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 The Good Life. |
I am a professional musician, teacher  , (former) worship leader , small business owner , songwriter , aspiring author and freelance nonfiction writer with a chemical engineering degree .But that's just my resume. My eclectic profile of vocations is only one of the ways in which I am uniquely me. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the business I run, I am always a work in progress. ![Merit Badge in Music
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To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^*
Big hugs,
Sherri *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Music-1050.gif) ![Merit Badge in Organization
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I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Organization-1150.gif) ![Merit Badge in Leadership
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For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Leadership.gif) |
Robert Waltz  's blog post today inspired me to employ the scientific method to the following hypothesis.Hypothesis: I suck at routine tasks. Evidence: "Note: Huh. I accidentally earned the animation today...." Conclusion: Sometimes I accidentally meet all my goals, but "sometimes" =/= "routine", therefore, I do indeed suck at routine tasks. Disclaimer: That wasn't actually the scientific method, since my "evidence" was anecdotal and a single data point does not a trend make. I could collect more data, but I could also be writing instead. Which brings me to the point of today's discussion. Blogging Goal Ahead... I'd like to blog more consistently. So I spent a bunch of time procrastinating when I could have just been blogging devising a structured weekly routine that I'm absolutely going to fail at. In fact, if you're interested in placing bets on how long I can keep up with the schedule, the window is over there.  The odds are ever in your favor. But today is "Writing Wednesday," so I'm writing about my weekly writing plan, which totally counts, even if it's more about logistics than actual writing today. Weekly Writing Schedule Plan Approximation: "Self" Sundays - blogging about myself and tracking health-related trends "Music" Mondays - blogging about music / music education "Writing" Wednesdays - blogging about the art (/logistics) of writing "The Bradbury" Thursdays - writing a weekly short story "Funny" Fridays - ? All I know is you'll laugh your asses off (or I will) Tuesdays and Saturdays are dedicated to non-writing tasks (aka, my real job, lol.) Did you notice the clever alliteration? Did you? Did you?  For once, the "The" in a title gets its due recognition. On a related note, we need some more variety in the starting letters of weekdays. Too many S's and T's, if you ask me.There. I blogged about writing. Let the wagers commence. |
| I'm not a fan of resolutions. I understand why people make them: Goals are hard. They're hard to define and even harder to keep. And they're usually things we should be doing anyway, like making healthy choices, strengthening relationships, and completing tasks that either align with our passions or are required for basic survival. So we find a boost in the new year. Yet failure to keep resolutions beyond January is so likely that it's cliche. Why is it so hard to do the things that are good and necessary for us? The answer is obvious: it's because the difficult, unpleasant short-term action (break a sweat, apologize, get out of bed and go to work) is staring you in the face, while the long-term benefits are out-of-sight, out-of-mind. There's a passage I read in a flavor-of-the-month book during my Corporate America days - maybe The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey? - that talks about integrity in the moment of choice. When faced with the choice to get on the treadmill or not, that's the moment when you decide whether you're truly invested in your goal. Many people who make resolutions successfully make decisions that comply with their own values in the moment of choice for a period of time. For reasons psychology experts probably understand much better than I, there's something about that date - January 1st - a new year - that provides the boost they need to make the right decision in that moment. I suspect there may be a community element, too - when everyone else is doing it, it's easier. But then one of your friends fizzles. Then another. And it gets harder. If all it takes to make the right decisions in the moment of choice is a concept of newness and a little peer pressure, does that mean that, during the rest of the year, we're just barely on the reverse side of that equation? That we could achieve our goals if only we had a little boost? Everyone is different. I realize that. I'm not trying to be judgy. Most people do a good enough job of judging themselves without my help. This discussion is prompted by introspection. What could I do to boost my own decision-making integrity when faced with those individual, seemingly insignificant choices that accumulate and make or break my endgame? So, I'm not a fan of resolutions. But I like goals, and I really like meeting them. I'm very good at setting goals - clearly defined, attainable goals - but not always as good at meeting them. My moment-of-choice integrity is often lacking. I can justify any decision in that moment: "I know I said I was going to stop eating cake, but I decided I don't actually need to live to 100 after all, because honestly, eating cake is probably better than being 100 anyway." What I need is some peer pressure, people! If you ever want someone to trade accountability with, I'm your girl. |
| I asked Google Gemini: Are there any gadgets, tools or toys popular now that might be a more currently relevant metaphor than diving into a pool full of thumbtacks or razor blades Here are the suggestions. They're so delightful that I just had to share. Feel free to use them (see previous post "Can I Copyright My Work If I Use AI?" for more info.) Diving into a pool of spam bots. Hitting the 'Like' button on every cringe post from 2012. Having your AirPods die right when the bass drops. Swiping through your entire camera roll in reverse. Stepping on a floor covered in Clickeez/Magna-Tiles. Doing a collab with a rogue Furby. Trying to solve a Rubik's Cube after someone switched the stickers.I'm eagerly anticipating your 2025 "pool of tacks" updates. |
"This second Part of the Copyright Office’s Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) addresses the copyrightability of outputs generated by AI systems. It analyzes the type and level of human contribution sufficient to bring these outputs within the scope of copyright protection in the United States." - United States Copyright Office* *full document linked at the bottom I've been using ChatGPT and Google Gemini during the creation of my November novel this year. Examples of my prompts just within the last 24 hours include: - Can you please propose a gen z / alpha way to say flip or flip out - How about a Gen z / alpha way to say, that was uncool of her - how about "preach" or "you're preaching to the choir" - Does this sentence make sense: It jives with your natural affinity for animals. - Do Gen z / alpha still use text abbreviations like y instead of why and u instead of you (is my Gen X showing yet??) The last two don't worry me at all, because the bot is answering a question, not offering text that I might incorporate into my book. But what about the first three? Are they perfectly fine, toeing the line, or are they clean over it? For example, if I asked Gemini: Can you recommend a gen z / alpha way to say "I really blew it" And Gemini responds:Click to see full response ▶︎ Recommendation: The most common and effective phrases that capture "I really blew it" are: "I took a massive L." (Concise and definitive.) "I just fumbled that so hard." (Implies responsibility and a critical mistake.) Does it render my work uncopyrightable if I use the exact phrase "I just fumbled that so hard" in my finished work? What if I just used the word "fumbled"? I wanted to know, so I looked it up at the US Copyright Office website. Full disclosure: I skimmed the document to find relevant passages, so it's possible I missed something. However, my takeaway was that questions like this would be handled by courts on a case-by-case basis, and overall, the court will likely side in favor of the author. I based my finding on this passage: “To be sure,” the Court further explained, “the requisite level of creativity is extremely low; even a slight amount will suffice. The vast majority of works make the grade quite easily, as they possess some creative spark, ‘no matter how crude, humble or obvious’ it might be.” Copyright and Artificial Intelligence Part 2 - Copyrightability Report Literarily, Michelle |
| Mostly, I just wanted this title as a callback to my previous blog post, but I guess it could foreshadow the plot of my current novel project. If you're worried about spoilers, you could plug your ears and shout, "La, la, laaaaaaaa!" while you read this post. But the truth is, I don't even know what all is going to happen in this novel (see my Notebook for all the havoc my characters are causing), so I can't possibly be revealing too much, here. If I do, I'll be as surprised as you, not to mention, after having the ending ruined for myself, I might quit the project altogether out of sheer boredom. I do wish there were a more efficient, less tedious way to pluck these ideas out of my head and get them in print. Sprinting via the "Sprint Writers Competition" helps, but it also caused all of my unruly characters, and, inexplicably (j/k, it's entirely explicable: I'm typing faster than my brain can think), seems to reduce my vocabulary back to a toddler lever. Okay, maybe Kindergarten. I may have written [find a better phrase] or [OMG THIS SUCKS WHY AM I WRITING SO MUCH EXPOSITION] more than actual narrative and dialog.But from a technical, structural perspective, I'm playing with unreliable narrators this year. It's definitely an experiment, because I have six - (points of view? perspectives? I've thought I had those straight for decades, but even Google can't agree with itself anymore, so now I'm questioning everything I ever thought I knew) - six characters whose heads my narrator is in (recounting in 3rd person) during various scenes throughout the story. And they're all unreliable. It's like Gone Girl on steroids: You never know whose truth is the unequivocal, impartial truth. It's slowing down my word count, but it's fun crafting scenes such that I switch to another character's viewpoint just before possibly revealing something definitive to the reader. Must... leave... them... hanging!!! Have you ever tried something like this? Do you think it's possible to pull off that many unreliable narrators? I guess I'm not giving anything away, after all.  |
| I just stumbled across my 2018 "Dear Me" letter, and this jumped out at me: "Every year, you pledge to do better, to do more, to be more efficient, to stop wasting time, to complete more tasks on the never-ending list. Every year, you find yourself more and more exhausted." Hindsight is 20/20 (although my vision isn't and wasn't; I started needing readers 3 years earlier when I turned 40 in 2015.) Here's what I know now, that I didn't know then: I had Parkinson's Disease. My first symptoms appeared in 2015, and I was (mis)diagnosed with Essential Tremor later in 2018. It wasn't until March of 2022 that I finally got the correct diagnosis (PD) and the miracle medication (carbidopa/levodopa) that gave me my functionality and my give-a-shit back. I've always been an overachiever. I think I may also be a closet people-pleaser, which you can see in the letter. I think we're all people-pleasers of one type or another. Even narcissists and sociopaths need to convince other people to validate them, whether that's through adoration, vilification or or just to get others doing things for them (see also: minions). I needed to see this letter today. I started revisiting the database project in 2024, and the website project earlier this year in 2025, and it's been weighing me down that I can't finish either one. This letter reminds me that, it doesn't matter. And I'm doing much better on the things that do matter. My relationships have improved dramatically since 2018. So, Go Me? But also, more importantly, don't be so hard on yourself. You don't have to please everybody; only the people that matter. And if you're exhausted, listen to your body. You may not have PD, but exhaustion means you need to slow down. "Dear Me" |
| Amantadine is a fun medication. In theory, it's supposed to help prevent my toes from curling under and my ankle from twisting. In reality it causes the weirdest, most vivid dreams and hallucinations. Last night, I dreamed I was part of a research team living and working on the moon. The procedures to keep the habitat livable were strictly enforced, but we had a new kid who kept messing up. Every time he did something to compromise the air seal (which was not very elaborate - like, duct tape holding down tent flaps or something), we had a near miss. I told him over and over that one of these days, the vacuum of space was going to suck him out. Luck was on his side, though. (And the rest of the team's, lol.) Sci fi story plot, anyone? |
#scopecreepersanonymous I asked ChatGPT and Gemini to review a short story I wrote. The feedback I got from both on various revisions pretty much defines me as a writer: Gemini said: This is a fantastic opening.This revision elevates the story from a good setup to a very compelling narrative fragment.ChatGPT said: This is a polished and highly effective opening to a series or novel.You should feel very confident in this draft. Are you planning to continue this story or move on to a different project?ChatGPT did redeem itself a little with this one: If you plan to submit or expand this into a series, this could serve as Chapter One or a standalone “origin” story. But in general, this is the story of my writing life. Everything I write is just a chapter of something bigger.  Scope creep. It's no wonder I never finish anything. |
| In case I've never mentioned it, October is my busiest month. It's PrepMo, of course, which is busy even when I'm not actively participating, like I am this year. Also, my music school's most popular performance event happens the weekend before or after Halloween: Our annual Halloween Party Recitals. Friday night is for adults and teens only. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are filled with performances from all our kiddos, plus Halloween activities like trick-or-treating from room to room, completing a craft in the lab, taking photos in front of the Spooky Selfie Station, and competing in a costume contest. For me, personally, that means teaching lessons Friday afternoon; setting up for and conducting teen/adult recitals Friday night, and then breaking back down for Saturday lessons; teaching lessons Saturday morning; setting up again and conducting Saturday afternoon lessons; sleeping until noon (HA!) Sunday; Sunday afternoon recitals; then break it all down and set back up for lessons to resume on Monday. If you got lost in the paragraph, imagine how I feel when I'm actually in it. So, in summary, you won't see much of me this weekend. Try bugging Robert Waltz , S🤦♂️  , and Storm Machine  if you need anything - or just post it in the Prep forum. Those folks love helping others figure things out.  I'm off to buy candy corn (to mix with the Chex Mix) and punch. See you Monday.  |
| I'm not sure why or how poop became such a taboo topic. Whenever someone acted holier-than-thou, my ex used to say, "his shit doesn't smell like roses." There's a reason he's my ex, but actually, none of us shit roses, so he kind of had a point. We all do it. Some of us are better at it than others. My husband, for example, poops at 9:00 am for roughly 20 minutes daily, but he can easily adjust that time around his meeting schedule as needed, as if it's a valve he can control. I, on the other hand, oscillate between not pooping for days and, "Oh, bloody Hell, get outta my way!" My style of pooping is not recommended. For one thing, it's the reason I started composing this blog post at 3:30 in the morning (in my head initially, because my eyes don't work properly for at least 30 minutes after waking). It's not the root cause of my lower back pain, but I can definitely tell when I'm backing up even without clock watching my toilet habits. A full colon compresses on my spine and it freaking hurts. And there have been many times in a public setting where I had to be very careful not to laugh too hard. Even though you don't talk about it, I know you fall somewhere on the spectrum, too. Pooping may be something you take for granted. But if you're more like me, your waste elimination system may be interfering with life. These days I compare everything with managing blood sugar on an insulin pump, but shooting (heh) for that balance between constipation and liquid fire, and between once a week and seven times per day, is truly comparable (see illustration below). I personally take more constipation meds in a day than Parkinson’s meds, and if you know anyone with PD, you know that's saying something. So, in summary, I'm jealous of my husband and I'm awake way too early today. Share your poop stories below. Be improprietary. Break the taboo.  My glucose over the last 24 hours |
| *pokes at disabled "Reviewing" and "Blogging" badges near the top of nav menu* I suppose the "Blogging" badge will be activated shortly, but the review is not going to happen. I can't seem to write a review in less than an hour, and I need that hour back for novel writing because my Prep project KICKS ASS.{/ego} By that I mean, I love it. You don't have to. But you will get the chance to decide because this one is getting written. I will be sprinting this November. Damn it! No more streak races for me. So Saith I. ![Merit Badge in Visit WdC 7
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| It's PrepMo, so I have plots on the brain. My songwriting student Millie, who just finished her musical, "Gwinny! The Musical" (starring her dog, Gwinny), has decided her next project will be an opera about manatees. Her homework was to complete a story and plot elements analysis template for the opera. Instead, she wrote the main plot points in a list form without actually completing the template. Although she had the analysis in her head, she had trouble filling in all the blanks when I asked for details; but she's stubborn and insisted her plot was fine. So I manipulatedenticed her by asking if she thought she would be up for an intellectual debate. She bit. So, I asked her favorite movie. What followed was a spirited debate between a 14-year-old intellectual and her much-older-than-that-but-equally-intellectual music teacher about the plot and story elements of the 2020 Sony Animations film, The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Millie argued that the protagonist is the Mitchells, and the antagonist is clearly PAL and the robots (aka, the machines.) After all, it's right there in the title, right? This was her initial analysis: Protagonist: The Mitchells Goal: Save the world Antagonist: PAL Conflict: A bunch of evil robots are kidnapping people and launching them into space. Climax: Rick & Linda (mom & dad) escape the spaceship Resolution: PAL bounces off Monchi's head and falls into the glass of water. Protagonistic change/growth: She couldn't really pin this down. It's been awhile since I saw the movie, so I looked up the synopsis from Wikipedia*. ▶︎ Do you think she's right? Let's hear your counter arguments. Her homework was to debate the plots of at least five more stories this week with other intellectuals like herself. *Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mitchells_vs._the_Machines |
| Poor Christopher Paolini has been the target of many a critic since the publication of the first book in The Inheritance Cycle series. We'll cut him some slack because he was a teenager when he published, but let's face it: the work deserved the critique. I don't remember the particulars, but I recall a lot of comparisons to gemstones. It's been awhile since I read the series, so rather than read it again for the purposes of this discussion, I found this handy list of Paolini similes and metaphors. How much description is the right amount? If your narrative description is so distracting that it pulls your reader out of the story, it's too much. Gosh, that makes it sound so easy! Unfortunately, swinging in the other direction can be just as detrimental. If you don't include enough description, your reader may get confused or be unable to visualize the scene enough to be immersed in the story. Like a diabetic trying to balance her blood sugar, we must find a way to navigate the narrow, harrowing path along the the knife-edged divide between purple prose and ambiguity. Unfortunately, they don't make a continuous glucose monitor (those white thingies stuck to the backs of the arms of diabetics) for narrative description. (For those not familiar with diabetes: that means your narrative description can't be measured in real time.) So what do we do? It can be difficult to assess where the balance lies in your own writing. As a writer, you visualize the events of your story in your head. It's already in there, so it's not always intuitive to write it out in words. But you have to remember to let the reader inside your head, too. I find reviews helpful for judging how close to the balance point my descriptions lie. An outside pair of eyes, glittering softly like multi-faceted jewels in the morning sun, is worth its weight in sparkle. Weigh in: How do you find balance between too much and too little description? Bonus article: Lessons From the Terrible Writing of Eragon |
| Did you know... ...that if you have a premium account at WDC (if you don't, keep reading...), you can use the "Signature Manager" in your account settings (My Account -> Account Settings -> Additional Account Settings -> Manage Signature(s)) to create a book-specific template for your book entries? For example, in my book item, "Poor Witch: Settings" , my template looks like this: See Template ▶︎So whenever I navigate to "Add an Entry" for that particular book, the template automatically appears in the entry, and I just have to follow the prompts to complete the entry. I can edit it at any time. There are entries with no information - only the template - because I haven't gotten around to filling in the details yet, but the setting appears in my story(ies), so it's on the list. If you're not a premium member You can still do the same thing using your Notepad (left navigation menu, between "Messenger" and "Blog"). Create the template, store it as a page in your Notepad, and then copy/paste the template into your book entry or static item. In a static item, you can just add settings like so: See Code ▶︎ Or if you prefer a cleaner finished look, you could add dropnotes like this: See Code ▶︎ Which looks like this: Setting #1 ▶︎ Setting #2 ▶︎ Note that these work for any kind of list/database of profiles, and for the example book item above, I also have templates in books containing my characters, definitions, and background stories lists for this novel series. Have you found another convenient way to add, store, and edit your settings in WDC? What about outside WDC? |
| So, hubby got the news that he needs to immediately switch to a diet low in saturated and trans fats, a.k.a., a heart-healthy diet. I thought of the children's nursery rhyme: Jack Sprat could eat no fat His wife could eat no lean And so between the both of them They licked the platter clean Although in the case of this diabetic wife, it's carbs, not lean. (What rhymes with carbs? Anyone?) He's rediscovered oatmeal (born and raised in central Ohio, hubby calls the meal "oats") and eating Honeycrisp apples like they're going out of style (trust me - they're not.) We've had salads with lean meats for lunch, and he's learning new habits like reading labels and weighing his food. The poor guy has had a hard time sleeping the last couple nights due to all the fiber we've introduced into his belly (he can finally sympathize with me!). Have you been there? What advice do you have? PS: Hubby has never heard of dear ol' Jack Sprat and his wife.  |
| The Music Lab teachers at my music school publish a monthly theme. They generate modules for the music history, composition, and listening stations based on the theme. After the children complete the modules, the lab teachers interview them, asking the students to list three things they observed. Kids Say the Darndest Things This is what some of the kiddos had to say about last month's "yodeling" theme: Aria W: "Many of the lyrics were not words at all, but rather noises and made up words." Ashlyn H: "Don’t think about it (yodeling) too much." Beatrice V: "'They wear not modern clothes." Haley N: "Learned about the yodel king (Franzl Lang)." Hayden C: "It’s really really quick — sort of like rapping." Judson E: "Used to use yodeling in farming for long distances." Julia Z: "It’s like going from head to chest voice rapidly." Lylah O: "I learned the magic of yodeling." Owen C: "In ‘The Lonely Goatherd,’ there was yodeling between each sentence." Olly C: "'There was a song from Texas." Penelope H: "I liked that they were singing with the puppets." Sebastian V: "There were barely any drums and no electric instruments." Can You Say It Better? I'm sure by now that you're dying to read about and hear yodeling for yourself so you can contribute your own witty takeaways. So, without further ado, I give you: The Listening Station (Yodeling): The Music History Station (Yodeling): |
| I've been a member of WDC for 18 years, and if there's a test out there to qualify for a creative writing degree from a major university, I bet I could pass it without a single day in a classroom, all thanks to the education I've gained from peer writers here. I gleaned much of that knowledge from creating and running the "October Novel Prep Challenge" - especially in the early years through friends who helped me plan and tweak the assignment calendar, volunteer writing coaches and forum posters who knew more than I did, and countless hours of research to make the activity actually useful to both aspiring and veteran novelists.But even before that, I started to really learn and understand the technical details of what makes literature consumable, marketable, and even successful - things like active voice, vivid imagery, clear and distinguishable character voices, and a plot that not only contains the required elements (protagonist, conflict, climax, resolution), but also maximizes tension through complications. And I learned though receiving and giving reviews. If you don't already know, I'm an analytical person. I tear things apart until I understand them completely. I ask annoying follow up questions to my follow up questions. The public reviews I give tend to reflect that, but what you may not see is how it manifests in the way I digest the things you say when reviewing my work. I get a lot of superficial, cheerleading-style reviews with high ratings. Sure, I've loved the ego boost (like my narcissism needs encouragement, lol), especially when I was a WDC noob. But over the years, I've occasionally gotten a serious review that really burns my biscuits... but also intrigues my intellect. Not always immediately, but when I read them months or years later, I realize, hmm. Maybe they had a point. It most often happens when I'm reviewing someone else's work and I see the same mistake. I'm considering creating a folder in my port containing pieces that received negative constructive reviews, adding the offending surprisingly helpful and educational review, and discussing my thoughts on why the reviewer was correct. I changed the access settings to many of these pieces to private at the time, vowing to circle back and try to make them better in the future, but they've just been sitting there for a decade or more, gathering dust. Yet even invisible to readers, they've been useful, because they were all practice. I learned something from each and every one of them, and more specifically, from the reviewers brave enough to teach me and award me- gasp - less than four stars. (in case you just cringed and thought, you mean, "fewer than four stars", I argue that since we count stars in halves, "less" is more appropriate, but feel free to make your counterargument in the comments!) More on this topic to come, assuming I actually get around to starting the project. |
| You love to hate them. An antagonist, by definition, is whatever causes conflict for your protagonist (main character.) Every story includes at least one protagonist, a conflict, and an antagonist that creates the conflict. Every story. For example, if I walk in the door and announce to my husband, "I got the mail!" - that's not a story. However, if I walk in and say, "I tried to get the mail but a bee that's guarding the mailbox stung me, so now it's your turn to try!" - that is a story. It includes a protagonist (me) who has a goal (get the mail), but an antagonist (the bee) creates conflict (by guarding the mailbox) until the climax (when the bee stings me). It also has falling action (I gave up trying to get the mail) and resolution (I delegated the goal to hubby.) I even experienced a protagonistic change (I will never again be so lackadaisical about the process of getting the mail.) See? Even that tiny story had an antagonist. When a fictional story has a great villain, you love to hate them. Hating the antagonist is, by default, choosing Team Protagonist. And every storyteller worth their weight in words wants you to be Team Protagonist. But what if the antagonist isn't a character? Great question! The antagonist is not required to be a character, after all. The only requirement is that it creates conflict for your main character. For the purposes of this discussion, I also consider an animal or other sentient, but non-human, antagonist as a character, who can be easily profiled with a character template. I will group non-character antagonists into the categories below: Internal conflicts This is the man-versus-self scenario. Internal conflicts usually involve some sort of fear or conflicting emotions, but could also include an uncooperative body or brain due to illness, disease or disorder. Dawn Embers  is tackling this topic in the Prep forum today, so I'll focus on the other three (below). Here's Dawn's forum post, if you're interested: "Day 10 - Ye Old Villain/Antagonist Stats" .Environmental conflicts Environmental conflicts can include natural disasters that your character must survive, or it could be as simple as your character finding their way home in a big, scary world. Robert Waltz recently pointed out, "if you've ever read The Martian (or seen the movie based on it), the primary antagonist is the conditions on the planet... Another (example) would be the conditions on Mount Everest, if the story's about the protagonist attempting to summit that mountain."Technological conflicts Technological conflicts may be caused by the users of that tech (maybe your protagonist struggling to deal with trolling and cyberbullying by the general population). It could also be caused by the tech itself (e.g., your character's invention malfunctions). Societal conflicts Societal conflicts are caused by society as an entity, rather than one or more individual members of that society. Your character may be trying to flee a war-torn country or fight back against government corruption. Or your southern belle landed her first job in New York City and has to learn to navigate metropolitan behaviors and expectations. Some antagonists cross categories The cyberbullying victim's antagonist could either be classified as societal (because the bullies are people) or technological (because the tech allows the bullies to gang up on victims, and to be anonymous.) An AI gone rogue might be classified as a technological conflict, or, if the AI is anthropomorphic, it could even be considered a character. How do you profile non-character antagonists? This question refers to the "Antagonist Profile" assignment on the "2025 Prep Calendar" .Focus on the conflict and why it's a problem. Describe (or compose a bullet point list of) all the traits of the environment / tech / society contributing to the conflict. What about the antagonist background story? This question refers to the "Antagonist Background Story" assignment on the "2025 Prep Calendar" .I recommend one of the following two methods: 1. Pretend you're a journalist. Write an article about an incident that happened in the past, to some other character who doesn't appear in your novel, which was caused by the same environmental / technological / societal situation. 2. Personify the environmental / technological / societal situation. Imagine the conditions on Mars being sentient, taking deliberate action to try to kill the astronaut. What might have happened in Mars' past to cause it to scorn living creatures? Consider the anonymous Internet trolls and imagine they're all one person. What might be inspiring this composite character's hateful behavior? And the tech invention that malfunctioned and caused embarrassment or havoc for your main character - what motivation might it have to create problems? Maybe it doesn't want to be that thing your character is trying to create? Maybe its individual parts have their own personalities, and they don't get along with each other due to something in their history? What if it just IS? The antagonist character profile and background story assignments can definitely be an exercise in creativity. But maybe you spent some time thinking through and deciding that massive Everest doesn't care one bit about the tiny speck of a human (your main character) who is trying to reach its summit. Maybe you're just not inspired to personify your non-character antagonist or play journalist, and that's fine. Remember, the "October Novel Prep Challenge" is for YOU. It's a tool in your toolbelt; nothing more. If this exercise feels tedious and unnecessary for your specific project, spend fifteen minutes explaining why that's the case. The ultimate goal is to force you to deliberately consider your story's conflict and who or what is causing it. |
| Every good story incorporates some sort of growth or change on the part of its protagonist. But don't assume that "grow" always means "get better." Consider Walter White, the high-school-chemistry-teacher-turned-illicit-drug-manufacturer in Breaking Bad. Over the course of five seasons, Walt (a.k.a. Heisenberg) transitions from mild-mannered teacher and family man to ruthless killer. Every choice he makes that leads him to villainy is rationalized because he is just saving his family. Ultimately, the only viable option for the character is his demise, because there is no going back to the old Walt. Themes in Breaking Bad Power corrupts. Even the most gentle person can be seduced by it. Morality isn't black and white. The vilest deeds can be justified by noble reasons.Can you identify other themes in Breaking Bad? What are some of the themes in your favorite stories? This article was cross-posted in the "October Novel Prep Challenge" forum. |
| Whether you're a pantser or plotter, starting a story can be the hardest part of writing fiction. Just kidding. It's totally editing, am I right?? Okay, so maybe both are stressful and intimidating. You wrack your brain for the perfect opening lines, but they just won't come, because you're a perfectionist! And if and when you finally spit out some words that work, you never, ever want to edit them out because you worked so hard to find them in the first place. You're trying too hard. Just start writing, yo. But here's the catch: Write with the knowledge and understanding that you will absolutely be deleting these words later. Write the worst possible opening lines you could ever devise. The words themselves and what they say aren't the point. The words are a vehicle for the writing itself. They get your brain moving. They're a warm-up. Eventually, the story will start spilling out, and you can go back and find the point where the magic happened - where your brain finally remembered why you liked writing in the first place. |
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