J.M. Robison's Blog, page 6
May 18, 2017
Homemade, Toxic-Free Shampoo
Read my conversion story to becoming chemical freeHERE.(Watch this video if you prefer oral instructions. Written instructions below)INGREDIENTS:1 cup warm/hot water1TBS baking sodaOPTIONAL: 5 drops essential oil of choice: Rosemary boosts hair growth which is what I use and it works, Lavender also promotes hair growth, Chamomile adds shine and softens, Cederwood promotes hair growth and treats thinning hair. There are other essential oils that benefit hair but I don’t want to gum up this post with all of them so I encourage you to do your own research.Mix together in a glass bottle until baking soda is dissolved. Use a glass bottle with a narrow neck to control water flow. Wet hair. Apply the baking soda/water mixture like you would shampoo. This will take some getting used to because this recipe does not lather. Literally, you are putting water on your hair. Apply the mixture evenly to all parts of the hair, using your hands to “lather” it all in. Let it sit in your hair for a few minutes. Rinse your hair with cold water (not freezing, just as cold as you can stand.) This will put a damper on frizz if you are like me and have curly hair. Dry your hair. I wash my hair once a week. Up to you if you want to do it more.
NOTE:Conditioner not needed. If you HAVE to use conditioner, do not use any chemicals (AKA store-bought stuff). Use 1/4th cup of apple cider vinegar to 1 cup water. “Lather” into hair and rinse. The vinegar smell will go away once you rinse and dry your hair. Promise. BONUS: Will also clean your bath tub JEXPERIMENT:If you are skeptical that this recipe works (which is understandable since we’ve been coached our entire lives to be solely reliable on grocery stores and such), then just experiment. It might take you a few tries to get the best results since you are re-training your hair to respond to this new product. For me, I wash my hair once a week. By the end of the week, my hair is super oily and one wash with this recipe completely cleans and softens my hair. It makes my hair so soft it won’t even hold a bun. There are other homemade, chemical-free shampoos you can make if you choose. This recipe is just one I use and swear by. It’s super cheap, super easy, and super works.
NOTE:Conditioner not needed. If you HAVE to use conditioner, do not use any chemicals (AKA store-bought stuff). Use 1/4th cup of apple cider vinegar to 1 cup water. “Lather” into hair and rinse. The vinegar smell will go away once you rinse and dry your hair. Promise. BONUS: Will also clean your bath tub JEXPERIMENT:If you are skeptical that this recipe works (which is understandable since we’ve been coached our entire lives to be solely reliable on grocery stores and such), then just experiment. It might take you a few tries to get the best results since you are re-training your hair to respond to this new product. For me, I wash my hair once a week. By the end of the week, my hair is super oily and one wash with this recipe completely cleans and softens my hair. It makes my hair so soft it won’t even hold a bun. There are other homemade, chemical-free shampoos you can make if you choose. This recipe is just one I use and swear by. It’s super cheap, super easy, and super works.
The Backstage Dancer Trap
I had dreams of being a backstage dance. For Britney Spears. I expressed this desire and the reply was, “You know the purpose of backstage dancers, right?”Me: “Uh… to dance?”I then learned that backstage dancers are there to make the pop star look good. If Britney Spears sucks at dancing, the backstage dancers are supposed to suck more. If you have eight people who really suck at dancing, and one Britney who sucks less at dancing, then Britney will look like the better dancer compared to the other eight. Britney is the star of the show, so of course she has to look the best. Similar to how you pick ugly bridesmaids to stand next to you at your wedding. Can’t have pretty bridesmaids stealing the show, now.I never became Britney’s backstage dancer, but I became a published author and I see the same backstage dancer concept in writing. And what that looks like is the writer creates the Star of their book and throws in side characters (backstage dancers) to hover around the Star. These side characters act dumb which makes the Star look smart in comparison, even though the Star has done nothing specific to prove they really are smart. Essentially, the Star is just the smartest of the dumbest. This is the backstage dancer trap.
Because I learn by examples, here are a few:EXAMPLE #1:The Star of the book is a 12 year old boy who’s apparently super smart. To prove he’s smart, a side character is introduced. This side character is 25 years old and in college. Both are given the same math problem: 5+6(8x9)7-2+5+7-6. The 12 year old gets the right answer. The college kid does not.THE BACKSTAGE DANCER TRAP:The college kid is the backstage dancer for the 12 year old. The college guy is dumbed down (can’t answer the math problem though in all likelihood he should) to make the 12 year old look smart.EXAMPLE #2:The Star of the book is a princess. One of six princesses. The other five princesses act childish and complain a lot. And because no one is impressed with a childish and always-complaining-woman, the prince falls in love with the Star because she’s mature and resilient.THE BACKSTAGE DANCER TRAP:The Star has done nothing to prove she’s mature or resilient, but compared to the other five princesses, she appears to be that way. If you take away these backstage dancers, the Star appears completely normal.WHY WRITERS WILLINGLY PUT THEMSELVES INTO THE BACKSTAGE DANCER TRAPI’m not a book-smart person. You throw a math problem at me and I’ll find a corner and play with my dragon legos. But let’s say I create a book-smart character. He’s a 12 year old boy and he IS smarter than a college kid. Now I have to do research, I have to talk to college professors and ask them to give me a math problem that a college kid would not know the answer to, and then have him give me the answer. Writers often put themselves into the backstage dancer trap because it’s EASY. It’s so much easier to dumb down than to smart up. If I dumb down that 25 year old college kid then I don’t have to research an actual question that a college kid can’t answer. Hard. Writing is hard.Remember this mantra:SMART UP. DON’T DUMB DOWN. Every time you’re tempted to dumb down, remember this song:
Because I learn by examples, here are a few:EXAMPLE #1:The Star of the book is a 12 year old boy who’s apparently super smart. To prove he’s smart, a side character is introduced. This side character is 25 years old and in college. Both are given the same math problem: 5+6(8x9)7-2+5+7-6. The 12 year old gets the right answer. The college kid does not.THE BACKSTAGE DANCER TRAP:The college kid is the backstage dancer for the 12 year old. The college guy is dumbed down (can’t answer the math problem though in all likelihood he should) to make the 12 year old look smart.EXAMPLE #2:The Star of the book is a princess. One of six princesses. The other five princesses act childish and complain a lot. And because no one is impressed with a childish and always-complaining-woman, the prince falls in love with the Star because she’s mature and resilient.THE BACKSTAGE DANCER TRAP:The Star has done nothing to prove she’s mature or resilient, but compared to the other five princesses, she appears to be that way. If you take away these backstage dancers, the Star appears completely normal.WHY WRITERS WILLINGLY PUT THEMSELVES INTO THE BACKSTAGE DANCER TRAPI’m not a book-smart person. You throw a math problem at me and I’ll find a corner and play with my dragon legos. But let’s say I create a book-smart character. He’s a 12 year old boy and he IS smarter than a college kid. Now I have to do research, I have to talk to college professors and ask them to give me a math problem that a college kid would not know the answer to, and then have him give me the answer. Writers often put themselves into the backstage dancer trap because it’s EASY. It’s so much easier to dumb down than to smart up. If I dumb down that 25 year old college kid then I don’t have to research an actual question that a college kid can’t answer. Hard. Writing is hard.Remember this mantra:SMART UP. DON’T DUMB DOWN. Every time you’re tempted to dumb down, remember this song:
May 11, 2017
Pain Is Beauty, But It Shouldn't Be Toxic
One morning I woke up and I thought, what ingredients are in my face wash? A random thought, one that hadn’t struck me in all my 27 years of living. But finally approached with this question, I sat at the computer with face wash in hand and googled all the ingredients listed on the back. I discovered chemicals that caused dry skin, reports that had not yet verified if they caused cancer, other chemicals that caused acne (which didn’t make sense because my face wash was targeted toward fighting acne), and still another chemical used by farmers to dissolve the carcasses of dead farm animals. Oh, there was also Vitamin E.I threw my face wash in the trash.On a roll now and furious with the FDA and other companies who thought it was okay to slowly poison me with my beauty products, I googled the ingredients on my shampoo (had a chemical that caused acne, which explained the acne along my hairline and back of my neck.) Conditioner. Lotion. Deodorant (Which has a chemical that is linked to breast cancer, which makes sense because our arm pits are right next to our breasts.) It didn’t matter the brand. I’ve nearly tried them all, and all of them have similar ingredients.I went further and threw away my dish soap, launder soap, bleach, Lysol, until all I had was water which I debated delivering to a priest who could bless it holy.But a Joe still has to clean herself, and water is only half the solution. What to do? We have the internet in the 2015th year of our Lord, so I googled. “Homemade face wash” and another “homemade shampoo” and on and on until I had a toxic-free alternative to everything I threw away.This was the start of my journey. Stay tuned next week for my toxic-free, edible, works SUPER well face wash recipe. Why? Because I now have dewy skin, an even tone, and no acne. And you already have the ingredients in your kitchen.
May 5, 2017
Another Day at the County Jail
I am a deputy. When I’m not writing, I work full-time in a jail in some obscure town in Nevada. These posts are actual conversations I’ve had with inmates/the general public.______________________Inmate:I need to go to the hospital! My children are robbing me blind.Me:The hospital is not going to fix that.______________________Inmate:I don't know why that dime bag was in my bra.ME:I hate it when drugs accidently fall in my bra. It happens all the time.______________________LADY IN LOBBY:My husband is in jail and he needs to be provided with his most current warrant. The ones he was given by the court house are old warrants.ME:Your husband's attorney will provide him with the most current and applicable paper work.LADY IN LOBBY:He doesn't have an attorney because the warrant is for Colorado. They won't provide him with representation. The courts gave him old warrants. He needs to see his newest warrant.ME:So the courts ARE providing him with the paperwork he needs. They will also give him his most recent warrant. We are just a holding facility. We do not deal with court paperwork.LADY IN LOBBY:As an imate, my husband has a right to see his warrant.ME:You are correct. He will need to communicate with the court house and his attorney to get a copy of his most recent warrant.LADY IN LOBBY:The warrants he has are old. He needs his most recent warrant. I will tell him to contact you guys to see his newest warrant because he has that right.ME:Again, we are only a holding facility and do not have anything to do with inmate court paperwork. You will have to communicate with the court house about your husbands most recent warrant.LADY IN LOBBY:Is this conversation recorded?ME:No.LADY IN LOBBY:That's a shame. (Walks away)ME:(A tad confused)YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP
April 23, 2017
Credit scores will keep you homeless and jobless
America has created a system that, once you fall from it, you are screwed. Forever. This system will cause you to lose – or never get – a car and a house, the 2 most vital things every adult American needs today to function in this society. You need a house to live in to take care of your basic human needs (food, water, warmth, shelter). You need a car to drive to the grocery story and buy food and to take you to your job where you earn money so you can afford a house and the basic human needs.What is this system I speak of? Credit. You have to have credit to qualify to purchase a vehicle and a house. Without credit – or with bad credit – you will be denied those 2 things.You just graduated high school and you move out of the house. You’re getting your first job, but to get that first job you have to have a car to drive you to that job. You go to buy a car but you are denied purchase because you have zero credit. You have zero credit because you just graduated high school. You have to have credit to get credit. So you can’t buy a car to get you to your job, and if you can’t get a job you can’t afford your apartment. If you can’t afford your apartment, you’ll be homeless without the basic human needs.But there is a fix. You co-sign with someone. NOW Car Dealership will let you purchase that car and you live happily ever after with no more credit issues ever.What a joke. Everyone has had credit score issues. You might relate to the below 2 scenarios:Scenario #1 (This is a true story)IT STARTS OUT GOOD: Sally married Joe. Sally made 30,000 a year and Joe made 90,000 a year. Together, they afforded a nice house, 3 vehicles, and a 4x4. They took vacations. They paid their taxes. They afforded clothing and food with ease.UNEXPECTED, UNPREVENTABLE TRAGEDY: Joe had a medical condition that forced him to take time off work to deal with it. He began to run out of sick time. The condition got worse enough he was authorized temporary disability to give him time to fix this medical condition and get back to work fixed up and ready to perform. Joe’s job didn’t want to pay him to be out on temporary disability, so they fired him. Joe got representation to fight this verdict, to no avail. Joe was out of a job.WHAT FOLLOWS: Without Joe’s income, they were living on 30,000 a year. The bills they had piled on when Joe had work didn’t go away. They couldn’t afford to pay for one of their vehicles if they had any chance of eating. Sally called the loan company on this car, begged them to give them an extension which should give Joe enough time to find another job. Loan Company refused to provide a loan extension, saying they wouldn’t authorize it unless BOTH Joe and Sally had work, which didn’t make any sense to Sally because if they both had work, they wouldn’t need the extension. Loan Company repossessed the car. Joe and Sally’s credit tanked.THE ENDLESS CYCLE OF “YOU’RE SCREWED”: With the loss of Joe’s job, they now couldn’t afford health insurance for Joe to fix his medical condition, and since he couldn’t get his medical condition fixed, Joe couldn’t find another job because his condition would keep him out of work enough times they would eventually fire him, as had happened already. This went on for 3 years until one day, Sally discovered they could qualify for a 20,000 cash loan which would raise their monthly house payment a mere $30. They were ecstatic. With this loan, they could completely pay off one vehicle, freeing up $680 every month. With this extra money, they could finally afford medical insurance for Joe so he could get his condition fixed and finally get a job.Sally started the approval process, and was denied because – you guessed it – her and Joe’s credit score was too low. They found a co-signer but the company would not accept a co-signer. Without extra money every month, they couldn't afford Joe’s health insurance. Without health insurance, Joe couldn't get fixed. Since Joe couldn't get fixed, he couldn't get work and earn money to pay the bills and improve their credit. Sally and Joe will continue this endless cycle.This endless cycle all started because Joe had a medical condition that got him fired from a job. Unexpected and unpreventable.Scenario #2IT STARTS OUT GOOD: Bill is a soldier and returns from serving 1 year in Iraq. Bill gets a normal job. Bill affords a house and a car.UNEXPECTED, UNPREVENTABLE TRAGEDY: Bill is fired from his job because the company is downsizing and new guys are the first to go.WHAT FOLLOWS: Bill lives in an area where people don’t like to hire veterans. Bill can’t get another job because of this, and his car is repossessed. Because he no longer has a means to drive 15 miles into town where all the jobs are, he is unable to continue his search for work. Because he still doesn’t have work, they foreclose Bill’s house. Bill’s credit tanked.THE ENDLESS CYCLE OF “YOU’RE SCREWED”: Joe is capable of walking 15 miles into town to look for work, but he can’t live that close to town because being homeless, the city has rules against “camping within city limits” which is an arrestable offense and Bill doesn’t want to go to jail. The closest he can get to town and camp is 3 miles. Joe looks for work, but he has no money for clothes, a shave, or hygiene items and people won’t hire him because he’s dirty and stinks. Joe tries buying another house so he’ll have a place to shower and wash his clothes, but they deny him the loan because – you guessed it – Bill’s credit was so terrible. (And people wonder why we have so many homeless veterans.)This endless cycle all started because Bill was fired from a job because the company was downsizing and new guys were the first to go. Unexpected. Unpreventable.FINAL THOUGHT: Our credit system keeps people homeless and jobless. Once you fall from that ladder, you are done. Both me and my husband are hard working, tax paying citizens and yet scenario #1 happened to us. We are stuck in this black hole because our credit is bad enough we can’t get a loan to pay off debt which would give us more money to pay off all our other debt and keep us from going homeless. We are not the only ones like this. This system is ruining poor Americans. God-forbid any tragedy with job-loss happens to you because if it does, our credit score system will put a boot on your chest and push you deeper under the dirt.JM Robison is the author of The War Queen, published with Tirgearr Publishing.
Incarceration does not fix criminals. This is why:
I’m a deputy sheriff working in a county jail. My job is to process criminals into the jail who’ve been arrested. I bring their food, take them to medical care, and provide clothing and a bed. I watch to make sure they don’t kill staff members or each other. I’ve been doing this job for 4 years, which is plenty of time to understand this naked truth: incarcerating criminals does not work.It doesn’t work because, if it worked, we wouldn’t have criminals in custody. Much like if background checks on gun sales worked we wouldn't have mass shootings. Jails would be near empty and not packed to capacity and growing. To bring you closer to my point, I’ll describe for you what jail is like for a criminal:Criminal is arrested - Doesn’t matter the offense. They come to jail and we shove them in a room with 15 other criminals and lock the door behind them. They can’t leave. This criminal is fed low standard food, receives sub-par medical care, dodges threats from other criminals in his housing unit or is beaten up. Despite all this, the criminal cannot leave.Finally after three months of this, the criminal is released. But given time – hours, days, years – the criminal comes back. But if he learned his lesson the first time, why is he back? Surely the bad food, sub-par medical care, and threats by other inmates should have encouraged any sane person to stay away.
Here’s the truth most people don’t realize: that criminal learned how to be helpless while in custody; he was locked inside a bad situation he could not escape. Helpless to fix his behavior or change his surroundings, he succumbed to helplessness and this new behavior followed him upon his release from jail, and it’s that same behavior that brings him back to jail again in his life. I haven’t seen this happen to short-term inmates, but almost every inmate whose been here a month or longer have returned to us again. And again.If that doesn’t make sense to you, consider this experiment conducted by Martin Seligman in 1965 who showed the process of learned helplessness. The below excerpt is taken from his study called, How Seligman's Learned Helplessness Theory Applies to Human Depression and Stress. Here is the LINK if you want to read more about it.Martin and his colleagues were doing research on classical conditioning, or the process by which an animal or human associates one thing with another. In the case of Seligman's experiment, he would ring a bell and then give a light shock to a dog. After a number of times, the dog reacted to the shock even before it happened: as soon as the dog heard the bell, he reacted as though he'd already been shocked.But, then something unexpected happened. Seligman put each dog into a large crate that was divided down the middle with a low fence. The dog could see and jump over the fence if necessary. The floor on one side of the fence was electrified, but not on the other side of the fence. Seligman put the dog on the electrified side and administered a light shock. He expected the dog to jump to the non-shocking side of the fence.Instead, the dogs lay down. It was as though they'd learned from the first part of the experiment that there was nothing they could do to avoid the shocks, so they gave up in the second part of the experiment.Seligman described their condition as learned helplessness, or not trying to get out of a negative situation because the past has taught you that you are helpless.After the dogs didn't jump the fence to escape the shock, Seligman tried the second part of his experiment on dogs that had not been through the classical conditioning part of the experiment. The dogs that had not been previously exposed to shocks quickly jumped over the fence to escape the shocks. This told Seligman that the dogs who lay down and acted helpless had actually learned that helplessness from the first part of his experiment.(The same thing happens to our criminals.)So what do we do with criminals who break the law? If incarceration doesn’t work, where do we put those criminals who have murdered, raped, beaten up, robbed?I agree with you. We can’t let them wander the streets without some recompense, especially since he might endanger a victim again. So in that, it will remain the same. Take the criminal into custody in a secure facility, but I propose the following changes are made to rehabilitate and stop repeat offenders, and create an atmosphere which does not encourage or even teach learned helplessness.CHANGE THE ATMOSPHERECOLOR: You walk into any establishment that encourages healing, and you will see a particular color scheme. Why? Because colors trigger a certain response from us. We have to pay for paint for the walls in the jail anyway, so why not buy purple paint, or yellow? I also recommend providing the inmates with colored pencils (the short, golf pencil sized ones) so inmates can create their own subconscious color scheme personalized to help them heal. They’ll buy these off commissary like they do normal pencils.
SCENT: Are you inclined to sit in a room that smells like socks, or one that smells of lavender? Smells are therapeutic. Lavender is calming, peppermint is invigorating, and orange boosts the mood.Jails smell bad. You’ve got 10+ men/women living in one housing unit and limited in when they can wash their clothes or their rooms. It definitely doesn’t smell like lavender. But if scents were diffused or otherwise delivered into the housing units, it would make the housing unit feel more safe and comfortable for those living in it.
MUSIC: It’s proven music will change our mood. Nice, easy to listen to music will calm tempers and put perspectives back in balance. Having this music playing in cell blocks will go far to entertain, distract, and sooth.( Inmates cause problems when they are bored). In the jail I work at, we have a few cells wired to the local radio station, and the inmates always want to live in that cell.
SELF-HELP BOOKS: I've already had inmates asking for self-help books, everything from how to have a lasting relationship to how-to-draw books. I’ve heard inmates say they want to change while in jail. They have the time so why not give them a book they can read that will teach them a lasting skill? Like how to balance finances, how to stay sober, or do math? From the inmate’s I’ve talked to, they want to do these things but just don’t have the material. If they truly want to change their behavior which got them into jail in the first place, they will read any self-help books provided. The best way to keep people out of jail is to teach them how to live life in a way that doesn’t damage themselves or others. Plus, if they are given the chance to learn something constructive, they will NOT learn how to be helpless (see experiment with the dogs).FRESH AIR: Studies show depression is linked to lack of sunlight. Sunlight is a mood booster but even fresh air will clear one’s mood palate.DEPUTIZED THERAPISTS: This is at the bottom of the list because this will take much more planning, funding, and study for it to be seriously considered, but I can still get the idea out there so someone much smarter and richer than me can put it into action. What I mean by a Deputized Therapists is this: A post-certified deputy who ALSO goes to school to learn how to be a mental health therapist. Being a therapist, you’d help the inmates one-on-one to heal and help them back into society so they won’t want to make those same mistakes again. But because you are still dealing with, say, a rapist or murder, you still need the skills of a police officer to protect yourself and other staff and inmates.___________________________________I can see most people hating this idea, but forget your ego and realize the end result we want: We want people to stop committing crimes so our world is safer as a whole. Ever been the victim to a crime? My method would never make you a victim again, and people who have made mistakes in their life will be given an honest second chance.THIS IS ALL GREAT, NOW WHAT ABOUT THE COST FOR ALL THIS?In a perfect world, these color-schemed buildings would be built brand new with these features built into them already. But this will never be a perfect world, so I’m going to use my own jail as the lab rat and discuss integrating these methods as if my county had very little money/refused to give us funding:INTERGRATE COLOR: Easy. Buy any color paint other than white, since you have to buy paint anyway. Extra money needed: $0INTERGRATE SCENT: I’m a convert to essential oils, and though the best method would be to have a scent diffusers for each housing unit, it comes down to where to put them so the inmates can’t tamper with them and who would then replace the water and oil. So that’s a no-go, but the inmates get mops and mop water and cleaning supplies every day, so put several drops of a mood-boosting essential oil into the water, and as the inmates mop, they will spread the scent. It may not last all day, but just that brief shot of a mood-boosting scent will go a long way and the inmates will feel more inclined to clean, because who isn’t attracted to a good scent? Extra money needed: The cheapest brand of essential oil (and getting enough of it to cover all housing units for a while) Approx. $100INTERGRATE MUSIC: We already afford a TV in each block and trust the inmates to handle them with due-care, so affording a radio (which is cheaper) is no burden. Extra money needed: $20 a radio.INTERGRATE SELF-HELP BOOKS: My jail already has books. Most places will donate books to the jail, such as libraries and used book stores. So that cost takes care of itself. Extra money needed: $0INTERGRATE FRESH-AIR: Ideally – again, in a perfect world – the housing units would have their own yard attached to them so the inmates could go outside whenever they wanted. Inmates fight because they can’t get away from each other to cool down and change their mood. But if your jail is like mine and you have one yard for 13 housing units, at least allow each block yard time every other day or more._____________________________________MORE IS BETTERCan you just use scent and make a difference? Do you just need to install a radio in each housing unit to make the jails empty and stop repeat offenders? Each of those things will make a difference on their own, but the only way to drive criminal activity down, make the jails empty, and rehabilitate so we don't have repeat offenders, is to employ ALL my suggested methods, to include the deputized therapists. But each method will have still have an effect, so all in all, the more methods which are employed, the better the results.FINAL NOTE: So even if your jail is like mine, the cost to make this all happen is very small but has a huge pay-out. Can you picture this? 2 guys fighting each other to the tune of classical violin music inside a purple-painted room smelling of lavender with self-help books laying on the table next to them? I can’t picture it, either.
Here’s the truth most people don’t realize: that criminal learned how to be helpless while in custody; he was locked inside a bad situation he could not escape. Helpless to fix his behavior or change his surroundings, he succumbed to helplessness and this new behavior followed him upon his release from jail, and it’s that same behavior that brings him back to jail again in his life. I haven’t seen this happen to short-term inmates, but almost every inmate whose been here a month or longer have returned to us again. And again.If that doesn’t make sense to you, consider this experiment conducted by Martin Seligman in 1965 who showed the process of learned helplessness. The below excerpt is taken from his study called, How Seligman's Learned Helplessness Theory Applies to Human Depression and Stress. Here is the LINK if you want to read more about it.Martin and his colleagues were doing research on classical conditioning, or the process by which an animal or human associates one thing with another. In the case of Seligman's experiment, he would ring a bell and then give a light shock to a dog. After a number of times, the dog reacted to the shock even before it happened: as soon as the dog heard the bell, he reacted as though he'd already been shocked.But, then something unexpected happened. Seligman put each dog into a large crate that was divided down the middle with a low fence. The dog could see and jump over the fence if necessary. The floor on one side of the fence was electrified, but not on the other side of the fence. Seligman put the dog on the electrified side and administered a light shock. He expected the dog to jump to the non-shocking side of the fence.Instead, the dogs lay down. It was as though they'd learned from the first part of the experiment that there was nothing they could do to avoid the shocks, so they gave up in the second part of the experiment.Seligman described their condition as learned helplessness, or not trying to get out of a negative situation because the past has taught you that you are helpless.After the dogs didn't jump the fence to escape the shock, Seligman tried the second part of his experiment on dogs that had not been through the classical conditioning part of the experiment. The dogs that had not been previously exposed to shocks quickly jumped over the fence to escape the shocks. This told Seligman that the dogs who lay down and acted helpless had actually learned that helplessness from the first part of his experiment.(The same thing happens to our criminals.)So what do we do with criminals who break the law? If incarceration doesn’t work, where do we put those criminals who have murdered, raped, beaten up, robbed?I agree with you. We can’t let them wander the streets without some recompense, especially since he might endanger a victim again. So in that, it will remain the same. Take the criminal into custody in a secure facility, but I propose the following changes are made to rehabilitate and stop repeat offenders, and create an atmosphere which does not encourage or even teach learned helplessness.CHANGE THE ATMOSPHERECOLOR: You walk into any establishment that encourages healing, and you will see a particular color scheme. Why? Because colors trigger a certain response from us. We have to pay for paint for the walls in the jail anyway, so why not buy purple paint, or yellow? I also recommend providing the inmates with colored pencils (the short, golf pencil sized ones) so inmates can create their own subconscious color scheme personalized to help them heal. They’ll buy these off commissary like they do normal pencils.SCENT: Are you inclined to sit in a room that smells like socks, or one that smells of lavender? Smells are therapeutic. Lavender is calming, peppermint is invigorating, and orange boosts the mood.Jails smell bad. You’ve got 10+ men/women living in one housing unit and limited in when they can wash their clothes or their rooms. It definitely doesn’t smell like lavender. But if scents were diffused or otherwise delivered into the housing units, it would make the housing unit feel more safe and comfortable for those living in it.MUSIC: It’s proven music will change our mood. Nice, easy to listen to music will calm tempers and put perspectives back in balance. Having this music playing in cell blocks will go far to entertain, distract, and sooth.( Inmates cause problems when they are bored). In the jail I work at, we have a few cells wired to the local radio station, and the inmates always want to live in that cell.SELF-HELP BOOKS: I've already had inmates asking for self-help books, everything from how to have a lasting relationship to how-to-draw books. I’ve heard inmates say they want to change while in jail. They have the time so why not give them a book they can read that will teach them a lasting skill? Like how to balance finances, how to stay sober, or do math? From the inmate’s I’ve talked to, they want to do these things but just don’t have the material. If they truly want to change their behavior which got them into jail in the first place, they will read any self-help books provided. The best way to keep people out of jail is to teach them how to live life in a way that doesn’t damage themselves or others. Plus, if they are given the chance to learn something constructive, they will NOT learn how to be helpless (see experiment with the dogs).FRESH AIR: Studies show depression is linked to lack of sunlight. Sunlight is a mood booster but even fresh air will clear one’s mood palate.DEPUTIZED THERAPISTS: This is at the bottom of the list because this will take much more planning, funding, and study for it to be seriously considered, but I can still get the idea out there so someone much smarter and richer than me can put it into action. What I mean by a Deputized Therapists is this: A post-certified deputy who ALSO goes to school to learn how to be a mental health therapist. Being a therapist, you’d help the inmates one-on-one to heal and help them back into society so they won’t want to make those same mistakes again. But because you are still dealing with, say, a rapist or murder, you still need the skills of a police officer to protect yourself and other staff and inmates.___________________________________I can see most people hating this idea, but forget your ego and realize the end result we want: We want people to stop committing crimes so our world is safer as a whole. Ever been the victim to a crime? My method would never make you a victim again, and people who have made mistakes in their life will be given an honest second chance.THIS IS ALL GREAT, NOW WHAT ABOUT THE COST FOR ALL THIS?In a perfect world, these color-schemed buildings would be built brand new with these features built into them already. But this will never be a perfect world, so I’m going to use my own jail as the lab rat and discuss integrating these methods as if my county had very little money/refused to give us funding:INTERGRATE COLOR: Easy. Buy any color paint other than white, since you have to buy paint anyway. Extra money needed: $0INTERGRATE SCENT: I’m a convert to essential oils, and though the best method would be to have a scent diffusers for each housing unit, it comes down to where to put them so the inmates can’t tamper with them and who would then replace the water and oil. So that’s a no-go, but the inmates get mops and mop water and cleaning supplies every day, so put several drops of a mood-boosting essential oil into the water, and as the inmates mop, they will spread the scent. It may not last all day, but just that brief shot of a mood-boosting scent will go a long way and the inmates will feel more inclined to clean, because who isn’t attracted to a good scent? Extra money needed: The cheapest brand of essential oil (and getting enough of it to cover all housing units for a while) Approx. $100INTERGRATE MUSIC: We already afford a TV in each block and trust the inmates to handle them with due-care, so affording a radio (which is cheaper) is no burden. Extra money needed: $20 a radio.INTERGRATE SELF-HELP BOOKS: My jail already has books. Most places will donate books to the jail, such as libraries and used book stores. So that cost takes care of itself. Extra money needed: $0INTERGRATE FRESH-AIR: Ideally – again, in a perfect world – the housing units would have their own yard attached to them so the inmates could go outside whenever they wanted. Inmates fight because they can’t get away from each other to cool down and change their mood. But if your jail is like mine and you have one yard for 13 housing units, at least allow each block yard time every other day or more._____________________________________MORE IS BETTERCan you just use scent and make a difference? Do you just need to install a radio in each housing unit to make the jails empty and stop repeat offenders? Each of those things will make a difference on their own, but the only way to drive criminal activity down, make the jails empty, and rehabilitate so we don't have repeat offenders, is to employ ALL my suggested methods, to include the deputized therapists. But each method will have still have an effect, so all in all, the more methods which are employed, the better the results.FINAL NOTE: So even if your jail is like mine, the cost to make this all happen is very small but has a huge pay-out. Can you picture this? 2 guys fighting each other to the tune of classical violin music inside a purple-painted room smelling of lavender with self-help books laying on the table next to them? I can’t picture it, either.
April 17, 2017
Leave the Dead and Wounded: Writing Realistic Fight Scenes
After watching the final episode of Grimm, it occurs to me that being realistic in fight scenes is not as obvious as I had believed. Before I start making claims that I know what a realistic fight scene is, I need to prove why I know it: I’ve been Military Police for 12 years in the U.S. Army, as well as holding a full time job for 4 years as a Deputy Sheriff in Elko, NV. Proof enough?In the final episode of Grimm (no worries, names are protected to prevent spoilers) Bad enters the room. Good, Joe, and Bill are in this room. Joe fights Bad briefly before Bad kills Joe. Good rushes to Joe’s side and sobs over his dead body for a good minute. Enraged, Good then rushes Bad, to which Bad deflects Good, then kills Bill. Good sees Bill fall mortally wounded, and races to his side, sobbing over his dead body a full minute and then – enraged again – rushes Bad. Bad deflects Good again, knocking him unconscious, and Bad leaves.To a normal person who hasn’t been in either the military or a police officer (remember, I’m both) might not see anything wrong with this. It was certainly allowable in Grimm which is netting money on Amazon Prime. But I’ve vowed everything I write will have quality, and I plead for you to ingrain that same standard into yourselves.THE REASON WHY THAT SCENE IS NOT REALISTIC:I’ll explain by using a real event that happened in my life: My local city police force was asking for volunteers to help them train on how to respond to a mall shooting. I volunteered to act as one of the victims in this faux shooting. Once the police officers entered the mall to neutralize the threat – guns up, body armor on – I was to run directly at them, screaming at the top of my lungs, “I’ve been shot! I’ve been shot!” and then to collapse to the floor directly at their feet. Which I did. The police officers walked around me. One even stepped over my body and kept going. They did not stop to render me aid. They didn’t say anything to me. They all moved on deeper into the mall as if I wasn’t there.Now I’m certain that YOU see a massive problem with this. I’ve been shot, right? Every second I come closer to death if I don’t receive aid immediately, right? Yes and yes. However, the shooter is still in the mall, and every second he is not neutralized is another second he might shoot someone else. Further, if those officers had stopped to render me aid, taking their eyes off their objective and lower their guard, that shooter could step around a corner and shoot the officers. A dead police officer won’t render me aid and won’t stop the shooter from killing anyone else. So the shooter must first be stopped, and then only when the scene is secure, will the officer come back and render aid. The military teaches this as well. I might be dead by then, but at least no one else died as a result of the shooter.Going back to the last episode of Grimm, where Bad kills Joe and Good sobs over Joe’s body a good minute. While Good is distraught with himself over the death of his friend, Bad is STILL STANDING THERE and could HAVE KILLED GOOD WHILE HE WAS DISTRACTED WITH HIS DEAD/WOUNDED FRIEND. I wish I could make the caps bigger to super prove my point. If Good hadn’t been sobbing over Joe’s body, and neutralized Bad instead, Bill may not have died. But Bill did die, because the threat was not neutralized. Because Good was distracted by his wounded friend.To make a realistic fight scene, your character must first neutralize the threat, because if the threat is not neutralized, the threat will next attack other people or your character, whether your character is sobbing over their dead friend or whether your character is prepared to meet the attack.WHO DID IT RIGHT:Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:when Harry, Hermione, and Ron are playing the life-sized chess game and Ron sacrifices himself to make a vital move. Ron gets badly hurt, and Harry starts to step off his chess square to help him but Hermoine stops Harry, saying they were still in the game. They left Ron there, finished the game, and then went to Ron’s aid.Return of Jafar:Final scene when Jasmin is magicked into an hour glass and sand fills the bottom. Aladdin doesn’t rush to save her, because Jafar is still trying to kill him. Aladdin fights Jafar first, and once he is neutralized, he breaks the hour glass and frees Jasmin.WHY WRITERS IGNORE WHAT I JUST SAIDDeath shakes us to our souls. Whether it’s a justified killing (police officers, military) or the natural death of a loved one. Death sticks with us, which is why we have funerals and a marked grave to find the dead again, which is why military and police officers get PTSD from taking a life. This is realistic. We transfer this realism into our books and movies and cause characters to weep over the death of a good friend, which is what Good did during the final episode of Grimm. Death is beautiful in a sadistic way. We glamorize this death in books and movies by using slow motion, by spending a minute to air our griefs and acknowledge the passage from life. That is what Good did. That is why the producers of Grimm did it. Because it’s realistic.However…Good is featured as a police officer in Grimm. If he’s trained as a police officer, he should know that he needs to neutralize the threat before he attends to the wounded, just like I, as a real-life police officer, have been trained. So him not neutralizing the threat goes against his training. Not realistic.BUT YOUR CHARACTER MAY NOT BE A POLICE OFFICERIt doesn’t matter. Now you’re contending with every human’s core instinct: Survival. If you and your friend are out walking, and a shooter steps out from behind a building and shoots your friend, will you drop to your knees and sob over your wounded friend, or are you going to get the hell out of there to find cover where you can be safe for the moment to place a frantic 911 call? I bet you’re going to run for cover, because your brain shuts down and one word will gear your limbs to move. That word is SURVIVAL. You’ll get to your cover, and once you take a breath, your first thought will be, “How did I get to this spot?” The second, “I hope the shooter doesn’t come after me.” And only then will your thoughts spring back to normal with a, “My friend is hurt! Dial 911!”That scenario will change slightly, depending on the skill set of your character. If your character is a soldier or police officer, they are both trained to run toward the sound of gunfire, and one word will gear their limbs to move: NEUTRALIZE. They will most likely run at the shooter to stop him from hurting other people.BLOG HIGHLIGHTS:To make a realistic fight scene, your character must first neutralize the threat before attending to the wounded. If your character is not a fighter and can’t neutralize the threat, their survival instincts will kick in and they will seek cover first, to assure THEIR safety, and only when they feel it is safe to do so, will they come out and help the wounded. Leave the dead and wounded until it is safe to tend to them.
April 12, 2017
Story Logistics: The Stairs to The HOW
What is logistics?The detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation.What now?Thedetailedorganization andimplementationof a complex operation.So that means…You must have a detailed explanation to how things happen in your story.I’m sure you’re thinking, “Well, duh!” but not so fast. I didn’t know story logistics were a real thing until I beta read 2 different stories by 2 different authors. See below:STORY A:The writer had their character swim through a river, through a narrow rock tunnel, to end up in a cave. Inside this cave was a full-sized bed.THE LOGISTICAL ISSUE:How did the bed get into the cave? Assuming someone actually put it there and it wasn’t just constructed as part of the natural landscape the writer fashioned for the story, how did this person drag this mattress through the river and through the narrow tunnel to put it in the cave?STORY B:A fire started in a room in a castle. The setting so far has lacked all sense of modernization (no electricity, indoor plumbing, etc.) The main character runs inside the castle and sees this fire, and sees servants dumping buckets of water to put it out.THE LOGISTICAL ISSUE:How are they getting water to put the fire out? Lacking modern conveniences like indoor plumbing and the writer stating they were using buckets, I would have to assume they would race outside to the nearest well/river to retrieve the water, but there was no mention of that. Simply “they dumped buckets of water on the fire.”Lacking story logistics is a common problem among new writers. I’ve seen it in my own early writings and in other stories I’ve beta read. The WHAT is present (bed in a cave, using water to put out the fire) but there is no HOW (how did the bed get there? How did they get water to put out the fire?)HOW TO SPOT LOGISTICAL ISSUES:Consider your own writing. Pick one thing in your story, doesn’t matter what, and ask it HOW. If you don’t have a DETAILED explanation to the IMPLEMENTATION to the HOW, you have a logistical issue. Let’s review the definition of logistics again: The detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation.HOW TO FIX LOGISTICAL ISSUES:Ready for the magical answer? Simply provide a detailed implementation to the HOW of your subject. See below:EXAMPLE:This building which has feels of medieval, has indoor plumbing for showers. HOW do they get water into the building for showers without modern technology?ANSWER:A bell would ring on the first floor upon the pull of the chain in the ceiling to signal the workers to man a pump to pull water from the boiler. The pumps would push the water through pipes to spray water out like a rain shower on top of the bather. (Excerpt pulled from my fantasy novel,The War Queen)EXAMPLE:Lacking electricity in the story, HOW does she curl her hair?ANSWER:Ratavia looked askance at her and slipped thick, rubber-studded gloves over her hands. She then pulled a ceramic bowl filled with short metal cylinders out of theembers of the fire and brought it to the vanity. (She uses the cylinders heated in the fire to curl her hair.)THE “STORY HOUSE” LOGISTICAL STRUCTUREImagine your story is a two-level house WITHOUT a staircase connecting the two levels. If you are on the first floor, you don’t just “go upstairs” because there is no way to GET you upstairs. The lack of a stair case is your logistical issue. A lot of writers neglect/forget they are lacking a staircase and without the detailed implementation of getting to the second floor, their characters simply “go upstairs” without the clear method as to HOW. Adding the staircase will fix your logistical issue.
WHY WRITERS SOMETIMES NEGLECT (NOT FORGET) TO ADD THE STAIRCASEAs I’ve said, I didn’t even know story logistics was a real thing until those two cases in the two stories I read jumped out at me, and then I realized I’ve been seeing it all along. I just didn’t have a collective term I could’ve stamped on it to recognize for later. I think story logistics is such an issue for young writers because answering the HOW (adding the staircase) is hard. Writing isn’t supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be fun. And because writers only want it to be fun, they skip the explanation for the HOW (failing to add the staircase) and go straight to the WHAT (going upstairs). Because it’s easy.WHAT DOES THE “HOW” MATTER, ANYWAY?It matters because we must make fiction realistically explainable. Readers will believe the impossible before the improbable. The more realistically explainable you make it feel, the better quality of story you provide, and answering the how and adding that staircase makes it realistic.I know answering the HOW is hard. I’ve completed 7 books answering that same question. How do you sneak into a town when it’s walled off, gated, and patrolled? You might be tempted to answer just the WHAT and write some glib thing like, “He snuck into town, avoiding the guards.” That’s the WHAT. The HOW is 2 chapters worth of him creating a potion which will turn him invisible, and building his upper body strength so he can climb the wall by using 2 daggers stabbed into the wood, hand over hand, until he’s up and over the wall.Hard? Long? Of course. But the more realistically explainable your story, the better quality your story. But if you don’t care about quality, then don’t care about grammar or spelling either.
WHY WRITERS SOMETIMES NEGLECT (NOT FORGET) TO ADD THE STAIRCASEAs I’ve said, I didn’t even know story logistics was a real thing until those two cases in the two stories I read jumped out at me, and then I realized I’ve been seeing it all along. I just didn’t have a collective term I could’ve stamped on it to recognize for later. I think story logistics is such an issue for young writers because answering the HOW (adding the staircase) is hard. Writing isn’t supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be fun. And because writers only want it to be fun, they skip the explanation for the HOW (failing to add the staircase) and go straight to the WHAT (going upstairs). Because it’s easy.WHAT DOES THE “HOW” MATTER, ANYWAY?It matters because we must make fiction realistically explainable. Readers will believe the impossible before the improbable. The more realistically explainable you make it feel, the better quality of story you provide, and answering the how and adding that staircase makes it realistic.I know answering the HOW is hard. I’ve completed 7 books answering that same question. How do you sneak into a town when it’s walled off, gated, and patrolled? You might be tempted to answer just the WHAT and write some glib thing like, “He snuck into town, avoiding the guards.” That’s the WHAT. The HOW is 2 chapters worth of him creating a potion which will turn him invisible, and building his upper body strength so he can climb the wall by using 2 daggers stabbed into the wood, hand over hand, until he’s up and over the wall.Hard? Long? Of course. But the more realistically explainable your story, the better quality your story. But if you don’t care about quality, then don’t care about grammar or spelling either.
What STORY LOGISTICS are and why you need them
What is logistics?The detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation.What now?Thedetailedorganization andimplementationof a complex operation.So that means…You must have a detailed explanation to how things happen in your story.I’m sure you’re thinking, “Well, duh!” but not so fast. I didn’t know story logistics were a real thing until I beta read 2 different stories by 2 different authors. See below:STORY A:The writer had their character swim through a river, through a narrow rock tunnel, to end up in a cave. Inside this cave was a full-sized bed.THE LOGISTICAL ISSUE:How did the bed get into the cave? Assuming someone actually put it there and it wasn’t just constructed as part of the natural landscape the writer fashioned for the story, how did this person drag this mattress through the river and through the narrow tunnel to put it in the cave?STORY B:A fire started in a room in a castle. The setting so far has lacked all sense of modernization (no electricity, indoor plumbing, etc.) The main character runs inside the castle and sees this fire, and sees servants dumping buckets of water to put it out.THE LOGISTICAL ISSUE:How are they getting water to put the fire out? Lacking modern conveniences like indoor plumbing and the writer stating they were using buckets, I would have to assume they would race outside to the nearest well/river to retrieve the water, but there was no mention of that. Simply “they dumped buckets of water on the fire.”Lacking story logistics is a common problem among new writers. I’ve seen it in my own early writings and in other stories I’ve beta read. The WHAT is present (bed in a cave, using water to put out the fire) but there is no HOW (how did the bed get there? How did they get water to put out the fire?)HOW TO SPOT LOGISTICAL ISSUES:Consider your own writing. Pick one thing in your story, doesn’t matter what, and ask it HOW. If you don’t have a DETAILED explanation to the IMPLEMENTATION to the HOW, you have a logistical issue. Let’s review the definition of logistics again: The detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation.HOW TO FIX LOGISTICAL ISSUES:Ready for the magical answer? Simply provide a detailed implementation to the HOW of your subject. See below:EXAMPLE:This building which has feels of medieval, has indoor plumbing for showers. HOW do they get water into the building for showers without modern technology?ANSWER:A bell would ring on the first floor upon the pull of the chain in the ceiling to signal the workers to man a pump to pull water from the boiler. The pumps would push the water through pipes to spray water out like a rain shower on top of the bather. (Excerpt pulled from my fantasy novel,The War Queen)EXAMPLE:Lacking electricity in the story, HOW does she curl her hair?ANSWER:Ratavia looked askance at her and slipped thick, rubber-studded gloves over her hands. She then pulled a ceramic bowl filled with short metal cylinders out of theembers of the fire and brought it to the vanity. (She uses the cylinders heated in the fire to curl her hair.)THE “STORY HOUSE” LOGISTICAL STRUCTUREImagine your story is a two-level house WITHOUT a staircase connecting the two levels. If you are on the first floor, you don’t just “go upstairs” because there is no way to GET you upstairs. The lack of a stair case is your logistical issue. A lot of writers neglect/forget they are lacking a staircase and without the detailed implementation of getting to the second floor, their characters simply “go upstairs” without the clear method as to HOW. Adding the staircase will fix your logistical issue.WHY WRITERS SOMETIMES NEGLECT (NOT FORGET) TO ADD THE STAIRCASEAs I’ve said, I didn’t even know story logistics was a real thing until those two cases in the two stories I read jumped out at me, and then I realized I’ve been seeing it all along. I just didn’t have a collective term I could’ve stamped on it to recognize for later. I think story logistics is such an issue for young writers because answering the HOW (adding the staircase) is hard. Writing isn’t supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be fun. And because writers only want it to be fun, they skip the explanation for the HOW (failing to add the staircase) and go straight to the WHAT (going upstairs). Because it’s easy.WHAT DOES THE “HOW” MATTER, ANYWAY?It matters because we must make fiction realistically explainable. Readers will believe the impossible before the improbable. The more realistically explainable you make it feel, the better quality of story you provide, and answering the how and adding that staircase makes it realistic.I know answering the HOW is hard. I’ve completed 7 books answering that same question. How do you sneak into a town when it’s walled off, gated, and patrolled? You might be tempted to answer just the WHAT and write some glib thing like, “He snuck into town, avoiding the guards.” That’s the WHAT. The HOW is 2 chapters worth of him creating a potion which will turn him invisible, and building his upper body strength so he can climb the wall by using 2 daggers stabbed into the wood, hand over hand, until he’s up and over the wall.Hard? Long? Of course. But the more realistically explainable your story, the better quality your story. But if you don’t care about quality, then don’t care about grammar or spelling either.
April 6, 2017
Should main characters die?
Should main characters die? Should they be brought back to life?This closely correlates with my other postTo Kill or Not to Kill Characters. First, I want to touch again on WHY a main character dies:WHY:To emotionally jar your reader. Humans love drama. We love to be emotionally jarred. I can prove this because since Adam and Eve, the world has gone through periods of war and periods of peace, over and over; through the bible, through our own recorded history, and even in our individual lives. It’s impossible for humans to maintain the same homeostasis. We war because we have this deep need to shake up our emotions. We have peace because our emotions need a break. And then we want them shaken up again.So main characters die to jar the reader. Now be careful doing this, because you dance the fine line of pissing off your readers. You have to take the readers’ emotions into account; they have invested a deep connection to your character and they don’t want your character to die any more than they want their real life best friend to die. So when you kill a main character, make sure it MAKES SENSE. Humans hate senseless deaths, in real life and in books.
The rules of killing your main character:1)Make sure your main character's deathMAKES SENSEand isREALISTIC. You WILL lose readership if your main characters die because they choke on their mashed potatoes (note I said MAIN character. I have no ruling on how SIDE characters should die at this moment.) When does it make sense? When they are a soldier and they die in battle (the situation is realistic and makes sense: soldier=battle). When they are a gang member and they die in a knife fight (the situation is realistic and makes sense: gang=knife fights). When they are kidnapped by the antagonist and go through a series or tortures (the situation is realistic and makes sense: the kidnapped=endless sadistic possibilities for the antagonist).2)If you kill them, don't bring them back to life. Here's why...{a}:A good book to show my example comes from Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance). In this book, 2 main characters both die, and they are brought back to life by magic. I was emotionally disturbed by the first death (but accepted it because it made sense to the situation. She was fighting a dragon. Pretty easy to die there.) But she was so easily brought back to life, that when the 2nd character died, I didn’t care at all because I knew he’d be brought back to life too. And he was.Humans revere death with a certain ceremony. We might dig mountains into deep pits, we might figure out how to make it rain when we want, but if there is absolutely the one thing we cannot change, it is death. Though I miss my father, I would be horrified and so emotionally broken if he came back to life that I'd be forever mentally changed. And that is because I’ve revered his death with the proper ceremony already. I've sealed that box. We even bury beloved animals though in nature wild dogs eat each other when they die. We bury them because we need that ceremony, that transition from one existence to another for our own closure and sanity.So don’t bring characters back to life. Unless you do. Then follow this rule:RULE:Just like their death MADE SENSE and was REALISTIC, make their resurrection MAKE SENSE and be REALISTIC. Don’t just kill a main character because he looked sexy when he died and bring him back to life because you still need him in the story. Harry Potter's death made sense in the last book. And so did his resurrection.In another book of mine, the second chapter you see an object and this object is referenced throughout the story so you know it’s still there, but still have no idea what it is. Then toward the end, main character #1 dies. After his death, main character #2 finally realizes this strange object she’s been carrying around has the ability to bring him back to life, and she uses it and he comes back to life.I get away with doing this because it wasn’t random. It was a planned out from chapter 2, and that helps reassure readers you had everything under control and it was written into the story to happen. It MADE SENSE when he was brought back to life after you realized his death and his resurrection were written into the story, even if you didn’t realize it until the end.
The rules of killing your main character:1)Make sure your main character's deathMAKES SENSEand isREALISTIC. You WILL lose readership if your main characters die because they choke on their mashed potatoes (note I said MAIN character. I have no ruling on how SIDE characters should die at this moment.) When does it make sense? When they are a soldier and they die in battle (the situation is realistic and makes sense: soldier=battle). When they are a gang member and they die in a knife fight (the situation is realistic and makes sense: gang=knife fights). When they are kidnapped by the antagonist and go through a series or tortures (the situation is realistic and makes sense: the kidnapped=endless sadistic possibilities for the antagonist).2)If you kill them, don't bring them back to life. Here's why...{a}:A good book to show my example comes from Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance). In this book, 2 main characters both die, and they are brought back to life by magic. I was emotionally disturbed by the first death (but accepted it because it made sense to the situation. She was fighting a dragon. Pretty easy to die there.) But she was so easily brought back to life, that when the 2nd character died, I didn’t care at all because I knew he’d be brought back to life too. And he was.Humans revere death with a certain ceremony. We might dig mountains into deep pits, we might figure out how to make it rain when we want, but if there is absolutely the one thing we cannot change, it is death. Though I miss my father, I would be horrified and so emotionally broken if he came back to life that I'd be forever mentally changed. And that is because I’ve revered his death with the proper ceremony already. I've sealed that box. We even bury beloved animals though in nature wild dogs eat each other when they die. We bury them because we need that ceremony, that transition from one existence to another for our own closure and sanity.So don’t bring characters back to life. Unless you do. Then follow this rule:RULE:Just like their death MADE SENSE and was REALISTIC, make their resurrection MAKE SENSE and be REALISTIC. Don’t just kill a main character because he looked sexy when he died and bring him back to life because you still need him in the story. Harry Potter's death made sense in the last book. And so did his resurrection.In another book of mine, the second chapter you see an object and this object is referenced throughout the story so you know it’s still there, but still have no idea what it is. Then toward the end, main character #1 dies. After his death, main character #2 finally realizes this strange object she’s been carrying around has the ability to bring him back to life, and she uses it and he comes back to life.I get away with doing this because it wasn’t random. It was a planned out from chapter 2, and that helps reassure readers you had everything under control and it was written into the story to happen. It MADE SENSE when he was brought back to life after you realized his death and his resurrection were written into the story, even if you didn’t realize it until the end.
