real-life Mark Ferrier is a martial arts instructor and MMA fighter in Washington State. That's easy, and it's explained in the book when the characters are selecting their classes, but why did his brother, Steve, become a mage? And of the mages, why choose sage, the least powerful in combat?
Because I write using Dave's voice, I can tell you why he chose wood walker, but I have to show you why Tad decided to be a minstrel. This would be impossible without some kind of notes and documentation on his character, and these points are not particularly subtle aspects of their characters. In fact, they are the most obvious and salient characteristics of each person.
The problem comes when you are trying to demonstrate subtle motivations for complex actions. Unless you know each of your characters thoroughly, odds are you're not going to really explain their actions, and even if your plot is consistent, your characters won't be.
yWriter also gives you the ability to make similar notes about your Macguffins. In XS, the heroes are trying desperately to find the fourth and final piece of the Lionjade before the servants of the evil god can do so. The problem with a Macguffin is that it's easy to lose track of where you put the damn thing. After all, this fourth piece of the crystal has been missing for 4,000 years already, so remembering where I put it is a bit of a chore. So far I've moved it three times... because I lost my original notes in a move in 2002.
Further, yWriter also allows for you to write chapter summaries, to break chapters into scenes, and list what characters appear in what scenes of what chapters. These can become really important if you're trying to check on facts and items you've laid out as foreshadowing. For example, I sometimes use elements from Dungeons and Dragons to aid me in my writing (an essay on that, later). I developed a "random encounter" as a means of blooding my characters, and then after the fact decided to make it less random. I felt it added a nice plot element to the story-- the idea that Sjjarr had not only discovered the heroes, but deemed them so unworthy of his time to destroy that he sent a ragtag group of bandits to wipe them out.
The problem is, I had to search through several chapters in order to find the specific point where I wanted to insert Sjjarr's contact. It would have saved me more than an hour of writing time if I could have simply looked briefly at a chapter summary list and moved on from there.
yWriter was originally written as a standalone story editor, so it offers all of the tools you need to write your novel or story right there in the program if you choose. On the yWriter website, K.M. Weiland published a very nice basic tutorial video that covers the foundation of yWriter, although she points out that she uses MS Word as her editor, and only uses yWriter to keep notes. (I use it the same way.) K.M. Weiland, by the way, is a very successful author who maintains an excellent blog on writing (You can find her in my blog list to the right.)
A second piece of software that I recommend is the open source Storybook. Unfortunately for me, I got used to using yWriter because I discovered it before Storybook, but I have to admit that some of the Storybook features have me considering a change.
Storybook offers a number of different views, including the all-important timeline view. As a linear thinker, I tend to consider things chronologically. Because I also use the "connect the dots" writing technique I detailed last week, this makes it easy for me to screw up my timeline if I'm not paying close attention. yWriter offers a timeline, but not a timeline view, and it doesn't help me to note that Scene A took place at 3pm on a Wednesday when we're discussing a quest across months and possibly years of travel. It makes more sense to be able to lay out the timeline and say, "Scene A took place before Scene B, but the plot elements in Scene C should probably come before Scene A." This allows for a much more freeform editing manner.
Because I don't actually use Storybook (yet!) I recommend that you check out their BASIC FEATURES.
Note that there doesn't seem to be a place for "items" such as MacGuffins or other types of 'props' you might need to use. In thinking about seriously using this software, it occurs to me that a properly developed MacGuffin, like the statue in the Maltese Falcon, may be thought of as a character in its own right, for all that it doesn't move a bit under its own power.
Interestingly enough, Storyboard also includes a character Gantt chart. This interesting chart, usually used in project management to denote completion timelines, actually shows you your characters' life cycles. This is a great tool if you're going to be doing some basic character assassination as you move along. You can tell at a glance where a character was involved in the timeline, and for sweeping epics (think of Simon Green's 1.4 million word Deathstalker series that covers some 250 years of galactic history) it's critical to remember who was where, when.
There are other charts that Storyboard offers, but there were two specific ones that leapt out at me. (By the way, I prefer the archaic word "leapt" which is more onomatopoetic than the modern "leaped." It's how I roll.)
The first of these two charts is the "Appearance of characters by scene," which shows which characters are used in which scenes.
But my favorite chart, and the reason I may eventually move from yWriter to Storyboard, is the "Who, Where, When?" chart, that shows characters in a strand-date grid. It's the answer to questions like: "Was Homer at the Atomic Power Plant on March 17?"
This is critical when you're trying to remember who was in the dining room when Doctor Matheson told everyone he was going back to India. Remember that a lot of the time we have characters interacting as virtual scenery-- Eriond, one of David Eddings's characters, goes more than 75 pages in the Mallorean without saying a word, and when he finally does, it's to point out something that no one else can remember. That's an example of perfect continuity.
If you're one of those people that covers a desk with post its and keeps your notes there, then these two pieces of software probably won't help you. However, if you're like me, and I know I am, odds are you're always trying to look for ways that your computer can help you. You've got more computing power sitting in front of you than man used to put an astronaut on the moon. With the right software, it can help you cut through what I consider the 'busywork' of writing so that you can concentrate on what you need to get done: telling the story.
Write on!
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Author’s Comments: First Meeting of the Zime
One of the tricks I like to use as a writer is to write scenes and then connect them, like little literary dots, to make a larger picture. It's a technique I've used for years, particularly when I have writer's block or have not been writing much over a long period of time. I pick a scene that speaks to me and has something I want to say, and I churn it out.
I actually got the idea from drama in high school. Most people don't realize it, but when you're putting a stage play together, the first scene you work on isn't the opening of the play; it's the climax. That's the most important part of the play, after all. Then you go back and work on the opening, which is the second most important because it's there to hook the audience.
The same trick works in writing, too. The first thing JK Rowling ever wrote was the end of the Harry Potter series. (Maybe that's why that last chapter seems so fragmented and disconnected when compared to the rest of the series.)
In the case of this excerpt, this is the first thing I've written in XS for some time. Moving cross country and starting a new job while coaching three sports is not exactly conducive to getting a lot of writing done. However, if I'm going to meet my publishing deadline of August 2011, I better get myself in gear.
In all honesty, I've had writer's block on one section of the book for twelve years. I managed to write my way through it, but I privately feel it's some of the worst prose I've ever committed to paper. Part of the reason I haven't gone onward is because I keep wanting to unfuck this part... and I have no idea how.
So it looks like I'll need to liberally apply this connect the dots method. Maybe if I'm lucky I can sort of "back into" the part I need to rewrite.
As far as this scene goes, this is the first time the heroes encounter one of the most dreaded enemies they could face: the Zime. Vaargus and Gmorkyn use them as shock troops. They aren't intelligent, but they possess a dreadful hunger, and the fact that they are already dead means that you need to have some rather specialized means to dispose of them or they're going to kick your ass. They're inhumanely fast. They never grow tired, and the only thing that really slows them down is cutting through enough muscle and sinew to make them physically unable to move. Imagine facing an army of them on the battlefield, knowing that they won't stop, won't slow, won't keep coming until you fall-- and when you do you will join them!
That would break your morale like a matchstick. Max Brooks, in his book World War Z points out an interesting tactical fact: the United States Armed Forces, arguably the strongest military in the world (when our Commander-In-Chief isn't some dithering moron who was elected because of the color of his skin rather than his competence), has a primary tactic of dropping a shitload of ordinance on an enemy and breaking his morale. After all, you only need to inflict 12% casualties on a unit to consider them combat ineffective, and at 35% they are effectively combat destroyed.
What if they don't even stop to acknowledge their dead and wounded? What if the wounded keep coming, too? In World War Z, Brooks uses this exact premise to explain the Battle of Yonkers, where a very few zombies manages to route an otherwise highly trained and disciplined battalion of the United States Army... simply because they don't stop coming.
In Crossed Swords, faery fire, we'll soon discover, kills them dead, but there's a problem with magical fire-- it has to come from somewhere and Steve doesn't have unlimited amounts of energy. Hopefully we'll find another source of it soon...
It's important also to remember that most of what we know is wrong. I want you to take a moment and think, really think, about what it would be like to confront a real zombie apocalypse. Forget Hollywood, what's your guarantee that shooting the brain stem disables them?
In fact, most firearms are piercing weapons. They do indirect organ damage by fluid shock, so what happens if the creature attacking you doesn't need organs in order to stay on its feet, knock you down, and start biting your fingers off, one by one? (You should also consider that knockdown power is a physical impossibility in firearms. After all, if a bullet was traveling fast enough to knock down a 200-pound person, what would its effect be on you, the person holding the gun it was fired from? Wouldn't that equal/opposite stuff knock you on your ass, too? In fact, Mythbusters debunked that myth pretty thoroughly in season three.)
Forget Voudun traditions, does salt have any real affect on them? Are they dry, like Mr. Slant, zombie lawyer of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, or are they soggy and juicy like a freshly rotting corpse?
This is important, because one of the main weapons to use against them might very well be normal fire, but wet objects don't burn well. Juicy zombies don't burn. (As an aside note, Juicy Zombies would be a great name for a rock band.)
For that matter, in the event of an actual outbreak of zombies, would acids or quicklime be effective?
Of course, I have my theories on the subject, but are they any more valid than... yours?
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
I actually got the idea from drama in high school. Most people don't realize it, but when you're putting a stage play together, the first scene you work on isn't the opening of the play; it's the climax. That's the most important part of the play, after all. Then you go back and work on the opening, which is the second most important because it's there to hook the audience.
The same trick works in writing, too. The first thing JK Rowling ever wrote was the end of the Harry Potter series. (Maybe that's why that last chapter seems so fragmented and disconnected when compared to the rest of the series.)
In the case of this excerpt, this is the first thing I've written in XS for some time. Moving cross country and starting a new job while coaching three sports is not exactly conducive to getting a lot of writing done. However, if I'm going to meet my publishing deadline of August 2011, I better get myself in gear.
In all honesty, I've had writer's block on one section of the book for twelve years. I managed to write my way through it, but I privately feel it's some of the worst prose I've ever committed to paper. Part of the reason I haven't gone onward is because I keep wanting to unfuck this part... and I have no idea how.
So it looks like I'll need to liberally apply this connect the dots method. Maybe if I'm lucky I can sort of "back into" the part I need to rewrite.
As far as this scene goes, this is the first time the heroes encounter one of the most dreaded enemies they could face: the Zime. Vaargus and Gmorkyn use them as shock troops. They aren't intelligent, but they possess a dreadful hunger, and the fact that they are already dead means that you need to have some rather specialized means to dispose of them or they're going to kick your ass. They're inhumanely fast. They never grow tired, and the only thing that really slows them down is cutting through enough muscle and sinew to make them physically unable to move. Imagine facing an army of them on the battlefield, knowing that they won't stop, won't slow, won't keep coming until you fall-- and when you do you will join them!
That would break your morale like a matchstick. Max Brooks, in his book World War Z points out an interesting tactical fact: the United States Armed Forces, arguably the strongest military in the world (when our Commander-In-Chief isn't some dithering moron who was elected because of the color of his skin rather than his competence), has a primary tactic of dropping a shitload of ordinance on an enemy and breaking his morale. After all, you only need to inflict 12% casualties on a unit to consider them combat ineffective, and at 35% they are effectively combat destroyed.
What if they don't even stop to acknowledge their dead and wounded? What if the wounded keep coming, too? In World War Z, Brooks uses this exact premise to explain the Battle of Yonkers, where a very few zombies manages to route an otherwise highly trained and disciplined battalion of the United States Army... simply because they don't stop coming.
In Crossed Swords, faery fire, we'll soon discover, kills them dead, but there's a problem with magical fire-- it has to come from somewhere and Steve doesn't have unlimited amounts of energy. Hopefully we'll find another source of it soon...
It's important also to remember that most of what we know is wrong. I want you to take a moment and think, really think, about what it would be like to confront a real zombie apocalypse. Forget Hollywood, what's your guarantee that shooting the brain stem disables them?
In fact, most firearms are piercing weapons. They do indirect organ damage by fluid shock, so what happens if the creature attacking you doesn't need organs in order to stay on its feet, knock you down, and start biting your fingers off, one by one? (You should also consider that knockdown power is a physical impossibility in firearms. After all, if a bullet was traveling fast enough to knock down a 200-pound person, what would its effect be on you, the person holding the gun it was fired from? Wouldn't that equal/opposite stuff knock you on your ass, too? In fact, Mythbusters debunked that myth pretty thoroughly in season three.)
Forget Voudun traditions, does salt have any real affect on them? Are they dry, like Mr. Slant, zombie lawyer of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, or are they soggy and juicy like a freshly rotting corpse?
This is important, because one of the main weapons to use against them might very well be normal fire, but wet objects don't burn well. Juicy zombies don't burn. (As an aside note, Juicy Zombies would be a great name for a rock band.)
For that matter, in the event of an actual outbreak of zombies, would acids or quicklime be effective?
Of course, I have my theories on the subject, but are they any more valid than... yours?
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Author’s Comments: Combat Ops: Chapter One
In 2006 I was broke. Really broke. I put my house on the market and it was snapped up, but the shrew that signed the legal contract to buy it found a loophole and backed out of the deal with twelve hours to go before escrow closed. In the interim, I'd bought a house in Washington state and moved into an apartment, so that meant I was paying two mortgages and rent at the same time until someone bought the damn house again.
I took a second job, but even working 60 hours a week you still have free time. At first I played free flash games, but, even as fun as they are, they still get old after a while. Eventually I gravitated to MMORPGs (Massively Multi-Player Role Playing Games), and I found one called Vendetta: Online that was really interesting-- a twitch based (which means that your skill is more important than your level or your equipment) science-fiction game.
I made some friends online, and for sixty bucks I played for six months, about twenty hours a week, which sounds like a lot until you realize it was the ONLY thing I did-- because it didn't cost money. (Well, that and work out. I lost fourteen pounds.)
What impressed me the most about Vendetta was the backstory. Literally a novel written by the original writers of the game, it was rich in detail and extremely well done, and sparked a bunch of amateur fiction of its own, including Combat Operations. (I also discovered that about 95% of the online gaming community is politically leftist-- even admitted socialist. Makes the killing more interesting-- and gives a political conservative who can't keep his mouth shut like me all the incentive in the world to get really good as a pilot really quick!) A bizarre quirk of my humor led me to create a character called "Nigel the Indecently Dressed." Through several evolutions, and with a couple of the vowels pulled out, we get "N'gel S'nza P'ntal'ne," or "Nigel Without Pants."
No one gets my humor.
Unfortunately, I finally got the house sold and moved to Washington, where my school and work got in the way both of playing the game and continuing the fiction, but I still have some chapters written, and I think they still set an interesting and rather gritty storyline about fighting in space.
I do want to flesh this into a full-fledged novel someday, if for no other reason than that this is also my tribute to one of the best writers of military science fiction ever to grace this planet. David Drake is the king, but the heir apparent was always Christopher Bunch. His Lost Legion series, the Sten series he wrote with Allan Cole, his Dragonmaster series, these are some of the most compelling works of combat fiction (and essays about why we fight, from the eyes of soldiers themselves) that I have ever seen.
Even if you don't particularly like my writing, if you like military science fiction and fantasy at all (or some naughty sex scenes... hoo boy, check out The Seer King.) please investigate Christopher Bunch.
Christopher Bunch passed away on July 4th, 2005. He left several series incomplete, and many things undone. He was a member of the first troop battalion sent to Viet Nam, and it's fitting that his passing took place on the birthday of the nation he loved.
Fitting, but no less sad.
Chris
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
I took a second job, but even working 60 hours a week you still have free time. At first I played free flash games, but, even as fun as they are, they still get old after a while. Eventually I gravitated to MMORPGs (Massively Multi-Player Role Playing Games), and I found one called Vendetta: Online that was really interesting-- a twitch based (which means that your skill is more important than your level or your equipment) science-fiction game.
I made some friends online, and for sixty bucks I played for six months, about twenty hours a week, which sounds like a lot until you realize it was the ONLY thing I did-- because it didn't cost money. (Well, that and work out. I lost fourteen pounds.)
What impressed me the most about Vendetta was the backstory. Literally a novel written by the original writers of the game, it was rich in detail and extremely well done, and sparked a bunch of amateur fiction of its own, including Combat Operations. (I also discovered that about 95% of the online gaming community is politically leftist-- even admitted socialist. Makes the killing more interesting-- and gives a political conservative who can't keep his mouth shut like me all the incentive in the world to get really good as a pilot really quick!) A bizarre quirk of my humor led me to create a character called "Nigel the Indecently Dressed." Through several evolutions, and with a couple of the vowels pulled out, we get "N'gel S'nza P'ntal'ne," or "Nigel Without Pants."
No one gets my humor.
Unfortunately, I finally got the house sold and moved to Washington, where my school and work got in the way both of playing the game and continuing the fiction, but I still have some chapters written, and I think they still set an interesting and rather gritty storyline about fighting in space.
I do want to flesh this into a full-fledged novel someday, if for no other reason than that this is also my tribute to one of the best writers of military science fiction ever to grace this planet. David Drake is the king, but the heir apparent was always Christopher Bunch. His Lost Legion series, the Sten series he wrote with Allan Cole, his Dragonmaster series, these are some of the most compelling works of combat fiction (and essays about why we fight, from the eyes of soldiers themselves) that I have ever seen.
Even if you don't particularly like my writing, if you like military science fiction and fantasy at all (or some naughty sex scenes... hoo boy, check out The Seer King.) please investigate Christopher Bunch.
Christopher Bunch passed away on July 4th, 2005. He left several series incomplete, and many things undone. He was a member of the first troop battalion sent to Viet Nam, and it's fitting that his passing took place on the birthday of the nation he loved.
Fitting, but no less sad.
Chris
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
Author’s Comments: The Name of the Blade
Every so often you get a story idea that just won't go away. About six or eight years ago I saw a preview on a DVD for the movie The Red Violin. Now, I honestly haven't got a freaking CLUE what that movie was about, but the preview SEEMED to be telling a story as if the violin was the main character.
I'm not really a musical kind of guy. I don't exactly have a tin ear, but I certainly do have a hard time playing musical instruments. I tried for three years to learn to play the guitar. The last time I hit the right note on an instrument, it was because I dropped my triangle.
But I loved the premise. I'm one of those guys that will yell, "You son of a bitch!" When my wrench slips and I bark my knuckles across a transmission housing. Because, you see, I KNOW that the inanimate leads a life of its own, and sometimes it does shit just to irritate me. (I'm worse with my computer. Look, you're never going to convince me that a box capable of playing Baldur's Gate, playing music, and downloading porn is not also fully capable of sitting there and going "Thtptptptptpt!" at you when you're trying to print your resume on the way out the door for a job interview. Of COURSE the damn thing is sentient!)
It was obvious to me, though, that the story needed to be about something I understood, and, sad to say, I understand the very real need (and sometimes desire) to hit things with things. My story absolutely HAD to be about a weapon, and the most recognizable weapon in human history is the sword. It appears in virtually every culture, even the Inca had a type of sword that was basically a wooden club with obsidian chunks stuck into it. I can assure you that they knew EXACTLY what Francisco Pizarro had on his belt, even though they probably didn't recognize his flintlock.
I've always loved the idea of being able to get inanimate objects to tell their stories to us. My favorite magical talent in Piers Anthony's Magic of Xanth series was the forgotten king who could hold any item and see its past. Add in Dor's ability to outright talk to the inanimate, and you could learn a hell of a lot about history.
Admit it, you'd love to talk to the bullet John Wilkes Booth fired through Lincoln's brain and find out what he said as he was loading the gun. Wouldn't you dearly enjoy holding a lengthy conversation with the Shroud of Turin? God knows I would!
As sometimes happens, the first thing that came to me was the title of the story, which is only sort of accurate, since the sword has many names, and they really aren't that important.
What became more important was the sword's message. Although the metaphor isn't as shrouded as I'd like it to be, it actually turned into an essay about gun control. We look back through history at the men who raised weapons in defense of their homeland or their people, and we call them heroes, but in modern society we tend to want to disarm them. It's wishful thinking at BEST.
Some heroes, like Liviu Librescu, the Holocaust survivor killed at Virginia Tech, fight the good fight and defend others with their lives even while unarmed. The sad truth, though, is that even though Librescu gave his life, Cho Seung-Hui was still able to go on and kill at least six more people before putting the guns to his own head.
What if Librescu had been armed? What if he'd been able to drop the shooter in his tracks? Would he be any less a hero if he was still alive? What if, in fact, the very first person Seung-Hui walked up to that day had pulled a .40 S&W and put three rounds in his ten-ring? Would that guy be any less a hero just because he might still be around to go on book signing tours?
It's not really for me to say, but I believe that a DESIRE to do the right or necessary thing is only half the issue. The other half is having the means to ACT on those feelings.
The Name of the Blade is about a young boy who doesn't really pay much attention in school. He's a bit of a disappointment, but like all young men out there he has great potential hidden deep inside. If he's given the right lessons at the right time... who knows? He might just become a hero.
Or maybe he always has been. It's tough to know with kids.
Chris
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
I'm not really a musical kind of guy. I don't exactly have a tin ear, but I certainly do have a hard time playing musical instruments. I tried for three years to learn to play the guitar. The last time I hit the right note on an instrument, it was because I dropped my triangle.
But I loved the premise. I'm one of those guys that will yell, "You son of a bitch!" When my wrench slips and I bark my knuckles across a transmission housing. Because, you see, I KNOW that the inanimate leads a life of its own, and sometimes it does shit just to irritate me. (I'm worse with my computer. Look, you're never going to convince me that a box capable of playing Baldur's Gate, playing music, and downloading porn is not also fully capable of sitting there and going "Thtptptptptpt!" at you when you're trying to print your resume on the way out the door for a job interview. Of COURSE the damn thing is sentient!)
It was obvious to me, though, that the story needed to be about something I understood, and, sad to say, I understand the very real need (and sometimes desire) to hit things with things. My story absolutely HAD to be about a weapon, and the most recognizable weapon in human history is the sword. It appears in virtually every culture, even the Inca had a type of sword that was basically a wooden club with obsidian chunks stuck into it. I can assure you that they knew EXACTLY what Francisco Pizarro had on his belt, even though they probably didn't recognize his flintlock.
I've always loved the idea of being able to get inanimate objects to tell their stories to us. My favorite magical talent in Piers Anthony's Magic of Xanth series was the forgotten king who could hold any item and see its past. Add in Dor's ability to outright talk to the inanimate, and you could learn a hell of a lot about history.
Admit it, you'd love to talk to the bullet John Wilkes Booth fired through Lincoln's brain and find out what he said as he was loading the gun. Wouldn't you dearly enjoy holding a lengthy conversation with the Shroud of Turin? God knows I would!
As sometimes happens, the first thing that came to me was the title of the story, which is only sort of accurate, since the sword has many names, and they really aren't that important.
What became more important was the sword's message. Although the metaphor isn't as shrouded as I'd like it to be, it actually turned into an essay about gun control. We look back through history at the men who raised weapons in defense of their homeland or their people, and we call them heroes, but in modern society we tend to want to disarm them. It's wishful thinking at BEST.
Some heroes, like Liviu Librescu, the Holocaust survivor killed at Virginia Tech, fight the good fight and defend others with their lives even while unarmed. The sad truth, though, is that even though Librescu gave his life, Cho Seung-Hui was still able to go on and kill at least six more people before putting the guns to his own head.
What if Librescu had been armed? What if he'd been able to drop the shooter in his tracks? Would he be any less a hero if he was still alive? What if, in fact, the very first person Seung-Hui walked up to that day had pulled a .40 S&W and put three rounds in his ten-ring? Would that guy be any less a hero just because he might still be around to go on book signing tours?
It's not really for me to say, but I believe that a DESIRE to do the right or necessary thing is only half the issue. The other half is having the means to ACT on those feelings.
The Name of the Blade is about a young boy who doesn't really pay much attention in school. He's a bit of a disappointment, but like all young men out there he has great potential hidden deep inside. If he's given the right lessons at the right time... who knows? He might just become a hero.
Or maybe he always has been. It's tough to know with kids.
Chris
*****
Christopher Rivan
Virgins Slain, Dragons Rescued.
Reasonable rates for all budgets!
http://chrisrivan.blogspot.com/
Chris.Rivan@Yahoo.com
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