Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s Blog, page 68

Why I Write Fantasy . . .

So the trailer that I’m posting is for��Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls Online game. ��It is long–it clocks in over 23 minutes, but if you have the time, it is��well worth the investment as it helps to illustrate the reasons that I write Fantasy stories. ��Go ahead, take a moment to watch it, I’ll wait . . .

Finished?

I hoped you liked it as much as I did. ��But in case you didn’t, here are my reasons that I found it inspired:

Larger than Life Characters – There were 3 main characters. ��I don’t know their backstories, don’t know their histories, don’t know much about their motivations (other than they seem to want the city/citadel for conquest). ��However, you do learn a lot about their��personalities through this trailer. ��You get a sense that guy with the beard is a “rough and ready” sort of person, the kind of person you’d go drinking with, but definitely not the type person you’d invite to tea with the Queen. There is a gruff, down and dirty feel to him that is emphasized by his headbutting, spitting, and all around mean/callous disposition. ��The Ranger of the group seems to have a nobility about him. ��He kills with precision, but is never cruel about it in the same way the bearded warrior is and that makes his “corruption” all the more tragic. ��His most poignant moment comes when we see him holding the cloth of a presumed paramour as his eyes implore the female elf to end his suffering. ��And speaking of the woman elf, she is��no damsel in distress. ��She is more than capable of holding her own and giving just as well as she gets. ��In fact, I would argue she’s the main hero of the trailer in that it is her actions that ultimately save the group from outright death at the hands of the “evil” forces. ��Without her quick thinking, the entire group would have mostly likely died on the field of battle. ��No, they do not have the emotional depth and growth of characters in��War and Peace, but even from this short vignette, we can get a clears sense of who these characters are and what makes them tick.
Stunning Visuals – Computer graphics and imagery are wonderful. ��Having grown up in an era of practical effects and now watch CGI, I can see how far the effects industry has come. ��However, I would argue that NO visual effect can match��the mind’s eye. ��Being able to describe on paper all of those cool things that were in that trailer is both my challenge and my reward. ��I��SEE the stories in my head just like I see these trailers–as movies. ��They progress and then they finish just as the trailer did. ��My challenge is to find a way to replicate what I see in my Mind’s Eye into words on the page. ��Rarely, I get it right the very first time. ��More often than not, I get only bits and pieces right while others don’t come out correctly–as that image was “fuzzy” when I was trying to replicate it on the page. ��I sometimes have to do 2 or more drafts for the story to come out like I wanted.
Insane World-Building – So what’s on the other side of that Rift that held the anchors? ��Why do they want the city/Citadel so badly? ��What is the Elf “King” hiding in that city? ��Just where did the bearded guy end up at the end of the trailer? ��There are so many avenues of exploration for world-building��here that one spin stories out for a long time. ��That’s what good characters and good world-building gives you, a way to tell stories. ��Now, because it is Bethesda’s property, there is already a history and backstory to this world. ��If you’re at all interested, check out the YouTube video below (clocks in @11:00 mins). ��But just imagine that��YOU were the writer of this vignette and the��Possibilities that could come from fleshing out this world. ��Awesome!


Dramatic Action – This is my final reason and is also my most personal. ��For me, History is not a dry thing learned from textbooks and recited from rote memory, but rather a living breathing thing. ��It is alive and active. ��It moves, it adapts, and it is something that��requires action. ��Right now, we live in a world of drama (and I mean that in both its formal and slang definitions). ��Readers and writers today seem to want to see things that are dramatic, but not necessarily filled with action. ��For instance, I find myself rereading an older Fantasy series called the Belgariad and the Mallorean by David Eddings or newer series such as The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson because they are trying to save their worlds from destruction using the tools that they have available. ��I personally cannot read popular works such as Game of Thrones because it is “Mean People doing Mean Things to each other and Mean Things to Non-Mean People.” ��I tried to read The Game of Thrones but couldn’t get past the first few chapters–not because of the writing, but because they weren’t doing anything but being mean to one another just because they could. ��I want to see/write action, where the goals can be large or small (but are usually large) where they struggle and strive rather than bicker, wench, and murder just for the sake of it. ��Now, I realize this is probably just me, but to me, action��defines a story, not limits it. ��Just because there are beautifully choreographed fight sequences, doesn’t make it resonant any less than a story that lacks those same scenes (and the inverse is true as well–a story that lacks action is not inherently more of a story).

Well, that’s all I have for today. ��My next post will *probably* be a post on why I like Science Fiction. ��If not, it will come later on this year. ��Now to the Weekly Updates:

APPLE ROUTER WEEKLY UPDATE

Soooo, I thought I was over/past the hump on this problem, but it seems not. ��On Tuesday, wi-fi began to work properly without me doing anything. ��It stayed up through Friday, so I thought everything was fine. ��Yet, when I just started to write this blog, Wi-Fi went down and would not let me connect to my laptop. ��I had to plug in my ethernet cable and restart in order to write this blog post. ��Uggghhh! ��So frustrating.

WEEKLY WRITING UPDATE

Soooo, I made a mistake. ��As a teacher, I find my body HATES Mondays., trying to get back into the school schedule really does a number on me. ��I usually crash 1-2 hours earlier than I do for the rest of the week. ��So I don’t even try to write on Mondays. ��I start writing on Tuesdays. ��Since school started on Tuesday, I ��did not write on Monday, but tried to keep to my normal schedule, but found that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. ��I did manage 4-5 strong paragraphs on HawkeMoon, but was not able to complete the section, so I’m going to say .5. ��Did not get to work on any other projects this week. :(

HawkeMoon��(.5 of Section 2 = Total Progress on Story – 1.5 sections done of 4 total sections)

DREAM BIG FOR 2015

For me, 2015 is all about��Dreaming Big. On New Year’s Day, I was half-watching the 2015 Rose Bowl Parade while doing something else. ��I have always loved the floats, be they crazy, inventive, traditional, or imaginative. ��Usually, the floats have some elements of whimsy associated with them and I usually gravitate to the floats that are fantastical, futuristic, or highly imaginative in some way (the floats that feature animals are a particular favorite).

This year, the “Dream Big: World of Possibility” float caught my eye. ��It featured Jack Black and one of his former teachers (among others). ��It was also designed to honor teachers. ��It had fantasy and sci-fi elements and I was captivated.

So, my motto for 2015 is simply, “Dream Big.” ��How that manifests itself this year, I don’t really know. ��I’m hoping that it translates into my first novel, but we’ll see.

What I do know is that Far Orbit: Apogee, the newest entry in the Far Orbit Anthology series is open to submissions until 3/31/15. ��My goal is two-fold: 1) to submit a sci-fi short-story to them and 2) focus all my writing projects to the deadline of 3/31 (which means that I write all the way until 3/31 and then begin submitting everything I’ve written–or rewritten–after that date.)

So essentially, 3 months of focused writing time, followed by a period of submissions out to markets. ��Then I’ll try to find another deadline to write to–did I mention that I’m pretty good with deadlines? ��Incidentally, I made the banner a link, so click on it if you want to find out more about the Far Orbit: Apogee and the type of work they are accepting.

So, on to the Weekly Updates:

Weekly Apple Router Update:��Still not working correctly. ��I thought on Friday night/Saturday I had a breakthrough as devices such as the iPad and iPhone were able to connect after I erased several passwords and “repaired” my hard drive using the Mac’s Disk Utility feature to “clean up” permissions and “repair” the disk. ��But, later Saturday night, I started to lose wi-fi and by the end of the night, Internet was��completely down. ��Couldn’t even access it through the ethernet port (which is one reason that this blog post is a day late). ��There are several errors that seem to be in play and I’m not sure what’s going on. ��For anyone who even wants a��sample of the frustration that I’m having with my network right now, check out this��forum posts:��https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6607637?start=30&tstart=0. ��And this is only one of the MANY threads that I’ve read over the past 3 weeks. ��Still not sure of what the problem actually is–firmware, Airport Utility, settings, flaky unit, or what? ��I just know that it is very hard to diagnose and I’m limping along right now.

Weekly Writing Update:��Didn’t get a ton of writing done this week, but I did get SOME writing done, so I would call it a successful week. ��Worked on two projects: HawkeMoon and Project Skye. ��Also discovered something: I’m okay for creative writing on Tuesday nights, but by Thursday nights I’m exhausted. ��Might try to REVISE or REWRITE on that night and see if that works��better–I didn’t get ANY writing done Thursday despite my best intentions. ��I’ll see how it goes.

HawkeMoon: Section 1-��“Predawne”��Done –��(Story Sections – 1 of 4 Done)
Project Skye:��Planning – Work in Progress on Section 3 of 3

If It Isn’t Broke, Don’t Fix It!

Hi, Everyone,

Took an extra couple of days to get around to write this blog post while trying to (still) diagnose this vexing wifi problem that I’m having with my router.  I’ll update you on the status of the problem at the end, but this particular problem has reminded me of something very important: the greatest piece of advice ever given to me (and sort of my unofficial motto)–if it ins’t broke, don’t fix it.

There was nothing wrong with my old router.  I just happen to live in a city with ridiculously fast Internet Fiberoptic speeds (for a reasonable price).  My old router (manufactured in 2006) worked just fine, but it was unable to allow me to access all of  the blazing speed of my service.  The new router has new tech and specs that will allow me to access much more of the speed (although still not all of it as my 2008 computer can’t access the highest wifi “a/c” spec needed for the fastest speed).  But this has been a nightmare to get working.  

Surprisingly, though, the feeling of frustration is familiar.  It is the same feeling I get whenever I try to attempt a novel.  Nothing that I do works when I try a novel.  Every strategy that I’ve read or come up with on my on doesn’t seem to translate into a longer form work.

My writing process is dead simple.  I start with a TITLE.  To me, the title is like a “seed” or a “vision” of what the story is going to be.  whether I write long or short, creatively or academically, 99.9% of what I write starts with the title.

Then I move on to the ROUGH DRAFT.  This is where I “tell” myself the story from beginning to end.  Doesn’t matter if I don’t know character names, place names, or anything specific (I just use placeholders such as “the knight,” for instance), all I need is the Plot (events) that I want to specifically remember to put in the story.  It reads like a stereo manual.  Blank did this, Blank did that, so on and so forth . . . no dramatization at all.

After that it is the WORKING DRAFT.  I call it a Working Draft because it is the draft that is a “Work in Progress.”  It may (or may not) end up being the final draft of the story, but the ultimate finished story will look a LOT like this draft.  This is the draft that gets the dramatization.  This is the draft where characters become set, emotions are acted out, and where the action follows the old writing cliche': Show, don’t tell.

Lastly, I finish with the EDITED DRAFT.  I shy away from using the word “Polished Draft” or “Final Draft,” personally because even when done, it seems like there’s ALWAYS one more error to find and corrected, or that even after I’ve submitted it, there are changes that I really want to make in the story.  An Edited Draft (for me) means that I’ve pretty much gotten the story “locked” down the way I want it (it matches on paper the idea that I saw in my Mind’s Eye) and ALSO that I’ve edited it and made it as free of mistakes as I possibly could.  This is the draft that I send out to editors.

Somehow, I’m NOT following this procedure for novels.  I’m getting the Titles down just fine (I’ve got at least 10 good possibilities for really evocative stories/story ideas based on cool titles).  Somewhere I’m getting lost between the Rough Draft and Working Draft phases.  I have the whole idea for Project Skye written out on the Notes app of my iPhone, but the chapters are getting off base.  For instance, in the rough draft, Skye is in a massive dogfight with pirates, but in the chapters she’s running away from the pirates.  I NEED her in the dogfight for the events to unfold so that she can get to a “floating city,” but with her running, the plot doesn’t work and she has NO reason to go to the city.  Somehow, I’ve messed up from rough draft to working draft and I don’t know where I went wrong because this doesn’t happen when I write short fiction.  When I write short stories, I write in Sections.  Sort of like mini-chapters because each of the sections usually has its own title.  These sections give my stories a “wrapper” as it were and gives me an idea of what will be going on in each section.  Not sure how to do this in long form writing, yet.  How to give my longer writing some sort of “wrapper” so that I can complete it and join the ranks as a published novelist?

Not sure yet.

2015 is the year where I challenge myself to figure it out! :)

WEEKLY WRITING UPDATE

New Short Story Started – HawkeMoon (Tentative Title) – Rough Draft (done), Working Draft (In Progress)
New Novel Idea Started – Project Star – Rough Draft (In Progress)
New Novel Idea Started – Project King – Rough Draft (In Progress)

Happy 2015!

Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy, Safe, and Prosperous 2015!

I took a bit of a break from OtherWorlds due to illness, work (teaching 6th grade language arts), the holidays, and (more) illness.  Unfortunately, that’s also true for my writing (although the illness allowed me to come up with several ideas for new stories and projects).

One of the things I would love to work on is to be more consistent with the blog, so while it isn’t a full New Year’s Resolution, it is a “mini-resolution” for me.  I work well weekly, so while I’m not going to commit fully to it, it is a definite goal for me.  So we’ll see how closely I come to my goal in 2015.

In other news, I bought a new router.  tt

I’m moving from a 2007 Apple Router (pictured above) to the new 2014 Apple Router (pictured below).

The transition isn’t going quite as I planned, so my wi-fi may be spotty until I work through the issues.  Shouldn’t affect the blog (I’m writing this now with the ethernet cable plugged directly into my laptop), but it may affect my writing as my “rough drafts” are written on the iPad connected via wi-fi.  I usually email the drafts to myself, print them out and do pencil notes on the hardcopy, then return to the laptop to put in the edits.  Much slower, but it gets me the quality of writing that I like, so we’ll see how this works.

Anyway, wanted to make sure that I wished everyone a Great 2015!

When the Writing Life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade.

So, the reviews are in – Faerie Knight has been reviewed in Tangent, an online publication devoted to reviewing short fiction when they reviewed the anthology Fae (edited by Rhonda Parrish).

So, these are my first reviews (professional) and suffice to say, while they are not bad (on the whole), they do offer criticism, both deserved and (in the mind of a writer) probably some that’s a little . . . well . . . nit-picky.  If you want to read the whole review for Fae, you can find it at Tangent Online, but I’m only going to talk about the reviews for my story, “Faerie Knight.”

John Sulyok had this to say:

“Faerie Knight” by Sidney Blaylock, Jr.

Though Thomas Theron was blind, he never let that hinder him from knowing when one of his student’s was misbehaving. He’d honed his other senses over the years and has become quite adept at understanding his surroundings. And that makes him a particularly good Knight of the Fae. Once a year, on Halloween, he accepts his Queen’s boon—the gift of sight—so that he may watch over the little trick-or-treaters, protecting them from the Unseelie Court that tries to swap human children with changelings. Thomas, old now with aching joints, must use all his senses, including his sense of duty, to fight the evil on this night.“Faerie Knight” cuts to the chase, almost literally. There’s very little set up, so it feels almost like the entire story is a third act. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it’s exciting, but the story also wouldn’t have hurt from more. Thomas and his history with the Seelie Court fighting the Unseelie court begs for more screen time. But it hits the spot if you just want a little action.

C. D. Lewis remarked on the story in this way:

Sidney Baylock, Jr. sets “Faerie Knight” in a world of good faeries and evil faeries, where the dark and the light are clear and the reader easily believes the depicted wrongs that need righting. The protagonist, a blind schoolteacher when not serving his Queen, thrills to do her bidding but worries advancing age and physical decrepitude have dulled his edge. “Faerie Knight” begins as the ageing servant undertakes One Last Ride. And the evil he’s asked to fight? It’s bad Fae, and they’re not just stealing children, they’re turning them bad. Once in a fight, the old Knight seems for the first time to rely on his hearing to do for his Queen what he does for himself the rest of the year, and soon his Halloween performance begins to look like Rutger Hauer’s in Blind Fury. His weird Fae weapon seems crafted for style over function: it’ll cut anything, perhaps, but apparently only if hit by both blades on opposite ends of the handle. On the upside, it’s a safety blade: it won’t easily injure bystanders accidentally. Since the protagonist takes care to keep fights outside the crowded high school Halloween party, though, we don’t see that feature in action. What we do see is an action hero who displays a pleasant degree of thoughtfulness, who carefully avoids provoking unnecessary conflicts, and whose sense of duty ultimately convinces him to keep up the fight as long as the kids need him. Bad knees, or no.

So, there are elements in both reviews that I love and that I . . . don’t love.  But this is NOT a gripe post.  I’ve highlighted the parts of the reviews that really stood out and made me think.  I’ve been wanting to write graphic novels and add that in as sort of a triumvirate of media to work in (short stories, novels, and graphic novels) as I try to discover how to become a professional writer.  What I took from these reviews is that:

I’ve already done the hard work in creating the character (the “Who Am I?”) and found a compelling story.
I now have a character that I can build more stories for and can give my characters (as John Sulyok says), “more screen time.”
Work Smarter, Not Harder: if I’ve done a story that is good enough to be published, then there is something in there that is special and I need to focus on it.  If I’ve written the story as a short-story, that doesn’t preclude the story being expanded, added to, adapted, and enhanced to bring it to another medium.

To that end, I’ve decided that all my short-story projects that I get published, would probably make good Graphic Novels as well.  The first chapter of the story has already been written.  I can use that as a “stepping stone” to add on and create a story that furthers the character and gives him/her “more time on the stage.”

I’ve also realized that plans are great until they get in the way of execution.  The past 3 or 4 blog posts have been about plans and changes and introspection and reflection, but haven’t really been about execution.  Since I’m no artist, I’ve joined and created a profile on DeviantART, a well-known and established website for artists.  I’ve investigated some artists whose style I like and I’ve favorited them and set my profile to follow.  I will be asking them what their rates are for creating artwork for characters as I want to see how they interpret my main character for “Faerie Knight.”  I’ve also started writing/adapting the published story for “Faerie Knight” into Chapter 1 of the “Faerie Knight” Graphic Novel.

Look for updates on this new project in 2015!  Oh, and if anyone knows of any good publishers for fantasy graphic novels that I should keep an eye on, please leave them in the comments.  Thanks!

Who Am I?

No, the title isn’t referencing the 1998 Jackie Chan Movie–even though it is good martial arts fun (as all of Jackie Chan’s movies tend to be):

No, this particular entry comes from 2012 Amazing Spider-Man movie.  At the end (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it), there is a scene where Peter Parker is going into an English Class.  During the class, the teacher is talking, and the teacher says that a professor of her once told her that there were 10 types of plots.  She says, “No, there is only one plot.  Who am I?“

Unfortunately, the scene moves away from the English lesson at this point.  I think I know what she was referring to, however.  The idea that CHARACTER is the most important part of fiction and that ALL of the plot revolves around the character’s needs, wants, problems, and solutions.

If the character is interesting enough and if what they want is strong enough to satisfy the character’s needs, then the plot will come together far more easily than trying to shoehorn the story into a plot “type.”

I wonder if this is true, so I’m going to try it out over the Thanksgiving Holiday.  I’ve had a character in mind for ages.  His name is Roland.  And he has a compelling problem (in my mind, at least).  So, tonight, after I finish writing this blog post, I’m going to write a 1 page, “Who Am I?” for Roland.  Over the Thanksgiving Holiday, I’m going to try to write the rough draft for the short-story “Project Roland” and see if finding the character is truly the SECRET to creating a story that pops and resonates.

Since “Faerie Knight,” I’ve been disappointed by the stories that I’ve written in the interim (except I, Magi).  All the other stories seem flat and lifeless.  I’ve written rough drafts for them, but except for Magi, I haven’t really done character sketches for the main characters of the other stories.  I’ve begun to even lose Skye’s character as well.  I started with a clear idea of who she was and what she wanted, but I didn’t write it down and now I find myself starting to be fuzzy on her motivations as I’m beginning to transition her to another part of the story at the end of chap. 3.

If this experiment works, then I’ll know that I’m only really ready to write a story once I have a character locked in so well that I can do a “Who Am I?” sketch on them. If this is the case, then my goal should be go back through all my stories (new and old) and work on the characters to try to improve my stories so that I can begin to sell stories consistently.

Destined for Greatness: Destiny and Deadlines

So, now I understand why characters are so compelling in fiction.

They are your conduit into a new world.  If you create the right character and imbue that character with traits that are irresistible and then put that character into a compelling world, then you can LOSE yourself into the story.

That is essentially what has happened to me for the past 2 months.  Bungie’s Destiny has taken hold of me in a way that few games have done.  My character is mostly a cipher, but does talk in a couple instances.  Yet, mostly I ascribe a history, backstory, and to some extent, a narrative around my character’s actions in the greater world.  Yet, there is something that is SO compelling about Destiny and the way its mythos has snuck its tendrils into me.  I have thought about writing in this blog for weeks, but each time I pulled out the computer, I realized that what I really wanted to do was to go and play Destiny.

I daresay that it was an addiction of sorts.  There was nothing more for me than Destiny.  I played it every evening after coming in for work and I played it on the weekends when I probably should have been writing.  I could lie and say that I’m not sure why Destiny grabbed me the way it did, but I do know the reason: Levels.

My strength is starting at Level 1 and progressing (however tediously) through the levels until I reach the top level (or close to it).  Give me a level and a number and I will chase it with dogged determination.  I’ve been doing this since 1st Grade (Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, etc.).  I can’t resist.

Destiny was smart–they essentially have 3 levels of levels.  The first set of levels (up to level 20) is the “base game.”  All of the story/narrative content gets your character up to level 20.  After level 20, you have start looking out for armor that has light on it.  This moves the character up to a “soft” level cap of 30 (taking off the armor with “light” drops the character back down to 20).  But once you’ve gotten some “light infused” armor, you’re still not done.  At level 26, you have the option to do a super-hard mission called a Raid.  This raid (known as the The Vault of Glass) is ridiculously hard until you hit level “light” 28/29.  I’ve managed to finish this raid successfully a couple of weeks ago.  So essentially, Bungie set up a three tiered level system and it fed my inner OCD for levels just perfectly.

I might still be caught in Destiny’s web if not for On Spec, the Canadian Sci-Fi/Fantasy magazine.  They had a deadline of Oct. 31st for stories to be submitted to them.  In the time of Destiny’s release, I had finished I, Magi (yay!) and I wanted to submit it to them.  So, on Halloween night, when ALL I wanted to do was play Destiny, I edited my story and sent it out (with 44 minutes to spare before the deadline was up).  I realized that Destiny, while a great game and a great learning experience for creating good characters and a compelling world, was starting to get in the way of my writing, so I’ve consciously worked to mitigate the Destiny effect.  I’ve started writing rough drafts and I’m now back to working on my novel.

I’ll never fully kick the Destiny habit (nor do I want to–this game was MADE for me!), but I do need to find a way MODERATE its effect so that I too can be “Destined for Greatness!”  :)

WEEKLY WRITING UPDATE – 11/10

Currently Writing: The Great Game (Fantasy Short Story)

Currently Writing: Chapter 3 – Project Skye Novel (Chapter 3: Storm Breaking)

Rough Draft Finished: Project Djinn

Rough Draft Started: Project Roland

Knight of the Wylde West PUBLISHED!

My short story, Knight of the Wylde West was published by Port Yonder Press this week in a magazine called, Bonte Review.  Now this is a pre-issue (I guess to test the waters for publication, distribution, etc.) so it isn’t available for purchase.  Only contributors received copies.  However, it wasn’t a vanity publication.  It went through a real editor, who paid real money (thanks!) and asked for real changes to be made to the manuscript to make it a better story, and was published in a real paper magazine.

The story is a mash-up of genres–Western and Fantasy.  It is about an exiled Elven Gunslinger who must decide whether to save the daughter of the man who exiled him from the Elven nation.  It is a really neat story and I’m glad it got to see publication.  The editors even had artwork done for the story (I should mention that my story is the only one that had two pieces of artwork–the other stories only had one).  While the artwork doesn’t really match the images that I had in my head per se, they are still a good representation of what’s happening in the story.

Which leads me off to another tangent.  Along with just straight fiction, I’d always hoped to work on comic books and graphic novels, but outside of my first comic publication, I’ve not really done much in that arena.  Part of the problem is me: I’d seen a featurette on the LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) that talked about how the whole bridge of Khazad Dum sequence was built around the pre-artwork done for the Balrog sequence.  Without that artwork, there would have been no Khazad Dum sequence in the movie.  I really like that mode of working, being able to play off the artists work and being able to say yes this matches what we’re going for , but this doesn’t match, let’s change it to this . . . but what I need to do is just let the artist work.  I need to focus on creating the characters, story and plot and just let the artist draw–I’m not a director, I’m a writer and that’s my strength.  The other part of the problem is the industry.  It, like movies, has begun to be a closed system.  You wonder why there are no super-breakout comics like Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?  Its because it is much, much harder to shepherd a script (or artwork) into publication.  Unlike magazines and anthologies, trying to work through a non-superhero based comic is harder than ever.  Graphic novels are a little easier, but still, you won’t find a Duotrope-like site for publishers of Graphic novels, like would for fiction or novels.  All that seems be done on the internet now in the form of webcomics.  I think that I might try to advertise on my local college campus for artists and try again, but before I do, I need to do 2 things: 1) create and write the COMPLETE script, so I won’t be tempted to interfere with my artist and 2) identify a graphic novel publisher and target the work to them.  Even if they don’t want it, I’ll at least have a place to send it rather than just sitting on it.  But that’s probably a post for another time.

I’d probably be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to Port Yonder Press and Bonte Review.  Click on their links if you want to know about them!  Until next time, see you later!

PS–Project Skye Update: currently about 50%-75% through Chap. 2 “Storm Warning.”

The Good, the New, and the Problem (. . . with reviews)

So Destiny has released and I’m absolutely loving it (yes, Destiny is why I missed a blog entry last week.  So sorry!)  :)

The game is AMAZING and I’ve reached the “soft” level cap of 20 just today.  I enjoyed  Mass Effect 2 and 3 on the Playstation 3, but looking at their backgrounds, I said to myself that the verisimilitude just wasn’t there yet.  There was a mission where Commander Shepard goes against an AI and the mission was awesome, but the backgrounds just didn’t sell it.  The backgrounds looked flat, almost painted.  The system just didn’t have enough resources to truly replicate an alien world, plus alien sky, plus character actions and shooting, plus enemy actions and shooting and everything that the Mass Effect 2 and 3 were trying to achieve.  I told myself that the “next” generation of systems would capture that realism much better and that is what Destiny has done.

Yet, many reviews (and reviewers) have called Destiny mediocre.  They say that it is a mediocre shooter that has simply taken some of the trapping of a MMO (massive multiplayer online–like World of Warcraft).  Many reviewers claim that Destiny’s success is simply based on hype and marketing (although I can’t help but remember that Bungie ALSO created Halo for the Xbox and that didn’t get the same criticism, but now that Bungie and Activision have a preferred marketing agreement with Sony, now that criticism is being raised, but that’s a blog entry for another time . . .)

My problem with reviews, and by extension, many critics, is that we the audience want the GOOD, while the reviewers and the critics prize the NEW.  And unfortunately, the new and the good are not necessarily mutually compatible.

Reviews and reviewers face a problem–they live in a world that doesn’t match reality.  You can see it easiest in movie reviews (especially those who are “film” critics as opposed to “movie” reviewers), but many reviewers (professional and amateur) fall into the same trap: they seem to prize the new and innovative irregardless of actual quality.   Reviewers see many more films, are sent (or must purchase) many more games, comics, food, or whatever is being reviewed.  Many (not all) people seem to have problems watching a movie more than once–for them, seeing how the plot will unfold is the gold mine.  Once they’ve watched it, they KNOW what happens and they are satisfied.  Now magnify that for reviewers–they’ve watched the buddy cop movie over and over again (with different actors in different roles), but they are seeing essentially the same movie.  Same with many genre pieces–by default, a Fantasy movie is going to have some element of magic to it, that’s what makes it a fantasy.  Same with Science Fiction–there are certain tropes (robots, aliens, spaceships, future, past, etc) that are associated with Sci-Fi.  Sure, you can vary those tropes, but they still have to be present in some way at some level or you don’t have a Sci-Fi story.  Thus, many reviews note the novelty of something.  It’s doing something new and different from the rest, and that to many reviews seem to be the ultimate goal and that many reviewers seem to prize.

However, most audiences want the good.  Most audiences want to know if the movie is a good representation of whatever type of product or genre of product is being reviewed.  Generally, we don’t get to see movies all day long.  We have finite resources.  We need information from someone who has seen it, played it, read it to make an informed decision.  Is it good, is it worth spending money on?  Yes, it can be innovative, but that by itself doesn’t guarantee quality.  Audiences seem to have a higher tolerance for repeated types of media so long as they are good.  For instance, it has taken years for the Western to go out of favor.  The Western was a staple of the movie industry from its beginnings to well into the ’60s and ’70s, but slowly fell out of favor starting in the ’80s and ’90s.  There are always a few attempts to test the audiences’ reaction to Westerns (Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven are two notable examples), but the Western as a genre is still moribund in movies (although there have been TV series that have become fairly popular and the Western seems to be making a resurgence there).  Right now, thanks to CGI, the genres of Fantasy and Science Fiction have risen to a new prominence.  (Yet there are still critics out there who refuse to give credence to ANY Speculative Genre work–not to slander, but I think the magazine was Film Comment, but I could be mistaken, but if I am correct, I challenge you to read that “magazine’s” review of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.  I couldn’t do it because the reviewer’s prejudices against the fantasy genre were on display (again, if that is the wrong journal, I apologize, I tried to read the review at the library and the library no longer has the paper issues of that particular magazine so I can’t fact check the way I want . . . but based on their feature Trivial Top 20: Worst Winners of the Best Picture Oscar, I’m pretty sure they’re the right magazine–take a look at #22 on the list).

Brandon Sanderson has a great comment on the nature of criticism in an Epilogue entitled “Of Most Worth” in his novel The Way of Kings.  Paraphrasing, one of his characters speculates on what we prize most and, no spoilers, says that it doesn’t matter so much as what is created, but rather what is created first.  This is the same with many critics–they are so busy looking for the new that they overlook the good.

I personally want to know if something is good and I find myself at odds with reviews and reviewers.  I’m using Destiny as an example of something that’s good that critics don’t like, but I do, so I’ll use Bioshock as something that the critics like, but I don’t.  I don’t care for the way it tells its story (through audio logs that you pick up along the way), I don’t care for the grimness of the world, and didn’t much care for the way the story was unfolding.  Another game that I didn’t like was Red Dead Redemption for many of the same reasons (audio logs excepted).  But to the critics, the games were new, innovative–we’d never seen anything like this so it MUST be good and I simply disagree.  Just like I disagree with the assessment that ONLY being great makes a game mediocre.  I just can’t make that leap.  A great game should be great irregardless of whether it is doing something new.  The same is true with other media.

I missed seeing World War Z at the movie theaters because I relied on the reviews saying that the movie was only mediocre, only to buy the Blu-Ray and watching and being BLOWN AWAY by the amazing storyline that was only slightly hampered by its ending (the set pieces were awesome).  I still find myself wondering what it would have looked like in IMAX 3D.  What I learned from that was that there are some things that I’m predisposed to like, so irregardless of the reviews, I’m just going to go and get it (within reason–if the reviews are ALL unanimous and one of the criticisms is incompetence, then it would be foolish to ignore those sentiments.  I’m talking about those things that I like that I already know critics aren’t going to like).  For instance, Guardians of the Galaxy was a movie that I’d made up my mind to see back in the spring when the trailers first started hitting the internet REGARDLESS of the critical reception.  That the critical reception was mostly favorable was a nice surprise, but I was going to see it no matter the reception.  I like Marvel movies, I like Science Fiction, I grew up in the ’80s so I know the songs in the movies, and I like the actors.  I was predisposed to like the movie, so as long as the movie was competently put together, I was going to enjoy GotG on some level.

Please don’t get me wrong–this isn’t a diatribe against reviews, reviewers, and/or professional critics.  I just think there is a disconnect between the ideas of revolution and evolution.  Many critics seem to want revolution while many audiences prefer evolution.  We don’t mind revolution so long as it is good.  Critics seem to eschew evolution for those revolutionary ideas irregardless of the quality of the ideas.  Destiny is a fine game–it merges the old (first person shooter) with the new (MMO elements–not found in shooters) and the makers of the game (Bungie) deserve far more credit than they are currently getting for their efforts.  As much as we value Revolution, our world is an Evolutionary one.  Yes, new ideas are important, but so too are the refinement of the ideas that we already have in order to create a synthesis between the old and the new.

“My Dream is to fly over the Rainbow so High”

Chapter 1 of Project Skye is done!  It’s currently called “Storm Dark.”  And this Chapter 1 has felt different from all of my past attempts at writing a novel–it actually feels like something manageable this time.  If feels like something I can complete.  Time will tell if this is true or if this is another false start, but at least I’ve done something right this time around.  Working on the first chapter felt like a breeze as opposed to the slough trying to do a chapter normally feels.   

I promised last week that I would post if I discovered the secret to writing long.  While I’m not sure that I know the secret yet, I tried several different things this time around that aided me, I think.  Here’s what I tried:

1) I have the story completely mapped out.  On my iPhone, in my Notes App is a note where I have each of the 3 parts of Project Skye written out in 3 longish paragraphs.  The 1st chapter was an elaboration of the 1st sentence on the phone.  I’m thinking that the next sentence of that “rough draft” on my phone probably needs to be expanded into two separate chapters in order not to have too much going on in any one chapter.

2) I eliminated pretty much all of the setting except where necessary for understanding.  The only thing I’m focusing on this draft is character and plot, with character being my primary focus of the two.  I don’t honestly know how long it’s going to take to write this book, but if I plan for it to run the entire school year then that’s 10 months (well, now 9 months) to get from beginning to end.  That would leave 2 full months (June & July) to go back chapter by chapter, scene by scene to add in the scenery that’s in my mind.  I would also have better idea of where things like foreshadowing need to go, where extra characterization (or motivation) is needed because I would have a “finished” draft to work with (& that’s essentially how I work with short stories–I usually go through 2 major drafts/passes, sometimes 3 or 4 before I get them where I want them).

3) I’ve given Chapter 1 to an “Alpha” Reader to read.  I used to be a Librarian and I worked at the Main branch of our local library.  Quite a few of my former coworkers are there and one of them is an English major like myself.  She has graciously agreed to read my “early” drafts.  Now, here’s the new thing that I’m trying–my library books are due every 3 weeks and I promised her a new chapter when I come in next to return my books.  That means I need to have Chapter 2 done in 3 weeks or else I’ll risk disappointing her.  That’s an external goal that I can work toward.  Yes, I know that she’ll be cool if I miss my deadline to her, but (being the “perfectionista” that I am, I won’t be cool with that.)  So, my only out is illness, or if there is some school related thing that comes up, but otherwise, I gave her Chapter 1 with the INTENT that 3 weeks from now she’ll be able to read Chapter 2.  And 3 weeks after that Chap. 3, and so on until I finish the novel.  

As soon as I wrap up this blog post, I’m going to open up Pages (my word processor) and start chapter 2.  While I only have an hour before the new episode of Dr. Who starts that may be enough time to at least knock out the 1st paragraph down and start the process.  After all, I only have 3 weeks before Chap. 3 needs to be out this computer and into someone else’s hands.  :)

For those who’ve made it this far–I took the title of the blog post from lyrics that heard from a song on iTunes Radio today while doing yard work.  The song is Rise Up by Yves LaRock and the lyric “My Dream is to fly over the Rainbow so High,” symbolizes my goal to succeed in writing.  I wanted to give the artist a shout-out by linking his music video here, but then was blown away by the fact the music video pretty much has a novice training and working hard to become an outstanding talent in her chosen discipline.  Talk about Synchronicity!  Anyway, here is the video, check it out because it’s awesome: