Humanity of Humanity

            There are times when I look at humanity and find myself amazed at how backwards some people’s views are, and I find myself wondering how anyone can still think that way in this day and age. Then I look back over the timeline of events, and suddenly it seems remarkable that we’ve made as much progress as we have. I would be much happier if the humanity of humanity developed faster, but I can’t deny that things have changed faster than it feels like.

            Keep in mind that the average human lifespan is around 80 years. This means that within 80 years of a major change in societal views, there is someone alive who was brought up with the ideals prior to that time as the norm. Within 160 years, there is someone alive who was raised by or with contact with someone who grew up with the prior ideals being the norm – someone who may or may not agree with them.

            So, let’s look at what was going on 160 years ago. That was around the time slavery was being abolished in most parts of the world. That means that right now there are people alive who were alive at the same time as people who saw slavery as a normal thing – which means some of that culture (if not all of it) was passed on to them. Which is kind of mind-boggling to someone like me, to whom mainstream slavery was events of the distant past. Yet, within the scope of cultural evolution, that’s hardly any time at all – especially when there are people pushing cultural change in both directions at once.

            So, what about 80 years ago? That was World War II, when not only was it acceptable to discriminate against people based on their nationality, it was normal. Not surprising, with slavery so recent in the past. And, today, there are still people who were alive then – and the world is largely controlled by people who were raised by people from that time.

            In between those two time periods, women transitioned from essentially being property to actual human beings. Amazing, I know. Yet, in spite of that change, here we are, still fighting to make the equality of men and woman normal. It seems like an awful long time for things to not have fallen into place by now, but, at the same time, it makes sense that the fight is still going, considering how slowly culture changes and the fact that we’re still dealing with even older issues.

            Now, I’m not saying it’s right. Right is that a human is a human, no matter what they look like, where they came from, or what they believe. I’m definitely not saying we should stop fighting for what’s right. But I think that sometimes we need to step back and congratulate ourselves on how much progress we’ve made in so little time, with the odds stacked against us. Then we can get back to the fight and shape the world into all that it can be.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Moving With the Times

            Well, I think it’s finally happened. My brain has run dry of ideas for what to blog about, and I feel like I’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel for a month or so. I mean, is that surprising after six years of weekly blogs? So, at this point, I can either start repeating myself (as I’ve tried very hard not to do), or I can cut back on the frequency of my blogs so I can deliver higher quality content. I mean, I could stop blogging altogether, but that just seems like quitting.

            So, I’m deciding to cut back on the frequency of my regular blogs. For now, I’ll shoot for every two weeks, but I may go down to once a month, depending on how it goes. If you want to see more from me, then please go ahead and send me suggestions as to what you want to see me ramble on about!

            The D&D stories will continue as usual, being updated as the games happen. Oh, yes, games plural! It’s only been one so far, but in this coming week a second game will be joining the first, and I’m going to try to keep a log of that one as well – so, if you enjoy such things, you have that to look forward to.

            To those of you who enjoy reading my weekly inane rambling, I do apologise for the decreased activity, however I hope this will mean an increase in the quality of my content. And, hey, as I said before – if you want to hear more from me, tell me what you’d like to hear my thoughts on! I don’t promise I’ll use every idea, but if it sparks my interest, you’re (almost) sure to get something interesting.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Dungeon Master Growth Patterns

            Those who have been following my blog for a while will have noticed how much Dungeons & Dragons has become a part of my life in the past few years. In that time, I’ve been part of about fourteen different games, and I’m currently involved in five active games. During this time, I’ve been both a player and a Dungeon Master, but what has captured my attention today is the rise of new DMs and how they follow roughly the same growth pattern that I went through.

            Most people starting out as a Dungeon Master (though not all) have played the game before, so they have a pretty good idea of how it works on the players’ side of the table. They know that it’s a challenge to switch to being behind the DM’s screen, where they essentially have to create and control an entire world – much like a writer does, only a writer doesn’t need to account for the craziness that players come up with.

            The first game the new DM runs isn’t bad (with a good group of players, it’s very hard to have bad D&D), but it isn’t quite where they want it to be. Often the plotline railroads the players – that is to say, there’s pretty much only one way for the players to go, and one way for them to solve problems. This isn’t ideal in a game that revolves around the decisions made by players, but it’s also extremely understandable – because allowing players complete freedom takes a lot of thinking on your feet, and that takes practice.

            That first game usually falls apart within the first few sessions, but the new DM doesn’t give up. They learned a lot in those games, few though they were. The next game they run is significantly better. They’ve learned to prepare for players doing crazy things, and so they adapt their new game for that. This game goes much better, but it still isn’t perfect. The rails are still there, and still noticeable, and the DM runs into two similar problems: the players don’t catch on to what they were certain was obvious, so they need to improvise huge hints; and the players respond to things in ways previously unanticipated. Once again, the game usually falls apart at this point – but the DM has learned even more.

            Now comes the time for over-preparedness. The new DM has realized that players are wild and uncontrollable, and so the solution is to have a plan for everything. A massive world begins getting built, populated with interesting people and things. Histories and mythologies are created, as well as multiple dungeons and ways to attract the players to them. It becomes overwhelming, and at some point the DM realizes that if they keep this up, they’ll never get to play again – and so they take a leap of faith and start the game with what they’ve prepared.

            This time, the game goes very differently. Instead of the players going in crazy directions and forcing the DM to improvise, they seem to stick to the plot and avoid 90% of the content the DM has painstakingly created. This isn’t out of malice – this is simply because the DM has improved enough that the players feel that they are on the most natural course. The game lasts longer, and now the DM learns and perfects the rest of their skills. Their world is more in-depth, so they find improvising easier when it’s necessary. They get more of a feel for how to run and balance the game. They learn how to anticipate what their players are going to do, and to plan accordingly – but also how to have backup plans for when the players surprise them.

            Finally, DMing begins to come naturally, and less preparation is needed for each game. A lot of work still goes into running the game, but it becomes easier and more natural – as does coming up with things on the fly when the player throws a curveball at them.

            This isn’t a precise formula, as different people improve at different speeds. Some people manage to hold together that first game, improving as they go, while others have a few more false starts. However, by and large, this is the basic pattern of learning and growth I’ve observed in multiple new Dungeon Masters, and I find it to be fascinating – because running Dungeons & Dragons isn’t a skill you can learn everything about by being taught, or reading a book. It’s a form of art that you can only learn by doing.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Complications

            Life is a complicated mess filled with inconsistencies and contradictions. Particularly life in relation to humans and how we view and interact with the world.

Take our brains’ view on change, for example. We hate change with a fiery, burning passion. We like things to be predictable and consistent. Yet, if it is predictable and consistent, we get bored and go stir crazy, with our brains demanding something new. If we rearrange a room, we’ll adapt to it quickly, with our brains not minding very much – but don’t you dare return the room to an old arrangement! No, then something is clearly out of place and wrong.

            Similarly, people often speak of wishing they didn’t have to work a job so that they can accomplish more of what they want to do. However, if you speak to people in such a position, you’ll quickly learn that they wish they had a job to help fill their time. Because having all the time in the world to do whatever you want somehow takes away from the enjoyment of doing what you want.

            We come up with morals to clearly define right and wrong, and very soon break into factions because some things that are clearly right contradict other things that are clearly right, and some things that are wrong contradict other things that are clearly wrong. Ideas that seem so simple to one person appear nonsensical to another – and both can back up their perspectives with valid arguments.

            We seek freedom while binding ourselves with laws – though, of course, the laws are required to prevent ourselves from violating others’ freedoms, and to protect our own. We try to understand the world better, yet as soon as we discover something that doesn’t match what we believe, we’re more likely to dismiss the new information as being incorrect or inconsequential.

            We pay people money to go out and raise money. We have annual feasts when, agriculturally, food is the most difficult to come by. We spend our best years working to achieve dreams we’ll be too old to enjoy by the time we achieve them. We fight wars to achieve peace.

            And as I go through all the strange and confusing contradictions in life, I notice that the common factor is humans. How we view the world. How we treat each other. How we examine and categorize things.

            And I wonder... is life really so full of paradoxes? Perhaps life is actually extremely simple, and we overcomplicate it in our efforts to understand.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Out With The Old

            As time moves on, everything we take for granted changes. Traditions rooted in purpose and significance have their origins lost, yet continue to exist because it’s tradition. Festivals and celebrations evolve or get co-opted, becoming entirely new events with little or no relevance to their original purpose. The meanings of words and the structures of languages change, leading to disagreements about recorded information from earlier ages. Sometimes records are destroyed, out of embarrassment or malice, erasing whole sections of history. When events of the past century have been clouded, muddled, and denied, what can we be certain of from even earlier times?

            It doesn’t take long for things to change. How many memes are there about kids not understanding common objects from twenty years ago? We fail to pass on knowledge and history because we take it for granted that it’s common knowledge, and it fades into obscurity. And let’s not forget that history is written by the winners, or that history is nothing but words – and, with enough influence, words can be changed.

            It’s important to remember the important things. It’s important to pass them on. And it’s important to stay aware of how meanings change over time, and move to correct it if we see it happening. Otherwise, it’s out with the old, in with the new.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Change in the Air

            During my last read-through of The Hobbit, at one point I turned to Colleen and said, “You know, if it’s really sad to think that the current publishing industry wouldn’t have published this book.” I went on to point out the many things deemed ‘wrong’ in it that I’ve learned about during my journey towards getting published. Use of adjectives, writing style, and the overall structure of the story are all things that would currently earn the book a rejection – which is a tragedy, because it is a wonderful book.

            Getting anything published has become difficult in modern times for two very big reasons. The first, and more major of the two, is that there are so many more people out there trying to get published. Between growing populations, increased education, and technology making it easier to contact the publishing companies (you no longer have to print off an entire book), literally anyone can try to get published – meaning there’s a lot more to sift through, making it a lot harder to get noticed.

            The other is that we have examined, studied, and refined what it is that makes a good story, and there are now expectations that specific patterns are followed. Yes, there are still plenty of variations available, but in order to get through submissions faster, publishing professionals look for these key points that have proven to make the most appealing stories – and without those proper plot arcs, it’s very difficult for a book to get published.

            It seems like that’s a good thing. In theory, it provides readers with the best stories possible. However, while this is true, it has also backfired a little. It has made stories far more predictable. When people who read a lot of books pick up something new, they always have a good idea of how things will turn out in the end.

            This isn’t just limited to books, either – it’s the same across all story-telling platforms. For years and years we’ve been refining the perfect story structure – and now we all know it extremely well. Sure, there are plot twists that we didn’t see coming, but by the time the end shows up we already know how it will turn out.

            That said, creators are becoming aware of this now. Some bold writers are looking at these patterns that we expect, and they are taking advantage of it to subvert our expectations. If you’ve seen some of the new Star Wars, or Avengers: Infinity War, you know what I’m talking about. It’s a risk for creators to leave the well-worn paths and to traipse away from the perfect story arc, but it’s paying off. People aren’t getting what they expected and, for the most part, they like it.

            You see, while there’s a lot of comfort in the familiar, we also have a craving for something new. After being fed the same story arcs for so long, we’re ready for something new. To me, this is an exciting time. It’s time for change, and there’s no telling what will come out of it. We may even get some stories that are truly surprising.

            We might even be moving into a time when a book like The Hobbit, were it not already published and famous, would get published again.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

What Change?

            I’ve been reading a series of books called the Death Gate Cycle to Colleen. This is fantasy series (by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman) from the late 80’s and early 90’s that I read once before when I was much younger. It’s one of those series that really proves what I always say about fantasy being the perfect way to take a closer look at human nature.

            This series takes place in a universe where the world has been split into four separate elemental worlds – plus a couple extras, but the details aren’t important for this blog. This happened because of two races of people so magical that they and the “lesser” races believed them to be gods – but the ideals of these two peoples opposed each other, so they were at war.

            The orderly and “goodly” of these two races, afraid of losing the way, cast a spell that tore the world to pieces and reformed it, dumping the chaotic and “evil” race into a magical prison while they were at it. Many of the “lesser” races died in the process, but the “goodly” race saved as many as they could. Unfortunately, the elemental worlds were not self-sustaining, and before the “goodly” race could link them together to work as a team (as they had intended), something went wrong and they began to vanish.

            The story follows a member of the “evil” race, who is one of many to have escaped the magical prison after generations of torment. Under the command of his lord, the first of his people to escape, he is scouting out the worlds in preparation for launching a war against the “goodly” race.

            As he is exploring these worlds, he finds them in chaos – with the three “lesser” races fighting endless wars against each other while the “goodly” race is absent. Then, on the fourth world he visits, he discovers dragon-like monsters who profess to serve him, but he eventually determines that they are pure evil and that they gain power from fear and hatred.

            These creatures get released into the other worlds, where they insinuate their way into the ranks of the “lesser” races (they are shape-changers) and spread chaos, fear, and hatred. They always present themselves as wanting to serve, and whenever confronted by someone who knows what they are, they say “You made us.”

            Then, at last, someone learns how to fight them by pinning down what they actually are. They explain it simply as “they are us.” The monsters are the embodiment of all the hatred and fear the races have of each other, and the more hatred and fear there is, the more powerful these monsters became.

            As I was reading this, I thought, wow... that looks a lot like the issues we’re facing in the world today.

            And, as with today, the way to fight these monsters was for people to put aside their hatred and fear and work together.

            To me, it is an obvious message. But then, this is woven into a series of books that was written over twenty years ago and we’re still dealing with the same issues. Perhaps the time has come to say it louder.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

What Is It Good For?

            I recently heard a quote that said, in essence, that the natural state of any two nations is to be at war – and that if there is peace, it is only because there is someone working very hard to keep the peace. Nations are always working to further their own agendas – be it that they want to spread their ideology or that they need resources – and so, without effort to prevent it, they will clash with others.

            This was a bit of a revelation for me. My thought process prior to hearing this was that war needed a reason to occur. However, this reversed way of looking at things made everything about global politics make a bit more sense – at least when it comes to looking at history.

            It makes sense that, back in the eras of survival, people went to war over resources. That’s how they survived, after all. As for ideology, well... people tend to believe that they are right and that it is their duty to enlighten others.

            Nowadays, lots of effort is put into keeping peace. It doesn’t always work, but it’s become important for survival with our destructive capabilities. Lots of people work very hard at keeping the peace – it certainly doesn’t come naturally.

            This bit of insight may not seem very important, but as a writer it has completely changed my perspective. When working on building a world, and stringing together plotlines, I no longer have to ask myself, “Why is there a war?” Instead I ask, “Why is there peace? Who is behind the peace?”

            And, if I’m in a particularly destructive mood, I’ll add, “How will the world change if something happens to the peace keeper?”

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Culture and Technology

            I’m a person who thrives on technology. Not that I know how any of it works – and some of it, I can hardly ever get it to do what I want – but I can’t imagine a life without all the technology I have at my disposal. Yet, at the same time, I wonder what impact it will have on the natural progression of our society.

            For the last two hundred years, technology has advanced at an astounding rate. Along with it has grown our ability to preserve and display our own history and culture. At the same time as preserving, we’re reinforcing our own cultural identity.

            Through movies and internet, the various concepts, values and beliefs important to our culture are expressed over and over. We watch these and pass them on to our children; our history and ideals are passed on as they never were able to be before. We preserve so much, and yet, I wonder if we aren’t causing cultural progression to grow stagnant.

            On social media, on several occasions I’ve come across a video showing the standards for human beauty as they have changed over the years. But, when was the last time these standards truly changed? With all the movies and videos out there reinforcing our current standards, how many generations will it take before we move on?

            A character in one of the Assassin’s Creed video games once commented on a preserved city that “history is the study of change” and that when change stops, death occurs. It’s the same with culture – it is meant to be forever changing and growing.

            So, I wonder, is how much we strive to preserve things good or bad? Will our current technologies preserve our generation in a way that will make simple work for future archaeologists, or will it become the gospel by which future generations live?

            I guess only time will tell.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Self-Restrictions (Or the overused "Let It Go")

            There comes a time for every writer when they learn how to let go. Sometimes it’s ideas we need to let go of, or characters, other times it’s habits. But we writers tend to be sentimental and it’s hard to let go of ideas we’ve clung to for a long time.

            For me, this time came when I started to take a good hard look at my fantasy world, wondering what made it stand apart from others. There’s really quite a lot that makes it unique, but all the key surface elements are familiar. I have humans, elves, dwarves, goblins – and they’re all about what you’d expect them to be, with a few twists of my own added in. Yet, on the surface, very familiar.

            There are three reasons for this: the first is that I started developing this world when I was twelve or so and, at that age, it’s really difficult to not borrow heavily from what you know. The second is that I wanted that familiarity there to help people acclimatise to my world. The third was because you have two choices when creating creatures in a fantasy world: go with the common ones, or make up new ones that serve the functions of the old ones (such as the Urgals in the Eragon series which take the place of goblin/orc creatures, as do the Trollocs in the Wheel of Time series where there are also Ogiers that function as a combination of elves and dwarves).

            So, have I decided to drastically change my writing to replace elves and dwarves? No, although I did strongly consider it. I realized that, if I eliminated them, I would just replace them with something else. I did, however, decide to personalize them more – make them more unique to my world.

All of this made me take a closer look at my world and what I’ve been clinging to. That’s when I discovered the biggest thing that was holding my writing back: my world. It’s too big. You’d think that a big world would offer more freedom for writing in, but that’s before you have to coordinate events across an entire globe with a timeline spanning hundreds or thousands of years. It’s a bit much for one mind to hold all at once.

            So, I’ve had to step back. Rather than forcing my stories to fit my world, I’m now allowing my world to for my stories. It has opened up endless possibilities and has made writing life much easier.

            That’s my latest tip to all you writers out there. Look to yourself and your own writing to figure out how you’re holding yourself back. Then push back your self-made restrictions and broaden your horizons.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Change the World

            With the right words, the world can be changed.

            A simple action can change the world.

            The world is constantly changing.

            Every action, every word changes the world.

            I can change the world.

            You can change the world.

            So, let’s make sure we’re changing it into something better than it was before.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Cultural Shifts

            My parents recently returned from a trip to China and I was particularly struck by the stories about the current cultural structure they have. They are currently in a transition from communism (where – at least in theory – everyone is provided what they need, but no one really owns anything) to capitalism (where people earn money based on their work and their job and use that money to buy whatever they need or want – or just stockpile it). Since this is a rather extreme mix, they've ended up with a fascinating mash-up of the two, with an odd class system in the middle.

            In the cities live the “citizens”, who have money, rights and all those sorts of things. They own and rent property – although the prices are extremely high and the spaces are small – and function much as we in the Western world would expect.

            On the other hand, out in the country live the “peasants” – mostly farmers who are paid very little and own nothing. Yet, at the same time, they live in houses free of charge and often these homes are nicer and have more space than those of the privileged “citizens”.

            In this system, the “peasants” who work very hard and sacrifice much can buy their way into being a “citizen” – the tour guide was one of these and had made the proud step with much hard work and with the help and sacrifice of his parents. The people seem very proud of their transition into capitalism.

            What I found most interesting about the current state of the system is how close it currently is to ancient Rome. There they had slaves. There were rules about how they could be treated and at a certain age they could be released. They even (at least legally) had the ability to save up money to buy their way to freedom and possibly even a citizenship (if I'm remembering correctly).

            The sad part, though, is that with the change to capitalism, China is starting to lose its artists. In a system where everyone is provided for equally, there is plenty of room for people to focus on developing talents and artwork – and beyond that, there is no need to charge for that art what it is really worth. Switching to a capitalistic system, the artists need to make an hourly wage for their work. With all the detail and care that goes into any given piece of art, it is rarely possible to sell it at a price where someone will actually buy it. So, the artists of a country largely defined by its art are slowly fading away.

            The same problem has struck in the farming community as well, causing a food crisis for the country. Many farmers are abandoning rice fields in favour of fishing, where there is much more money to be made.

            Hearing about this culture and its shift is very enlightening and inspiring to me as a writer, creating my own world and cultures. However, as a resident of this world, I can’t help but feel sad about it. The world leans so heavily towards capitalism, where money is valued above all else. There’s an emphasis on getting as much money as you can, regardless of whose toes you step on to get it. The worst part is that it gives the impression of working well, so many people get behind it and cheer it on – especially the people who have figured out how to make the system work for them and don’t see everyone left behind.

            But where would we be if everyone managed to get the system to work for them? What if all the “unimportant” minimum-wage workers suddenly up and vanished, having found a better way to live? Who would flip our burgers? Who would cash us out and stock the shelves in grocery stores? Who would grow the food?

            Capitalism is clearly not the way to go. They say money is the root of all evil and all you need to do is look at the world to know that it is true.

            What will work better instead? Honestly, I don’t know. I've put a lot of thought into it and every time I think I have a solution, I find a way that human greed will turn it against itself. But I keep hoping and thinking. Perhaps someday I will come up with the answer, or someone else will. Then it will be our turn for a cultural shift.

            Until then, all I can do is share my insights and hope that they might make a difference.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.