Why I Started Coloring with Orange

I've had this weird aversion to the color orange for as long as I can remember. It wasn't a strong feeling because if it had been, I might have been conscious of it. It seemed every year I was in school, the school would demand 'new' school supplies, which meant more colored pencils. We'd just dump the rest into the big box at home and never really look at them ever again.

At least until I was older. Sorting them out, it became immediately clear that the oranges were almost never sharpened, still with the vertical ridges of the original factory sharpening visible even. I knew by then that I often had a preference for dark or cool colors-- blues, greens, purples, but also deep reds and golden yellows/browns, but I was still steering clear of orange.

Again, not sure why. In 7th grade, one of my favorite outfits involved a sleeveless orange tank and a long purple zippered jacket. Orange with purple seemed to be the only exception. In fact, some of my favorite tropical flowers are orange and purple.

Visually, the complementary colors also don't speak to me. I like purple with orange, not yellow. Blue with red, not orange. Green with yellow, not red. I think the whole red and green thing was something I found obnoxious about Christmas unless it was more like a burgundy and forest green. It would have been nice to know why I had a visual stubbornness, but at the same time, people were always complimenting me on my very different color choices.

One of the things I possess is a very handy Color Layout book I got in college. Even though I manage to find some great color combinations I resonate with, I still tend to find the fundamental 'complements' a lot pickier in my shade preference tolerance. Remember the fad involving hot pink and chocolate brown? I could dig that combo and I'm also not a fan of hot-anything where colors are concerned. I still think a bubblegum pink or turquoise is absolutely amazing with a brown, although fuchsia and brown is a close third.

I didn't want to be color stubborn. I didn't want to be inflexible or even start to lean too hard on pieces where people liked the colors. I liked to note that for future use, but I still intended to be experimental, to find other people's color preferences outside of my own.

Orange was not an easy color for me to want to use though. I ended up making peace with a creamsicle orange. A really vibrant orange cone shade can even work as a single focal point in a composition. Sometimes I lean out of orange and end up closer to peach, but I still try to find places for orange. As an artist, I need to understand how I can make colors work. There are many people who ask me to do art and they love the color orange. It just feels like I'm copping out if I won't do it because I don't like orange.

Hey, I've done the same with fears. Although I'm not going to list them in a public forum, there are many that I've turned from phobias to just uncomfortable and inconvenient. To me, my aversion to orange wasn't something I wanted to become comfortable with though. I wanted the challenge of using it to be stronger than my feelings for it. How could I use it in a way that didn't ruin the visual for me?

Of course, you'll probably find some speculative psychology behind it, but it doesn't sound like a solution nor will it really enlighten you about me. There are a lot of things that I realize are potentially destructive unconscious habits that, once brought to light, I find it most important to go ahead and challenge them.

What about you? Are you comfortable in certain anti-productive preferences or habits? How would challenging them help you grow?

All right, blogging is fun, but time to jump over to writing. I got a nice little break from it yesterday when my dear friend Emily paid a visit, but I should put a little mileage into it today. I have some scheduled posts attacking topics like bigotry and what we attack writers for writing about coming up, just in case I get a little too involved to remember to blog. Handy little thing, that. Makes me seem a lot more present or frequent even when I'm pounding out a few posts then disappearing for a week or so. See you around! Hope you find some fun rabbit holes to explore!

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.

Where Does the Week Go?

It's easy for an entire week (or more) to pass in a blur. It's not that I don't feel the strain of the day to day, often a mix between making sure the kids eat, making sure I eat, making sure my Sims eat, and also writing. As much as I enjoy the ups and downs of writing, it often leaves breaks down to a couple hours of gaming when I'm struggling to stay awake longer than 9 PM, cleaning the fish tank, housework-- you know, the fun stuff.

Because writing is no walk in the park even when the muse is good. Each phase is a different challenge. I'll run through that real quick so you can compare it to your own ups and downs.

First draft: Dive right in, creative bursts and discovery, realizing my 'planning' left something to be desired, accumulating side notes to make sure I'm not contradicting my own story, resisting the temptation to edit as soon as I realize I want to change something I've already written because of a better idea. Getting tired of looking at a screen all day. Yeah, first draft discipline-- it's about the flow, blah, blah, blah.

First edit: Glad I lacked discipline and did correct things while writing the first draft. Realizing it wasn't nearly enough and what the hell was I trying to say there? No, no, now I'm going to have to rewrite that whole scene because I liked that one better. Ending up printing off the draft so I can use my new red markers and not look at a damn screen. Why is there so much red?!

Second draft: Okay, I got this... I probably should've just edited the digital file though. Getting whiplash from looking between the draft and the screen. Okay, fine, it could be worse; right now I'm just plugging in corrections... This isn't so bad...

Second edit: I've recreated Frankenstein's monster... It's a jigsaw puzzle where I just kinda crammed things where they don't go! Is anything in order? I mean, yay for all grammar goofs and punctuation fixes being a thing of the past, but it should probably make a lot more sense...

Final draft: I scrapped the print-out editing after the first one so this is just... sewing the monster back together. I'm so glad I use the scenes method in Scrivener... Hey, this... this is even better than I thought it would be! I can release this!

--------

Enjoy the first draft phase, they say-- just get it down, they say. Thing is that I often start with a handful of ideas covered in cheese dust. The fantasy genre, for me, is one of the most difficult because it is often a simple idea that is complex as it grows. I don't mean complicated to READ (although I can't say it doesn't happen)-- I mean that the build is complex. Who knows what for example? If the reader already knows something, you can't just keep the characters in prolonged ignorance either. You ever been to the theater, watching a movie obviously, when some guy in the audience yells out "You idiot, he's the killer! Get away from him! How do they not know this?" On occasion, yeah, it makes for a moment of suspense if only one scene before, the nice guy is discovered to be the killer and some unknowing victim is happy to see him in the next. That's momentum, but sometimes it's just aggravating filler beyond that.

Back to the complicated to read thing, it's the glossary thing that kills a lot of stories for me. Now, some books have it and don't need it, so the presence of one isn't a red flag. If you're rereading a book and just want a refresher before analyzing it again, no big deal. I've read some books that make you look for a glossary almost immediately and never ever stop with the constant technicalities. I can be forgiving if your context game is good. Before reading an excerpt for Loni Townsend's ongoing series (no spoilers), she warned me concerning some of the details of races and magic systems briefly inserted by name might be confusing without the story. However, I didn't have a problem with this-- because of context. It was clear what the unique vocabulary was hinting at and it was also clear that whatever questions I had weren't just overlooked but something that would be revealed at some point later. They weren't throw-away ideas meant to sound deep; they were all connecting to the characters already. A glossary shouldn't be a necessity. Even with epic fantasy, skimping on the importance of natural introduction to your world shouldn't be overlooked. Describe it as if to a tourist-- be wary of being too infantilizing but don't toss someone into a pit of foreign concepts. Some mystique, good; word vomit, bad.

In the Fight Like a Girl post I went into this, but some fantasy fans are all about the naming and info-dumping and there are also readers that puff up with pride because they 'get it'. Also, have you ever heard these fans actually talk about what they're all reading? It's a hilariously confusing mess and it sounds like they're not really reading the same thing. They also start arguing over the feasibility of how well this or that sword would be in this or that kind of combat. Don't worry-- this isn't all of fantasy, but traditionalist medieval fantasy fanatics. I used to run with the D&D crowds, never as enthusiastic about this subset, but then I got a hold of more psychological, diabolical, humorous and even romantic takes on fantasy, some through gaming, some through reading. Tolkien got a whole generation of people thinking it's all dwarves, elves and dragons-- again, traditional norms. My own forays into fantasy tend to dive into supernatural, mythological, magical and even sci-fi territory.

I can't speak for all writers, but I use my writing to communicate my own struggles and interests in a setting that often amplifies them. This doesn't mean I ever Mary Sue a character that represents me. I don't include 'me' in any story. Given the temptation to do so, I find a way to ditch that character (not necessarily kill them since that's a cheap way out if you don't use it well). It means that my interests in mythology, culture, human struggles, psychology, even playing an instrument inevitably leak into the pages. I wouldn't say, over time, that I've come to prioritize either the characters or the world building as more important. Done well, they will both make some sort of impression. I don't try to make lovable or unlikable (hatable/hateable should be a word) characters so it's interesting to see which ones people might prefer. I do have personal favorites but I labor NOT to show any favoritism. I will say that some of my favorite scenes to write continue to be the ones where the environment and character play perfectly together.

Hmmm, no idea what I was going to write about going into this, but I do want to run some updates:

• Each Endless Universe: Close Encounters was released today (June 15).
• UnSung's first draft passed the 140K mark, putting the second part at about the 2/3 done mark. At this point, it's largely down to, again, wrapping up the plots to streamline them into the main plot. I can make sure the details don't contradict later-- substance first.
• Each Endless Universe: Dual Decisions will be released on June 29th.
• Each Endless Universe: Original Sin, the final book, will be released on July 11th (my birthday), as well as the final trilogy edition. You can net all nine books in trilogy form for $15 or the very thick trade paperbacks for $75. If you're in it for the cover art too, each paperback in single novel form is around $15. The first two might be at $20, I believe, but have the illustrations.
• Possible plans for redoing cover design for the first two or three. I want to unify the first cover, do some reorganizing of the elements on the others. The last two trilogies I was far more cognizant of what I was doing. I may redo the cover art on the first altogether. It was a sentimental choice because that drawing was first done years ago, but it doesn't stand up to the others.
• Webcomic! Unfortunately, I haven't been on that just yet. I do plan on working on that more once I've wrapped up part 2 of UnSung, even if it's just concept sketches. I want to at least finish UnSung, maybe take a hiatus on novel writing while I at least nail down a few episodes of the webcomic, see how it does.
• The UnQuadrilogy? This may be too far ahead to plan, but I'd like to have them out before 2020 is up. It's a huge series and giving myself a year for each one is challenging but I think I can swing it.

That's it for updates. My next blog post will be a gripe I saw about another Quora comment. This time, the commenter asserts that the problem with too many fantasy novels is that the writers are using it as a medium to write what should be a video game or a movie. I'll dissect what I agree with and disagree with sometime soon.

Fight Like a Girl: How I Write a Fight Scene

Despite a lifelong rejection of gender norms and being content to always do things I damn well please regardless of societal expectation, I have always been aware that I have female parts, female problems, and female solutions. Why? Because they're coming from me. If a man comes up with the same thing, they are just as male and common ground is born.

That being said, fight scenes probably have a different sort of appeal to me and I imagine I'm not alone. One thing I love about watching certain brilliantly choreographed fight scenes in movies in the attention to detail, but with every attempt to capture it with the same detail in writing? Tedious to read. Even in the most inspiring fight scenes, there are certain elements that movies are always going to do better, certain things that books/stories/screenplays can shine on if you can wiggle it right.

And a lot of the fantasy-loving guys, they often want the sword types, the logistics, which is fine too, but I find that some books just lose my attention here and I'll skim through, looking for the comedy, the pivotal points, the suspense. When it comes to a fight, I'll often paint my own scenes if you toss me a good brush, so I don't need to be walked through. So what are some things I look for (and do)?

• Spectator Sport!

Sometimes it's a one on one deal and you don't have this option, but let's assume you have someone on the sidelines, someone who either can't fight, would only get in the way, or is spying/being protected/otherwise passive. This is a great opportunity to use their perspective. They can see every grimace, even slash of blood, inject their own anxiety/bloodlust/commentary at this point. Now, I personally try to write in third person and switch the narrative to prioritize their impression, but it's entirely possible to do this in first person if that's your preference. In fact, a lot of female writers even prefer to write in first person, something I oddly don't like to do. Why? You've seen my blogs. And lot of 'I's and 'me's go into them and when it comes time to write books, it feels good to limit that to the conversation, to distant myself from the events and play the spectator.

Utilize that. If you prefer third, you can home in on your spectator without slipping into first. One thing I love about third is that you can change the tone of narration without confusion, be the parrot on the shoulder of whoever you wish. 

The spectator is probably not going to be a martial expert either, but you don't want to sound like an idiot either: "his fist kinda shot forward and popped the other guy on that bone between the shoulder and the neck". Sigh. Unless you're trying to fill a word count for a school paper, this doesn't fly. It's okay if your spectator is a moron, but as narrator, you probably don't want to get THAT into their stupid head. Know basic anatomy and you still don't get to skip over creativity and interest. 

 

"She swung, but it failed to connect, her fist almost awkward as it stopped where his head was. Before his smug smile could reach its height, his eyes snapped back, his head following with a loud crack. Her other fist hadn't missed the connection."

Now the spectator wasn't mentioned here, but you don't always need to include them, especially since they probably prefer the sidelines. You could use them to create suspense or a distraction even. Sometimes they gasp or jump out of the way when the action gets too close to create more urgency. Sometimes they come in with a frying pan and end the fight rather anticlimactically.

• Spare Us the Details

Well, what does a writer do if you're taking the easy way out? A writer's job is still to lead the reader to the story, so there's no 'easy' way to cut a fight into manageable parts either. It still requires you to have that movie magic in your head, but your cutting room floor is going to be a lot messier, a lot more precise to hold people's interest here. Sometimes, you just have to cut the fat. Sometimes a flurry of rage, a wild swinging of weapons or fists, is just not a gloriously described moment. Sometimes an epic battle is actually going to be between David and Goliath (the giant soldier and the beanpole with the slingshot), not two seasoned swordsmen (this includes the swordsmen with no penises-- I don't need 'swordspeople' or 'swordswomen' to get the point across. Humankind always included all of us without fucking with 'hupeople' and 'huwomen'). <--- But, but there was a point in history where women weren't allowed to fight or read! Don't worry; there were men who weren't allowed to do either based on their status too and sometimes were even relieved of their junk altogether. Humans are bastards; you still get the point.

As I was saying, sometimes the battle is just not limited to the battle itself. It's distractions (where did that flock of sheep come from? Lamb chops for the winner, y'all!), it's accidents, but whatever it is, make it interesting for a reader, not just a chance to show off how well you can describe everything with that razor sharp eye of yours. Jump cut to the good parts, generalize the chaos. Utilize readers if you're unsure. Sometimes, they can tell you exactly what they prefer and give you a good redirect.

• Trap Them In!

Sometimes a big open chaotic battlefield isn't flying for you. You just can't find the meat of it, can't get into the groove, can't make it anything that hasn't been done a million times over. One of my favorite fight scenes I've done involved a woman in a cocktail dress and her assailant in an elevator. It involved using the walls to pull some kick flips, pinning, and the annoyance of it stopping at every floor when one good kick sends him into the panel of buttons (and the doors jammed where his body dented them, if I remember right. No exit and an annoying jerking as it stops and takes off again really kills the accuracy).If I didn't end it with her strangling him with her underwear, I should go back and change that....

Sometimes you just have to back that fight from the battlefield to the barn and use the environment, although that is a tip on its own!

• Krav Maga or Go Home

Taking a popular fighting style to the task, you have to use your characters AND environment to the best possible effect. Some people freeze up on fight scenes--how many ways can you actually swing the sword before it gets dull? Parry, parry, thrust-- you already lost me. Use your character's clumsiness or the ballet lessons his mom made him take to throw in a loop. Backed into a suit of armor in a castle? Tell them to catch as they toss the helmet. Lose your sword? Grab the nearest... spoon? Damn it! Now I'm a fan of comedy, but you can keep it as serious as you want and still use the environment and characters to the same effect. The point is the same; a good fight is interesting, intuitive and resolved.

 

• F*ck the PC

You know I don't usually censor my posts, but tongue in cheek back to the days where explicit song/book titles had that complete useless censorship...

 

One thing I really tire of in writing groups are the writers that try to censor other writers. If it's okay for me to write females besting men in battle, it's okay for men to write about men besting women. Oh, but it's a soft spot because (insert your oversharing personal history here, internet stranger). I get it. I'm a woman too. I've gone through some dark shit involving men, but guess what? I've been assaulted by women too. This does not somehow mean I should think that everything is off limits because people are all bastards and everything triggers me.

 

I'll keep this brief-- you're going to offend people. Defend your story. Defend it against agendas, defend your choices in fight scenes or otherwise. If it triggers someone, congratulations-- you probably just made a brilliant go of the brutal reality of that moment. Was that the intent (not to offend but to evoke an emotional response)? Let's get over caring about the extremely conservative or extremely liberal lines of criticism. If you want them to be your audience, then care, I guess. Otherwise, I've got your back on holding your ground. Being afraid to write anything other than a white man being bested by anything other than another white man? Not acceptable. If they want to masturbate to an anti-oppression fantasy, they can write it.

• Woe is me! End it better!

Let's face it-- the fight ending on the villain stabbed and slumping to the floor with a parting shot sputtered out in a burst of blood is done and done and done. That's not to say you can't do that in some sense, but this isn't where you fade to black and put the hero, cape billowing as they stand on a cliff as the closure to their victory. Maybe you do have the villain stabbed, dying, saying last words, fine and dandy, but this is often the perfect place to really pound in a dramatic moment. What is the mood here? Is there a sad or enraged spectator? Maybe they just killed a wizard and their death triggers a spell, a gate that opens to let in the demons they're trying to prevent in the first place. Don't put all of your energy into your perfectly paced fight then dump the potential at the end. A climactic fight can fizzle out if you just have the guy spit on the body and say 'that was for my father' unless you at least make him spit again and say 'and that was for the pisspot wine you served at the banquet. Cheap bastard.' I know, I know-- me and my comedy, but at least load a cliché with more than done and fade to black on a predictable note. 

---------

Fights really became fun for me when I realized I didn't have to give a play by play of the Lord of the Rings movies. They really don't have to last more than a page or two at most to paint the picture, to solidify its importance in the story. I know I wandered a bit on some strong feelings I tend to have towards what people seem to think they can tell you you can and can't write. What I REALLY don't want anyone to do is see ANY of my 'don't's as hard rules. Unless you're new here, you know that's not the way these work. It is absolutely quite possible you can do the exact opposite and it will work fantastic. I model my tips to reflect what resonates with people struggling with what isn't working for them and nudging them towards what ended up working for me.

In case anyone missed it, I'm just not a fan of the assumption that any idea or method is supremely male or female. I'm not a fan of neutering an idea to make it palatable-- that is often the path to just making it generic. If you're a man that uses any of these methods, all that means is you've got my attention. Men and women have been doing these things for some time, I'm sure. If I write like a girl, it doesn't hurt my feelings. It's a big no-shit and I tip my hat to you.

 

In the attempt to keep my posts organic, I don't pore over list pages and just recycle popular tips with my own blowhard twist. I used my own examples to show how I've kept them interesting for me (and that I've actually used them) and to see if the example holds for you. I don't claim to be original or unique or having some special vagina powers. Okay, this is sounding like the worst disclaimer ever... 

How does your character kick some ass? I know you probably don't want people stealing your best work, but maybe toss out your second best and share what works for you! Have an awesome morning-after blackout memory bar fight? An accidental improbable victory? Add to the tips and any future edits will credit.

Character Profiling: A World Reborn

Back for another round of character profiles, this time with the basic protagonists of the second trilogy. As some of you may know, I started out this series with the goal of simply writing a finished book. A series isn't always a planned thing. Once I resolved the main plot, each time I had more questions. Could I just write short stories to answer them? Perhaps, but each one seemed to bloom well beyond that word count, each needing a bigger problem to lead them to another resolution. How often in reality do we look at the big goal, seeing little more than a victory or a happily ever after, but even achieved, we see hills beyond it and more journeys ahead? I was tying up the end of the Heroes trilogy and I didn't see an ending. There were aspects of this growing world that made me wonder even further back into their history, even more into the mysterious people and cultures and pockets of the world only briefly explored.

A World Reborn begin where I planted the seed for continuity. Again, without getting too much into spoiler territory, it's just not the same world and with the passage of time, the truth is just not coming to light and people forget. It's a hard legacy to carry. So who's dragged into the party kicking and screaming this time?

EDEN

Hair: White

Eyes: Grey

Short Intro: From the time she was 4 years old, she came into a power that came with an awful cost, one that forced her family to look for answers, mostly getting none, and leading to a life growing up isolated and protected. She misses her mother and uncle and teenage impulses make her sure she can find what others cannot. Forced to flee her childhood home, she convinces her guardian to return to the north.

First appears: her home on the edge of the Ersenais kingdom

SOLIS

Hair: Black

Eyes: Golden Yellow

Short Intro: Crown prince of Abundance, his father mysteriously disappears and his mother becomes despondent until she takes her own life. When his double-edged gifts surface, he nearly kills his twin sisters. When the Council tries to detain him, he flees in terror. Not sure of where to go, he simply heads north, but the 'gifts' assure not only the farthest thing from a normal life, but also a path of destruction. When his mother's ex-lover, a man whispered to be an assassin, shows up, he thinks it's all over.

First appears: the Palace in Abundance

CONOR

Hair: Black

Eyes: Blue

Short Intro: Conor and his twin sister are nearly inseparable, living their carefree lives in Skyloft, a city their parents founded. Having a Reishefolk parent, he and his sister were born with wings, but they never fully developed. Their uncle seemed obsessed with trying to find out why, but his quest is cut short when another problem arises.

First appears: Skyloft

CALYRA

Hair: Black

Eyes: Blue

Short Intro: Fraternal twin sister of Conor. When her and her brother come into their powers, they feel an urgency to leave, looking for a lead their uncle had started on. On the insistence of their father, the blacksmith Arred is asked to go with them, a move that Calyra and her mother are not happy with.

First appears: Skyloft

ARRED

Hair: Sandy brown

Eyes: Spring Green

Short Intro: A young and talented blacksmith, a gorgeous beast of a man that seemed to be shorted on brains, but is unfailingly loyal to the 'Boss', the twins' father. He and Conor are thick as thieves, but everything about him seems to irritate Calyra, a fact that doesn't seem to deter his friendliness and loyalty towards her. One thing is certain, this guy doesn't believe in giving up.

First appears: Skyloft

TREMBLE

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Brown

Short Intro: a mysterious kid that seems to know Rienna, Eden's mother, and is anxious to find others like him and warn them to reach a meeting place. He appears to be forgetful, socially awkward and simple, but haste and responsibility doesn't leave too much room for pleasantries either.

First appears: outside of Skyloft

HOPE

Hair: White

Eyes: Red-Violet

Short Intro: A young Bryfolk girl born mute but bright and determined to correct this hurdle. After inventing a voice box, she begs her parents to let her go to an Inventor's Expo, which they agree to do as long as her older brother Reese chaperones. When separated, she discovered her own ill-timed powers and flees in a panic.

First appears: South of Ersenais in her parent's home

REESE

Hair: Sandy

Eyes: Golden Brown

Short Intro: The older brother to Hope and triplet brothers, he is a combination of responsibility and inexperience. After being separated from his sister, he hurries home to tell his parents he is going after her. When 'Tia' makes it clear she can help him find her, he begrudgingly takes her along.

First appears: In his parents family home south of Ersenais

GALATEA

Hair: Fiery red

Eyes: brown-violet

Short Intro: A slightly bratty teenager who keeps her powers secret; a power that leads her to anything her heart desires. When a family friend goes missing, she leaps at the challenge to put it to use, even though her overprotective father isn't wild about sending her off with his friend's handsome teenage son.

First appears: South of Ersenais

REYLON

Hair: Black

Eyes: Yellow

Short Intro: A panther Felisfolk (cat hybrid) who spends his days hunting, learning how to hold his breath underwater and chasing after the tribal chief's daughter. When he wanders too far and gets attacked by two lion Felisfolk. In an attempt to hide, he ends up being caught by fishermen and dragged off to the main continent.

First appears: in his tribal territory on Wheryf

FENEC

Hair: orange and white

Eyes: Blue

Short Intro: After the disappearance of his overachieving twin brother Cerdec, the warrior-trained Kitfolk (fox hybrid) Fenec declines into a life of drunken debauchery and thievery. On one shady mission, he is caught by slavers that ship him off to Ogre Island. In his terror, his powers awaken and he breaks his bonds and flees to the main continent, a place his isolated existence has never prepared him for.

-----------

Pretty sure that covers the basic protagonists; again, there are other pivotal characters, but they seem to branch out from the main set here. It would probably be more accurate to think of them as character trees. There are sort of cameo appearances of characters from the last trilogy, but it's not campy or super emphasized.

I'm scheduling the next character profiling post for some time later since those books aren't yet released and I'm leery of accidentally spoiling anything for the early adopters. It's also a bit more difficult for me to pick the basic protagonists in that one since there are different factions that pop up along the way. I think I'll stick to the first ones introduced to avoid spoiling the importance of that discovery.

Big casts of characters have always fascinated me, how you could keep track of them more naturally when it's organic to how we build relationships in real life yet at the bird's eye view of a narrator that swoops in and out of different perspectives. On the surface, a lot of characters seemed like a dilution of depth, but it's quite the opposite. Interactions aren't exactly more shallow in a larger social setting. At parties, you probably do a good mix of joining group conversations or wandering off with a friend for a one-on-one all throughout the evening. The rarity of adult get-togethers in the busy reality of life often compacts and enhances the value of those moments. The same goes for the development of characters in a series. Rather than figuring out how to stretch out the adventures of a couple of people, it becomes a matter of prioritizing their appearance and not overstaying their welcome.

Stay tuned for the next one!

Fan-Dandy Day, or a Day Where You Don't Procrastinate

One of my personal goals is this: make all priorities fit. For those in the know, the benefit of deciding your own hours does have its downsides. There can often be a feeling of falling behind or taking on too much and ending up sacrificing something else. It can take a long while to balance priorities and even once you have a system, the flexibility sometimes causes carelessness.

For some of us, schedules are absolutely impossible. We almost pray for a regular 9-5 job, but it's also the furthest thing from locking in on your most productive periods. Some people will swear by circadian rhythms: you're a night owl, a morning glory, a grumpy bear that rouses slow but hunkers down once you've dosed on caffeine. Even though I fancied myself a night owl for a long time, it became apparent that I fall off that wagon and long for days, my muse throwing down the towel until I fix it.

One thing is certain; I fuel on dreams. I don't actually dream at night often, but when this happens and I wake on the edges, I'm grabbing for a notebook, scribbling in haste to capture this blockbuster moment to paper-- hopefully in a way that will make sense later.

This is what happened to spark my fan-dandy day. Yesterday, I was in serious doubt that my struggle to join the daywalkers was paying off and went to bed exhausted, half the day spent struggling to stay awake. I expected serious burnout today but my friend Joe graced my action-spectacular bounty hunting dream and I woke with the coveted motors running full blast. Jotting it down, I was pumped then made my way to make my spectacular morning egg sandwich and throw on some coffee. The moment I did, I felt the drag of an energy drop and thought 'oh no... not again...'.

A nap maybe, but my maybes are usually thoroughly ignored, this being no exception. My nephew Dameon stumbled in, sporting his usual adorable bedhead and his chirpy 'good morning' and I jumped onto my PS4 to play some Sims, a game he enjoys for hearing me boss around my pathetic 8 person family as they battle for who gets to use the one shower.

The down spike passed and the muse was waiting, tapping her foot and pointing at my laptop. Now? Okay, now... I did my slumpy Sim walk over to the laptop table, tossing them on my bed and cracking open the lid. Staring at the last thing I wrote, I nodded. Cool. I can do this. I didn't just hang it on an uninspired part. Things are happening as I planned and I got this.

A couple hours tapping away and noon was rolling into the picture. Break time, whether I like it or not. I belted out my crunches and push-ups (a thing getting satisfyingly easier each day) then skipped off to make lunch. Back to writing.

Ha, I crack myself up. Had to share it to a couple of my friends then back at it. Oooo, I get to write a puzzle. This is where my gaming experience shines and I've spent a lot of effort towards translating my love of puzzles into the intrigue of a novel format. Dun, dun, dun! And done, but not quite. The puzzle is done, the mystery hangs beyond it annnnnd.... stop.

I can't for the life of me remember where I learned it (could just be my own experience for all I know) and a search didn't help, but one thing I've used repeatedly that never fails to work: Don't stop writing when the interesting scene is finished, stop when you're itching to keep going.

You'll hear a lot of this-- don't stop, bleed, eat sleep breathe writing. None of this is actually advice, it's just the nature of those passionate moments. To me, a more direct explanation is something of value, something I strive to give back. When you finish something, the jitters of starting over can hang you up. It doesn't matter that technically you're in the middle of a novel. While a finish is a place of pride and accomplishment, it's a place where I like to use that momentum and confidence to dive on ahead. If I know it's getting to be that time where I can't ignore other things in life, I wander off unfinished. Because of that, I had been able to kick my ragged ass back into gear.

There's an odd occurrence for me that time away from my story can sometimes flatten it in my mind, make me doubt it, or down on it. When I've seen a few bestselling authors (and ones whose work I admire for its quality rather than its commercial success) admit that they can't bring themselves to read their books once published, or famous actors who can't sit through a screening of their movie, it was an immense comfort to know that the fragility is not just for the newly initiated. It's a war between humility and the ego to tear apart something you know you put every bit of yourself into. You released it out into the world-- don't you dare suffer it. This is so much why the drafting is ever more fragile. You have to keep seeing it as worthy to finish writing, worthy to edit, worthy to release and you can't second-guess it.

And it's terrific. No matter what it amounts to, no matter how long it takes to get noticed, it's releasing a baby bird you nursed back to health. It's the first hint of bark on your tender green sprout. At some point, it has to grow without your constant supervision.

Take your craft in stride. You might have days without it. It's not 'use it or lose it'. There's no guarantee 10,000 hours equals mastery. You might need those kicks in the ass sometimes, but sometimes gentler mantras are enough. Even wishy-washy ones where you just tilt your head after reading that last paragraph and say 'I think I'm onto something.' 

If you also had a fan-dandy day, let's hear about it! I know I'm relatively new and I'm not crawling to collect the masses in my basketses, but I genuinely enjoy the interactions, the new insight. I will never profess to be an expert and even when I teach, I show up to learn. Whether today or tomorrow, do yourself one favor:

Keep writing.

Cover Reveal + Whatever Else I Ended Up With

Annnnd we're back with yet another fun series of progression shots, prior to the next book release! Each Endless Universe: Close Encounters, coming out June 15th, chimes in with a look at Cole.

Once more, starting with a rough sketch. I see now that I did not commit to this one... The arm and the hand holding the pipe wrench ended up a bit different, but that's what sketch layers are for...

I dove right in and took care of his head. Like I did with Calyra's hair, it was done in multiple layers, but this was so they could be layered over his band of his goggles.

Ah, this is where I changed the arm and hand a bit.

Okay, you got me; I have no idea what the difference is between this one and the last other than its slightly close and I cut out part of the pipe wrench. That was really useful of me.

I'm rather proud of this. I've never freehanded a tattoo and to be honest, I kind of want this tattoo for myself. I made the bone part look like branches with leaves then graduate into feathers. It was based off of a picture I found on Google, where I noticed the smaller feathers looked like leaves. From the angle, I could tell what the artist did for the bone supports but branches came to me.

I wanted to show what the shadows look like pre-blend. Shadows are very difficult for a lot of artists (I'm no exception-- they get tweaked a lot as I work). I typically use two dark shading layers. A highlight layer is added later.

Obviously the shadows are blended, highlights added, and I added the color to the tattoo. Not much of a spoiler to say that Cole had this done to honor his mother and uncle. Although on the last cover, I made their wings various shades of solid blue, in the books, Conor's wings are mostly black with blue and white tips, while Calyra's are mostly white with blue and black tips so the tattoo is a more accurate depiction. Again, the art is not meant to force you to see them a certain way-- it's fun for me and gives your imagination some room to play.

This is just where I finished up the glove and his jacket. Don't worry; if you're thinking he reminds you of Jubilee from the old X-Men cartoon, that was where my head went too. I always loved her goggles and yellow jacket combo, so it's definitely a nod at a favorite childhood memory.

Last, but not least, let's plop in the formatted cover! The wrench wraps into the spine on the printed version, but the pipe wrench gets cut off on the right in the print without that leeway.

I've been neglecting to post links, but if you want to further support what I'm doing, buy my print version or hop on over to Patreon and pick any size donation you like. If you haven't used it before, you can give a one-time donation or set up a monthly donation. Spreading the word also helps immensely! Even if this series is not for you, if you think you might know someone who likes my style, drop a mention.

If you want to order a print of any of my work, I can set it up on DeviantArt for you. I do the covers in great detail at a high PPI so they look gorgeous on a big canvas. A lot of that detail is lost on the small covers, so you'd be amazed. I don't have them set up for sale now, but if even one person wants to purchase a print, I will set them up as requested.

This concludes another progress post. Next progress post will introduce you to a fun trio of characters.

Thanks for following my antics!