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A place for pointless news and disjointed personal musings. |
| This blog is merely for tracking my progress and keeping my potential readers up-to-date on the things going on with my work. |
| I'm sure every writer has their own unique process for their writing. Maybe some people simply start from a basic concept and let the plot and characters all come organically as they write. Others might plan their stories out meticulously before they even think of actually starting to write it, or perhaps they only plan things out in the most bare-bones fashion. Perhaps the process even changes slightly from story to story, depending on what feels most natural at the time. Now, me personally? I'm definitely a planner. When I talk about my "plans" for my stories, I don't mean in my head. I have documents crammed full of meticulous notes on the plot, locations, and characters; file folders full of reference pictures and maps; hand-written timelines and graphs; anything I need to keep things in order in my head. Even The Krimson Traitor has a 2,300-word document full of notes dedicated to it, a file folder with over twenty reference images (mostly pictures of the animals), a hand-written timeline, and a hand-written family tree to help me keep the relationships between all the Krimson characters in order. All for a fanfiction. I don't know what's wrong with me. Then there's Mythryn, the original novel I'm planning next. I have a nearly 3,000-word document of notes, a folder with twenty reference images, and a full-colour hand-drawn map of the landmass it takes place in. Starwake (which is a prequel to Mythryn) was probably the closest I'll ever come to the free-balling "think of a concept and just write" process for story-writing, but even that was the beneficiary of all the prep-work I've done for Mythryn; the map and my notes on the Crescent Isle and its culture were all invaluable resources for writing that short story, even if the plot (if you could call it a "plot") all flowed organically from a base of "Ryn on a boat, about to leave home for Brass Valley." I do all of this because I need to in order to keep things organized. If I didn't write all the character and place names down, I might forget them. If I don't codify the plot and the way the world works, I might contradict myself and then have to waste time rewriting whole swaths of my story to fix the errors. If I didn't have a map to refer to, the world would likely wind up feeling vague and unreal. It may sound like work to plan everything out ahead of time like that, but for me, it's more likely to save time and work in the long run. I might publish my notes as a book collection once I've completed some larger projects. They could provide some interesting insights for someone. |
Hey, I just got done posting my first short story! It's also a prequel to that one novel I've been talking about my plans for, and starring a younger version of that novel's protagonist, so that's doubly good. This story is a bit of an experiment for me, though. Unlike most of what I've written so far and basically everything I ever plan to write, almost nothing extraordinary or particularly exciting happens. If you stripped away the talking animals and the old timey technology, this would basically be a story where a teenager boards the bus to go to college, chats a little with a stranger, feeds her pet, and contemplates her future plans. I had no idea I even could write a story like this, and I'm not entirely sure if I did it well or not, but it exists.  |
| I think it's pretty safe to say that people are flawed and fallible as a rule. They still tend to produce great works of art, or course, but even even the best works are more often than not rife with the flaws of their creators. So, to take a break from the general positivity I've tried to maintain in these blog entries (like, what have I actually criticized? Twilight and bad fanfiction? Those are easy targets), I think I'll undertake a very different sort of exercise; taking works and artists that I love with all my heart, and mercilessly picking apart their flaws. After all, nothing made by human hands can ever be perfect (except for the Portal games, anyway), and it's always healthy to recognize that something doesn't have to be flawless to be great. -Mouse Guard: Here's a fun drinking game; try reading every volume from start to finish, while taking a shot of vodka every time a character says "selfless," "greater good," or starts yammering on about how they "put the needs of all mice ahead of their own." Or better yet, don't, because you'll probably wind up in a hospital bed in a coma before the night's over. I don't drink, though, so the worst that I ever get is achy eyes from all the eye rolling I have to do. Still my favourite comic series, though. -Richard K. Morgan: This is probably my favourite contemporary author, but there does seem to be one problem that's consistent across almost everything I've read by him; Richard Morgan does not know how to write sex scenes. Now, I don't consider myself particularly prudish (if I was, the Scissor Sisters probably wouldn't be one of my favourite bands), and I'm definitely not opposed to sexual content in my literature as long as it's not all there is to the story, but there just always seems to be something... Off-putting about how this guy writes about sex. He might be getting better about it, though; I actually kind of liked (or at least didn't mind) most of the sex scenes in The Cold Commands. -Redwall: Ignoring specific books (I could probably talk all day about why Eulalia! and Loamhedge are terrible), there are a couple of issues I have with the series as a whole. Firstly, there isn't much of a sense of continuity throughout the series. I'm not even talking about all the world elements that only showed up in the first book and then got dropped, like horses, cattle, and real-world locations; Brian Jacques probably didn't know exactly know exactly where he was going to take the setting, and ultimately decided that those things didn't fit with what he wanted it to be. That's reasonable, as far as I'm concerned. But beyond that, important world details (like whether or not there's a mountain range between Redwall and Salamandastron) tend to change from book to book fairly regularly. There also isn't much in the way of world-building in this series, so I have a difficult time getting a sense that this world could ever actually function as a real place. Nothing could ever change how important or fun this series is to me, but these are still flaws. -Guardians of Ga'Hoole: As a fun, fantastical beast fable about racism, these books are wonderful. But did you know that owls actually poop; or that eagles, sea gulls, hawks, and crows cough up pellets too; or that many of the family corvidae (crows, ravens, and magpies) are some of the most intelligent and social birds alive? If your knowledge of ornithology mostly comes from these books, then you probably didn't. Which is a particular shame, because this is a series that seemed to be intended as a great way to "learn about birds," when it's honestly only slightly more biologically sound than Redwall (the series where foxes appear to be roughly same same size as mice and weasels). -The Secret of NIMH: This movie is an amazing, gorgeous, wonderful mess. Most of the problems with this movie stem from that silly magic amulet, and every one of them could have been cleared up by just a few lines of dialog about where it came from and why it's important ("Jonathan meant it for you" is about the extent of what we get for backstory). But, nope; it's just an inexplicable magical macguffin haphazardly wedged into the plot, presumably in order to provide a more visually impressive climax. Well, that was fun. I might have to do this again some time, but maybe focusing on video games instead. I love video games, but most of them have lots of flaws to pick out (again, except for Portal; Portal is perfect). |
| I got to take another trip to Barnes & Noble today, and came away with two tasty little fantastical treats to tide me over for the time being; The Rogue Crew by the late, great Brian Jacques, and The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. I have some... Complicated tastes (like, have you even seen the "Favorite Music" section of my biography? I'm pretty sure liking Jonathan Coulton and Velvet Acid Christ at the same time should be physically impossible, but I managed it). My reasons for getting The Rogue Crew are pretty simple; it's one of the only two Redwall books I haven't gotten around to reading yet. Once I've gotten through with this one, then I'll only have Doomwyte left to go and I'll have finally completed the entire series. It'll be kind of sad once it's over, actually; the feeling of browsing through my school library and picking out a new Redwall book to read is definitely one of the defining aspects of my childhood... I guess at least I have The Krimson Traitor, so I can try my hand at continuing the magic myself. As for The Blade Itself, well, I mostly picked that out because I need some gritty low fantasy to sate my appetite until The Dark Defiles gets a release, and I've seen tons of praise across the internet for the First Law books, so I figured I'd give it try. I guess I could have finally gotten the third Song Of Ice And Fire book instead, which I'm sure would be great in its own right, but I'm honestly more in the mood for something with a little more excitement on top of the grittiness. This book seems like it'll fit the bill nicely. |
Oh, look. Chapter 4 of The Krimson Traitor is up. It only took like two weeks of delay thanks to those stupid short stories!  As for the short stories that created the delays, those are still in progress. I hope to have them done soon, but for now, enjoy what I have to offer from the wonderful world of Redwall. I do quite like how this chapter came out, even if it did take way too long to write. |
| Here's an interesting question to ponder: Why write stories about animals? Maybe that seems like an obvious answer ("'Cause animals are awesome!"), but to a theme-conscious author, there's definitely a lot more to it than simply loving animals or trying to appeal to my animal story-loving inner child (though that's all definitely a factor). First, I'd like to talk a little about what it really means to use animals in place of people as characters in a story. Now, a while back, I was looking through the personal blog of Sean Rubin (the artist who did the chapter illustrations for the last few Redwall novels), and one entry in particular stuck out to me, entitled "Redwall: On Racism In Animal Stories." I'd like to borrow a quote from that particular post, since it illustrates the point I'm about to make about as well as I ever could: "I see and hear a lot of discussion of Brian Jacques' use of animal species in the Redwall stories, and how the "inherent" evil of stoats, rats, ferrets, and other "vermin" amounts to a kind of racism implicit in Brian's writing. Unfortunately, this reading ignores the nature and tradition of the animal stories from which Redwall descends. Foxes in Redwall aren't devious because they're foxes, they're foxes because they're devious. A dirty rat is a dirty rat because he's a dirty rat. And while Brian was neither a satirist nor a preacher, there is a strong moral element to Redwall, where wits and compassion always trump naked force and selfishness. Brian insisted this was the reason mice were his first heroes. Children, who are small and often controlled by others, can relate to mice. Matthias's victory over Cluny is about a kid having more heart and brains than a bully." In short, animal stories aren't truly about animals at their core. Animal stories are just as much about humans as any other, but they use the traits either natural to or popularly associated with various animals to illustrate some larger human issue. If the practice of making certain animals inherently evil in these stories is irresponsible in any way, it won't be because it "promotes racism," it'll be because it might promote the further stigmatization of the real-life animal involved (especially in the cases of creatures like spiders, rats, snakes, and sharks, which all still get a lot of unfair hatred from large parts of our culture). Now, to relate this to my own work with my Redwall fanfiction, The Krimson Traitor(I'll be mostly talking about things that haven't happened yet in the story at the time of writing. I'll avoid major plot spoilers, but do proceed with caution.), the fact that the protagonist is a vermin isn't just for the sake of subverting expectations; it does indeed reflect on his character. Foxes in the world of Redwall are universally sly, treacherous, and deceptive. Nihil, the fox that stars as the "hero" of The Krimson Traitor, will be all that and also cynical, sardonic, and pragmatic (at least that's what he'll be like when he starts his journey; character development is sure to soften some of his more jagged edges as the story goes along). Just because he chooses to use those traits to save Redwall Abbey instead of plunder it doesn't make him any less a fox at heart. He betrays the Krimson Empire that he swears an oath to (hence the title), he'll use deceptive and dishonorable tactics in his fighting, and he'll be rude and snarky to ally and foe alike; in short, he isn't fundamentally different from other foxes, he's just decided that he'd rather have a happy life at Redwall than spend it serving some despot. Where the core Redwall stories are about how good will always triumph over evil, The Krimson Traitor is about how an evil person doesn't have to stay evil (that Skyrim quote over the book's description isn't an accident). Then there's my original animal-related projects; Mythryn, my planned detective novel about a talking crow, and the two short stories I'm currently working on that use the same setting. Where Redwall uses animal species as an allegory for personality types and morality, Mythryn and it's related stories will instead use animal species as allegories for more complicated human qualities; things like intelligence and education (certain animals are naturally much smarter than others), economic class (animals that are smarter or physically stronger tend to have more economic advantages), and philosophy (less intelligent animals tend to have cultural beliefs centered around emotions and honor, where smarter creatures tend to have philosophies based on objectivity and practicality). Creatures like rats and foxes in the Mythryn world aren't necessarily stupid, of course, but even the smartest of those species is going to have some serious hurdles to jump over if they want to, say, invent some new technology, whereas a crow or a parrot would have a much easier time breaking into an intellectual field (sort of like how a poorly-educated human from a low-income background isn't as going to have as many opportunities as someone who grew up in a wealthy household and went to Harvard). The plot of Mythryn isn't going to be purely about class struggles, of course; Mythryn is a detective noir story about a sarcastic private eye crow who gets sucked into a crazy conspiracy in the course of investigating some murders, and it wouldn't dream of being anything but fun and intriguing. The class allegory element is merely intended to add a level of depth, realism, and, dare I say, humanity to the setting and its animal inhabitants. |
| The "Golden Rule" is, of course, "show, don't tell." It's something I've been trying my absolute hardest to follow, to the point that I'm almost worried that I might end up making my writing too vague. But that's not what I want to talk about. Now, in general, I'm trying to consciously avoid using exposition dumps in my writing except under two very strict circumstances: -In dialog, where the speaker is explaining something relevant to matter at hand to a character who logically wouldn't know that thing. -In the narration, to reflect the fact that the POV character is currently thinking about the thing that's being explained. It's a set of rules that requires no small amount of discipline to follow, and also quite a bit of faith in the patience of the reader. But they're also rules that are absolutely worth the trouble to follow. Except when you're doing something completely bonkers that the rules simply don't apply to, that is, which brings us to the matter at hand; against my better judgement, I've started writing Free Fox. Free Fox is something I mentioned quite a few blog posts back, in my entry about the projects I have planned for the future. Essentially, it's a sprawling sci-fi action-adventure story set in an alternate version of Earth, and starring an eccentric super-assassin named Zero. The crux of the concept is that it would be written as if it were the in-universe autobiography of the protagonist, and therein lies part of the problem; an autobiography is basically all exposition. Now, here's an excerpt to show some of what I've tried to do to make the format work: A lot can be gleaned from my appearance, of course; my brown skin, black hair, and hazel eyes all mark me as being of the desert-dwelling Kerashi stock. Unfortunately, Kerash was the human nation that sat closest to the Shiah territories during the time of the infamous Honeywater War. So, when Sahl Fith made the decision to start taking hostages to keep the human military from bombing his city into a fine, bat-dusted powder, most of the prisoners ended up being Kerashi children. I was one of those. As you can imagine, a bunch of little kids take up quite a bit of space, and thrifty Fith wasn’t about to let his meat shields just sit around growing fat on stringy venison. Instead, he put us to work. A lot of us, myself included, were sent to the mines beneath the city. So that’s where the story starts; in a dank, dirty hole. It’s not nearly as sexy as it sounds. First and foremost; the jokes. After all, if you're going to be reading a lot of exposition, it might as well be entertaining (being written by a borderline-insane character who refuses to take anything seriously helps in that regard). Secondly; it's written for an in-universe perspective. Zero is writing with the expectation that the reader will already know all the things that are common knowledge in that universe, so, just the same as any other story I'll write, there will be times where an element of the setting is merely mentioned in passing and the reader will have to figure out what it is from contextual clues. In a strange way, Free Fox will be following that first of my exposition rules. It's just that the entire story will be like one giant dialog, with Zero explaining his life to the rest of his world. Whether it'll actually be a readable dialog in the end is another thing entirely. |
| I love snarkiness. I love experiencing the exploits of snarky fictional characters. I love hanging out with snarky people in real life. I love making my own snarky jokes whenever the opportunity presents itself in any given social situation. Snark is the glue that tries everything I am together. So, for this latest blog installment, I figured I'd pay homage to some of the snarkiest snarkers to sarcastically snark their way through some of my favourite works of fiction: -Gonff Mousethief from the Redwall series: Might as well start with my first; the cheeky, flute-playing, pie-pinching sidekick of Martin the Warrior, whom Brian Jacques apparently based on himself. Gonff will forever be my favourite character in the Redwall series. -Tony Stark from Iron Man: Now, I don't read superhero comics much (my comic-reading is mostly confined to the likes of Mouse Guard and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac), so I'm mostly talking about the way Mr. Stark is portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the Iron Man films. But, ooh boy, what a portrayal it is; the unabashed arrogance and sheer charisma radiating off this man could probably power a large country if the technology for such a thing existed. He could probably invent that technology if he wanted, too (maybe that's what the arc reactor actually runs on?). -Tyrion Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire: Now, I don't feel comfortable calling the SOIAF series a "favourite" of mine, purely because I've only read the first two books and seen most of the first season of the show. So, while I've thoroughly enjoyed what I've gotten from it, I don't feel I have enough experience to make any judgements about the series as a whole. I do, however, feel I have enough experience to call Tyrion one of the best people ever. That scene of him slapping Joffrey alone would have been enough to make him my favourite character in the series, even without all the signature wit and guile he exhibits every other time he's on-screen. -Lestat from The Vampire Chronicles: Ah, yes; the sexy vampire to end all sexy vampires. Literally, in fact; back in high school, one of my classmates was like "hey, you like books about vampires, right? How about this?" and handed me a certain book with an apple on the front. I read the back, went "meh," and promptly went back to reading The Vampire Chronicles instead, because I prefer my tales of immortal monsters to actually be fun, witty, and interesting. -Ringil Eskiath from A Land Fit For Heroes: Oh dear, I think we've hit the motherload with this one. My brain literally cannot handle how awesome this sarcastic, gay, dragon-slaying BAMF actually is; it just turns to fan-girly mush every time I try to comprehend it. This isn't just my favourite snarky character. This isn't just my favourite character in his series. This isn't just my favourite character in fantasy, or in literature; Ringil Eskiath is, without a doubt, my favourite fictional character of all time. So, there you go; those are all the jerks you get to thank for all the sarcasm I will ever attempt to write into my own stories. |
| I haven't written a blog post in a few days (too busy working on that short story, mostly), so I might as well just throw something fun and simple up here to fill the gap. Like, say, a list of my favourite animals. Yeah, that sounds good: #1) Bats: In case the name and cover of this blog, and the cover of my portfolio weren't enough of a tip-off, I have a soft spot for bats. One of the coolest things about them is how diverse they are (the most diverse mammal group in existence, as I recall). Some bats are adorable, some are goofy, some are awesome, and some are downright freaky, but every single one is a loveable little leathery-winged snowflake. #2) Spiders: The funny thing is, I actually grew up with a mild arachnophobia. "Mild" as in not so bad that a simple picture could trigger a panic attack, but if I ever actually saw a spider in the room with me I'd feel intensely paranoid until I'd found and killed it. It took a conscious effort for me to realize how irrational it all was, and (through a process of self-education) I eventually just kind of... Got over it. Able to look at these creatures with an objective mind for the first time, I realized something; spiders are awesome. For a lot of the same reasons as bats, too; some are cute, some are cool, some are weird, some are freaky, but all of them are wonderful. As you can imagine, I feel quite a bit of guilt for the way I've treated them in the past. #3) Crows: There's not a whole lot to this one; crows are simply handsome, fascinatingly intelligent birds. I'm probably unusual in that I actually like the sound of crows cawing, just because I just love the animal behind the sound so much. #4) Snakes: I grew up watching a lot of The Crocodile Hunter as a kid, and one of the things I took away from that series was a healthy love of reptiles. Snakes in particular were basically the Holy Grail of my backyard animal-catching adventures; toads and bugs were all well and good, but nothing was quite as exciting as turning a log or rock to find a scaly serpent coiled beneath. I'm not entirely sure how I managed to avoid forming a phobia of snakes like I did with spiders, but they just never seemed to bother me. Good thing, too, because I'd miss out on a lot of beautiful, adorable animals if I had. #5) Owls: Like bats and spiders, part of my love for these birds comes from their diversity; they run the gamut from pretty, to awesome, to adorable. My love isn't going to save them from being antagonists most of the time once I get around to writing that crow detective story, however. Someone needs to balance the scales. #6) Foxes: Finally, something that isn't a living Halloween decoration! Now, while there is no animal that I hate, I do tend to find the sorts of animals that people usually name as their favourites rather... Boring. Things like wolves, horses, and dolphins; I like them, but it's hard to not resent them just a little when so many people practically worship them while also reviling much more interesting and ecologically-important animals. But something about foxes and their sly, slick personas just forces me to join in that popular adulation despite the fact that they're kind of overrated. Part of it could be that they also have an element of diversity going for them; foxes can be sickeningly adorable, elegantly handsome, or even hilariously derpy (ever seen that Youtube video of that fox licking a window?). I just like them, all right. |
| I've just hit my weekly goal of 800 words written for that short story I was working on. In celebration, I thought I'd post a little snippet of it here: Viewed from the air, Dragon’s Brooch and its surrounding territory were even more impressive. Golden plains and the Collar River stretched off to the northwest, the great Orbus Desert dominated the south, and the estuary where the Collar met the Celestial Sea lay to the east. Between it all, the city itself rose from the desert sands and fertile flood plains like a cluster of jewels. Especially striking was the aptly-named Glass District, where the Crystal Palace itself was located; complex stained glass windows decorated every one of the district’s polished wood and sandstone structures. I have an actual physical map drawn of this setting, which is a huge help when it comes to organizing all those details. Oh, and the city isn't actually home to any dragons; it's mostly inhabited by a population of intelligent birds. Dragons are just a significant part of the setting's mythology, so a lot of locations are named after them. |
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