What Mom Taught Me About Story Telling

My sister and I still joke about it, but despite the affectionate eye-rolling, there's a secret to telling a story that not all writers are aware of.

The secret is repetition.

Wait, that's not all! Do you think I would give it away and you could call it quits, pack up and head home? You don't give away the best part just by stating the very obvious theme!

My mom would often tell the same stories, sometimes twice in a row, but what made you smile and even wait to chime in was the way she recited it as if reading it from a book. The same emphasis, the same excitement, the same words verbatim.

You want the readers or listeners to anticipate what is coming. You want to give them the clues but not saying outright. If you shout to the audience, what color is this apple?

(Red!)

They'll have a passing moment of camaraderie... But no satisfaction. Because any dumbo can state the obvious. When the audience is given clever clues that could be right or wrong, but end up arriving at the most satisfying conclusion, there is a lasting satisfaction that invests you in it, regardless of the outcome.

If the clues lead us to thinking that the protagonist is being hunted by his mother... You don't have to suddenly make those clues a red herring. It could remain that the culprit is the mother. Does the mother kill the protagonist or does the protagonist kill their mother? Or... Does the stalker actually turn out to be the werewolf that ate their mother?

There are plenty of places to land a surprising twist but the attentive audience won't forgive it if it lands too far off the plausible track. Given the mood anyway. If you ask your audience, what color is this apple?

(Harpsichord?)

You'd better hope you meant to write a nonsensical comedy. It's not unpredictability that makes a great story. It's creating a mood, a logical path, a place where they feel the gratification of chiming in. 

So what does a Game of Thrones fan say to death?

(NOT TODAY!)

Which also goes for anti-fans of Mondays.

Though I'd love to roll my eyes at one of my mom's oft repeated stories, I'll never have the privilege again. She's dead. Fortunately, she gave me a few tools, not on writing, but on making someone want to endure a story.

Say it for then people in the back... Repetition.

Maybe the gibberish after that part too.

Make Your Story an Onion

No, not indecipherable satire or a tearjerker, although your story might benefit from those too. This time, I'm talking layers. Layers and layers and layers of delicious plot building.

Building those Easter eggs isn't something most people can do effortlessly. Sometimes you have a juicy joke, an unfolding revelation, but the actual art of tucking away those gems of continuing stories can be a tough feat to pull off.

It can also be a clever way to act like you meant to do something that you originally kind of just threw in there. 

Here goes my attempt to help you find those hidden gems and run with it!

The Recurring Minor Character (The Minor Resolution)

Let's make this a comedic example. You've got your main characters in some multilevel hideout and they hear the noise of some guards coming along so they wait it out and end up picking up the end of a really lame conversation.

"It wasn't a dragon, you moron, it was a horse."

"You think I don't know the difference between a dragon and a horse?"

"I think you wouldn't know your mother's mouth from a dog's anus."

"And I'm telling you it was a dragon!"

And you never see them again. Right? While at the time, that moment might have been comedic relief or even a hostage situation for the unfortunate MCs, it may be worth filing for later.

There are many ways you can go with this, but maybe a dragon bursts into the sky and the guy is elbowing his agape friend and proudly confirming he saw a dragon... Or he's just a drunk trying to steal an MC's horse while calling it a dragon (and talking to its hind end at that).

It's a silly example, but if you find that the world starts to feel too sparse, introducing a crowd element through minor facts can be a great way to reward the reader for paying attention.

The Insignificant Object

I believe I actually used an apple as an example in a previous post, but I'll go ahead and play that out again. At one point, you might have a character who seems fixated on a piece of fruit. It probably seems like a frivolous detail and when asked, they might even make an offhand remark that they didn't know apples grew here.

Even if that detail seemed annoying at the time, somewhere down the line, there comes an emotional moment. At first, it starts off a light flashback, maybe that the MC hates apples, but they're there with their sibling, who we know little about but know died young. The MC is annoyed that their sibling loves apples and glares at them. The sibling pretends not to notice and begins to tell a story about how apple trees mourn the people that love them. Some soldiers come and try to take the MC but the sibling throws an apple and the MC gets free. The sibling dies but the MC gets away.

This can go on as long as you like. Apples may take on a significance where they never had one in any of the first instances they are mentioned. After the flashback, the MC may be traveling a familiar road, realizing it is the one where their sibling died. The apple tree is there but it's dead-- well, all except for one oddly ripe apple. Do they eat it and die? Who knows, but you also don't need to confine it to main characters. Maybe one time the apple foreshadows a pivotal scene. Maybe it's a comedic break.

The only important thing to remember is that giving something increasing significance also means you have to close that subplot. If you only have two instances, it usually doesn't create an anticipation plot. Yet if you create a build, you better damn well finish it.

The Clue

I've used this one quite a bit and it can be tricky to pull off without immediately tipping off the reader. After a while, even the most oblivious reader will start to smell it right away. It's important that when you introduce some hint as to a character or object's true nature that you also plant a seed of doubt and even lead a reader's suspicions towards the occasional red herring. You don't want everything to fall so neatly that they immediately anticipate it. Yet there is a sense of reward when they are able to guess something correctly. Not everything has to be a twist.

Sometimes it's what you aren't showing that later becomes the clue. I believe, in The Game of Thrones books, GRRM purposely omits the color of some characters' eyes because it would be a dead giveaway. (The Targaryens, for one, are known for their stunning violet eyes.) Yet the clues you drop are sometimes cryptic and sometimes the characters will even suspect something alongside you. However, it could be narration purposely meant to mislead you.

Certain smells, sounds or even moods can sometimes herald the presence of something familiar, a sort of hidden flag to tell you to look closely, but not be too trusting. I've found more often than not, that observations aren't usually set because the narrator thinks you're too stupid to figure it out. They set them up to weave in some threads that may tangle later.

-----

I kind of built up from simple to complex but an Easter egg can be light and fluffy or deep and murky, popping up to draw your interest or exploding with a revelation. Fitting them into your story is often something you'll probably feel better than you can ever plan. Like candy-filled eggs, they can suddenly stimulate a lull or force the reader to focus more closely.

Creating layers in your story is largely guided by the little details. More often than not, no matter how much you plan, you'll probably find the meatiest bits by grabbing the best opportunities for change. Don't be so married to any idea that it kills your story. So often, people never finish that novel they keep bringing up because they keep cutting straight through the plots. You don't want to maul your layers to dust with too much exposition or purple prose, but when you fixate too much on reaching the plot points, you'll often overlook those little pockets that keep your ideas worth peeling back.

Try a 20 step story of a classic. Rewrite a simple fable like the tortoise and the hare but make sure at least 20 things happen from start to finish. Don't be married to the idea of a race or that they have to be animals at all. Make it a lazy overconfident assassin and a man racing home through a storm to save his wife. See if you can tie in any of those ideas to create hints or Easter eggs. You don't even need to write a formal story for this exercise. The main idea is just to absorb yourself in a mental chain where changes start to take on organic or exciting turns.

As always, your best teacher is trial and error. You don't have to write a certain word count each day to be prolific. I've had great writing days where I simply fixated on how I would relate a conversation I overheard to make the details most interesting or chained together ideas for my books. You don't need to formally commit words to your drafts to develop skills beneficial to writing.

Some writers do benefit from certain disciplines. NaNoWriMo is one of those events where you can use the momentum to push yourself further into habits. You might have tried something before but gave up easily then. In an atmosphere where people are feeding each other's goals, it may take you further.

As an artist, I absolutely loathed having to learn vector drawing but it was a requirement in college. Outside of that environment, I might never have embraced and even enjoyed it.

Story building, especially of a complex nature, isn't only something you should try once you feel you can succeed. It's often this odd perception of skill levels that keeps a writer from valuable learning opportunities. Yes, effective writing is difficult. But why throw red tape at a challenge as if you're not good enough to try it at any time? Aim high, fuck it up, put it away for later. Those fearless attempts make a difference and someday you might find where they fit.

Give Them Purpose

It's somewhat tragic when people spend such loving care to build a rich character, but end up leaving them flat when they leave out the vehicle that drives them: purpose.

It probably seems ridiculous-- what would be the point of telling a story if that wasn't the FIRST thing you'd consider? For a writer, of course that would be confusing, but not all people arrive at writing first. I've talked about in my own past how I used to make pages and pages of character profiles, all supposedly for this epic story idea I had boiling up. Oo, I'm mapping where they'll go, what kind of crazy creatures they'll meet.

Only when it came down to purpose, they just didn't mesh as well as I thought they might. Precisely why I've also covered topics involved the complication of overplanning and forgetting to connect those rich yet conflicting ideas.

In many ways, we could learn from the way some mushrooms grow. At first, they spread out randomly, looking for the best sources in a comprehensive network, they send out a thin but fast moving gathering network to start. When the thin veins home in on the nutrient rich areas, they begin to concentrate on setting up shop on all of those key points and letting the smaller networks fade but not completely disappear (if a new source appears in the spread, they can detect it and spread resources to it immediately). Logically, they want to benefit from and even feed the source, so they don't just smother it but expand in as many directions as possible to, in turn, feed the source they are feeding from rather than deplete it.

So yes-- plotting is about a) spreading out to find the best ways to support the initial idea, b) locating the places to best develop it, c) keeping the web open to new possibilities and supporting details, d) continuing to build where needed, and e) feeding the ideas rather than exhausting all possibilities.

As a novice writer, one of the things that made me lose interest in a story was loss of purpose, not in my writing but for my character's sake. I ended up burning through all of the interesting points without holding back or developing the story so, once I'd removed all intrigue and mystery and conflict, they'd be left with nothing, including anything worthy of a story.

Lulls can happen in a story; they aren't unforgivable but they should reflect your intent in writing it. I'd be hard-pressed to find a story that is intentionally meant to bore anyone but it can happen, if you don't develop each part with a purpose. Does an informative section of a story have to be outright boring?

I know that 'purpose' is one of those variable words, much like 'voice' or 'style' when discussed by writers. However, when I talk about a character's purpose, it has to exist constantly. A character who comes back into the picture with no actual purpose can kill a story. It's okay if you haven't used them a while and it's okay if they don't come back if their purpose was served. They don't have to have a climactic exit, no matter how important they are in your head. You don't have to kill off characters to get rid of them. Not every exit has to be emotional-- even those can seem transparent or fall flat. A good way to ditch a stale character can even be to have them simply disappear. Maybe you can use that subplot of finding out why as a fresh lead-in to the main plot. Again, this doesn't have to be a focus, but be careful not to create intrigue if you're just going to drop it. 

One bad example for lost purpose happened in one season of The Walking Dead. My guess is that it was supposed to be an emotional or real moment for the character; even the strongest are weak and exhausted, something along those lines. Yet Rick suddenly becoming a sad sack of surrender for many, many episodes while his annoying son Carl was dragging him around with limp attempts to snap him out of it was excruciating and never quite hit the spot as anything but filler. One thing that I just can't jibe with in entertainment is any attempt to 'real-time' a situation. You're not really going to teach anyone how excruciating depression is by big-brothering it in entertainment. I've seen it done rather well across many forms of entertainment by homing in on very key points, showing how it affects others, etc. so you need never resort to rolling it out like that. The whole tedium of it reeked of losing the purpose of the show, not truly displaying a character that lost their purpose. In a world that constantly penalizes people for one misstep in the struggle for survival, Rick got a big fat fucking Mary Sue pass there.

Honestly, I never even made it to the end of the whole Negan debacle before I stopped watching. Killing off Glenn and Abraham was cheap enough. As much as I love Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I was just fucking tired of the badder than the last bad guy crap. It's the Sailor Moon/Dragon Ball formulaic rinse/repeat cycle that I avoid like the plague. Michonne was one of those characters that kept me hanging on longer than I should have, but even she was really running out of steam.

(I might have a purpose to this post, but don't count on it.)

In any case, purpose is one of those things you can't just keep in your peripherals. You really have to kept a solid eye on it. One reason I plan is because there is always the temptation to gush about the flow of great ideas while writing and I realize that the slow-burn (but not TOO slow) is worth detaching for. Unless you've crafted some masterful way to swap out main characters that are burning out with shiny new ones, then you must keep them relevant. You must leave some reason for conflict, some mystery to explore, some bait to lure them on.

Moving onto the next character color-combo piece, we have Pierait, whose entire point is Purpose.

While this very pale blue might also work for Belias's eyes, this is one I picked for Pierait's 'powder blue' hair. I wasn't going for some anime-blue but a subtle one that still differentiates from just a blue tinted platinum. This may be more of a highlight color were I to paint it, but if I had to choose a 'blue' that better represents the basic feeling I was going for, this is it. Clean slate, pure, even a sort of void on a moral spectrum. 

Now his eyes, no less a struggle to choose, needed a warm yet sunny quality. Yellows are tough to avoid being high-contrast bright without ending up more brown than yellow, but I liked this golden yet lemony yellow for it. It was intentional that I went with a reversal on what you'd find to be colors for hair and eyes. Blonde eyes/ blue hair? But then Pierait is opposite of what you'd expect from a human. This combination was actually not picked to be visually complementary as I did with my other choices. Again, this goes to the conflict of the character himself. His sort even had a history of being considered abominations so it's only fitting that his colors break all of the usual rules.

His 'people' are called the Soulless, although it is not a genetic condition. Due to an imbalance in the ways souls are distributed, some human are born without souls, which also leaves them empty containers when it comes to free will or Purpose. They seem to share the trait of apathy as children, although it's not quite that simple. They are capable of learning, but don't retain emotional baggage nor display strong emotions at all. It is akin to a functional state of autopilot.

Their state of being is dangerous and it was quickly learned that they must be granted a Purpose through a ritual in their teenage years or their deaths will release a fearsome deadly creature known as a Fury, that will leaves chaos and death in its wake. Whatever Purpose they are given must be one that can be immediately and constantly fulfilled, so it is more like a job assignment that makes their life one of contribution. Dying with a fulfilled Purpose is peaceful and without consequence. 

At one point, fear caused Soulless children to be killed on sight. If they never reached the age where they needed a Purpose, then they would never risk becoming Furies.

Where does this leave Pierait? His mother, a troubled young woman, decided to take matters into her own hands and go against convention. She discovers how to give her son a Purpose, but an impossible one: to acquire a soul. It's never been done and if his Purpose is discovered, he would be banished to where Furies flee and left to die. It's a lonely and isolated existence, but a Purpose is a Purpose.

(Next up, I'll have Lyria ready for you, an ordinary girl with an extraordinary gift.)

Speaking of purpose, what gives your characters purpose? Is your favorite current purpose the main plot itself or a fun subplot? My current WIP involves a golem, a blocked tunnel and a cryptic mystery while on the way to looking for dragons. All a subplot at the moment, but one I'm enjoying. Share yours below!

Flower Power and Meanings

Ooo, why not flex some of my florist muscle with this one!

In case, you haven't caught on (and it is missable so don't feel oblivious), these posts are becoming inspired by the introduction of the character that appears in the color-porn feature I've been adding to the end of each post. In the last one, we had Freesia promised for today, which is the name of a soapy smelling flower (if that candle in Cracker Barrel was accurate), so why not lead into her with a post about flowers?

This could be a book or twelve in its entirety since there's no real way to cover all of the meaning associated with flowers. Roses alone have a catalog of 'meanings' by color: red (passion/love), yellow (caring/friendship), white (I can't forget you). There are a ton of natural varieties and many more manmade/cultivated varieties. Flowers themselves are quite simple and rewarding to hybridize-- alstroemeria (also called Peruvian lily), a customer favorite for their price and beauty alike, are only cultivated in a few greenhouses over the entire world and are one of the easiest to vary. Wikipedia alone lists 122 named varieties, with most of them being South American.

Stargazer (oriental lily)

Easter lily

Lilies tend to be a widespread favorite. Stargazers are among the most visually captivating and smell fantastic. Easter lilies are the most powerfully fragrant, but like all lilies, have messy pollen clustered stamens once bloomed (if you're a lily lover, then you know that a barely opened pair of scissors or a pair of rubber gloves is handy for stripping those off-- lily pollen stains bright yellow). Lilies are another variety that have just as many meanings as varieties and, while you tend to see them a lot at funerals, I've always thought of them as 'fireworks flowers', looking like just-popped explosions of light.

Fall mum varieties

Sticking with the most salable all-season varieties I dealt with as a florist, another popular showstopper flower with a staggering amount of varieties: chrysanthemums (mums). You've probably seen a ton of them hitting stores for Mother's Day since they are an inexpensive and hardy favorite along with petunias, begonias, pansies, daisies-- 'mom flowers.'

Spider Mum

Aside from the common miniature varieties you buy potted, we also got in the long stem cut variety of spider mums, one of my personal favorites next to stargazers in terms of sheer aesthetics (another 'fireworks flower'). You'll often see rainbow varieties when sold cut; like carnations, they absorb water fast so soaking the stems in food dyes gives brilliant results. Natural varieties can be very colorful as well. Again, meanings vary by color, but the overall sentiment of a mum is happiness and celebration.

Belladonna

But why not jump away from what you find in your florist shop and play with some deadly beauties? Belladonna, the beautiful lady also known as deadly nightshade, a shy drooping bloom resembling the conservative skirt of a ballgown that opens to reveal a brilliant sinister center. While not pictured here, it grows alongside it, large shining berries, black as night, that you do NOT want to ingest. Beautiful to look at-- high shine like mirrors and black as marbles but I can't say I'd be tempted to eat it, especially since it's not a common color in flora.

Beautiful nerium/peach oleander flower

No part of a deadly nightshade plant is fit to eat as is. It is, however, used sparingly in medicines for its anti-inflammatory and numbing properties. Many people aren't aware that tomatoes are in the nightshade family. You may have been cautioned not to eat tomatoes, stems, leaves etc. but the compounds it shares with its nightshade brethren are NOT in toxic levels (or put more plainly, you'd get sick from over-consumption alone before ever accumulating toxicity). Also in this family? Oleander, foxglove, larkspur and hemlock. You'll recognize some of these as herbs and flowers.

The more you flip through larger varieties, the more you see that many of them are very catch-all in the meanings department, most meanings created to sell them, if we're being perfectly honest. You don't get a lot of 'negative' meanings; most inspire love, beauty, grace, friendship, memory, kindness, calm, shyness, honor. I can't say it wouldn't be hilarious for the odd practice of buying negative flowers for your enemies to crop up. Even the poisonous ones are breathtaking.

To wrap this one up, how about a speed round? I'll throw out a couple quick ones with less conventional meanings/origins.

<-------Plumeria (frangipani)- connected with spirits and ghosts

Yarrow (aka Key Flower; really just found this while looking for 'flowers meaning key

------------>

Some of my runners-up for favorite: gardenia, queen anne's lace, and peonies. Gardenias and peonies smell and look fantastic, but I always loved the story of  Queen Anne's lace. What an odd flower to grow mostly flat and white like lace, yet have that pinprick of a tiny violet bloom, truly as if the lacemaker pricked their finger with the needle they wove it with.

Flowers can bring an unconventional hidden meaning into any story, one that can be tragically misconstrued. The poisonous flower picked for its beauty and gifted to a loved one could be seen as an intent to kill them. Culturally, flowers could have vastly different meanings. The color red is lucky in some cultures, yet ill-fortuned in others. White could be a color of purity, but is also the color of mourning. Color has its own context despite assigned meanings. Often a created convention is not as commonly held as we think. The best place to hide evil intent is in beautiful things, be they aesthetic or just presented as safe. When I use them in stories, I like to delve into those possible hidden meanings. Sometimes they can inspire a plot I might not have thought of otherwise.

So now we move onto another color-porn selection!

Freesia's hair was always meant to be a deep reddish brown. I needed her character to be grounded, yet with a taste of that notorious red-headed temper. She is my wounded animal type, skittish but defiant against being victimized again. She sees through a lot of the petty and frivolous aspects of human behavior, but displays a hopeful naivete when her defenses exhaust her.

As for her eyes, I wanted something cooler than Krose's warm violet brown yet not too dusky/cold. It's not Freesia's intention to be cold so she needed a cool rich violet to portray the guarded softness within. There's probably a shade deeper peeking from the pupil's borders, but I chose this purple and brown for the visceral draw of them and their link to her (with an artist's consideration for their complements as well).

I don't mean for that to sound pretentious. Sometimes it might. I'm not waving the expert flag, just saying this artist likes them together!

As for Freesia, perhaps there's a touch of the shrinking violet impression, so I wanted her to challenge that as much as fit it. I think even the starkest personality conflicts are found warring in the same vessel and this is true in her as well. She tries to be light and friendly, but it can seem forced and transparent for what it's trying to hide. She is broken at first, but she hangs on the edges of a new life, drawn to being a part of it. Because of that need for acceptance, she gives her entire being to learning how to be the best.

Up next: our boy with a Purpose, Pierait. What is a human without a proper soul? This guy!

So, my garden of kinder-grownups, are you man enough to tell me what flowers resonate with you? Is it smell, aesthetics, size or poisonous qualities that make you shiver? Spill it below!

Floor Plans: Movies to Books to Movies

Graphic design school, for all of its ups and downs, is worth it. There are three disciplines that I fell in love with that, oddly enough, have nothing to do with writing and only kind of use drawing-- package design, environmental design and... Well, I'm dropping the formality and just being blunt with 'floor plans.'

While I wouldn't say 3D spaces necessarily prove difficult in memory, it's more like they become 4D spaces akin to Portal where blue doors teleport you to orange doors and provide factually impossible movement. Even in my case, this is in a world where teleporting exists, just not everywhere it's convenient for me to pretend like I meant to do it.

It works both ways-- sometimes I'm seeing it unfold like a movie and my eyes are twitching unfocused as all the visuals are happening in my brain; sometimes the space is immediately a problem and I need a floor plan before my characters start trashing the place. Planning and pantsing, as you may know, can come in any order. Some writers can lean heavily either way, but being able to discern what your stories need is more important than deciding which 'type' you are. I'd save those distinctions for internet quizzes you take while shamelessly procrastinating on actually writing.

Why choose when you can be both?

Floor planning was hardly just a college discovery though. I vaguely recall my mom going to school for computer aided design and drafting just before I was old enough to start school myself. When I say 'computer aided', think more along the lines of a glorified calculator. Black screens, glo-green pixellated words. They were more like graphing calculators where you coded coordinates and watched as hitting Return drew out those lines on the screen for you (because it wasn't instantaneous). In fact, they were still using computers like that when I took a typing class in the early 90s. My mom had to buy these design stencil sheets to use-- triangle and square rulers and... Furniture. That was the one my little brain loved most. Little odd shaped stencil punchouts clearly labeled 'couch' and 'vanity' etc. I didn't really set out designing floor plans right then, but those stencils sparked an interest in shapes beyond the strictly geometric variety.

You should always have a lot of toilet shapes to choose from.

Fast forward back to years later when I'm actually writing AND finishing books. The first time I was tempted to make a visual aid for an interior space was at the end of my third book. There's a cottage that the new owner is settling into, awkwardly, and they were milling around in it, restlessly. I didn't want to go into every detail (which is an exercise I abandoned long ago-- great for creative writing or truly fantastical environments on occasion, yet naught but long-winded ego trips-- I'll elaborate on why as I go here).

At first, planning was just about the space, cardinal directions... How could I maneuver people through a building of many floors without sounding like a GPS? 'they turned north at .035 miles...' Even if you're writing a first-person story, the usual narrative blend of what they see and what they think could become tedious if you're just typing it out unplanned. Moving through an interior space gives you two starting points to expand the visualization: simple and complex. In a simple arrangement (think: single floor, efficiency apartment), you can start from the room or rooms you're working with. It's usually not architecturally impressive, but could have considerations concerning windows, doors, whether it's on the corner of the structure and what's below or above it that could be used. Simple starts with immediate needs and may not need to expand beyond them.

This is a simple room in a hotel suite. I didn't need too many details, just a basic idea.

Now, I know I've gone into floor plans before, but the complexities can get more complicated from there. Let's say you need a whole castle or some Byzantine wonder of architecture. That would be the complex. Not just on scale but also in deciding what is useful. Even just plotting a particular wing. I've known many a D&D DM that enjoys either using or making their own maps for campaigns and it is usually something that, unprepared, requires a couple-hour break even done roughly.

This would be a larger chunk of the same hotel. 

Now, in my 'complex' example, this hotel floor is considered ground level in the back where it goes out to the garden but the ground around it actually drops at points from back to front to make it seem like the entrance is one floor up from the front, a grand ballroom kind of entrance. Where you see the stage extend to the outside, it's actually built for the stage to be accessible with an outside facade and that terrace is also level. The side garden may be something I plot sooner or later, since the drops will include stairs and need to consider the landscape around it. It's a private luxury hotel so access to the gardens is restricted by a wall/fence boundary either way. Where the 'office' is you see an arch, which is actually a patio that goes down into the dropped front level. The office, while shaped by the main hallway, isn't accessible from it (there's an unmarked area to its left that is actually the lobby entrance; the office belongs to the hotel owner. I will add these details later). The ballroom is the main stage of the story but the kitchen is mentioned in passing. What I had to plan for was the secret hallway between the office and the ballroom as well as the layout of the ballroom itself.

What I definitely didn't want to do was work out such details within the story. It's not first-person and even in that case, the event itself would not allow for leisurely inspection.

You start with blocking in rooms as you need them (keeping in mind the shape of the building if needed). I usually do the floor plan on its own layer and lock it once set up. That way I can draw directly on it without disturbing those elements.

The next step is to take the floor plan at large and start making furniture assets. Doing this digitally, I start a new layer, (lock the floor plan layer!) and label the new one 'assets'. I sometimes reuse simple shapes and my 'key' often distinguishes those objects by color, as you've seen from the pictures. I'm using a bird's eye view so most objects are fine with generic geometric shapes. Occasionally, I'll resort to vector drawing to do curved benches, marvelous fountains, door indicators. These are the things that will help you integrate the environment without having to explain every detail. When the character enters through the southernmost door, they might notice the sudden vault of ceilings, but due to the layout of plants arranged around a massive center element (maybe a statue or fountain) there is more around it that they won't see but you need to mentally stage anyway.

If you're pantsing, this is where ego and excitement can make the draft come off as a creative writing exercise. Oh, there's a bookshelf over there with the tiniest of knick-knacks, how cute, and a grandfather clock! Oh, but the pendulum isn't working and-- what was I talking about again? You can be as fascinating with detail as you want but at some point, it may become difficult to distinguish what is building the mood and what is just prose that you're overly fond of.  And yes, I DO want to discover rooms like I'm just walking into them. However, the floor plan provides the basis of where my eyes are jumping around to, glazing over to sink into the scene, but pulling back to ask-- wait, didn't I just put a bookcase where there is already a couch? No matter how cinematic your brain is, it is also malleable with some details when 'something better' comes along. I like to eliminate the need for contradictions and story-damaging prose this way.

A few hours of planning can save you many more hours of outlining, style sheets and critical edits to catch those mistakes.

What I love most about my floor plans is that they often start out architecturally clean then can become a clutter of 'more assets' as I add more colored symbols that represent where someone might have left a sword or put down their poisoned drink. I can move these mobile assets and turn my imagination into a gameboard for strategy. I can choreograph fights that use the space and plan secret rooms and escape routes. I could do it before well enough but there's a solid confidence that I can better translate the space if I'm seeing how everything fits in it.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I consider scale very carefully. If I were a set designer, I certainly would but as a writer, shape and location are primary concerns. On occasion, I do make some adjustments for a sort of scale, but in most cases, the exact distance can be left to the imagination. Even the height of characters is mostly figurative. If I establish a female character as average height then a 'tall' female might come in as a head taller and a towering male two heads or more. The exacts might make it into a character dossier, but I'll use those in the same way as I do the floor plans-- to create figurative comparisons that minimize an info-dump.

Some writers might excuse it as their style or preference but it often becomes transparent that planning and editing was second to showing off their ability to describe all the things. As I've said, sometimes there's mystique in describing clutter and architecture but more often, I just see it as an attempt at depth that pads the ego but does little to nothing for the story. Some readers may like that kind of prose but since I am not one to soldier through that kind of padding, I try to minimize it or at least do a bit of pre-planning to minimize it. My audience will have plenty to do as I cut a path through these worlds-- belaboring it wouldn't do it much credit.

There's only so much I can do to show you why a visual aid like this can be valuable to a writer so I may do a video (just screen capping while I talk over it) and link it in later. I'm angling for a day when I don't have to run a noisy air conditioner so I can at least plan a video in the next two weeks. I hate doing videos where I'm talking to a camera but I can most likely at least be audible enough to pull off a screen-cap video. I've always wanted to do some tutorials that way so I'll see what I can come up with.

I have a few sketches in notebooks of floor plans and I did a library design for a class in school-- I'll add those below in an edit if I can dig those out. You don't really need ridiculous technical skill to pull this off. Hell, I've even used D&D maps for visualizations. These are more for your reference, but if you ever do want to put a professional on designs you can publish, then even a chicken scratch version with relevant text from the story is sufficient.

Writing a book is seldom about one aspect of imagination, no matter how focused you are. It's more often a combination of lofty goals. There's nothing wrong with picturing it as a video game or a movie, but if you are writing it as a book, make sure that you are using methods that work best for that medium. If you have some great idea for the movie/game version, keep it in a separate notebook. While some authors sign off on creative control, you may find you have the opportunity to be involved and your notes become canon to the new medium. Or you can keep these elements for a blog or website or an AMA/Q&A type fun-fact. Just as you might spark curiosity for sequels, there might be elements that are best withheld for baiting or teasing. Personally, I love when there's more to discover outside of the book world. I can appreciate when authors continue world-building and dreaming of their worlds. My love affair with my own worlds and characters doesn't stop when I hit Publish. All the little extra bits still wiggle and move beyond it.

Selfish

Me. I'm selfish. I'm proud of that because I'm not using it in the same vilified sense that it gets injected into an insult.

My work comes first.

Also something you're probably not getting the context of because I haven't established any. I'm not one of those people that lives to work and the 8-hour work day is not the most productive once you look into it. Sitting at a computer all day is also a bad idea. Those 10 minute breaks every hour where I seem like I'm idling or procrastinating (when I'd rather be writing or drawing)-- those are there for the sake of this ideal of actual productivity.

It's true enough that most days I spend about 10-12 hours easy on work but it's all spread out over my waking moments (and sometimes perched around a nap when I'm really failing at real productivity). I don't ever take real vacations, but I play pretend and intentionally use that infuriating little 'stay-cation' word with a shit-eating grin to show you I know exactly how annoying it is.

I raise my nephews. (Like a boss.) I walk two hours a day. (Like a boss.) I have a social life so rare, it's still mooing.

(Like a cow.)

It's cool. I love the little guys, I don't hate walking, and I also have the coolest most understanding friends who get what creativity entails. They've all seen my room and wonder what Narnia vomited its idea of interior design into such a small space. 'Selfish' is what it took to chase the dream, but I've sacrificed. I pray to the tech gods that my shit won't break because I'm pretty broke and nothing is easy to replace. I miss when I could just go ahead and call someone up because I'm bored and I want to hang out with someone. Most days, my head is so into what I need to do that I plan social visits just so I can be sure I'm actually present and NOT thinking about what's waiting at home.

Work comes first, but to be honest, first place isn't a static factor or at the least, a lot of things share it simultaneously. It's possible to feed a hungry nephew while daydreaming what I stopped writing about and it's oddly possible to have a conversation with them sometimes while drawing (although it's also very likely I'll let slip what I'm doing in PhotoShop instead of what I actually meant to say). It's not exactly the most coherent or fully present version of me but it's a compromise. There was a time I'm not particularly proud of where I'd yell at any interruption or use the possibility of being interrupted as an excuse not to work at all. My nephews are at least old enough now that they're polite about interrupting and even supportive of what it takes to do it.

Gone are the days of putting myself last. It's not just society that makes women feel like it's okay to be self-sacrificing in terms of domestic or nurturing instincts-- sometimes it just exists in us and it's something we have to correct if it doesn't align with our ambitions. Women are encouraged plenty to embrace their nature and we can access self-empowerment without permission so I never blamed men or society for retreating into instincts against my primary ambitions. I also don't regret not going to college sooner or being who I've needed to be to balance raising kids and still being a creative powerhouse. I don't pretend my life is harder or easier than it is and I own the ups and downs. I'm okay with not fitting into liberal or conservative boxes. There are more than enough breeders and homemakers and laser-minded career bitches, etc. Human survival is not at risk for lack of any type of person. I'm okay with swatting flies coming at all sides.

Women like Christina Hoff Sommers exist. Level-headed and self-possessed people who operate with integrity, who push ahead with a clear voice and infinite patience. We live in a country that doesn't quite understand that true acceptance is within and too often it's an outcry for more boxes and less actual freedom of choice for anyone. It's less about respect and more about power/control over strangers. Expectations for the world around you are becoming the greatest source of misery in a country that should actually be flourishing. Who we project ourselves to be is just as vital as who we are. I can't tell you how often I see people completely baffled that they aren't seen as good people because they have 'good hearts' when they actually aren't aware that outwardly, they're projecting their worst defensive traits rather than their ideal. You know, like the 'nice guys' that feel entitled to the world's most 'beautiful' women simply by virtue of having a penis. Lack of self-awareness and entitlement is an ugly trap.

I get how hard it is to be yourself and I'm going to deviate from my original topic a bit because this just in: sometimes people suck. Today, I had to be polite to a man I wanted to punch in the face. I was out walking and saw this guy ahead of me, so I didn't think much of it. I turned down a street and no one was behind me-- until I noticed a shadow picking up speed behind me. I was almost immediately afraid because it was the guy who had been walking ahead of me before but I smiled despite the urge to scream 'creep!'. Not only did I thank him (with clear reluctance and no smiling) when he said I was 'cute' but I gave yes or no answers when he was asking personal questions because the details weren't really any of his business, but I wasn't sure if it would be safe to look away. I hated it, but I also didn't know what kind of psycho I could be dealing with who thinks approaching a strange woman like this was okay. I kept trying to put my earbuds back into my ears in a nervous gesture to signal I didn't want to talk but instead he asked me if I wanted to make five dollars. I had no idea if this was about drugs or sex but I doubted he really thought I was 'cute' but just trying to flatter me into doing something I didn't want to do (and I was insulted that I looked like I'm hard-up for five fucking dollars, possibly). I sped up past him and still I could hear him trying to press me to change my mind. In my mind, all I could think was 'go the fuck away' and' please don't stab me'. Or worse. I wasn't entirely convinced broad daylight or even the risk of neighbors coming to my aid was a deterrent at this point.

I was never more relieved when he gave up, but for the rest of the walk, I kept looking behind me and I never really relaxed. I didn't go home though. I was angry and I didn't want this to mean I'd be too afraid to leave my own house. Look, anything can happen out there. I'm always aware of that. Because of that, sometimes we don't survive by being 'real.' We have to forgive ourselves for what we lose sometimes to see another day (or greet another day without the shame of regret for what we didn't do). There's no manual, and we can't 'have it all' but coming up with a strategy for self-acceptance and survival is worth it. Locking yourself up in safe spaces isn't going to keep you safe from it all either, so risks are necessary to properly understand what is worth trying for.

Writing and drawing, they have their ups and downs too. It can be maddening and isolating if you are able to lock yourself away into it. People see working up to full-time writing as some utopia but it can be abused to self-destruction too if you don't exercise boundaries with it too. You can have too much of a good thing. You can lose a good thing if you take it for granted. Such is life.

Enjoying selfishness is a responsibility, but one you don't have to feel guilt for. Regret? Now there's something that can haunt you. Before I learned that missed opportunities aren't always the end of the world, I knew the sting. It's also useless to let them stick around rent-free. Writing does give me a good place to channel them, but writing is also not about me. Once I pass the baton to a character or a story, it's not about telling my story (because some of it is just not that exciting)-- it's about telling their story and detaching from the consequences and triumphs alike. At some point, I'm just their completely useless therapist, cashing in on how well I turn their life into a book.

Benevolent. Selfish. Hard-working. It's whatever. Just do what it takes to like yourself.

I blame the cow with the incredible hair.

I Don't Know What I Want (But Don't Let it Stop Me)

Throwing around ideas is part of any creative process. Crochet, writing music, writing books, drawing-- doesn't matter what it is, I'm almost never certain until it's being done. I don't think having done something has ever made me confident enough to be certain of my plans, but I make bold claims then rearrange them.

Right now, I want to finish this current series and free up room to jiggle back into comics. That's not to say my novelist aspirations are coming to a halt, but I have to admit, I miss the output of a visual project. I learned a lot while doing my first series' covers and I really want to bone up on more painting studies, work on lighting and backgrounds and composition. Now, comics are mostly generic line art in comparison, but most episodic comics also have first page marquees that are more detailed than the comic itself. Those would align with my goals while continuing and active project.

Also, I've come up with some pretty great comic ideas-- things I can do as serials or shorts. It will let me flex my muscles as a multimedia storyteller. Books are a terrific expression of ideas, but I can't help but want to inject more of my visual prowess into my ideas. So visual books, comics, are the happy medium.

These days, I'm laying out the foundation for the complete four book series (heh, I already have the ending planned) so once I throw down the master plan, the writing part will throw down fairly quickly (no shortcut to decent editing though).

For now, doodles. Doodles for any and every concept when I need to toss around this series planning stage. I already have some concepts down for the sci-fi romance and some episode planning. I also have a few other maybes to roll through, see what sticks.

It would be nice to be an OctoKrista. I'd love to do eight things at once, but the reality is, I just have to try for a good mix of discipline and shifting until I find it.

Why You Go Ahead and Publish

You've completed your novel! No mean feat! For first timers, it feels like it's in the bag, so you start looking for the lucky agent/publisher who has the opportunity of a lifetime to cash in on your bestseller.

High as a kite on aspiration, your fingers float over the keyboard. You type something to the effect of 'publishing' into that search bar.

Huh, editing... Well, I guess I did that. I ran spell checker after every chapter for sure! Professional? Yikes, how about self-editing? Ouch, steep curve... No wonder some people pay someone else.

Formatting... (And you thought editing was a curve...)

Beta readers? Can I trust my precious to just anyone? If I like it, someone else will, right? No guaranteed feedback. Should I get an NDA? 

Brain freeze! Wait, I'm drinking hot coffee...

Let's suppose you get past the intimidation of the basics. You formatted, edited, read it to the point where there's nothing left to nitpick. Still, something just never feels right. You find a misspelled word in the first chapter--ugh, it's ruined. You edit again-- ugh, you hate that dialogue, that character, why did you give that a pass? You dismantle, you rearrange, you rewrite.

Guess what? You're probably ready. For what, I can't say. If you don't have the confidence yet to put a value on it, you have to know that most authors,,even best selling ones, never love their work when they took the leap of faith and never looked at it since. They often need fans to even help them revive the memory of it.

Wait, shouldn't they know it like the back of their hand? Funny how accurate that saying is. Try drawing the back of your hand from memory. No peeking. Even when I tell you to draw it while looking, you'll probably look constantly as you do. Let's say you have a photographic memory or you truly memorized the back of your hand because you're kind of an asshole (don't worry; I've done it just to debunk an argument too). The recall of even a pristine memory is often very clinical, devoid of emotion in order to exact perfect recall of the visual. Something gives. Your mood, your confidence, your nerve, your dog ate your hard drive, what novel? The point is, your novel is not sentient. Although I would love to see you write a book to that effect, you're probably looking for an out that isn't really rational.

Name any famous author. Their work is shit. What about--? Yup, them too. Because any famous author is just not someone else's favorite. There is no universally beloved author. None that come close even have an entire don't of work that can do no wrong. They've cashed in on their fame, become hated on Twitter... Well, you would trade in fame for a small, loving fan base anyway. Ooo, you want a hugbox? Do you think trolls are less evil when they find you? Oh ho ho, no no no no...

I'm not here to frighten you away from this. To make fans and friends, the work has to get out there and that means trolls and assholes too. You'll get passive aggressives that insinuate how similar your work is to someone else (coughripoffcough) too. Oh, give you a troll over the crusty grey assholes any day. 

Just ask yourself if you're ever going to burn this manuscript or if you'll pine over the what-ifs. Ask yourself if you're truly a storyteller or just a rabid fanchild. 

Why do you publish? Because you know its value. Because you're ready. Because you have more stories to tell and this one is just the beginning of a pattern of completion you're setting. I can't give you that answer, but in this day and age, with all that's available to you?

Because you fucking can.

You can also pull it, learn from it, grow from it. This is for YOU to decide. Scary, wonderful, terrible, terrific, yours.

What Draws You to Story Telling?

I might have said this before, but there are certain phrases I stopped saying when I realized it was true of all creatives. "I've been drawing/writing every since I could hold a pencil." "My inspiration is Disney and anime." "I'm a flexible person/critical thinker/problem solver." "I'm highly motivated and a fast learner." You know what I mean-- the stuff that now shows up on every résumé or social media description out there. What is left when the really honest, creative, and original thoughts are old hat?

The same can be said of storytelling and there are the same platitudes whenever a new writer worries their idea has been done before. "Make an idea your own." "You have a unique voice/style." "If it's interesting enough, people won't mind the similarities." "If it works, it doesn't matter." Not that these aren't all true in parts, but I feel like a lot of those worries need a more personal approach.

First off, most worries are almost always presented in a way that is infuriatingly general. As I've gone into before, Quora questions and the initial state of an emotion tend to be a dump on impulse that needs direction to isolate. When someone asks "what if my idea has been done before?" it gets pulled in a lot of directions:

• Asking them to explain their idea
• A slew of general suggestions
• Frustration or outright trolling
• Hug-box nonsense

To name a few. Ultimately, noise, well-intentions or no. However, the more I observe the interactions, the more I wonder why no one is asking the person what makes them ask that. Are they reading a lot of books in the genre or none at all? Are they worried their fandom will make it more fanfic than original work? Are they basing it off of something and just hoping no one will notice? In order to alleviate this kind of fear, sometimes I think we need to ask the right questions and that the asker has to be comfortable with answering them so they can be directed towards a mindset that might benefit them.

Of course, no one owes a writer a story. I understand that some writers are wary of how much they are 'helping' someone write their story when sometimes it becomes clear that someone who isn't actually writing anything is actually just harvesting and picking other brains. I don't think this is the case most of the time, but rather than getting to their idea, the wary writer can instead dig into what methods that writer is using, never needing to discuss ideas at all.

Going back to the questions: what are they reading? I know there's this huge consensus that to be a better writer, you have to be a better reader. However, a great deal of doubts can arise from reading too heavily in your genre, worrying you're gleaning your ideas from these books, or of course, just have no idea what's happening in the genre at all and want to avoid writing into an unpopular or even overdone trope or cliché. Some solutions might be:

• Reading 'too much' in your genre, too much knowledge and feeling you have nothing new to add: Start reading from other genres, no matter how much you like it. One way to refresh your passion in a genre might actually be to integrate an idea from ANOTHER genre that doesn't get a lot of movement in yours.
• Reading 'too much' in your genre, afraid you're going to unconsciously borrow: This might be unavoidable, but again, if you must read, deviate from the genre and let your most recent influences steer away from the norm. You can also put down the novels and pick up short stories or writing articles, something that will help you focus on craft rather than content.
• Reading 'too little' or nothing at all in your chosen genre: The likelihood of your unique idea being not so unique might be high but uninfluenced, you can honestly plead ignorance or even just concede that a good idea is a good idea and more than one person thinking of it is proof enough. While a binge might be inspirational, sometimes that dry place is one where you'll worry less about WHERE you've read it before because you might not have at all. See what you can do with it.
• OH NO! I've seen my idea done before while searching the internet: Sigh. Don't do this. Ever. Don't go from excited about this idea you came up with to seeing if it's been done. Train yourself not to research that, train yourself not to care. Again, once you read how it's been done, it could cripple you or make you miserable by telling yourself theirs is better. A newborn idea is always generic but give yourself time to grow it, write it, edit it before you ever look for it. Where it's been done, they went through the fully-formed process and you should give your own ideas the same care. Don't see it as a waste if you can't make it work. Critical thinking and problem solving is NEVER a waste of time and you can use and refine those methods for any idea after.
• Wellll, technically it's fanfic with the names changed: Wellll, technically fans are going to call it out. As long as you don't pretend otherwise, you can also add where you deviated. Remember, plagiarism is a percentage and if you can bring enough original content to a clear inspiration, it's valid. You might want to pay an editor and possibly a lawyer to check it if you want to cover your ass against being sued though.

In tackling the source of a general fear, finding the right questions, you're helping yourself too. Develop a plan of action to see social situations as a good place to test your ability to dig into motivations. There's a bubble of safety in the manipulation of your characters, so sometimes you do have to put your theories to the test with actual people, even if it's just internet strangers. I personally don't like using public forums like Quora and social media for this, especially when any personal information is attached to the profile. I make an exception when it comes to closed groups. While large groups can sometimes be an unfiltered risk, you also might feel nervous about approaching people in smaller groups. I'd say it's okay to go anonymous or create a lite or false profile where permissible, but I'd advise against the temptation to troll because of it. In my case, I stick to closed groups. Anonymity just gives me too much temptation to deviate from the purpose of social accountability so I don't do it. When I'm looking to help or understand people, removing the diplomacy of my personal character defeats the point of appealing to someone on the same level.

Cheese and Jesus, I probably sound like a huge nerd again, but if you understood it, I've found my people and that's all that matters. What does discerning personal motivation have to do with story telling? Well, everything so I'll finish that up.

Story telling-- what draws the story teller into telling their stories or the story seekers towards them is this alignment of personal motivation. I suppose you could refine it into a marketing strategy, but let's assume a more traditional stance and just say that those alignments are not only found in ads, commercial popularity, or even word of mouth, but the connection between the writer and the reader. 

At first, it surprised me when the person behind a story I loved seemed to observe the same way I do or made the same comparison. I might have said it out loud once and been laughed at and embarrassed for it, but then a published book says it and suddenly that shutdown becomes validated because I'm not the only one. Sometimes a story can bring us courage and acceptance. And yeah, sometimes we never needed it to keep repeating it even when we're laughed at (I'm both of those people depending on mood) but it still feels good when someone says it like you or even a little better.

Sometimes walking with a writer becoming a storyteller is draw enough. As the writer publishes, either for free or daring to put a price on it, there's the validation that they are eager to stick with this, making people more confident in investing their beloved pastime with them. The hard luck story and the writer that stood in the shadows of the writing world for 10+ years is still a romantic concept for some people, even in these apathetic times. 

Some readers need the whole series to even begin so you might need to put in years and more years besides to even get someone to pick up the first one. Some storytellers don't have the patience so they filter their ideas into essays, short stories, novellas or single novels to offer a fully finished bit of their work in smaller bursts.

Story telling is about intimacy with the work, which can get uncomfortable on most sides. It takes strength in all parties to take chances. What draws most of us to trying new stories is the search for that resonance, that connection. It doesn't have to be deep or profound-- it can be horny and violent, but it's connecting regardless.

Advice on Writing a Novel

I'll first start by linking the answer HERE so you can click on any of the links, but for now, I'll screenshot the article for convenience here.

First off, there is a lot I can agree to here, so I'm not attempting to dismantle this either, but right out of the gate, I have to bristle at the way it is framed as an 'error' to be a novelist who is aiming to capture the feel of a movie or a video game in the medium of novel-writing. Fantasy is rife with writers, new and old, who have a diverse love of the many forms of fantasy. The key thing that makes this valid: writing a novel dictation-style. Yes, don't. A play-by-play is NOT a good style for a fiction book -- save it for non-fiction and sports articles or even blogs. However, this does not exclude writers who do initially set out to use writing to frame what could be a game or movie. While the Witcher series certainly came first, it made one hell of a game. However, it doesn't excuse the writer from one thing when working in reverse: you still have to make it an entertaining book.

Again, the first point with Head Hopping (do read the article linked) makes some good points. I also think there is some room for confusion here. I can be guilty of head-hopping in a single scene, but let me show you where the exception can lie. In one scene I've written, the character is forced to watch someone's memory. I make it clear that he is paralyzed, unable to blink, so his impressions are no longer necessary. The scene does not mention him again, focusing instead on the more intimate view of one of the characters in the memory. Painting every single impression of the paralyzed character would be leading and the reader should almost forget about him. He was a device both to introduce the scene and to lend purpose to the flashback. Now, if I started hopping into other heads, yeah, confusion, but I'd extend some scenes to bear the exception-- the initial character as a device, then a secondary character that builds the mood. Characters can be props, just do endeavor to keep it simple. Some characters ARE just going to have to be there, but not throw in their two cents.

The next point being a book that ONLY uses sights and sounds. While I agree with this being a bad idea, I'd be pressed to think of a single story that does this. A story with a good mix of sensory points is always a plus, but this can be overdone too. I know a lot of new writers become absolutely obsessed with describing smell, especially when the character is in a new place and it's foreign to them. When you're trying to describe 'the exotic smell of frankincense and cinnamon,' back the truck up. If these are 'exotic' smells meant to lead the reader, then are you ignoring that the CHARACTER has no clue what either of those are? I've been held hostage in the prose of writers obsessed with a piece of fruit or the smells on a merchant cart, but unless the smell is an indicator of a special kind of poison or the fruit is going to come up time and again (hey, I've done this before--Writer vs. Stockholm Syndrome), a foreshadowing to a big plot reveal, sometimes I'd advise to really cut down on these, if not cut them out altogether. In the same vein that Julia Houston remarked on what works in a novel, some writers may be better off compiling a book of poems than filling a story with sensory masturbation.

Heeeeeh, okay, the part about special effects, I can't really argue with this on a superficial level, but I can elaborate on a list at least. Some of these just need some additional consideration.

• Slow motion explosions: again, can't argue on this general point alone. There really shouldn't be a bunch happening during an explosion when you're writing one. Keep the pacing going here. The aftermath is going to be what readers are after.
• broad pans of lovely landscape: agree and disagree. Now, my friend Antonio does write screenplays, but he has been told (even by me) that his mastery of painting a scene is best suited for novels, robust and with amazing brevity at that. If you're going to paint the scene, keep the intro down to a few short sentences and then bring in the rest as your characters might need to interact with it. Jumping in their head to look at everything is distracting.
• zoom-ins on women's faces: Now, I do go into gendered differences on occasion, but really, zooming in on ANY face is confusing. The romance genre is a place where writers love to do this (and it works there), but in almost any other genre, the reader is in a hostage situation. They can SMELL a romance or a PLEASE LIKE ME vibe the writer is trying to impose that just... stinks.
• bullets exploding against walls with no ricochet but lots of sparks: agreed. Even in a fantasy novel, if you are using a weapon that is meant to simulate a gun, either you're going to have to add the tedious reason for why it's not behaving like a gun or just do the research so your weapon is moving according to the reader's logic. An action scene really isn't the time to throw in 'oh yeah, guns do that.'
• Overly choreographed hand-to-hand fighting: You got me... then you lost me. Again, this is something that some fantasy fans actually want. In my previous post (Fight Like a Girl), I went into writing fight scenes in some detail. Namely that while I AM a fan of fight scenes, I do prefer some serious consideration and low-key detail. OVERLY, perhaps, but I do keep in mind that this is extremely subjective and some writers and fans are absolutely enamored with drawing out a fight in every detail. Not me, but it has a market.

Next up, overly directed characters. The 'overly' is going to be where opinions tend to need more description. The examples she gave include extra punctuation, caps, adverbs and dialogue markers. While I can agree that most of these things are a-okay for private messaging to your friends or blogs, punctuation is always going to be something a writer has to consider and not just in terms of 'directing'. The caps thing, though-- editors will screw with writers here. Some wants caps, some want italics, some want specific punctuation or just insist you change your style to not need anything. Grain of salt here. I just don't share the prevailing hate for adverbs or dialogue direction either. I want my characters to growl and snap and mumble in some stories. What is 'too much' is up to the example and style. I can't even say all sex scenes are created equal but even the most promiscuous people can have bodily hang-ups they don't want to visualize. You have to tread carefully with sex and erotica because some people do fixate on it or find it distracting. Some writers just overdo things, but it's something you have to see to assess and it's still subjective.

Insertion of song lyrics to build a 'soundtrack'. I can agree in the context of her example. Don't just do it because you think the reader needs to experience 'the enhancement' you felt when a song played and inspired the writing. Music is a visceral and intimate experience that can miss the mark. Now, if  a bard or a piece of music can move the plot in some pointed way, fine, but for the most part, this is solid advice to steer clear of. I've read webcomics where they try to inject an actual soundtrack. While some people enjoy it, I almost never have my sound turned up and if I get curious, it almost always has WORDS which aren't the ones I'm reading so pffftt. No thanks. A good story will already enhance my experience. There is only so much leading a reader can take. Also why some writers' obsession with 'visualizing their characters' is not something most readers want either. Be too controlling and you lose some people.

Last on the list is directed at the video-game based novel. Something tells me this is just something she has a preference against. Maybe this is a sore spot as someone who DOES enjoy this, but I like to assign characters with strengths and weaknesses, certain skills that come into play. Life-like? Hell, no, but it isn't meant to be. In most cases, my characters are also completely blindsided by how their powers work, in a state of disbelief. Now, I don't turn it into the cringe of a turn-based battle, but on occasion, they do figure out a solution involving teamwork and... work together.

The closing statement is stabbing at it again, a bias blended with something useful. Yes, choose your medium wisely, but give your idea a go wherever you please. That being said, I really enjoyed poring over Julia Houston's answer here. I do want to reiterate that I had no intent to make it look flawed or false. Often in my own blogs, I can admit I'm not making it airtight. However, the bias was something that drew me in to begin with. It's clear the 'video-game/movie idea into book' isn't something she likes, but it negates the fact that there is a market for the approach in general. Her points did work in general, but it was in the branches away from 'novel' that made the points a bit gooey. As I've pointed out in some places, genre matters. Still, a good effort considering some of these Quora questions are under way too big an umbrella to really help the poster. If this poster wanted some more helpful advice, deciding the genre in the first place, as specifically as possible, would have been more beneficial to them.

All right-- just some points to tack on the end with that done.  Going back to choosing your medium even when there's a bias against it. Too often, I hear the backhanded "you shouldn't do this because I don't want you to fail." No? Then you're kind of an asshole, not a champion for someone's cause. Failure is where creatives learn. While we don't often share every failure with the public, failure is just not as crippling as some people make it out to be. Even a badly mangled story can be refined. Just because we write the initial draft in a pile of 'don't's doesn't mean it can't be finessed. 

But what about the sensitive people who would be broken by failure? At some point, you will need to toughen up unless you're only going into hug-box fan-fiction groups. What if your book is a commercial success? Are you also prepared for the increased number of anti-fans that will crop up? Unfortunately, some writers just lack the courage to leave safe pockets of snakes. Yeah, they're not always that safe if you decide to be honest. In almost every hug-box group I've wandered into, if you don't keep up the mantras of 'this is great' or 'can't wait to read more', fangs are bared. However, you also never hear 'why aren't you publishing?' or 'I'd love to see your original work!' because these groups have absolutely no wish to see anyone branch out from the anti-confidence of Wattpad/free-web-pubs and Patreon 'if you think I'm good enough to be paid.' Those are great start-up or supplemental options, don't get me wrong, but not where you go to get serious.

There is too much worrying if you're actually 'good' enough. You're afraid of the gatekeepers, but you also aren't looking to self-publish and start defining the worth of your work. At some point, only risk and adversity will give you that answer. What if you're not 'good' enough? Are you really a bad story teller, with bad ideas, bad style, weak voice? Can any of those things be refined or would it take the joy out of writing? Yes, you should probably stop dreaming about publishing or being a full-time author if you're not aiming higher. However, you can wade around with the 'writing for enjoyment' crowd or just enjoying it for yourself. Writing can absolutely be a hobby. Don't regret not trying to get published though. I went in fresh, thinking my idea would explode and hit some hard realities about marketing annnnnd... kept going. Because even at THIS point, I haven't yet been published a full year yet. I haven't sunk anything but some time into marketing. All of my time goes into self-publishing, doing all the work myself, and writing. 

This is part of the reason I took on the Unconventional Author moniker. I knew that my visibility would suffer while I focused on building my library. I also wanted to avoid the newbie temptation to succumb to what people think writers should write. I do improve my craft through reading about improving it-- I also enjoy challenging it and saying 'hey, wait a minute. That could work.'

I've seen some of my favorite authors and ideas thrown into the 'this shouldn't be done' pile. While I have preferences for what I like to read and write, I steer clear of assuming what other people can do. If you take objection to my opinion and endeavor to prove it wrong, I am abso-fucking-lutely honored. I would do the same. Don't be a shrinking violet when it comes to telling your story. Unless you want to wade in the shallow end indefinitely. Up to you. I rather enjoy the risk and pushback and even the crickets chirping while I build my library. I signed up for writing, not expectations or immediate results.

If you enjoy it, write. If you're stressed and don't write, get to it. A lot of people are given the advice to pick up a pen when they are grieving or in the lowest points of their life for a reason. Not because it will be a guaranteed masterpiece, but because it is a flashlight on the source of your soul. It etches out who you are in clumsy and painful clarity. You don't sit in the murk wondering when you'll feel better because your brain is forced to focus what keeps you muddy. You have to engage several things at once: motor skills, vision, mental process. It's not something you have to enjoy to do it either, and that's a big one. There are many things we can't enjoy that we used to. Writing is often something that can even be BETTER when you are apathetic to it. Even if you write 'I feel like shit because my girlfriend left me, my best friend died, and I just got evicted.' Yup, you formed a thought. You named the problem. You don't wonder what's causing your negative feelings because they are right there in front of you.

Another reason to stop 'having ideas'. Get off of bitching on social media and write your damn story/-ies. Put some focus on it, be afraid, but do it. Write. Now, even.