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.

Psychology, Sociology, and the Art of Manipulation

            Whether you are creating a book, a D&D campaign, a video game, movie, or any other type of game, there’s a particular skill set you need that is often overlooked: you need an understanding of psychology and sociology, and you need to have a knack for manipulation.

            Psychology and sociology are fairly self-explanatory. If you want to accurately represent people, and groups of people, you need to understand how people think. You also need to know how they behave when in groups, not to mention how groups as a whole act in various situations. You don’t have to study or research these in-depth, but at the very least you need a general understanding – be it an innate understanding, or one gleaned from study – or your characters and interactions won’t be believable.

            Manipulation, though? That sounds a bit strange, particularly since manipulating people is rather frowned upon. Yet, at the same time, it is essential – even expected by consumers – for a creator to have this skill, because it’s the ability to manipulate people that draws them into the story.

            An audience needs to be connected to the characters, which means the creator needs to know what buttons to push to get people to relate to the characters. From the very beginning, the story needs to draw people in – and this is done through manipulating people by instilling curiosity or some other emotion that will prevent them from turning away. And, throughout the plot, you want the audience to feel certain things at certain times – it keeps them interested and makes everything seem much more real. And all of that is done through manipulation.

            It puts a whole new spin on creators when you look at media from that perspective. Entertainment basically becomes the art of manipulating people. In many cases, this manipulation has been honed to a science, refined into a simple formula – but at some point, someone sat down and decided how best to manipulate people – for their own enjoyment, of course.

            I also feel like it puts a new spin on the connotations we have around manipulation. We look at it as a negative word, yet nearly all of our entertainment relies upon it. It’s almost as if there is nothing inherently negative about any particular skill – it is merely the use it’s put to that defines if it’s good or evil.

            Either that, or the entire entertainment industry is trying to control our brains for their own personal gain. I’ll let you decide for yourself.

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.

Roondar Nackle

            Meet Roondar Nackle. He is a forest gnome with some magical talent who enjoys nothing more than watching corpses decay. It may seem like an odd hobby, but for someone who may live up to five hundred years, taking a year or so to observe the process of a body turning to dirt seems totally reasonable.

            It’s probably a good thing that he’s more interested in the dead than the living, because the living tend to have no idea how to deal with him. It would be better if he was morbid and morose, because his constant enthusiasm and excitement when talking about corpses is rather unsettling. He tends to get a lot of vacant and confused looks, though those that know him well have discovered that the best way to avoid his decomposition lectures is to point him in the direction of a dead animal they saw recently.

            Roondar is a character I made for playing in a D&D campaign that, sadly, didn’t last that long. However, I’ve recently joined another game that is allowing me to play him again – my hope is that this time, I’ll be able to explore him to his full potential. However, this isn’t really a blog about D&D; this is about that picture up there.

            About a year and a half ago, I decided to start working on several tasks every day to improve skills that I wanted to develop. One of said skills was drawing. I used to thoroughly enjoy drawing as a child, but at some point I felt my skills had reached a plateau and – that plateau not being particularly high, I stopped. However, I never stopped wishing I could draw – so, at last I decided that what I lacked in talent, I would try to make up for with practice and skill.

            I wasn’t certain I would get anywhere with it, but I knew I’d never find out if I didn’t try. So, I started working on drawing exercises. Every single day, I spent some time drawing, constantly moving on to the next task and training my hand to actually draw what I wanted it to. I very rarely attempted anything outside of the various drawing tutorials or exercises I found.

            When I resurrected Roondar for a new D&D campaign, I decided it was time to attempt an original piece – no model, no tutorial, just something straight from my imagination to paper. It took some work, and I still had to reference some of my earlier exercises for proportions and such, but I at last completed something that I was happy enough with that I was willing to share – and I was delighted to see that my efforts had finally paid off.

            Roondar here is the result of a year and a half of drawing daily – only spending between 10 and 45 minutes on each of those days. Looking at how little time that is in the grand scheme of things, I’m quite happy with how far my drawing skills have come. Soon I’ll have to stop claiming that I can’t draw.

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.

Interpreting Reflections

            Art holds a mirror up to the world. It takes what the artist sees in the world, changes around a bit, then shows the artist’s interpretation of the world to those who view, read, hear, and even taste or smell it. Sometimes it’s merely a reflection for the sake of entertainment, and other times it has deeper meanings – bordering on educational. It’s one of the great things about art, as combining entertainment with education is the most effective way to teach – and, being open to interpretation, art allows people to come to their own conclusions. Yet, sometimes I wonder if we artists reflect too much.

            When artists set out to create deep, meaningful interpretations of the world that allow them to share their ideas and revelations with others, they take the elements of the world they want to showcase and make them very prominent in their work. The idea is often to say, “Hey, look at this! Does it remind you of anything?” and then proceed to show the observer why it is good, bad, or sometimes just to get them thinking about it. It is a marvelous form of education, but sometimes we have to stop to consider... What exactly are we teaching?

            Back in highschool, an English class assignment was to examine the lyrics of a song and interpret the meaning of it. One of my classmates chose a song that I was amazed the teacher even allowed to have the lyrics shown for his presentation. However, as he went through the song, he was representing it as a satire – a commentary on a particular type of lifestyle rather than, as it appeared to me, bragging and lauding said lifestyle. Until then, it never would have occurred to me that the song was satirical – and that’s where we hit a major flaw.

            What happens when something is intended to be satire, and people interpret it as real? What happens when commentary is interpreted as praise? What happens when metaphor is taken to be literal? What happens when an artist is just making art and people are convinced it’s full of deep meanings?

            What ends up being learned isn’t always what was intended – and learning wasn’t even necessarily intended in the first place. However, learning is what humans do constantly – we take in our surroundings and interpret and learn from them. We don’t even know we’re doing it half the time. We just keep absorbing and absorbing....

            So, when an artist presents to us the world as it is, highlighting the flaws, some people will see what the artist is saying and learn from it – maybe even help the world to change and grow. Others may see it and simply disagree, while others will miss the point entirely. Often what will happen is that people will see it as just a straight up statement of “This is how it is!” which they will take to mean it’s normal, which is the most dangerous view of all.

            By showing the world as it is, artists can inadvertently reinforce the very flaws they seek to highlight. The art reflects the world, and the world – upon seeing its reflection – says, “This is how it should be,” or perhaps, “This is how it is, and there’s nothing to be done about it.” Then the art is no longer teaching us about the flaws in the world; it is teaching us to make all the same mistakes of the past.

            It makes me wonder what the difference would be if there was a dramatic shift in art – from reflecting the world as it is, to reflecting the world as it could be. What changes might be wrought in our society if, rather than displaying and normalising how everything is, art showed us how the world could be? I suppose it’s possible that it could do nothing. On the other hand, it might make all the difference in the world.

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.

The Art of Writing

            All you need to start is one word. Just one. In fact, you don’t even need that – you could start with a single letter, although that is much more difficult if you don’t know what to follow it with.

            You take that one word – or letter, as the case may be – and follow it with another, stretching it out onto a sentence. If you want to get fancy, you can even add some punctuation, making it a compound sentence.

            Then, you do it again, adding a second sentence, then a third. (It is always a good idea to vary the sentence length.) Before you know it, you have a paragraph and you’re ready to do it all over again.

            Except, this time, the words and ideas are different. Just as the paragraph after that – and after that – are different.

            It doesn’t have to be perfect. The words can be changed later; the grammar fixed; the ideas altered. The act of writing is the important part. You aren’t chiseling it into stone – the details can always be changed.

            Just take it one step at a time – one word at a time. It happens faster than you think. You have a blog post. A chapter. A short story. A book.

            Writing is more than a skill. It is an art. It takes practice. It takes time. But when you’re finished, you have something you can be proud of – because, if you aren’t proud of it, that just means it isn’t finished yet.

            All it takes to start is one letter. One word. One sentence. From there, it grows and builds momentum until it is complete.

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.

Bountiful Harvest

            Normally it’s a challenge for me to figure out what I want to blog about, but this week I kinda have the opposite problem. I want to write about garlic, but I don’t know what to say about it.

            Why garlic, you ask? Well, because over the past week or two I was helping to harvest garlic and hang it to dry. You see, a couple years ago, my mother-in-law decided she wanted to try her hand at growing garlic. So she did her research, prepared her fields, obtained a few different varieties of garlic, and planted them. Last year produced her first harvest, and we got to taste-test the fresh garlic (my favourite part).

            Since everything turned out well, she planted more – much more. Thousands! Needless to say, I was rather excited about this. I’ve managed to dull my tastebuds to a point where the garlic flavor has to be very strong for me to notice it, and that should give you an idea about how much I like garlic. Who am I to object to such a large supply of garlic so close to hand? Sure, most of it is intended to be sold, but after all someone has to help with quality control.

            Of course, with so much more planted, help was needed to harvest the garlic fast enough. So, along with most of the family, I chipped in to help picking, bundling, and hanging the garlic to dry. And with testing the garlic, of course.

            A brief tangent (it’ll come back to the point, I promise), this year I’ve started teaching myself to draw – something I loved doing when I was a child, but that I gave up on before my age even had more than one digit. Up until now, my drawing has been... well, just take a look at the pictures in this ancient blogof mine. However, since January 22^nd this year, I’ve been drawing every day and, as a result, slowly improving. Much of that drawing has been following tutorials or copying out of instructional books, but on the day the garlic harvest was completed, I decided to arrange and draw some of the freshly picked garlic. I was so happy with the results that I’m even willing to share the picture with you!

            Hey, look! I figured out what to say about the garlic after all. But I think this must be where I end, because there’s not much else to say about garlic. Except that it’s delicious. And good for you. And it keeps vampires away. So you should eat lots of it, especially if you’re buying it from my mother-in-law.

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.

Artistic Judgement

            One of the fun (here, fun means “horrible”) things about being an artist – no matter the medium – is an inability to judge the quality of your own work. Or, rather, we can judge our own work, but we do so on a scale of Dreadful to I Guess It’s Kinda Okay.

            When I was just out of high school, and still fairly new to making chainmaille, I made a project that was my then-crowning achievement. It was a chainmaille vest made using a pattern known as elf-weave – one of the most complicated chainmaille weaves in existence. The shirt has over 100 hours of work in it, and looks great. But it has a flaw in it. Somehow, while I was making it, I managed to combine two rows into one, losing half a row.

            Even though the flaw isn’t visible to anyone not looking for it – and someone without excellent pattern recognition skills is unlikely to spot it – it is very hard to see. But to me, the creator, that tiny flaw is a horrible oversight, all but ruining the shirt.

            Talk to any artist and they’ll tell you similar tales. Ask them about a specific project and they’ll be able to tell you every flaw in minute detail. This line is out of place, that note was performed slightly off, and that part that goes in should have gone out but it couldn’t be fixed without destroying the whole thing.

            Each new created piece of artwork that manages to meet the artist’s approval is the best piece they’ve made to date – in fact, it’s so good, it makes all the previous pieces rubbish. Not that it’s any good....

            I think that this harsh self-judgement is part of what pushes artists forward, encouraging them to strive to improve their craft and make more projects. But, at the same time it’s disheartening, because nothing is ever good enough. People may shower our work with praise, but can’t they see that flaw right there? They must be lying.

            What is it that makes a creator so hard on their work? Seeing all the minute details that they had to be aware of in order to create it. An outside observer – even other artists – didn’t painstakingly draw each line, write each word, or link each ring together. As such, they look at the whole – the completed project. They don’t see the mistakes, because they have no idea that they are mistakes. They’re too busy being distracted by everything that was done right to notice what was done wrong.

            A valuable lesson that all artists should learn is how to step back from the project and observe it without their artistic lens. It is true that we must always strive to better our art, but sometimes we need to step back, look at the whole, and appreciate what we’ve accomplished. Otherwise we may forget how well we’re doing and give up.

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.

Knowledge Pools

            I’ve said before that writers need to be experts on everything. It’s true. That’s how books are convincing enough to hold people’s attention. Make one mistake and... well, you’ve seen how the internet responds.

            There are two directions that knowledge for a book can come from, though. The first, and more obvious one, is to look something up when you need it. Do you need to know how silk is made? Look it up. You want to know how far a horse can travel in a day? Look it up. Maybe make a chart, because you’ll need that again. If you want to know a creative way to kill someone, look it up – and hope the police believe that you’re an author.

            However, that doesn’t solve the question of what to write in the first place. If you don’t know what a volcano is, you’re hero isn’t going to make a heroic escape from an impossible situation involving being suspended over bubbling lava. Even if you don’t know the particulars of volcanoes, as long as you know they exist you can look them up when you need to.

            That means writers need to know as much as they can about the world so they can incorporate their knowledge into their books. To a certain extent, that can be done simply by observing the world around you. It isn’t a joke when you see those (usually threatening) posts about authors putting random people they meet into their books. That’s what writers do – absorb the world around them, mix it up, rearrange the pieces they like and create art.

            There’s only so far personal experience can go, though. If you limit yourself to that, you’re missing out on a whole world of inspiration (even if you have the ability to travel the world, there’s still only so much you can learn). So, we turn to other sources.

            Books are great. That’s why we write in the first place – we love books, so we want to make more books. However, reading takes time (especially for slow readers like me) and most people only read for either enjoyment or specific research. You can pick up on some unfamiliar topics there, but it still has its limits.

            So, over the last year, I’ve taken to watching a number of the documentaries available on Netflix – and they are a veritable fountain of knowledge. Watching through the Planet Earth series made me far more aware of natural phenomena in the world that I never would have considered building into my world before, but are now a big part of bringing amazing settings to my books. Characteristics of animals help me develop more believable fantastical creatures. The Ancient Balck-Ops series (which I watched on Saturday – yes, all of it in one day) gave me great insight into historical tactics, weapons, and cultures that immediately had by mind swimming with ideas for how to improve my world.

            Now, to be fair, documentaries play well to my lifestyle. I have plenty of time to watch them, since I’m usually watching something while working for my chainmaille business. Still, I’ve yet to find another source that delivers so much information in a short amount of time – teaching about so many new things that can be drawn on at your leisure, and researched if more information is required for your uses. Documentaries are a gold mine of knowledge and inspiration.

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.

Pizza and Brains

            It’s interesting, what sticks with you over time. It isn’t always what you expect.

            This week, for the first time in over three years, I returned to the pizza store where my wife and I used to work. Colleen had just been cured of lactose intolerance and we were celebrating with lots of cheese.

            We were both uncertain as to what would be dredged up in our memories as we returned. While it makes the best pizza we know of, that store was a source of great stress for both of us – so much so that it led us to quit, in spite of the fact that we generally enjoyed the work itself and were very attached to the place.

            Entering the store as a customer (for the first time), I expected to be flooded with reminders of all the negativity that led to me quitting. Instead, I was surprised to find that, instead, I was remembering all the good times I’d had there. A few of the more entertaining bad memories surfaced, but my mind just glazed over them. Colleen reported much the same. That’s nostalgia for you.

            It’s nice to get flooded with positive when you’re expecting negative. I wonder if that’s just how our brains work – with it being easier to remember the good than the bad, as long as it was from long enough ago. Hmm... Now I must do some research into that.

            Oh, and the pizza was excellent. Coming from someone who spent five years treating making pizzas as an art, that’s saying something.

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.

So You Want to be a Writer?

            There are two tips that you will come across repeatedly while doing research on writing, usually in conjunction with each other: read a lot and write a lot. More than anything, these are the two things that will shape all writers.

            The later is self-explanatory. “Write a lot” walks hand in hand with “practice makes perfect”. No one in the world can just sit down and write a perfect book the first time. Like any art, it takes time to learn not only skills, but how to tap into your innate talents and develop your unique voice.

            I, myself, am amazed at the drastic improvement I see in my own writing. Each time I complete a book, I find it hard to believe I wrote the previous one. A more tangible example is the best-selling author Terry Pratchett. All you have to do is read The Colour of Magic and compare it to any of his later titles. It’s hard to believe they were written by the same person.

            As for reading a lot, it seems to be obvious, yet at the same time it can often feel counter-productive. During the creative process, our brains naturally regurgitate what they've absorbed and it sometimes feels like we’re accidentally imitating someone else’s work. It does happen to a certain extent; I remember reading Christopher Paolini’s Eragon for the first time and being able to pick out some of his favourite authors (I looked it up later to be sure I was right). However, imitation is the first step in learning. When learning to speak, we imitate sounds before we understand the meanings of words. When learning to write, we learn the letters prior to understanding how they’re used.

            The benefits of reading when you’re a writer are endless. It’s important to know what else is out there, plus it’s a great source of inspiration. More than that, though, it is how writers learn and improve. As you begin reading books as author, you learn to look at them a new way. You take a step back from simply enjoying yourself and analyse deeper. If you find yourself drawn into a book, you ask yourself, why? What has this author done to affect me so? You look more closely at the characters to see how they’re made to seem realistic, at the plot to see how it progresses and twists, at the words to increase your vocabulary, and at the style to see what you like and dislike.

            Much of the time, the learning is on a subconscious level. Other times, you find yourself searching for the secret that makes a good book so good.

            I've recently started reading Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series and I came across something I've never seen before (or, at least, never noticed). A lot of authors build tension by keeping secrets from the reader. What’s that lurking in the shadows? Where is the villain? Who is the villain? Jordan did the opposite: he gave, what I felt, was too much information. It wasn't quite enough to tell exactly who the traitorous allies of the protagonists were, but it was enough to make me reasonably certain – while still leaving just enough doubt. It wasn't until characters were trustingly being led into what I was sure was a trap that I realized what he’d done. He’d given me enough information to guess the truth, but held back enough that I had to read on to be certain.

            And so, my repertoire of writing tricks grow, and I become a better author through reading. For those others out there aspiring to be writers, I shall reiterate the advice you will hear over and over again. Read lots. Write lots. You’ll amaze yourself at how much you improve.

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.

An Easy Fix for Writer's Block

            A lot of writers suffer from writer’s block. For me, it’s been a long time since I've had what I’d actually call writer’s block – I'm as close as I've been in a long time right now, but I'm still writing every day.

            Writing is an art. Because of that, most people wait for inspiration to strike to write and that makes it too easy for writer’s block to set in. That’s how I used to write and, because of that, I almost never got any writing done.

            Then I decided to put my nose to the grindstone and finish my first book. I decided that, to do that, I would write every single day. Six months later, I completed my first book. I kept writing, though, moving onto my next book. I'm on year six now, and I have written every single day (with the exception of one week in the first year when I was too sick).

            Now, that doesn't mean I wrote a lot every day. Sometimes it was just a sentence, or perhaps some editing. Sometimes, rather than working on my book, I worked on world-building – a very important part of writing.

            I think it’s easy to forget that, along with being an art, writing is a discipline. Most arts are. How do you get better at something? You practice. How do you make sure you complete a project? You work on it, even when you don’t want to.

            When I'm writing, I go through phases. Sometimes the words fly from my fingers. Other times, I struggle to figure out what happens next. The latter is as close to writer’s block as I get. Those are the days I write one sentence at a time. I keep writing and writing until my inspiration kicks in and my work takes off.

            Not only does the discipline of writing every day help me kick writer’s block, it helps me trudge through the parts of my books where I have no idea how to get from point a to point b. By forcing myself to write every day, I also force myself to create when I'm uninspired.

            After five years, I discovered that writing every day had become more than a habit. It has become almost an addiction. I was planning to take the year off from writing books to focus on further developing the world I write in. I very soon found myself wishing I had a book to work on.

            Then inspiration struck and I accidentally started a new book. I got through two and a half chapters before I hit the rough patch I'm currently struggling through. Yet, every day, step by step, I keep going.

            So, do you really want to kick that writer’s block? Start writing every day – no exceptions. Writer’s block won’t stand a chance against you and your project will be done before you know it.

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.

Why Not End War?

*Disclaimer* Remembrance Day is a pet peeve of mine and, while expressing my ideas on the subject, what I say can sometimes come across as saying that veterans do not deserve our thanks. This is not the case – I simply believe they should not be hero worshipped because that leads to others following in their footsteps and suffering as the veterans have (or falling in battle, causing their families to suffer). I also believe that Remembrance Day should be focused on remembering the tragedies of war so we can stop repeating our mistakes. Gratitude to those who have sacrificed for us should be a constant, passive thing, not something that dominates a day that was once – and should still be – dedicated to peace. If you have strong emotions related to this subject, you may want to stop reading now.

            One day I thought to myself, wouldn't the world be a much better place if every country in the world disbanded their armies and ceased production of all weapons? What a wonderful world that would be.

            Then I stopped to think about what would actually happen.

            According to Wikipedia, Canada has 104,150 people in militaristic jobs. The UK has 371,360. USA, 2,231,447. I started to add up all the countries, then decided it would take too long. I was at over ten million, though, and I’d barely scratched the surface. This doesn't even include the researchers or the people who make the weapons and uniforms.

            So, what would happen if the world did away with war and violence? Mass unemployment. Certainly some of those jobs could be repurposed, but there already aren't enough jobs to go around.

            Why not just have those people in reserve, trained and ready in case we are attacked? Because if no one is fighting, people begin to wonder why their taxes are paying all these people. So the soldiers are sent off to fight – and often to die, which (dare I say it) “conveniently” eliminates the excess population that the world doesn't have enough jobs for.

            It all becomes a great cycle then. We need war so we can employ soldiers so people can afford to eat. If we eliminate war, the whole economy comes crashing down around our ears.

            Like many others, I dream of a world at peace, but it will never happen unless we drastically change the way our economy works. My vote is that we stop siphoning money off of arts programs and we flood the world with artists.

            That is something I’d like you to think about this Remembrance Day (or whatever November 11^th is in your country). I’d like you to think about how much society pressures us into remembering and thanking veterans, how we are taught that they are heroes so that more of us will follow in their footsteps.

            I want you to think about all the lives lost or ruined because we don’t know how to make the economy work without war. What a waste.

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.

The Hobbit Book Review (Sort of)

            I guess this isn't really a review because, let’s face it, The Hobbit really doesn't need any reviews. If I even have to tell you it was written by J.R.R. Tolkien, chances are you’re reading the wrong blog. So, I guess this is more like my thoughts on the book rather than an actual review.

            Naturally this isn't the first time I've read this book and it most certainly won’t be the last. I think I was in the area of five years old when my dad read The Hobbit to me and my brother. I loved it, in spite of the recurring nightmare it gave me (Smaug chasing me and my family – actually, when the dragon attacked in the movie, it was almost identical to my dreams. Well done, Peter Jackson). It is, to this day, one of the greatest stories I've ever read.

            It isn't just the story itself that has made this book so great, but the writing. Tolkien’s style in this book has personality. It’s more than just words on a page, its storytelling. The book reads as if Tolkien is sitting there in front of you, a fire crackling in the fireplace while he tells you this beautiful tale.

            As I read the book this time, marvelling at how wonderful and enjoyable it was, I came to notice something that I find to be very sad.

            No one would publish The Hobbit in this day and age.

            It all comes down to the writing and what is expected of us as authors. If you look up writing tips, Tolkien goes against a great many of the ones you’ll find.

            We’re supposed to use “said” all the time. No more dwarves grumbling what they say or Bilbo squeaking when he’s frightened. Apparently readers’ eyes just skip over the “said”s and similar. Personally, I read every word in a book and there’s nothing quite as bland as seeing nothing but “said”.

            Exclamation marks! We’re not supposed to use too many exclamation marks. They lose their effectiveness if they’re used too frequently, it’s true, but the amount they’re supposed to be cut out is unbelievable. Used properly, exclamation marks change the entire tone of a sentence, the feel of the book. You wouldn't believe how many of them Tolkien uses! I agree with moderation, but these days they’re becoming extinct.

            Adjectives. Descriptive words. We’re supposed to avoid them. Some people take this too literally and say to never use them. Instead of a nice word that gives clear and definitive meaning to something, we’re supposed to use excessive space to describe the specific characteristics of those words. To me, that’s a waste of time for both the writer and reader if every time someone waves excitedly their hand waves back and forth in blur with a grin on their face. Tolkien uses adjectives all the time and very effectively. Again, it’s a case of using it in moderation, but elimination clutters the writing.

            So, on the off chance that someone decided to publish The Hobbit, they would first run it through editors to eliminate all these “problems”. I can’t say that I’d want to read the book once it came out the other end of that process. They’d take out the split infinitives.

            If you haven’t read The Hobbit before, you should. There’s never been a book like it before and there never will be one again until people stop clinging to guidelines as rules. Writing is an art and art is an expression of yourself. If you allow rules to remove your personality from your writing, can you still call it art?

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.

Artistic Life Choices

            The day after ConBravo!, a friend of mine commissioned a chainmaille shirt – the catch being that he wanted the shirt for an event that was next weekend. Because of the time required, both for production and for the materials to arrive, this posed an interesting challenge. Luckily, I had a few advantages in this situation: I had enough materials on hand to start the shirt, I have Colleen working with me to make chainmaille, and we both are making chainmaille full time.

            This got me thinking about the difference between people who are artists as a hobby and artists who are making a living off their art (or trying to, at least). The challenge with making money through art is getting paid for your time. That’s the biggest problem with every form of art – there is a lot of time involved. It has to be a labour of love.

            The result is that many artists undercharge for their work, because not many people are willing to pay even $200 for a painting with eighty hours of work in it. Yes, there a few people who will, but even if that painting is sold, the artist is only getting paid $2.50 per hour, and no one can live off of that.

            So, most artists use their art as a hobby, some of them making money on the side, while working a full time job. This limits their time to produce art, but it also provides them with a secure income. They can charge less for their work if they want to, but they don’t have as much freedom when it comes to rush orders.

            On the other hand, there are full-time artists – few and far between. They (or we) need to make a living off of what they sell, so they have to charge for the time invested in their products. Unfortunately, this means that prices are higher, but it also means that they have a lot more time to hone their craft, which in turn means more speed during production. The costs get lowered a bit, but still stay fairly high for larger projects.

            Chainmaille shirts are very large projects. I first started making chainmaille as armour. When I look back at the first shirt I sold, I am appalled that I sold it for $160. The materials alone cost $100, which means I was making about $1-2 per hour. On the other hand, I was still learning my craft and I was a high school student on summer holidays with no job.

            When I started looking into making chainmaille for a living, branching out into jewellery was almost mandatory. It’s simply because there are more people who will spend $15 on a bracelet that cost $3 in materials and took an hour to make than who will buy a chainmaille shirt for $600 that costs $120 in materials and took 40 hours to make. Especially when you can get one that was made with slave labour for $150 on EBay.

            Nevertheless, armouring is what I truly love about my art, so when opportunity knocks, I’ll answer. Here, being a professional artist pays off. The armour was needed within a time limit. There probably aren't any people out there with full time jobs that could make a full chainmaille shirt in under two weeks. My wife and I managed it in five days (well, six, but two of them were more like half days).

            Technically the shirt still needs a little more work on it that will have to wait until after the event – unfortunately my supplier was busier than usual and the materials for finishing it won’t arrive on time (the worst part is there’s only a few more hours of work to put into it). However, the shirt was complete enough and fully functional in time for the event – and if the materials had shipped when they normally would have, it would've been complete with all the bells and whistles as well.

            I was silly enough to hand off the shirt prior to getting a picture of it in its neo-complete form, however here’s what it looked like with 15 hours of work in it. It now has 42 hours and is much, much longer.

            Now, I don’t want you to take out of this that full time artists are better than part-time artists. We’re just a bit crazier and usually a bit hungrier. All arts are labours of love and deserve respect, attention, and purchasing.

            My instinct says I should end this blog with something along the lines of “Support artists”, but since you’re here and reading this, I don’t really need to, do I? You’re here because you support my chainmaille, my writing, or both – at least, I assume you do, otherwise I've got no idea why you could possibly be here.

            So, instead I’ll finish with saying, thank you for supporting artists. Especially me ;)

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.