Michael Offutt's Blog, page 96

There is good and bad out there and we all know it's out there but no one can tell the difference between them.

As writers, we know that one of the rules we need to follow is brevity. The industry as a whole pounds this topic. Keep things brief. Whittle down everything so that there's only the best content for the readers. It all makes sense if you think about it. No one wants things to drag on forever, and no one wants a story that never ends, right? So write a story that is brief, unless you don't write a story that is brief, and everyone loves a story that never ends. Wait, what?

Why do we have stories that never end in a world that says this is exactly what you shouldn't do and is basically the reason why authors need editors? Unless of course, chopping content is a meaningless exercise, and there are people that actually want demand that content. I guess the trouble is finding out who wants that content, and those who don't are just part of the problem because they probably didn't like the story anyway.
There are so many examples of this. Brandon Sanderson's new book is so huge that he expressed worry on social media that if it got too much bigger the publisher might break it into two books. Of course fans were like, "we want it to be endless...." It makes me shake my head, and then I realize how much endless content there is that I consume. Heck, why do I even want something that I love to end? Would anyone choose to end a romance with a paramour? Nope.
Supernatural on the CW is getting renewed for its twelfth season, when the story really ended with season five. The Walking Dead is probably endless, but at least they've got a way to keep the story fresh by killing off and replacing the cast with new ones (and they keep coming up with more story that somehow manages to be more shocking than anything you've seen before). Then there's The Simpsons, and I have no idea what season they are on. Same for South Park. Does "Jumping the Shark" actually matter? For some stories, apparently not.George R.R. Martin originally intended his fantasy, The Song of Ice and Fire, to only be a trilogy. We know how that worked out. And let's face it, Piers Anthony with his endless Xanth novels and Laurell K. Hamilton with her Anita Blake series have no end in sight. All of this goes into my brain and makes me think that (as writers) we only really need to pare down our words if we have no readers. Once people get to liking what you write, then you can just keep churning out stuff and they'll just keep consuming. That's the way people are. We latch onto things we like and keep going back.
So maybe writers should just remember that you only need to keep track of word count if no one reads your work because no one is interested in what you have to say. But once you get people who are interested in your characters and story, you can just write and write and write and it doesn't seem to matter. J.K. Rowling knows this first hand. She could write Harry Potter stuff until the end of time and none of it would matter. So in a way, ending things has nothing to do with a fan base and everything to do with an author. Maybe what I'm talking about here is "integrity" versus "selling out." Integrity means you stop when you're done with a story even if it's super popular. An example is "Breaking Bad."  Selling out is when you realize that you've created a money-printing franchise that people are interested in, and you just keep churning out material to get a paycheck.
I suppose in the end I'm just interested in the phenomenon itself. That is, I'd like an answer as to why it's okay if some stories never have an ending and why there are so many people who tell you exactly the opposite. I suppose there isn't a good answer unless you accept the fact that people have a hard time figuring out what's actually good. Maybe that's the problem. There is "good" and "bad" out there, and we all know it's out there, but no one can tell the difference between them.

I saw 10 Cloverfield Lane last night and I left the movie with more questions than answers.

I saw 10 Cloverfield Lane last night, and I left the movie with more questions than answers. As a movie, it's a rather brilliant gem, and it probably didn't cost very much to make. The cast is super small, which probably went a long ways toward keeping production cost down. And there were several moments when I felt the director was borrowing heavily from a story called "Wool" by Hugh Howey. It plays very effectively on the whole "apocalypse" theme and uses psychological terror to keep the audience engaged with the characters.

So why does the movie leave me unsatisfied, and does that mean I'd want to see another. Perhaps a sequel? Yes it does. It's the same kind of trick that writers use when they "cliffhang" things, and I think that (in particular) I'm very susceptible to this kind of storytelling. I wonder if this is the same kind of fascination that the public has with serial killers. I mean...a lot of serial killers don't ever have a motive which is why it's so hard to track them down. And that has made for a lot of good stories about them. It's this whole fascination that us humans have to desiring answers to questions that will never materialize. It almost seems cruel that a writer or a director would make a film that results in the same lack of answers, but at the same time it's obviously effective at making people come back and pay for more.

I suppose life is about getting answers to questions we have. And the questions that never get answers bother us so much that we make up solutions until something else comes along that actually solves the question. We are odd creatures, humans. And J.J. Abrams knows exactly how to troll us all, not that I'm complaining. Okay, yes I'm complaining.

I want some answers dammit!

In the Game of Thrones Season Six Trailer Nobody is Happy

The new trailer for Game of Thrones season 6 is out (and I included it below). In it everyone looks distraught. Bran looks terrified of the Night's King but at least he's got his legs! Melisandre looks lost (poor, poor Red Priestess of R'hllor). John Snow looks dead and Daenerys looks a lot like a captured slave again marching her way to Vaes Dothrak. Oh and Cersei? Well she just looks defiant with an unkillable monster as a bodyguard. I'm sure everything will work out in the end though, right?

Not Tomorrow Yet makes it easy to call The Walking Dead the most brutal show that has ever aired on television.

Spoiler Alert: I am talking about Sunday night's The Walking Dead episode called "Not Tomorrow Yet."
Has there ever been a show on television as brutal as The Walking Dead? I'm so thankful for "Talking Dead" because, after watching a show like "Not Tomorrow Yet," I feel like I need to decompress. The brutal slaughtering of people that they didn't even know reached new levels of emotional shock for me than I had anticipated. And yeah, I did know it was coming, but it just seemed far more horrible outside of a comic book and splashed all over the screen (in one scene blood spray stuck to the camera lens in a kind of "Deadpool-esque" break the Fourth Wall moment).
So last night we saw Rick's group of warriors go up against what I think is a small contingent of "The Saviors" who probably have a much larger and stronger army. This was a kind of "outpost," but the killing is definitely stirring up a hornet's nest that will lead to all out war. And the reasoning behind the attack was very logical: it's us or them. To some extent, it's a reflection of modern politics with fear spreading through a population and more and more people raising their voices in a chorus demanding radical action to guarantee safety. Negan's compound in The Walking Dead comic book. This is the hornet's
nest that Rick and crew have stirred up. And something tells me we're going
to be seeing it next week with that gut-wrenching ending of last night's episode.This episode was a dramatic shift in the narrative of The Walking Dead. Instead of being defenders, Rick's group moved into the position of being the predator at the watering hole. I suppose the transition has been a long time coming with Rick's crew trying to avoid violence whenever possible. It reminds me of a quote I heard one time that went something like this: "Hostility and violence doesn't solve anything. It solves everything."  If you lived in a post-apocalyptic world with zombies and knew that a violent group was out there that would come and take all of your resources and perhaps harm or even kill people in your community, could you take on the role of an assassin and strike them first?
I'm glad we don't live in a world like that...yet. And I hope we never will.

Zootopia is sitting at 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and it really is a masterpiece

I love animated films and was really looking forward to seeing Zootopia even before it smashed all records on Rotten Tomatoes ever by nailing a 100% Fresh rating spread out over 93 separate reviews (and counting). But once I learned this astounding fact (as I lethargically checked what was in the theaters this weekend) I absolutely had to go and see it. So watched it I did. I haven't felt this good coming out of an animated film since How to Train Your Dragon 2, or perhaps the Pixar era of hit after hit after hit.

And it's so timely. I don't want to spoil any of the message that this film carries, but it's really awesome and guys you should go see this movie. Seriously. Zootopia is frickin' fantastic and unless your heart is two-sizes too small, it will touch you just like Toy Story 3 touched you. Just let the feels in...you know you want to.

Learning to share your work with other writers is an important first step to overcoming insecurites

Sharing your work with other writers is a scary step. But it's also an incredibly rewarding one. Nothing created is meant to exist in a vacuum, and that goes for words. Words are meant to be read, met to be ingested and interpreted, because humans (the font of words) are social creatures seeking connection to each other. And it can be an amazing feeling to get feedback (which is a kind of reward system for the brain). It feels good, and this in turn can urge you to repeat the process to get better and better at your craft.

Hopefully, writers will be supportive and encouraging. But sometimes they're not. That's just the way writers are. But I haven't yet run into a writer that wouldn't answer questions like: 1) what do you think is working well, and 2) what could I improve, and 3) is the point of view working, and 4) are the characters and story compelling enough for you to want to know more? Sure, every single one of us wants to hear the words, "This is perfect and amazing and don't change a thing." But I've never known that kind of compliment to come bubbling from anyone's lips. Part of that has to do with the fact that people use critique to sound intelligent about a topic. It's why a job where you get paid will never net you a flawless performance review: there's always something that can be improved, even if it is made up.

Being comfortable with yourself is almost impossible unless you're a Buddhist monk. So rather than overcome insecurity, I think it's important to realize that when you are feeling insecure it means that this is an opportunity for you to take a leap. In other words, life is asking you to take a risk (or to gamble at something). And just like gambling, there's usually a reward to go along with it. I used to think there were examples of terrible writing and examples of great writing. But now, I'd like to revise those terms. There is popular writing and unpopular writing and a thousand shades of gray in-between. Unpopular writing still has an audience. There are people out there who will just love it and think it is the best thing ever because it creates some kind of emotional reaction in them. Popular writing just has a bigger audience...more people are apt to be connected to it in some way. But writing doesn't have to be "excellent" to be popular. I think this year's republican primary shows this particular idea in spades.

Anyway, learning to share your work with other writers is an important first step to overcoming insecurities. I thought I'd talk about that for today's Insecure Writer's Support Group post and wish you well on your writing journey.

A trip to Universal Studios Orlando to see the new Kong ride is what I need to make happen this year.

I gotta say, the new King Kong ride at Universal Orlando makes me think I need to make a trip to Florida. If not for that, to see Harry Potter World and of course visit the Disney empire. But as most of you know, there's always a special place in my heart for kaiju themed things. And this video teaser just sounds too cool to miss.
In case you haven't heard, this summer Universal Studios Orlando is opening a massive King Kong-themed ride called Skull Island: Reign of Kong. All of it looks pretty much like the Peter Jackson film King Kong that came out about ten years ago brought to life. I have always loved the King Kong story because I like the period it takes place in (the 1930's), and it kind of reminds me of some H.P. Lovecraft stories I really like--the particular element in this storytelling is that there's some ancient civilization out there in the ocean and we only see the remnants of it (big walls, etc.) and huge monsters. You've got to have kaiju.

Oh and if you watched the Oscars last night, you saw Mad Max: Fury Road get robbed! It was robbed right in front of everyone! Just sayin'...

Is Madame Gao from Daredevil season one going to appear in Netlix's Marvel adaptation of Iron Fist?

As Netflix gets ready to spring Daredevil season 2 upon us next month, I wanted to take a look at one of the most interesting villains of Daredevil season 1 and bounce some ideas off of those of you who've watched it.

Right from the very beginning, Wilson Fisk a.k.a. Kingpin was surrounded by fellow crime lords. One of them was a ninja (Nobu) and another was the enigmatic Madame Gao who (in one scene) declared that she could speak any language. I don't know about you, but that was impressive. And then of course there's the scene where Daredevil confronts Madame Gao in her heroin-stuffing warehouse and she throws him twenty feet with a single punch. But this isn't the last dangling hook this character drops. That particular hook happens when Madame Gao is talking to Leland and she says she's going to be returning to her homeland to reflect upon things. He scoffs and says, "What? China?" And she replies that her homeland is much further away than China and just leaves it at that.

Well...what the hell does that mean? My opinion is that it means K'un Lun.

K'un Lun is the home of the immortal Iron Fists (which we now know Netflix is making into its own series). It is a city of aliens that isn't always where it's supposed to be, sometimes vanishing only to reappear many years later. It's also one of the Seven Cities of Heaven, who all periodically pick champions to fight in a Mortal Kombat-style tournament to decide which city gets to appear once every ten years on Earth. If Madame Gao is from K'un Lun, I'm thinking we haven't seen the last of her and that she's probably going to crop up in the Iron Fist series as soon as it's available to binge watch on Netflix. Perhaps she's even a major villain, but I suppose that wouldn't necessarily be too much of a spoiler now would it?

A short list of the fictional metals and their properties that appear in DC and Marvel screen adaptations as inspired by The Flash

On last night's The Flash, Diggle (who was a guest star crossover from team Arrow on Wednesday's) helped Barry nab King Shark. During the end sequence (clearly an homage to Jaws), Dr. Wells said that the container they had standing by to "hold" King Shark was made of "promethium metal." It got me thinking, why do comic books come up with fictional metals? Well the answer is pretty obvious if you think about it. Fictional metals have to have "super" qualities to match the "super beings" that star in the stories which take place in the universe. It's part of the whole world-building thing. So that being said, here are some of the fictional metals I could think of that have appeared in DC or Marvel television shows and/or movies (leaving off kryptonite because that's too famous and everyone has heard of it):
1) Promethium Metal.Origin: DC Universe.Properties: Promethium is nigh invulnerable. The bionic and cybernetic components of Cyborg (the Teen Titans) are made of promethium metal. Promethium is also capable of generating and absorbing near-limitless amounts of energy, and so can be used as a power source for many gadgets. However, this "volatile promethium" is a dangerous mutagen that can be used to mutate living beings or trigger their metagene. It was used in the creation of the super-powered criminals known as Hybrid. Deathstroke the Terminator's mesh armour, sword and staff are made (either wholly or in part) of volatile promethium. He is likely able to use these weapons without suffering the negative sides effects as a result of his healing factors. 2) Inertron.Origin: DC Universe.Properties: This fictional metallic chemical substance found is the hardest, densest substance in the DC universe, and is often used by the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century. Inertron is frequently described as indestructible and impenetrable. However, this only applies to regular humans, lesser super humans and 30th century known technology. On some occasions, Superboy and Mon-El could break an inertron container by using all their strength. 3) Adamantium/Vibranium.Origin: Marvel Universe.Properties: Adamantium is a virtually indestructible steel alloy named after the fabled metal Adamantine of Greek mythology. The metal has its origins in the work of American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain during World War II when the U.S. government assigned him to military research and development. Through a metallurgic accident, MacLain created the indestructible Vibranium-steel compound that was used to create the shield used by the super-soldier Captain America. MacLain spent decades attempting to duplicate the process, and although unsuccessful, he instead created True Adamantium in the 1960s.     Extraordinarily expensive to produce, Adamantium is created through the mixing of certain chemical resins whose exact composition is a closely guarded government secret. For eight minutes after the resins are mixed, Adamantium can be molded if kept at a temperature of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Its extremely stable molecular structure prevents it from being molded further, even if the temperature remains high enough to keep it in liquefied form. Hardened Adamantium can only be altered by rearrangement of its cellular structure. Given sufficient mass, Adamantium could survive a direct hit from a nuclear weapon or a blow from the most powerful superhuman. The only known substance able to pierce Adamantium is the compound known as Antarctic Vibranium, also called "anti-metal". Wolverine's skeleton is dipped in adamantium (you would know this if you saw the movies). 4) Uru.Origin: Marvel Universe.Properties: Uru is a Norse super-metal. Mjolnir (Thor's hammer) is made of from it. Basically, this metal absorbs magic like a sponge. 5) Amazonium.Origin: DC Universe.Properties: The strongest metal known. Wonder Woman's bracelets are made from this stuff.
It's a short list and I'm sure there are some that I didn't touch on, but I think this gets down the basics (at least of what I remember). So what about you? Are you someone that makes up fictional metals for your stories? And if so, what are their properties?

The Walking Dead introduced Jesus and Richonne became a thing so could a tiger named Shiva be next?

Walking Dead spoilers ahead folks. You have been warned.
This is the Hilltop Colony where Jesus comes from. It's full of nice people and
has about twice the survivors that Alexandria does (that's Rick's community).Yay. For once, the Walking Dead had a relatively good episode where none of the major cast members died, and we met an interesting character (that's in the comic book adaptation) that isn't a total douche bag. For what it's worth, I've been really looking forward to the introduction of Jesus from the comics. And from what I remember, the way in which he is introduced in the show pretty much mirrors how it happened in the graphic novel. For one, Jesus was this guy that could do all kinds of martial arts moves and secondly, he was an incredibly nimble escape artist. We saw both of those in the episode that aired last night.

So the Walking Dead's world is about to get blown up really big. Jesus is from this community that has like 200 people living in it and they have chickens and livestock and a wall and more resources than even Alexandria has. And they're actually pretty nice people. There's also a third community that's called "The Kingdom," which will be introduced through Jesus. So he's kind of a big catalyst to move the show in an entirely different direction.
The Kingdom is ruled by a very colorful character called Ezekiel and he has a pet tiger named "Shiva" that he keeps on a chain. A former zookeeper with delusions of grandeur, in the post apocalyptic world he's essentially a benevolent king with a unique fascination on medieval life, i.e., he holds court, calls himself a king, and has knights. Interesting, right? I guess you gotta do something in the apocalypse to keep yourself busy. And I think it's going to be really cool for the Walking Dead to introduced a tiger...I really do.
All of this is to prepare viewers for basically all out war between those three communities (allying together) to fight Negan because he's that awful. I'll be curious to see how the television show handles Negan because he monologues a lot and says "F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!" all the time. Of course, the show does differ from the comic in major ways. For one, there's no Daryl. And for another, I can't quite remember Rick and Michonne getting together, so I'm glad to see it happen on the show. It seemed very organic and honestly, they're perfect for each other. They're both tough as nails, and she's Rick's moral center for pretty much everything.

I don't think we're going to be seeing the kinds of people that aren't suited for this world anymore. The apocalypse happened years ago and people are adapting to it in so many creative ways. Anyone that couldn't adapt just died so it really is the rise of a new world order doing things in a different way and just learning to manage the zombies. So in a way, Jesus is an obvious biblical symbol. He represents a rebirth for everyone that's made it that far and now will open the minds of those who managed to survive.

This show really is the most brilliant thing on television. Thank you Robert Kirkman. :) You've made Sunday nights so awesome.