J.B. Garner's Blog, page 61

Weekend Update: Second editions done, incoming sequels, and OMG! Kickstarter deadline!

This week has been a good one, for the most part.

My dog is doing well now and I have gotten both the second editions of Indomitable and The Opening Bell published!  Both excellent things and only the first steps to a lot more nice things coming down the aisle.  Now it’s on towards publishing some sequels, which should come by the end of the month.

In addition, I’ve gotten some nice reviews this week so the support and validation make for a happy writer.

The last big knot of anxiety is my Kickstarter.  If it doesn’t succeed, well, it will be a blow to the self-esteem, but not the end of the world.  The books will publish and I will undoubtedly open a second Kickstarter with a lower goal, more in line with what I have proven I can raise.  Still, if you read this and want to support it, there’s only 68 some hours left to do so.  We are so close to the goal, it’s still not out of sight!

Hope your week and weekend are going as well!

The Opening Bell 2nd edition is done!

You can get it now on Smashwords for FREE!  It will also be live on Amazon.com within a day or two and then spread out from there through the Smashwords Premium distribution to a vast array of e-book vendors.

With the second editions finished, art work is now being prepared for The Tale of the Tape  and Indefatigable.  Expect them to hit the virtual shelves at the end of September!

Looking at Character: Punchclock Villains a.k.a It’s Just a Job, Nothing Personal

I thought it was time once again to get back to Looking at Character and correct a deficiency in these articles so far:  lack of antagonist analysis.  We’ve talked about heroes of various permutations, but not one look at the other side of the conflict fence.  For today, then, I decided to bring up one of the most relatable villain archetypes, the Punchclock Villain.

For the Punchclock Villain, whatever morally questionable actions they perform are just part of their job.  They aren’t into crime, murder, theft, smuggling, or whatever other activities they do for personal reasons, political motivation, or mental imbalance … the Punchclock Villain is just collecting a paycheck.  Outside of work, even inside it, the Villain might be polite, professional, and seemingly a decent sort, but that won’t usually prevent him/her from completing the dirty deeds that his/her job requires.

It’s this basic dichotomy of ‘decent person’ vs. ‘villainous scum’ that makes the Punchclock Villain both refreshing and relatable as an antagonist (or even a protagonist, depending on the tale).  After all, we all have to work to make our livings and often we are forced to take jobs we don’t want to make ends meet.  We may even find we have a real talent for a line of work in which we absolutely hate.  Still, we swallow our pride and do what we must to keep a rough over our families’ heads and food in the pantry.

The Punchclock Villain takes those normal, natural actions and feelings and simply pushes them a bit further for the sake of drama.  Instead of making some small compromises to make ends meet, the Villain makes more substantial ones, but their motivations and actions still remain understandable.  The reader may even be able to sympathize to the point where he/she questions what to do if he/she were in the Villain’s place.  This can especially be driven home if the author includes situations where the Villain has to make increasingly harder choices and compromises as the conflicts in the novel escalate.

What can make a Punchclock Villain dramatically interesting, beyond the potential for interesting internal conflicts as I mentioned above, is the ability to contrast them versus more traditional types of villains.  The Punchclock Villain isn’t necessarily traditionally ‘evil’ or ‘crazy’ or the like; he/she has as much in common with the protagonists as with a archetypical megalomaniac supervillain.  That uniqueness can make for a whole new web of drama and plot points, spurred on as much by the Villain’s similarities to the protagonists as their conflicts.  It’s certainly a time-tested set-up to have a traditional ‘evil’ master villain with a Punchclock Villain serving as his/her second-in-command, letting the author explore the relationships and dramatic impact of both traditional ‘hero vs. villain’ conflicts, but the more nuanced ones between all three parties.

The potential stumbling block, of course, is balancing the sympathetic points of the Punchclock Villain versus the conflicts with the protagonist.  If you make the Villain too sympathetic and too ‘good’, you begin to stretch the suspension of disbelief of the reader.  If this guy/gal is so morally good, how can he/she continue to make such drastic compromises?  Likewise, if you make them too unsympathetic, you begin to loose the differentiation between the Punchclock Villain and a more traditional antagonist, leading to a loss of the dramatic tension you introduced that kind of villain to produce in the first place.

Have you ever used such a character in your writing?  Did you find them an interesting element to add to shake up the usual conflicts in a piece?  Do you have any advice, questions, or criticisms?  Put it in the comments below!

Four and a half days to go … the Kickstarter countdown continues!

There’s little to say other than that.  Four and a half days on the clock and only $285 US from the goal posts.

A mass of small donations from a large number of people can make all the difference so take a look.  Consider.  Support if you can, spread the word if you can’t.

Thank you.

HOLY CRABCAKES! A 5 star review!

I’m really floored.  Not just that it’s a five star review, but that it’s for the first edition of The Opening Bell!

Just take a gander at the review.  I’m deeply honored and I just can’t wait to see what people think about the second edition!

Tangential Politics: A strange little tale of gender, superheroes, and video games

Before I put up a post about the existential panic of being so close to a funded Kickstarter but running out of time, I want to take a moment to tell a weird little tale that might show, in a quirky way, some of the deep-seated issues of misogyny ingrained into both parts of the comic book culture and the video game culture.  In fact, the arena for this little tale is none other than one of those nexus points of the two cultures, one of my favorite video games, Marvel Heroes.

Marvel Heroes is a fun, free-to-play action game using the Marvel IP.  They make their money primarily by selling cosmetic costumes for the characters in the game … a pretty smart way to go, as visuals can mean everything to people and comic book characters often have quite a wardrobe that can be sold.  Early in the game’s history, they also introduced the notion of Enhanced Costumes:  Costumes that had more than a basic visual change.  Altered special effects, new voice overs, new animation sets, that kind of thing.

One use of Enhanced costumes was for cross-gendered counterparts of characters.  As you may know, many comic book characters had Distaff Counterparts created, female versions of male heroes, both as cheap fixes for the female demographic or, more recently, trying to bring some equality in the male-imbalanced comic book world by putting a woman in a legacy hero role.  Rarely, you can see the reverse, the Spear Counterpart, but considering the massive imbalance already between male and female representation in comic books, this has been exceedingly rare.

Here’s where things start to get creepy.  From the start, there have been sections of the game’s player base to keep shouting about the ‘unfairness’ that there were multiple male-to-female swaps (Lady Loki, Kate Bishop (a modern female Hawkeye), Lady Deadpool, etc.) and no female-to-male swaps.  Any argument about gender imbalance in the existing cast (which these costumes helped to even out) or the tremendous lack of Spear Counterparts in comics period were met with deaf ears.  The developers opened a feedback thread for suggestions for such female-to-male costumes and 99% of the suggestions were extreme stretches, often trying to stick totally different characters into totally incompatible character slots.

Eventually, two female-to-male costumes were announced.  A lot of people were unhappy about them, because they were, by the eyes of any fan of comic books, stretches.  The developers original policy was that Enhanced Costumes had to have near identical powers as the base character and be strongly linked.  Both of these new ideas were on-point with the second idea, but stretched the first one considerably.  Still, they continued on.

Cut to the now, as the first of these is to be released.  There are now creepy and strange little nitpicks about it.  Why isn’t the character name changed, it looks weird to see a feminine name (despite the fact that no other Enhanced costume has had a name change)?  Why do the power icons still show the original character, it looks weird to see a woman’s face on them (despite the fact that, you guessed it, power icons have never changed on other Enhanced costumes)?  Why did this costume take so long to come out, all the other female enhanced costumes came out so much faster (even though they took just as long, one even being released incomplete after a long delay)?  To contrast, none of these questions were brought up by the female gamers who were getting male-to-female costumes; they just expressed relief and thanks for getting more female playable options.

This may seem a little thing, but it’s very eye-opening about the casual misogyny that men (and some women) can show.  There’s an expectation that there are different rules and that what applied to women doesn’t apply to them.  Their needs are more important and things that weren’t previously an issue are now big issues that need to be addressed for their comfort.  The one positive I can take away from this is that the Marvel Heroes dev team have not indulged in any of this chicanery.  Still, the whole deal colors portions of the game’s community in a pretty negative light … thankfully it’s no one I hang around with!

Into the Action – Hanging off the Cliff

It’s been a bit since I talked about action, which I should say is a gaff on my part.  I mean, my primary works are bathed in the essence of the action/adventure piece so you would think I’d have more to say on it.  So, today’s Into the Action will look at that tried and true plot device, the Cliffhanger.

 

To be precise, a Cliffhanger is the story technique where characters are set up in a dangerous or dramatically tense situation at the cusp of resolution then ending the chapter or scene right at that point.  Later on in the book, or perhaps in the sequel, the situation will usually be picked back up and resolved.  Sometimes, this resolution happens ‘off-camera’ and the scene is resumed with the characters dealing with the aftermath of the situation.

 

The purpose of the Cliffhanger is to build dramatic tension first and foremost.  With the resolution of a situation hanging in the air, the reader is pulled along the story to find out how the situation plays out.  Especially in a serial work, this technique can keep readers coming back for installment after installment, eager to find out how the latest near-death situation was averted … or who died.

 

Just like any other plot device or story technique, Cliffhangers can be used poorly.  Most often this is the case when there is no dramatic tension built up in the scene in the first place.  If the reader has no investment in the drama of the situation, he/she won’t care how it concludes, so the timing of the conclusion doesn’t matter one bit to them.  A Cliffhanger should only be used after there is a solid investment in the action as it is.

 

Another way to cheapen the effect of a Cliffhanger is to invoke one in a situation that, while dramatic, has no real consequences to ‘failure’.  If there is no danger, no matter how invested the reader is or how dramatic the scene may be, there isn’t much need for a Cliffhanger.  Note that danger constitutes more than physical harm.  There are plenty of emotional and spiritual dangers out there, and all could be turned into a workable Cliffhanger.  The one way an inconsequential Cliffhanger might work is in a comedy piece, using the pointless Cliffhanger as a bit of a spoof of the action/adventure genre.  For the most part, though, stick to the danger.

 

Can you overuse Cliffhangers?  Certainly.  The truth is that you can overdo just about any kind of plot device, no matter how cunningly wrought.  As someone who loves to use them, there are definitely times where they are unnecessary, no matter how dramatic the situation.  Sometimes, it’s best just to resolve things and keep a traditional narrative flow.  It will make the Cliffhangers ‘pop’ all the more when shown in comparison to a normal resolution.

 

What do you think?  Do you like to incorporate the Cliffhanger structure into your works?  Outside of raw action sequences, how can Cliffhangers be put to good use?  Comment and discuss below!

A wild review approaches!

The first review of Indomitable second edition is in!

 

Check it out at the BorderLein Publishing blog!  Thanks go out to Mark for taking the time to read and enjoy the book!

One Week to Go: OMG! The Kickstarter is almost over?!

Right.

Really, I can’t add much to this beyond the title.  My writing analysis brain node was driven off-line when I noticed there’s a week left on my Kickstarter and only $285 US left to fill on it.  If you think about it, that’s pretty possible to have happen and, to be bluntly honest, better than I thought I’d do.

Let’s face it: I am pretty horrible at self-promotion.  I have a bad tendency to do things out of order.  You know, arrange for book reviews and author interviews AFTER the Kickstarter has begun, instead of building interest THEN doing it.  Crap like that.

So, yes, pleased as punch to be doing this well.  Will it be enough?  Fingers are crossed here.

The downside for you, my faithful readers, is that there will be a plug for the Kickstarter every day until it’s done.  Sorry, no excuses.  However, there will be some other better posts in the midst of my anxiety attacks.  I hope to announce the second edition of The Opening Bell going live very soon.  More art previews to come from Felipe.  Also, I expect to be tackling more writing thoughts and analysis tomorrow.

Stay tuned, keep the home fires burning, and pray for the best!

Oh, yes!  Shameless plug to follow:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1021763596/the-push-chronicles-and-three-seconds-to-legend

Plot and Motivation: Foreshadowing and mystery

This morning, I realized I needed to do the reformatting work on the second edition of The Opening Bell and, in doing so, I wound up taking another look at the Prologue and Epilogue I had originally written for it.  I wound up taking both entirely out of the novel for the second edition, not because they were poorly written (they weren’t) or that they were unnecessary (though in a sense they were).  I took them out because I felt that they foreshadowed too much, especially the Prologue.  That then got me to thinking about the struggle between foreshadowing and mystery in general.

 

I think foreshadowing is a great thing, personally.  It helps provide a sense of logic to your plot and can give clever readers a feeling of satisfaction for noting the foreshadowing when it happens and the pay-off comes later.  I think the sense of logical consistency is the greater of the two benefits, especially in many kinds of genre novels.  Sometimes, the ‘rules’ of the genre can lead to a sense of illogic, but some proper foreshadowing can provide a trail for a reader who doesn’t normally read that particular genre to follow through the possibly confusing genre conventions.

 

The problem with foreshadowing is when it’s taken too far.  As a writing technique, foreshadowing is usually meant to be subtle, a trail of breadcrumbs that an astute reader can pick up on and follow.  The more experienced a reader is, the more he/she picks up on.  Every once in a while, a very direct application of foreshadowing may be called for or even used as a sort of red herring to obfuscate the plot instead of enlightening it.  However, if you find that you’ve not just scattered some breadcrumbs to follow but drawn a line in glow-in-the-dark permanent marker straight to the end of the plot, there may be too much foreshadowing.

 

It’s not foreshadowing if you have made an obvious arrow pointing at the heart of the mystery.  Instead, you’ve ruined that mystery for your reader.  This may not be too serious of a blow if your piece isn’t focused on the mystery, if it’s a side plot or a minor event in the main plot.  If the mystery you just revealed six chapters early is a critical point of the main plot, though, you have most likely shattered the dramatic tension caused by the mystery itself.  The reader is likely to become bored as he already knows the key plot points coming up ahead and his/her frustration at the protagonists for not also seeing the obvious plot point can lead to a breaking of the suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy the tale.  At worst, the reader will just sigh, close your book, and not come back to it.

 

That’s what I did with the first edition Prologue of The Opening Bell.  In just one page, I revealed a major character who is slowly built up to for chapters and laid out in the spotlight, straight down to a strong implication of motivation.  Thank God for second editions!