Taven Moore's Blog, page 46

Costuming!

Normally? I’m not one to notice costuming. I certainly don’t THINK in costumes, or spend hours casting and dressing my characters.

However, every once in a while, costuming is done with such … unique flair that even I stand up and take notice.

The Secret of Moonacre

This movie is available on netflix streaming and it is aimed at a younger audience while still being fun for kids-at-heart like myself. It didn’t have the deepest plotline, but I enjoyed absolutely every moment of it.

The best thing, though? The COSTUMING.

I can only imagine that some costume designer was told, “You know what? Just do whatever your heart says is right,” because there is such obvious LOVE sewn into these outfits.

You

Anyone have any favorite costuming movies, tv shows, anything? How important is costuming to you when you read a book?

Related posts:

Resolutions For a New Year
An Open Discussion on Reading
TV Looky Box

[Perry] Magic Systems: Arbitrary Versus Rules

Magic systems generally come in two flavors: Arbitrary or Ruled.

Arbitrary magic systems are ones where there are no rules to govern how the magic works or the rules are loose enough that it might as well be random.

An example of this type of system at work can be seen in Harry Potter and various other stories more geared toward a younger audience. The magic present in that world is fanciful and varied but it doesn’t follow any sort of natural laws. Things just sort of happen for no rhyme or reason and none of the characters can explain why it works this way.

While this can be used well for tension or solving story elements, it generally tends to lead to a lot of questions about how exactly the magic works. Questions arise like, how come nobody has a spell to cure Harry’s eyesight when there exist spells that do things like regrow bones in someone’s arm or a magic potion that can regrow skin?

The essential problem with arbitrary magic systems can be summed up with the following: If the author can’t explain why magic works a certain way, the author also can’t explain why magic doesn’t work a certain way either.

This isn’t a blanket criticism of arbitrary magic systems. They’re often used to fantastic effect but it should be noted that in many of these cases, magic isn’t used systematically but more as plot devices. An example of this use of an arbitrary magic system can be found in The Lord of the Rings universe.

On the other hand, ruled magic systems are ones where the author does their best to explain how and why the magic system works the way it does.

An example of this type of system can be found in many of the books in the science fiction genre (Old Man’s War for example) or Mistborn. By explaining how the magic works and the strict rules that it follows, we open up the way to let the reader follow along and understand why things are happening. Once the heroes get to the end of the story and face up against the villain, the reader knows that the author isn’t going to suddenly whip out an all-purpose villain bashing spell that will lead to victory. Because of this, whatever the heroes do to overcome the threat at the end of the story, it’s a solution that will make sense within the confines of the world the reader has been shown.

These are both some fairly general looks at what can be a complex system, though.

If you take The Name of the Wind as an example, Rothfuss actually incorporates both types of magic systems into his story, sympathy and the fairy magic. He explained at a reading that while he wanted the system of sympathy to be the primary magic system in the story, he realized that there were certain things that he needed to happen that sympathy couldn’t account for, hence the balancing of the rigid and ruled sympathy with the more spontaneous and wild fairy magic.

At the end of the day, I think it’s important to emphasize the point that not all arbitrary systems are bad and not all ruled systems are good.

Something like The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay boasts a fairly arbitrary system of magic where the spells being cast do what the plot requires of them without any clear understanding of what the limits are. But it would take a pretty critical reader to claim that the system doesn’t work for the story.

More than anything else, it’s important to understand why your magic system works the way it does and to always be aware (and avoid!) the common pitfalls of each type of system.

Related posts:

[Perry] Magic Systems: The Hook
Writing is Not Magic
[Perry] Wherein Not All Things Need To Be Ambitious

Don't Watch This Movie

Conan

So I like the old Conan movies as much as the next fantasy buffs. Drunken camel punching should be an Olympic sport, and all.

The NEW Conan movie? The one made in 2011?

So. So so bad.

Spoilers

SO MANY SPOILERS AHEAD. Not that it matters. Can you spoil already-rotting meat?

My Reasons, Let Me Show You Them

First off, the movie would be hilarious if there was any indication that it realized how hilarious it was.

Secondly, this clip was released before the movie, and it honestly makes the movie look great. Just enough over-the-top to be fun, right? I was prepared for a bloody festival with a bit of self-fun-jiggery-pokery. (You can stop watching at 2:50)

Rescuing the Slaves

Right, so. When first we meet slightly-older Conan, he has his band of merry men and they are on a cliff, overlooking a slave camp. (There is rather a lot of scenic overlooking in this movie, which is totally forgivable while still being funny).

This, my little bunnies, is what we call the “Saving the Cat” scene. This is where Conan is going to do something so kind-hearted that we will forgive all the blood and killing and stuff, because obviously he’s a Really Nice Guy Deep Down.

This is also, by the way, where first we are treated to the actor piloting Conan’s terrible terrible acting. *wince*

So anyway. Conan sees these slaves and is apparently moved? by their plight and wants to rescue them. I might have preferred a stronger motivation, but it’s the beginning of the movie. Sure. Go right ahead.

We see a scene where the barbarians war-shout and lift their weapons (there is also rather a lot of weapon raising FOR NO REASON. This is less forgivable, but hilarious the tenth time it happens). The horses beneath them, might I add, look so bored that I’m surprised one of them doesn’t yawn. This is good because it means the horses were likely well-treated during the filming of the movie, but any equine buff is going to get a giggle at how NOT excited they are by the yelling.

Right, so. Back to the slaves.

We’re going to RESCUE them! How, might you ask? By rolling boulders down upon them.

*facepalm*

Magically, the boulders only hurt the slavers. And some cabbage. But mostly slavers.

Battle ends. They open the big carnival wagons and release the slaves (gratuitous booby shots ahoy!). Conan GRABS ONE OF THE SLAVES AND MAKES OFF WITH HER. So you rescued them so they could be YOUR whores?

How … noble?

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the slaves are giggling and jiggling and clearly ready to party.

I just. I don’t even. I mean. *headdesk*

I did not come away from this Cat-Saving scene feeling that Conan is obviously a Really Nice Guy Deep Down.

In Which I Almost Throw Up

I will spare the details, but there’s a scene not-too-far past this where Conan tortures a guy for information. I will say only that they went way, WAY too far, and pretty much murdered any chance that I might ever give even an iota of a fragment of an atom about Conan or his quest.

And I LIKE bloodfest movies.

Your Princess Is In Another Castle

One entire arm of the story turns the whole movie into a video game.

You see, Conan must get into the castle in order to save The Girl. He finds a door hidden in a hedge that he cannot open, for all his mighty muscles and sword-lifting.

So he goes to get the King of Thieves to open it for him. The King of Thieves is a coward, of course, but Conan threatens him, so he comes along.

And opens the doors.

With a key.

… a key that Conan is apparently too stupid to be able to use? I mean, there’s the key but then there’s the hole, and you have to do that turning motion … very complicated.

Right, anyway. So the King of Thieves comes along and they creep through the castle bottom and end up having a giant battle with a random tentacle monster because plot.

Whatever.

They make their way to the TOP of the castle and stand on a picturesque vista and see in the distance … the caravan trail of horses that contains the actual bad guy and The Girl.

So the entire castle scene was written in for the tentacle monster fight. Despite the fact that we’d never before met said tentacle monster, so it wasn’t even a miniboss or something.

Riiiight.

And then I’ll stop

Not because there aren’t a ton of other mockable things in the movie (there ARE. There really, really are.) but rather because at this point I’ve either talked you into watching the movie or convinced you to run screaming from it if you happen across it in the bulk bins at Walmart.

Anyone Else?

Anyone else seen this atrocity? Have anything to add?

No related posts.

Moo Cards For Christmas

image-heavy post ahoy!

Okay, first off? This post contains NSFW language.

Secondly, I was under the (mistaken) impression that Moo cards would allow you to customize the front AND the back of your moo cards. Turns out you can only upload one “back” image, and as many “front” images as you want. This means I wasted rather a lot of effort, and ended up not getting all my designs made because HONESTLY, who needs 100 copies of a Motherfucking Sorcerer business card? (Plus, I couldn’t afford a whole set for every person I designed something for)

That being said, it was still pretty awesome to order some of Moo.com’s minicards and be able to hand them out to friends.

Entreaty

Kind of goes without saying, but please don’t email any of these addresses. I’m sharing so that I can share the designs I did, not so I can spam my friends. That’s why they’re in images and not text, mmkay? I’d like to believe I don’t have to blur anything given my readership’s inherent awesomeness.

Thank You

This was one of the designs I had to drop, alas. Sometimes I see people do things and I just wanna tell them how awesome they are.

Anything’s Possible

This was a gift for my boss, with his signature catch phrase. I had a lot of fun with the gypsy ticket theme I decided to use.

Shared Back

This was the back that all of the MFS business cards ended up getting.

The Original Pairs

Related posts:

Steampunk Superhero Trading Cards
Christmas Music
The Art of Juggling Flaming Bears

[Perry] Magic Systems: The Hook

In keeping with the New Years theme, we’re going to be spending a bit of time talking about something that can help in the planning stages of a novel or to help refine ideas that may already be kicking around in our heads.

Let me ask you guys something, what’s one of the first things that come to mind when I say Star Wars?

Was it Darth Vaders troubled past? Was it the lovable rogue, Han Solo? Perhaps it was Luke Skywalkers journey from whiny twit to hero.

…Or, far more likely, a lightsaber popped into your head with its customary fwoom, breeooom sounds and how badly you wished you had one when you were younger.

What about Harry Potter? Did you think about the plucky young orphan Harry? Or the tragic story of Severus Snape?

…Or, far more likely, you thought about what life would be like if you had a wand, or went to Hogwarts, or had a flying broomstick.

As much as I adore the characters, do you know what the first things that come to my mind when you bring up Tami’s Choose?

It’s taking a ride on Hank’s Miraj. It’s having a ticker companion like Bones. It’s having a glowing hammer of smashy doom like Gerard does.

When starting a new project in the realm of speculative fiction, one of the biggest challenges when it comes to the planning phase if figuring out just how this work will be different and set apart from the real world.

Your magic system, whether it be comprised of spells, technology and gadgets or fanciful creatures, is going to be one of the biggest draws to your world. There’s a fair chance that your magic system is going to be the thing that your reader takes away from your story so it’s important to make it vivid and as ‘hooky’ as you can get it.

I’ve found that the biggest draw to any magic system I’ve encountered are things that I wish I could have in my day to day life. As I read through a story, a part at the back of my mind is always wondering how cool it would be to be able to cogsmith in real life. I wonder how interesting it would be to be able to clap my hands together and perform an alchemical transmutation. I think about how convenient it would be to be able to perform sympathy in real life and turn off that light across the room so that I don’t have to get out of my warm bed.

I think it’s important to understand that interaction and to play off of it, coming up with something that will leave an indelible mark in the mind of your reader.

Now, granted, this isn’t always the case. I can think of a handful of books in the realm of fantasy and science fiction that had magic systems that I most definitely did NOT want to be a part of my daily life (Stephen King’s IT for example *shudder) but largely speaking, this is something that will hold true.

In the coming weeks, we’ll explore this topic together with a little more depth to help iron out some of the wrinkles when it comes to creating and refining a magic system that works for your story.

For now, I’ll share with you guys that some of my favorite magic systems include:

Sympathy from The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Allomancy from Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Alchemy from Fullmetal Alchemist

What’re some of your favorite magic systems and why?

Related posts:

Hook, Logline, and Sinker
Writing is Not Magic
[Perry] Write What You Know

Resolutions For a New Year

It’s that time again, where we give last year a boot to the arse and tell ourselves next year will be different/brighter/better.

Goals VS Resolutions

“I will get published!”

AWFUL. Whether or not you get published is completely out of your hands. You can’t control the publishing machine any more than you can control the stock market. (One assumes that if YOU are capable of controlling the stock market, you might also have the connections necessary to get a book published).

“I want to be a better writer”

That’s terrible. Not because it’s an unworthy goal, but because it lacks specificity. HOW are you going to be a better writer? What aspects of writing will you work on? What will you do to improve those aspects? How will you measure your success? This is an example of a RESOLUTION. It says “I will become a better person.” without actually dedicating any effort to how you’re going to do it.

“I will write a book.”

Better, but still not quite there. Writing a book is a BIG goal, akin to saying you’re going to lose 20 pounds this year. It’s so big, in fact, that you absolutely need to break it down into smaller pieces so that you have milestones and a dedicated path. This is a GOAL … but it’s still not good enough to give you a solid path to success.

Plan

Take your year and break it into bits. PLAN.

“I will allow myself to worldbuild until the end of January.”

Okay, that’s not bad. It has a date on it, and that’s always important. On your calendar, on the last day of January, write down “Worldbuilding done TODAY!!”

“I will allow myself February to develop my plotline/story/outline.”

Great! Let’s do that. On the calendar, last day of February, write “Outline due TODAY!!”

Let’s say you’re writing something around 100k words long. (fantasy novel length. Ish.)

“I will be halfway done with my novel by the end of May!”

Great! In the calendar, on May 31st, write down “50k wordcount today!”

Now stop. We all know that there’s more to it than this. You have to do the end of the novel, then give yourself time for revising and editing and all that lovely stuff. Let’s not plan your WHOLE year just yet. Things change, dates move around, etc, etc. Let’s go back and do even more planning, because what you plan BEFORE this point will determine whether or not you even make it here.

First Milestone

Go back. From today till your first milestone — the end of worldbuilding in January — what do you need to do? Make a list.

Finish magic system rules.
Determine ALL Main character abilities
Finish societal worldbuilding
Develop teams of other ability sets
etc, etc

The more you think about it, the more questions you ask yourself, the more you realize that your January is going to be BUSY, innit? Break your list of questions up into four groups … one for each week of January. Assign those questions to each week. You just gave yourself homework, congratulations!

Next milestone! The outline.

Due by the end of February. To the listmobile!

Print out beat sheet.
Fill out the bits I know.

I know myself well enough to give myself like … one day for the above tasks.

Figure out the bits in between

I also know myself well enough to know that last task is going to take the rest of the month. More worldbuilding happens here as I examine motivations, ensure that my TRILOGY plotline is represented as well as the individual book plotline. I have to give my antagonists facetime and make sure everything is paced properly. I have to make sure that if something happens, I know WHY it happens and that nothing’s too convenient.

I always underestimate how long this will take, because it’s not till I start looking at the beat sheet elements that I realize where I’ve left gaping holes in my storyline.

Next milestone! 50k.

Count out the number of days in March, April, and May. 92.

For the moment, I’m going to keep this math simple and NOT take out any weekend days or holidays. Let’s say I have 92 writing days ahead of me.

That’s 544(ish) words per day.

STOP.

If you know you cannot maintain that pace, RESTRUCTURE NOW. Seriously. Just because you thought you’d make it by end of May, you’re not stuck to it.

Assuming you can keep that pace, take your calendar and your calculator and start writing.

544 words per day time 7 days per week = 3808 words per week.

On the Saturday of each week on your calendar, write yourself a happy little number. Week 1: 3808. Week 2: 7616. Week 3: 11424.

These numbers are where your wordcount should be, according to the schedule that you have set for yourself. Keep going till you hit that 50k milestone. (or 25k or whatever you’ve decided your milestone should be)

The Point

The point of breaking these down isn’t whether or not you use the same math or method as me. Some of you are pantsers and can’t imagine spending a whole month doing an outline. Nothing wrong with that.

What it DOES do is give you very visible weekly goals. Goals that you’ve set yourself ahead of time, and that you can use to measure your success.

The Most Important Bit

WRITE DOWN YOUR PROGRESS.

Seriously.

Every week, write down your current wordcount, whether it be more or less than your expected. Check off the questions you answer. If you delay the start of your writing phase, determine AT THAT TIME if your previous wordcount goals might still be valid or if you need to re-figure.

Each milestone is just that … a place to stop and take stock of the lay of the land. Do you need to recalculate or are you on course?

No calendar? No Problem!

EVERY SINGLE WEEK, even if you don’t do my calendar method, take time to ask yourself the following question:

“What did I do this week to reach my goals?”

It’s that simple.

What did you do?

Letter To Yourself

MY homework to you, aside from all that, is to sit down and write yourself a letter. On paper. With a pen. You will give yourself this letter when you feel like giving up.

Dear self, (you might write)

This is past me, talking to future me. I know you’re discouraged right now, because you’re me and I know how I’d feel. Tired. Wondering if it’s even worth it. Thinking you’re the worst writer ever and why would anyone even care if you finished this book?

Listen up, future me. I LOVE YOU. You are amazing and wonderful and I want to write this book so bad that i got mad when Tami told me I had to waste my time writing you this letter. I am so in love with this story and this world and these characters and I don’t care how they’ve changed over the time that you’ve gotten to know them, I KNOW that their story is worth telling, and that you’re a good enough writer to tell it.

Do your best. Nobody expects  you to be perfect. I want to read the book we write, and I know that you do too. You’re just afraid. Afraid of failure, afraid of wasting your time, afraid of so many things.

Write, future me. Write. We can fix it if it’s written, but we cannot fix it if you don’t spend time on it.

Please.

Love,

Me.

You

Now, what are YOUR goals and what are you going to do to keep them?

Related posts:

Resolutions and Goals
2010 Resolutions
Preparing for Resolutions

Writing Prompt - Pendant, Tea, Rabbit

I really enjoyed reading the entries from the last pinterest writing prompt we did, so I’d love to host another. This time, I’ll narrow down the choices to three. You may choose any of them. Please post your stories in the comments, or a link to your story if you write it elsewhere!

[image error] [image error] [image error]

Mine

Penelope was a singularly sensible little girl. That is what all of her governesses and nannies and teachers called her, anyway. They always said it with an odd look upon their face, as if they’d just eaten something surprising and not entirely pleasant. Penelope had looked the word up in the big dictionary out on the pedestal in her mother’s library and found nothing objectionable about the descriptor at all.

She was, as it happens, delighted to know the meaning of “sensible” at this very moment, for her little brother (the one she was supposed to be watching, but who constantly crawled out of sight and ate all manner of  revolting things upon the floor while she was trying to read a book) had just shoved a fistful of violets into his mouth, turned into a rabbit, and hopped into the forest.

Had she not been a particularly sensible girl, she might have disbelieved what she’d seen, and wasted precious seconds shouting about for her brother to come out of hiding.

Instead, she plucked a handful of the vivid purple violets and pressed them between the pages of her book, slipped the book into her pocket, and dashed after her brother.

Chasing a rabbit, she quickly found, did not lend itself to also paying attention to one’s surroundings. She chased his white cotton tail through a blur of greenery which morphed without her notice from scrubby pines to gnarled oak trees spilling tendrils of spanish moss.

When finally the rabbit’s panicked run came to an exhausted stop, she unpinned her bonnet and collected his long-eared form into it.

“You’ve really done it now, Edgar,” she recited to the furry bundle, using her best admonishing tone. “However am I to explain this to Mother?”

“I see you’ve found my rabbit,” said a pleasant woman’s voice.

Startled, Penelope looked up to see a lady, robed in black but beautiful, standing mere feet away. The woman smiled, teeth neat and white as doves.

“I haven’t found YOUR rabbit,” Penelope politely explained. “This is my brother.”

The woman laughed, and although her voice was still beautiful, the edges of her tone sharpened and turned brittle. She reminded Penelope of one of her governesses, the one that had been caught with silverware in her pockets.

“Don’t be ridiculous, dear girl. A rabbit for a brother? Surely you’ve simply … fallen asleep. Hand over the rabbit, and when you awaken, you will be home and this horrible ordeal will be over.”

Penelope’s eyes drooped and she stopped a yawn before it could begin. “Nonsense!” she argued, clutching her hat-entrapped brother in her arms as she scrambled to her feet. “I am not and have never been ‘ridiculous.’ I am a very sensible girl.”

The woman hissed and her dove-teeth became fangs and the lily-white skin of her hands blackened. “Give him to me, you little fool!”

“I shan’t!” cried Penelope, and stomped the hard leather heel of her boot sharply down on the woman’s foot.

The lady shrieked in surprise and pain, her voice rising more shrilly than any Penelope had ever heard, sounding more like the cats before the butler opened the windows to shout at them and throw a boot to silence them.

Abruptly, the lady was gone. Where she had stood, trapped beneath Penelope’s boot heel, lay a large brassy pendant on a chain. Penelope reached down and noted that the pendant had some kind of fish upon its face. She was still peering quizzically at it when another voice spoke up.

“Well, now you’ve done it, yes you have, and you not even a clue as to what you’ve begun.”

Warily, Penelope looked around, but could not find the speaker. An acorn flew down from a tree overhead and struck her upon the temple. “Up here!”

A dashing red squirrel with quite the most impressive tail she had ever seen scowled down at  her.

“Pardon me,” she said, dipping into a curtsy. “I am unaccustomed to being addressed by wildlife.”

The squirrel flipped his tail twice and twitched his nose at her before finally settling down. “That is much better. You would be surprised at how many adventurers don’t know the first thing about manners!”

“Oh, I’m no adventurer. I’m just a girl.” Penelope looked down to her brother and frowned. “A girl having a very unusual afternoon.”

The squirrel laughed, black eyes sparkling. “Ah, dear girl, that is precisely how adventurers are made.”

Related posts:

Saucy Prompt
Deadline Dames Writing Prompt
Writing Characters Who Are Not Very Much Like Yourself

[Perry] Choose Fanfiction - Beginnings

A short story was written for the birthday of our dear Tami.

Said story featured some beloved and very missed characters.

It was suggested that said story should be shared with other, like-minded Choose enthusiasts.

Said story can be found here.

Hope you guys enjoy.

 

 

 

Related posts:

[Perry] Wherein Not All Things Need To Be Ambitious
Choose - An Interactive Webserial
Choose-Your-Own-Novel?

Happy Holidays!

A small placeholder post for the holidays, as I hope you’re all enjoying the seasonal festivities of your choosing.

Related posts:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Happy Herbivore Cookbook Giveaway!

In Which Writing Is Not Entirely Unlike Baking

Baking

Let us assume, if we may, that there are two people.

Dennis, who loves to bake. As a matter of fact, Dennis loves to bake so much that he’s invested a lot of time and money into cookbooks, training, materials, and equipment. He prefers to bake desserts, and he is particularly fond of muffins.
Tanya, who also loves to bake. She loves the smell and delightfully messy alchemy of it all, but really only bakes once a year, at Christmastime. She has her family recipe for blueberry muffins and brings them to the family get-togethers every year.

[image error] Wrongs

It would be WRONG if Dennis told Tanya that she should stop baking if she’s not going to take it seriously. (see my previous post for more on this)

It would be WRONG of Tanya to compare her muffins to Dennis’s muffins and decide to stop baking blueberry muffins.

It would be WRONG of Dennis to bring blueberry muffins to the same family get-together in the hopes of showing her up and stealing some of her thunder.

It would be WRONG of Dennis to NOT bake blueberry muffins, simply because Tanya might be hurt if his turned out better. He loves baking muffins.

It would be WRONG for Tanya to decide she wanted to learn how to bake better, and therefore Dennis needed to teach her everything, and give her all of his tools to use, and be available at her beck and call.

It would be WRONG for Tanya to give Dennis some of each batch of her baking, expecting that he would eat and comment and critique her methods for all of them.

Not Wrongs

It would NOT be wrong for Dennis to tell Tanya she needed to learn on her own, with her own journey. Any assistance he gives her would be awfully nice, though.

It would NOT be wrong for Tanya to happily continue to make and enjoy her family recipe for blueberry muffins once a year. She’s still a baker, even if she doesn’t know how to frost a wedding cake.

Quick Note

Quick note — nothing that has happened recently has prompted this series of posts. They came out of a random discussion with a friend and should not be taken as a passive-aggressive jab at anyone.

They’re merely reminders to be conscious of your actions … both to yourself, and to your friends and resources.

Smart People

You’re all very smart people. I’ll bet you can draw your own parallels between the simple baking-related examples above to writing.

I have deliberately left out several WRONGS from the above list (and I didn’t add any RIGHTS because they tend to stem from the WRONGS). What would be some WRONGS that you would add to the baking example? Or maybe some RIGHTS or additional NOT WRONGS?

Related posts:

In Which Writing Is Not Entirely Unlike Horses
Habits - Writing Space