Dissecting World Building

            The creation of just about any fictional works – be it book, short story, movie, or game – begins with the world building. Certainly, some need less than others; a real world setting requires less than a fantasy setting, but world building still needs to be done to create a convincing world for any story to take place in. A world is a huge thing though – and the idea of building one can be daunting.

            So, how do you tackle building a world without investing years in it? Well, the first part is to remember that you don’t actually need to create a whole world – you just need to make enough of it to make it look like you have. Like the two-dimensional facades stereotypically used for movie sets, all you need is what the audience will see – plus a little bit extra to hint at so they think more had been done.

            Take characters, for example. Each character you intend to present needs to be well thought-out and designed to be realistic, but you only need to make the characters that will be part of the story. Creating the entire population of a city would be tedious an exhausting, so how do you make it seem like the rest of the world still exists? Throw in a few names, and references to events that take place outside the story. It could be as simple as a character commenting on a paper written by someone notable – you don’t have to worry about the identity of the person, or what the paper says, beyond what the commenter needs for their line. The details don’t matter – the fact that someone was given a name and did something noteworthy that has nothing to do with the story makes the world feel more real.

            The same works for places, and is even easier. Just make up a place name, like Drexa’s. The characters a talking, and someone comments on something that happened at Drexa’s, or perhaps suggest it as part of a list of places to go. The reader has no idea what the place it. A restaurant? A club? It doesn’t matter, because the characters know, and it makes the world feel bigger than it is.

            When world building, it’s important to keep to the essentials. What’s important to the story? What do you, as the writer, need to know to maintain consistency within the story? If you aren’t going to use it, don’t worrying about making it – all you need is a hint; enough to make the world seem like it has more depth.

            Of course, if you enjoy building the world and want to go ahead and flesh out every little detail, go ahead and do that, too! Just keep in mind that, if you start to get overwhelmed by the size of your creation, you can always step back and do less. There’s a reason for the saying, “Less is more.” If you ever find out you don’t have enough, you can always add more later – just make it one little piece at a time and, before you know it, you’ll have a healthy little world of your very own, ready for whatever use you put it to.

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.

Choose Your Story

            It’s easy to think of stories as universal concepts, because a story is a story. Isn’t it? But it really isn’t that simple – because it’s become clear, as we’ve developed more mediums for telling stories, that the enjoyment we get out of any particular story varies depending on the platform used to deliver it.

            Pick a book that’s been turned into a movie. Any book. With very few exceptions, the book s always considered to be better than the movie. This generally comes about in one of two ways: either the movie as accurate to the book, and just doesn’t measure up, or the movie is actually quite good, but is rife with inaccuracies that make a well-read viewer furious.

            The same can be said while translating into other mediums. Audiobooks are common now, but even still, there are some stories that are preferable to be heard aloud – in particular, those told skilled storytellers. Video games also need to have the story adapted for them to be enjoyable – and even within that sphere, there’s variety in what the story needs to be like based on the type of game delivery.

            This means that those who create stories must be aware of the needs of the delivery they intend. A book can be extremely detailed and complex – with an added depth granted from being able to see characters’ thoughts. A story designed to be told aloud requires simplification and a pacing designed to hold the audience captive, because they can’t go back to re-read details they missed. A movie can have much of the complexity of the book, but it needs to be paced faster – and the depth of knowing what characters think is limited to what can be shown in facial expressions. Video games need a story that is simple and interactive, as the focus is more on the journey through the story than the details themselves.

            For each medium, the story must be crafted carefully to meet the requirements of the audience. Does this mean you can’t present the same story on different platforms? Not at all. However, it does mean that you can’t pull a story from one medium and plug it into another and expect it to work – it needs to be altered and adapted to fit the appropriate style of storytelling.

            Keep this in mind whenever you are crafting a story. If you find it isn’t working out the way you thought it would, consider switching the medium before scrapping it.

            As for when you’re enjoying an adaptation of a story you love, remember that sometimes changes are necessary for the sake of entertainment. Besides, you already know the story – isn’t it better to have a new story? Sit back and enjoy the entertainment without the expectation that it be exactly the same as the story you already know; treat it as a new story and you may find yourself more satisfied with your entertainment.

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.

Foreshadowing

            My wife once told me that, when she was young, it used to amaze her how writers could put all that foreshadowing in their books and have all the loose threads come together at the end. It blew her mind – not to mention, disappointed her – when she got older and realized that writers could go back and add foreshadowing earlier in the book after writing the end.

            I think that foreshadowing is one of the most complicated aspects of writing, yet is one of the most important ones. How would you feel about reading a book where the masked villain is revealed at the end and... it’s someone you never even heard of before? What if you were reading along and got to the end of a book, only to discover that there was a whole other plot going on in the background that had nothing to do with the rest of the book, and that was never even hinted at? You’d probably be pretty disappointed. Surprised – but disappointed.

            I think the best-known use of foreshadowing is in the Harry Potter series. You know what I’m talking about. Or, if you don’t, go read the series and find out. If you read the series a second time (or have a very good memory), you’ll start seeing things from all the way back in book one that hint at the great reveal – and it’s truly amazing how much there is that connects.

            But, wait... there are 7 Harry Potter books (well, in the main series, at any rate) and the big reveal is in the last one – J.K. Rowling certainly didn’t have all the books completely written when the first was published. She didn’t have the option of going back to add those bits in. So, how did she do it?

            Well, it’s because there is more than one way to foreshadow. In this case, it was excellent planning. This big reveal was practically the whole point of the entire series – it was something that was planned from the beginning and, as such, it was easy for Rowling to put in. In this case, the hard part was keeping it subtle enough to not alert the readers.

            Of course, not all foreshadowing can be planned in advance. Sure, writers generally know how their books will end, but they don’t know all the separate elements – those are discovered along the way. Then, if needed, the writer can always go back and add them later, after completing the manuscript (but before publishing it).

            Yet, there is still another way to foreshadow, something that is almost a combination of the previous two. Writers can often foreshadow as they go. How? There are two ways. The first is simply having an idea of what’s going to happen in the story’s future, and spotting opportunities to drop little hints (usually accompanied by snickering behind a hand and statements like, “They’ll never catch this!”). The other is to link ideas backwards as you go along. A book being written is almost a living thing – it expands and grows as the author writes it, sometimes turning into something entirely different than was initially intended. A writer can keep in mind things they wrote previously in the book and be just as amazed as the reader when it turns out to be a hint later in the book. This is done much like guessing at what will happen next when you’re reading – only, as the writer, you get to decide what actually does happen. The writer writes something, uses it to make a prediction of what it could mean for the future, then makes it happen.

            So, Young Colleen wasn’t entirely wrong – sometimes writers do put the foreshadowing in as they go, and it can be very impressive. But, as with all skills, it’s important to remember that there’s more than one way of doing everything, and none of them is better than the other. The important part isn’t how you create the foreshadowing – what matters is having enough foreshadowing that when the reveal comes, the reader can put together all the pieces and feel like the story is plausible.

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.

Writing Life

Sometimes the words go down one sentence at a time,

Sometimes they go in leaps and bounds.

Sometimes you drag the words from the depths of a chasm,

Sometimes you wonder where they’re coming from and if they’ll ever end.

But the words keep on coming.

There are times when the words are good,

There are times when the words are bad.

There are times when you think the words are the best you’ll ever write,

Only to come back later and hate them.

But the words keep on coming.

A time will come when you must read the words,

You must judge their merit and change them.

A time will come when you must destroy the words,

When you must give up on rearranging them.

But the words keep on coming.

After an eternity the words will be complete,

The pages filled and grammar thrice-checked.

After an eternity you can see the end,

At last, perhaps, you can rest.

But the words will keep on coming.

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.

Timeless Fantasy

            I’ve often pondered over why I enjoy the fantasy genre so much. The reasons I find are numerous, but there is one aspect that stands out: Timelessness. Fantasy, well written, has the potential to last forever.

            Before I continue, I’ll add a disclaimer saying that this is a blog based on my particular reading preferences and – in spite of what it may seem like – I am not saying other genres are horrible; I’m merely using them as a basis for comparison.

            Books come and go, and part of the reason when a book goes is how well people can understand and relate to it. This means that within sixty or so years of having been written, books based in modern times are out of date – because society and technology changes so incredibly fast. If my parents were to write a book about their teenage years, I would be able to understand it, but everything was so much different by my teens that I wouldn’t relate. Likewise, if a modern day teenager (in a generation where everyone has a smartphone) read a book I wrote based on my teen years (around the time when only about half the teens had cell phones – flip or slide, rather than smart), they would find they had a very different life experience. Most of them wouldn’t have a chance with my parents’ book containing record players, cassette tapes and stuff I don’t even understand.

            Science fiction, on the other hand, is based in the future. It teaches people about a possible view of the future and other worlds. It’s fun and awesome, up until we pass the story in time, culture, or technology. Look at Back to the Future – now out of date because we passed the time when we were supposed to have hover boards and flying cars (yes, we have some reasonable facsimiles, but not what we were expecting). On the other hand, there’s the early Star Trek which, while doing very well for when it was made, had a culture that we have advanced beyond.

            Fantasy differs from other genres in one major aspect: it is deliberately taking people to another world, and therefore assumes that people need to be taught about that world. A lot of time and effort is put into teaching about the fresh world and cultures, without making any assumptions. As such, it never goes out of date – assuming, of course, that the writer hasn’t allowed too much of their culture to leak into their work.

            Historical fiction, of course, comes close to fantasy for timelessness. Once again, it is taking people to a place that it’s assumes they don’t know much about and, as such, it teaches them. Of course, with a subject much closer to home, it is easier to make assumptions that the readers will know certain things, which could cause the story to get out of date.

            So, as you can see, fantasy has the best ability to last forever. Will The Hobbit ever go out of date? I think not. That said, it’s still possible for books from other genres to last throughout the ages. Perhaps more of them could do so if they were created with the specific intent to do so; written in a way that taught about the world without making assumptions. However, I believe that fantasy is the only genre to which timelessness comes naturally.

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.

Rewriting

            Whenever you write a book, it’s always a good idea to have beta readers. After all, you need other people to read the book and tell you what they liked and disliked about it. More than that, they can help you edit. No one can catch every error, after all, so the more eyes, the better.

            Then, of course, you occasionally have a beta reader who makes a suggestion that drives you to do a complete rewrite of your book – such as the rewrite I’m working on right now.

            Rewriting is an interesting process. This is actually the first time I’ve done a full rewrite of a novel – several years ago I did rewrite the first chapter of the first book I wrote (it subsequently became two chapters), but nothing as big as this.

            When you rewrite, you basically have two options: you can start from scratch and hope anything worth keeping stuck in your head well enough to find its way into the new version, or you can constantly reference the old version to make sure you’re keeping everything you want.

            Oddly enough, what I’m doing sort of combines the two. The suggestion leading to this rewrite was based around the idea that I should split the book into two (or even three!) full novels – one for each of the main characters I was working with. The idea intrigued me, but it also drastically altered sections of the plot. However, the more I thought about it, the more I liked what I could do with it.

            And so, I began the rewrite, which involved mixing whole new scenes with some of the old ones. As such, when I’m able, I reference what was happening before to ensure I get the important details and my favorite wordings, yet there’s a lot of time spent writing entirely new content. So far, the results are good – although, it seems I may have a tendency to expand each chapter into two when I’m rewriting.

            It is a tedious process – it’s like writing a whole book over again, when you already wrote it once. Yet, even a short ways in, I could already tell that the new one was an improvement over the old. So, with that alone, I can say rewriting is worth the trouble. By the time a book gets published, you want it to be the best it can be. If that involves writing the same book multiple times, so be it. The end result will be worth it.

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.

Introvert Vacation

            It’s been a very long time since my last vacation – three years, I think. Well, I guess now the counter is down to one day, since Colleen and I just got back from a lovely two-week vacation (you didn’t even notice I was gone, did you?) up in Collingwood, Ontario.

            We stayed at a place called Georgian Manor, about a ten minute walk (if you don’t mind crossing a busy road) from Georgian Bay in one direction and the Georgian Trail in the other. It didn’t take long for me to suspect that there was a theme for naming things in the region.

            Now, some people, when they go on vacation, go looking for a place with resorts, theme parks, and loads of things to do. For this vacation, though, Colleen and I were looking for a nice, quiet, relaxing time that would be perfect for a couple of introverts like us. Instead of looking for things to go out and do, we brought along a bunch of books, movies, crafts, and games. It was wonderful – we got to work on a lot of projects that we never seemed to have time for at home.

            We weren’t entirely reclusive, either. Every day we managed to get out for a walk – most of the time the weather was good for it. Sometimes we drove to one of the parks by Georgian Bay, were there were plenty of pokestops so we could play Pokemon Go as we walked (and we met up with some local friends one day), and other days we walked to the Georgian Trail – a complicated procedure, because the trail that led to it was quite waterlogged. Luckily someone had provided stepping stones and planks for the most impassable areas, but even so we had to turn back a couple of times after it had rained.

            The first morning though, after we had awoken early almost early enough to watch the sunrise (some hours early than we were used to waking up – but, oddly, the early rising persisted throughout the vacation), we walked to the park closest to where we were staying. We only walked there once, because we needed to cross a busy road to get there, but that morning we were up early enough that there was almost no traffic.

            It was a pretty little park, and we never even would have found it if it hadn’t been for the pokestop that led us there. It had a fantastic view out over the Georgian Bay, of which we took a few pictures.

            Being who we are, the vacation wasn’t entirely work free, of course. I had brought along a commissioned scalemaille shirt to work on as one of my crafts. This turned out to be quite fortunate, as the person who the shirt was for had family in Collingwood, and leaving it with them would save us six hours of driving to deliver it normally. That put a little pressure on to get it done before we left, resulting in a blister on the palm of my hand (and a nasty pliers-stab on my thumb), but I think it was worth it.

            There’s not much else to tell. A chorus of frogs sang us to sleep each night. Overall, it was quiet, fun, and relaxing – exactly what a vacation should be.

To finish off, here are some pictures of the wildlife that frequently visited us, right outside our back door.

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.

No Title

            Apparently my brain is mush today, so I’m just going to start typing and see what happens. I haven’t even left writing my blog as late as I usually do. It must have to do with being so social lately – it’s amazing how tired that makes me.

            So, let’s see. How do we do this? Words. We need words. Not just individual words, but strings of words forming some semblance of coherent meaning. Put them onto the page by pushing these little buttons. It’s quite a brilliant system, really. Much better than that staining of paper with ink or graphite thing. Neater, at any rate. And far more efficient than carving or painting rocks.

            It’s kind of symbolic, really. Words, sentences, paragraphs and such. Books are made out of loads of paragraphs, which are a bunch of sentences, each made of many words, which in turn are made out of several letters. Every big thing mage out of smaller things which are made from even smaller things. Just like everything in the universe.

            Galaxies. Solar systems. Planets. Countries. Cities. Communities. Families. People. Atoms. Molecules.

            Everything is put together from smaller things, working together to make a whole. Fascinating.

            There, I seem to have done it. Words on the page. Now I just need a title. Or do I?

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.

Hivemind

            So, I’ve talked before about the editing process I go through each time I finish a book. With my latest complete book, this has been added to slightly and I thought I’d share some of the interesting things I’ve learned.

            Now, as mentioned before, my editing cycle usually goes: I edit, my wife edits and fills in the spaces I’ve left for her, I edit, then I send it off to my parents (my mom line-edits, my dad gives me content feedback), then I edit again. This time I decided to reach out to a larger group of beta-readers, adding a few more layers to my editing.

            Why did I decide to do that this time? Three reasons – the first is that I have way more confidence in this book than any of my previous ones (I’m really happy with it! It’s very rare for any writer to actually be happy with what they’ve created), the second is that one of my dad’s coworkers asked to read my latest couple of books and he gave me some really important feedback on how some world building seemed absent from the book – something missed by everyone else because they’d read my previous books set in the same world. The third and final reason is that I was trying something risky with this book (it’s a secret!) and I needed a wider pool to test if it was working.

            I haven’t collected back in all the feedback yet, but what I have heard has shown me some interesting things. Because I’m getting feedback from so many more people than usual, I decided that, rather than go through the book with each set of editing suggestions, I would compile them all in one place. This way, I can compare the suggestions from multiple people and – best of all – see where they overlap.

            Of course, everyone is providing feedback on a level they are comfortable with – some just give feedback on content, some line edit, and some do both. As I’m adding in all the editing suggestions together, it’s fascinating to see the overlaps. Sometimes, multiple people suggest exactly the same edit (which is really cool to see, even it’s usually typos). Other times, I end up with multiple solutions to the same problem – which is really helpful because, not only do I have multiple suggestions to choose from, but it highlights when several people get caught up on the same thing that I might otherwise pass off as something of opinion or taste.

            Just as fascinating is seeing what different people catch. This is most obvious with typos – it’s easier to forgive myself for the number of typos that slipped by my notice when I’m seeing some editors catching typos that other editors missed.

            As for that risky thing I mentioned – that is the neatest thing of all to see. So far I’ve received the same feedback across the board on it (except from the one speed reader, who I believe missed the key introduction). Overall, everyone understood what I was doing and approved (though one, while approving the concept, did question the necessity of it and we had a great conversation on the topic), but they all had trouble with one minor, easily changed aspect of it. This was exactly the feedback I was looking for and now I can make the essential changes. I know, I know, I’m being cryptic and you have no idea what I’m talking about – you’ll just have to wait for the book to get published so you can read it.

            So, the moral of the story is that having a large pool of beta-readers to help improve your book is a wonderful thing. I’m so glad I reached out to more people than usual.

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.

Overuse of Suspense

            Lately I’ve been seeing a trend in a lot the shows I’ve been watching. It is the overuse of suspense.

            Suspense is an incredible tool for any form of entertainment. It’s what keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, engaged, and coming back for more. However, like all tools, it must be used in moderation.

            Unfortunately, the TV world is run on ratings – to get those ratings, as many people as possible need to be watching the show. What’s the easiest way to get people watching? Suspense. Putting a cliff-hanger at the end of every episode is a sure-fire way to keep the audience interested – and talking about – the show until the following week or season.

            But then the suspense begins to lose its effectiveness. The audience starts to expect it and not only does it stop compelling them to come back as much, it becomes... well, boring. Predictable. The moment everything is seeming to work out, the audience already knows that something terrible is about to happen. The urgent desire to find out what happens next is replaced by an exhausted, “What, this again?”

            When I was learning about suspense for my writing, I picked up one very important tip: give the audience a break sometimes. It is essential when working with suspense, because otherwise the suspense has the opposite effect from what was intended. I good tip for making a plot interesting is to chase your character up a tree and then throw rocks at them, but there’s one very important thing to remember: sometimes, the character has to succeed. If there are no victories, there’s no hope – and hope in impossible situations is what really keeps the audience engaged.

            The other thing to remember is that suspense can be subtle. Everything can turn out well at the end of an episode or chapter and the audience will still come back for more if there are questions left unanswered. There doesn’t always have to be a cataclysmic, plot-wrenching disaster.

            So, use suspense, but use it in all of its forms. Apply it with a brush, not a roller.

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.

Inked: A Digital Review

            Inked, by Eric Smith, is a book I bought back in December with the intent to suck up to the author – who happens to be a literary agent (and by suck up, I mean research his tastes through seeing what he writes). Although, in truth, what sold me the most was the presence of moving tattoos in the book. Those lucky few of you who’ve read my first few books will be familiar with the creatures in my world known as ink sprites – basically, living tattoos. I was intrigued to see what a different author would do with a similar concept. I was not disappointed – I love how similar ideas can branch out to have such different results.

            Inked is set in a world where everyone, once they come of age, are tattooed with a magical ink that will show them what profession they will have for the rest of their lives – a florist might have flowery tattoos that grow and wilt with the seasons, while a smith could look to have trails molten metal coursing across their body. Naturally, Caenum is nervous about discovering his destiny as the time for his Inking approaches. The last thing he expects is for a catastrophe to strike his village, sending him and his lifelong friend Dreya on a magic-filled journey that will reveal the dark secret of Ink.

            Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It pulled me through, wanting to find out more about this fascinating world. I found the adventure to be fun and entertaining and the writing was excellent – I often struggle to read books written in first person (my brain has trouble focusing on that POV for some reason), but with this book I had no such problems.

            The characters were deep and interesting, but at the same time I felt they were a bit erratic. There were a few times throughout the book that characters behaved in a way that, to me, felt out of character – it could be the writer in me, but I felt like they were making choices or having extreme emotional reactions solely for the purpose of moving the plot forward. I would have been accepting of this as a character trait in one, maybe two, of the characters, but it was a bit too common and each time it happened I felt distracted from the story.

            There were also a few points when I was slightly confused by minor things in the environment. I loved the imagery of the Inked horse, but at the same time couldn’t help wondering if a horse’s tattoos would be visible through its fur. There was also a point where I had understood there to be snow on the ground, but suddenly there wasn’t. I’m not certain if it was a continuity thing, or simply that the change wasn’t clearly established.

            The plot itself flowed well and was entertaining. There were no surprises for me, but that’s because when I’m reading I’m always working out what is going to happen next. To me, no surprises means the author did a good job with foreshadowing – which he did. The plot twists were excellent and well-timed.

            All in all, I would recommend this book, especially to people who love interesting and well-designed worlds. And sneakily hidden pop culture references. Shame on you, Eric. Shame.

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.

We Need Diversity

            Something I see talked about a lot in the online writing community is getting accurate diverse characters written into books (people of different ethnicities, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, etc). Why? To ensure that everyone from every background and belief has characters they can relate to and, more importantly (in my opinion), to show people how much variety there is in the world and make them more accepting of people different than themselves.

            This is actually something that is very challenging to, for several reasons. The biggest challenge is fighting the social conditioning we have that leads to us simply using stereotypes – we’re exposed to them through all the media that’s out there already. Many of the books that inspire current authors are written either with an absence of diverse characters, or with them represented in stereotypical ways. It’s far too easy to follow the well-trodden paths.

            Then there is fighting the comfort zone. We are brought up with many taboos, and some can be very uncomfortable to push past. How do we write about people with different colours of skin when we’ve been told all our lives that pointing out someone’s skin colour is racist? How do we write about a disability or a gender identity we haven’t experienced ourselves?

            That leads into the third challenge: research. Research takes a lot of time and energy. It’s so much easier to run with the stereotypes, or just avoid unfamiliar topics altogether.

            Yet, we live in a diverse world, and therefore we must push past all out boundaries to include everyone in our writing. Once we do that, we need to choose how to present this diversity: do we highlight it, by making the story about modern issues related to it, or do we blend them in and treat them like we would any other character?

            While there is a need for the first, I feel that the latter option is the most important for the future. There are many parts of society that have been characterized in certain ways, marginalized or outright abused throughout history. This had been built into our media – movies, shows, games, books – and many of them will last for generations to come. We’ve become aware of the problem, and it’s getting talked about more and more – but it won’t be solved until we stop talking about it and make it normal.

            What really needs to happen is for diverse characters to be added into the media, but without them being treated any differently than anyone else. By doing so, we normalize them, and by extension show future generations that not only is it normal for people to be different – but it’s perfectly okay.

            Gone are the days when everyone needed to be made with the same cookie cutter. As a society, we are moving closer and closer to accepting people for who they are. By allowing people to be true to themselves the world becomes a happier place. But we can never achieve complete acceptance until our sources of entertainment – which shape us and our ideas in more ways than we realize – represent diversity as normal. Diversity in media starts here and now, by making the extra effort to put it in and make sure it’s accurately represented.

            The world is a diverse place. We need to celebrate it, not stifle it, and make it perfectly normal to be whoever we are.

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.

Escape Attempt

            Last weekend I got to try something new and exciting – a rare occurrence for me. My wife and I went to an escape room with my in-laws. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

            For those of you who don’t know what an escape room is, it’s where you go with a team to this place where they lock you in a room and you have to solve clues and puzzles in order to escape.

            It was a fun and fascinating experience, although I can’t give you specific details because that’s part of the agreement – no spoilers for people who haven’t gone. In the hour we were locked in (it felt like about 15min), we rushed around, finding clues and solving puzzles. What I found absolutely amazing was that there was enough there to keep everyone constantly busy and contributing to escaping. Going in, I think that we all expected one person to be solving most of the puzzles while everyone else crowded around, but it was quite different. I don’t think a single task was completed that didn’t involve a group effort.

            The best comparison for it is a puzzle based video game (like Zelda) or books where the characters and/or you follow clues to solve mysteries – only you’re actually there and able to interact with absolutely everything. It’s amazing.

            Alas, we didn’t manage to escape in time and we ended up being blown up (that was part of the story for this particular escape room). However, I hear rumblings from the rest of the team that there is an intention to go back and actually escape this time. We’ll get you next time, escape room, next time...!

            So, yes, if you get a chance to go to an escape room, do it. It’s loads of fun and worth the trip (and this is coming from someone who thinks leaving the house once a week is a bit much).

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.

Habits

            It always astounds me how easily we get into habits. Or the things that can become habits, even when we are not expecting them to.

            Take writing, for example. I very deliberately developed a habit of writing every day. I made the decision to write every single day six years ago and I haven’t looked back. What I didn’t expect was the secondary habit I didn’t even notice I had until earlier this month.

            Once I finished writing my first book, I set a goal for myself to write a book every year. I managed it for the first five years, but last year I decided to switch it up a bit. I wanted to take the year to really focus on building the world I write in – developing people, places, cultures and maybe writing a few short stories.

I focused on that for about three months before I found myself with a book idea I just had to start right away. So, the new book took on much of my writing time until I had yet another idea. I focused on the world building around that idea, while still taking some time to work on the book until I’d developed the idea to the point where I was ready (and extremely excited) to start the new book.

            So, I did something I promised myself I would never do – I started the new book without finishing the previous one. What has all this got to do with habits? Well, I’m getting there.

            January rolled around and during my year of only world building I had a quarter of a book and a half of a book. However, for the last five years, January has been the time when I have started work on a new book. An idea started tugging at my brain – an idea for a book I’ve had for a while, but now my mind was trying to start writing it even though I have two unfinished books to complete first.

            That’s when it hit me. I’ve actually developed a habit of starting a new book in January. It is so ingrained in my brain that it tries to do it whether I want to or not.

            Apparently habits can be built into our systems on an annual calendar. I find it astounding to think our minds can pick up on something happening with such a large time gap in the middle and still make a habit out of it.

            Now I must go resist starting a third work in progress.

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.

Three Years of Blogging!

            Three years of weekly blogs! Wow, and to think I even said from the start that I might have to cut down to less frequent posts. I’ve considered it numerous times, but for some reason I just keep puttering on and finding something to blog about. Of Dice and Glen has helped a lot, taking the pressure off one week of the month. Perhaps I should designate another monthly post as something, like book reviews... I’m not sure I can get my hands on enough books for that, though.

            Anyway, it’s been a good three years here in the blogosphere. Sure, I’ve had some off weeks, but who doesn’t? I’ve covered everything from running a small business to philosophy – I even sneak a peek at world events sometimes. Hmmm, no sports though... unless LARPing counts. I’m gonna say it does, since that’s the closest I’m likely to get.

            So, here’s to 2016 and another year of fantastic (well, at least some of the time) blogs! Happy New Year, everyone. I think this’ll be a good one.

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.

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.

Editing Out Loud

            A long time ago, I came across a suggestion to edit my books by reading them aloud. I neglected to do this for a long time for two reasons: I tend to avoid doing things that make sound, if at all possible, and I figured that there was no point since I read in my head as if I were reading aloud (slow, I know, but I get far more enjoyment out of reading that way).

            Then, I had a great idea. I often read books to my wife anyway, so why not read one of my books? Since she already helps me edit, it kills two birds with one stone.

            It works wonders. Reading a book out loud helps smooth out wordings that look fine on the page. More than that, it roots out typos far better – on the page, the mind can subconsciously correct them, allowing those careless errors to slip past unnoticed, whereas speaking them aloud focuses the attention more.

            So, that’s my latest writing tip for you. Find someone to read to and edit out loud. You won’t regret 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.