My short story Drifting will be included in Turtleduck Press’s new anthology Under Her Protection, a collection of stories about men who need help and the women who rise to the occasion.
The Video That My Inner Editor Loves (Plus a ROW80 Check-in)
Well, my edit’s hit more bumps. I’ve decided it’s best to add in a new character who’s got to be integrated into at least two of the subplots, so I’m going back through and making new conflict arcs for him, and then I’ve got to re-outline the entire story past when he shows up. (Which is chapter 6 or 7, I believe.)
His addition is going to give a lot more depth and strength to the two subplots in general, but it’s still a pain. Oh well.
So ROW80 has been pretty much a miss for me so far. I need to get my act together. Hopefully next week I’ll have good news.
I need to focus on that right now, so I’m sharing Weird Al’s new music video with you. As an editor, it makes me more happy than it probably should.
The Trouble with MMOs–Or Why I Haven’t Touched One in 10+ Years
Well, dear Squiders, I have a bit of an addictive personality. This sounds like a lovely thing, like people think you’re so great they just want to hang out with you all the time, but unfortunately what it really means is that it’s easy to get hooked on something to the detriment of the rest of your life.
Luckily for me, mine has always been pretty minor, and I’ve trained myself to be responsible even when I don’t want to be. It’s also extremely sporadic, and my “addictions” don’t tend to last very long.
Video and computer games tend to be a weak point for me, but I’ve found ways around this, such as playing games with episodes (typically beatable in a few hours as most) or online games where you only have a set amount of energy so you can’t play for that long. And I am royally terrible at any games that require me to use a joystick to move around, so that frustration also helps.
But MMOs–especially MMORPGs–are the worst. Basically, these games are giant worlds where you create your own character and run around doing quests for NPCs. There’s also a main storyline, if you want, and you can join guilds, fight other players, or work beside them to take down bosses and dungeons.
There’s always something more to do, and there’s no set break points, so it’s easy to run around for hours, killing spiders and carting letters between villages and learning how to farm or make armor.
In college I played an MMORPG called Dark Ages of Camelot, which was brilliant and lovely and very interesting, but it ate up all my time. Sure, I made it to class and practice, but I would get sucked in and eke out play time whenever I could. It wasn’t good. I swore off MMOs.
And I hadn’t touched one since. Til yesterday.
I’ve talked about Coursera here before, but I started a class that compares video games to literature and also explores storytelling across different mediums. (Or so the course promises, anyway.) And I’ve been really excited for it. But part of the class is to play Lord of the Rings Online which is, you guessed it, a MMORPG.
So I installed the game, created my character, and completed the tutorial. And then I spent another three hours running around, killing spiders, yelling at hobbits (hobbit errands are the worst, I’m going back to Bree-land), and also getting my butt handed to me by said spiders.
On one hand, I’m really interested to see how playing LOTRO ties into the subject matter of the course. (Maybe we’ll even discuss the tendency of people to get addicted to MMOs. That would be helpful.) But on the other hand, I’m worried that this is a bad idea, and that I’m getting myself into something that is going to negatively impact my life.
On yet another hand, one long gaming day does not mean anything. I mean, I played five hours for two days on Skyrim, and then never touched the game again. (Skyrim is fairly similar to an MMO, except without the other people. Also, you can teleport between places you’ve been, which MMOs should really get on because boo to running all over the place.)
Should I get out while I still can, Squiders? Or do I give myself the benefit of the doubt for a little longer, see how the gameplay ties into the the coursework? (In the interest of full disclosure, playing the game is not a required part of the class, though it does seem like you’re missing out on most of the content if you don’t.)
Dream Structure
I don’t know if we’ve talked about this before, Squiders, but I dream in stories. It’s very odd.
(The main plotline for Shards came directly from a dream, actually.)
Not all the time, certainly, but quite often, especially if I’m aware that I’m dreaming. As such, a lot of times I am not directly involved in the events of my dreams myself, but function more as an outside observer, like I’m watching a movie. And if I am lucid dreaming, I can change plotlines to make more “sense” (as much as anything makes sense in a dream).
(Have you ever had those dreams, where you’re stuck on a problem, and you spend your whole night dreaming about a solution for said problem, and then when you wake up you discover that your brilliant solution makes no sense in the real world? That drives me crazy.)
Sunday night, however, my dreams threw in another twist.
They gave me a prologue before the dream’s main plot began.
I mean–what. Just…what the heck, brain.
I mean, I have no idea how dreams work, but it seems extremely optimistic to think that my brain had the entire dream planned out enough where it could put together an accurate prologue–and it did end up working. Though I don’t know how much of that may have been because the dream changed to reference the prologue.
(To be perfectly honest, I could have done without this dream and its storyline altogether, because it was creepy and I didn’t need to spend all night on that, thank you.)
Does anyone else dream in stories? If so, have you ever adapted a dream!story into something real (a novel, short story, game, drawing)?
The Hidden Layers of Stories
As both a reader and a writer, I’m always interested in what doesn’t make it into a story.
The fact is that, in order to give your story depth and realism, you need to know a lot more about your world, characters, and backstory than you could ever stuff in.
I mean, Tolkien made up entire languages for Middle Earth.
And I love when we get little glimpses into that process, because everyone works differently. I love learning what influenced people to write the story they did, what mythology or other media they referenced. I love knowing the evolution of characters and storylines.
And, perhaps logically, I like looking back through my own notes, to see where I started in comparison to where I ended up.
And I’m always surprised by what I’ve forgotten. Take, for example, this short story I have coming out in an anthology in August. I wrote the first draft in April and apparently I’ve already spaced on the whole experience, because I found my notes in a notebook last night.
There was a map, showing the main character’s journey, and I’d marked three spots on said map where the main characters runs into issues. And next to each spot I’d labeled what type of conflict it was–physical, mental, or emotional.
And until I found that map, I’d completely forgotten that I’d made a conscious decision to make sure each problem she encountered challenged something different to help with her character growth, even though this is not a story that I haven’t touched in years (in fact, I’m approving the copy edits on it today, so).
I just find the whole process of story creation utterly fascinating. Don’t you?
Any neat story process tidbits you know, Squiders? Anything interesting from your own stories, if you’re a writer?
ROW80 Round 3 Goals
Howdy, squiders. How’s your Thursday? If American, excited for your extra Friday off? If not American, uh, you can mock us for losing to Belgium? Though that’s just mean, you should be ashamed.
Anyway, as hinted at on Tuesday, I’m working on an edit. It’s a young adult paranormal novel, and it’s been a really long time since I’ve touched it, and that shows. I’m having a hard time getting into the right mindset, and everything’s just moving really slow. Hopefully as I get a little further into things, it’ll start to flow better, but for now, everything’s painful.
A Round of Word in 80 Days (ROW80) is starting their third round of the year on Monday. For those of you who haven’t forgotten about this since earlier this year, ROW80 is a writing “challenge” that runs in 80 days bits. You can set your own goals and have to check-in on the main website periodically.
I did Round 1 back in January-March, and it worked pretty well at the time. Of course, at that point I was writing first drafts and I think writing challenges and word counts go along swimmingly, so we’ll see how it goes with editing. Now, ROW80 requires goals to be quantifiable, and it looks like I will have approximately 28 chapters when done with my edit, so I’m going to count by chapters. I have two done, and hopefully will finish one or two more before Monday.
So, goals:
-Edit 26(ish) chapters on Bleachers
-5K on scifi serial
-Outline new novels (3)
I’m hoping one of my writing communities starts a short story or prompt challenge for the summer, because that’s always fun, but it won’t make any sense to make goals based on that until then.
What have you been up to, squiders? Anything fun? Any goals for the summer?
Alpaca Interlude
I hate to do this to you guys, but I’m in a rough spot on my edit (whhhhhyyyyyy) and I need to focus on that. So today, you get alpaca.
Specifically, you get these alpaca:
So apparently these are a thing. They’re called Alpacasso (or Alpakasso) and, of course, they originated in Japan, and beyond that I don’t know anything about them but they are everywhere and they are adorable and they are obviously an evil alpaca plot to infiltrate our homes and our hearts so they can continue their bid for world domination.
So be strong, Squiders. Don’t let their little fuzzy smiles distract you from the truth. Alpaca are little, fluffy bundles of evil. They will steal your hats. They will eat your cake. They may knit you scarves while leering at you in a disturbing manner. Beware.
(Seriously, though, as far as I can tell it’s just a line of toys. You can purchase a variety of different colors, sizes, shapes, etc., here.)
Right, my edit and frustration beckons. Onward!
Night Vale
So, for the uninitiated, Night Vale (or, technically, Welcome to Night Vale, or WTNV for short) is a bimonthly podcast. The show itself is the community radio of a fictional desert city somewhere in the southwestern part of the United States. Sounds pretty normal, right?
No. You are wrong.
You see, Night Vale is not a normal city. Here’s Wikipedia’s description of the show: “The show has been described as “the news from Lake Wobegon as seen through the eyes of Stephen King”, and Christopher Wynn of The Dallas Morning News characterized it as “NPR meets The Mothman Prophecies.” The Daily Dot‘s Gavia Baker-Whitelaw compared the podcast as being “caught somewhere between Weird Twitter and ‘Tales of the Unexplained'” and that it is “well worth a listen—although possibly not after dark, if you live in a small town yourself.”
One of the writers has said that he wanted a place where all the conspiracy theories are real. So there you are.
And the results are excellent. I actually really like it from a storytelling point of view. Something that’s an offhand news piece in one episode will be followed up on later. There are very few dangling threads in Night Vale, so kudos to them.
As a denizen of the Internet, I’ve been aware of Night Vale for a while, but I’ve only been listening to the podcast since we got back from Japan. And I am all caught up now, and we’re going to go to the live show next month, which promises to be a good time. Each episode is between 20 and 30 minutes (with the exception of the most recent, which was half of a live show and ran about 45 minutes) so it’s easy to listen to one or two a day (I do it while I’m vacuuming or mowing the lawn).
The characters are quite interesting too. The main character is Cecil, who is the radio DJ. As time goes on, other characters start showing up on the show as well, such as Carlos the scientist (who has perfect hair and teeth like a military cemetery–and also isn’t from Night Vale, and so is always a bit surprised by what’s happening), The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home, Hiram McDaniels (literally a five-headed dragon–the green head is my favorite), and Intern Dana. (I ? Dana.)
I recommend giving it a listen if you like things like Lovecraft or Poe, even if podcasts aren’t usually your thing. There’s transcripts available to read along with if, like me, you have problems picking things up aurally.
Have any other fun story podcasts to recommend, Squiders? I have free time while I wait for the next episode to go up. Listen to Night Vale yourself? What are your thoughts? Who’s your favorite?
Foundation Trilogy Readalong: Second Foundation
I know we’re a bit late on this one–Japan in the middle was a bit distracting–but to be perfectly honest I felt my attention wandering pretty bad on this one.
Like Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation consists of two parts, the first taking place a mere five years after the conclusion of the last part of F&E. The Second Foundation (the entity, not the book) has come to the forefront, with everyone obsessed with discovering its location. This book also gives us sections from unknown Second Foundationers throughout as they work to counteract first the Mule, and later the First Foundation, in their efforts.
I think part of why I had a hard time staying connected is that I thought it was a little obvious, especially in the second story, where the Second Foundation was (and, later on, who the First Speaker was) and then I was generally a little annoyed at the red herrings deployed in the later part of the book.
We’ve got a female main character for the second part again, but it’s not as satisfying because the other characters don’t treat her terribly well (she’s only 14) and Asimov himself invalidates everything she does later on. That’s a person pet peeve of mine–I dislike ineffective main characters, even if they make sense from a plot perspective.
The whole series is a bit interesting from the standpoint of the fact that it seems like Asimov didn’t really plan the whole thing out, and just added things as they made sense as he went along. I swear the Second Foundation was not mentioned in the first book.
From a plot standpoint, I don’t understand why the First Foundation sees the Second Foundation to be such a threat, to the point where they feel that the Second Foundation has to be destroyed. In theory, both foundations are necessary for the completion of the Seldon Plan. Sure, the Mule throws the whole thing off, but I don’t understand why the First Foundation feels so threatened, and why they don’t want to work with the Second Foundation to fix things.
As we come to the end of this readalong, I’d have to say I found the books interesting but not really…hm. They didn’t hit any of my sweet spots. I don’t think I’d recommend them to someone else. At this point, I don’t think I would read the later books, though I do admit that I am a bit curious about how it all turns out.
Well, Squiders, what’s your opinion of Second Foundation and/or the trilogy as a whole? What was your favorite book? (Mine was Foundation.) Anything else to note before we move on?
Not sure what I want to do for the next readalong, so if you have suggestions, let me know.
DCC Aftermath
So! Denver Comic Con (DCC henceforth) was pretty fun last weekend. This is DCC’s third year, and last year was a ginormous mess because the people running the convention didn’t expect the 60,000 people who showed up, and there was a lot of line standing (Friday was especially a mess, where people stood in line to get in to the con for several hours only to get turned away) and not a lot going on.
Luckily, this year DCC figured that they’d be ridiculously popular and amped everything up appropriately. They completely redid the lines to exchange tickets for badges and get into the convention. I showed up about when doors opened Saturday morning and only spent half an hour in line, which is a major improvement over last year (where I think we stood–not moving–for about two hours).
Additionally, they added a ton more panels and made it clear where lines to get into things were. They reorganized the dealer’s room and artist alley to fit more in and to make it easier to navigate. (And I see why I didn’t get a table–I think there were maybe three tables in the artist alley, and only two or three in the dealer’s room, selling books. The rest were selling comic books or graphic novels or some form of visual art.)
The unfortunate downside was that it seemed like some of panels were a bit stretched, like they felt like they needed more panels but didn’t know what to do. I think that’s true of a lot of cons, though, especially ones run mostly by volunteers.
But overall, I had a great time. I talked to a bunch of friends, including people I don’t see very often (including people I haven’t seen since last year’s DCC). There were a lot of neat costumes, and everyone else also seemed to be having a great time. Only a single person recognized me as Amy and asked for a picture, but oh well. (One of my friends thought I was Mary Jane from Spider-Man, which is actually a perfectly reasonable thing to assume.)
The best panel I went to was on anime openings from the 90s, which the panelists turned into a game, and everyone was obviously into it and having a good time, so there was a good energy in the room. And we went to the costume contest, which was kind of meh, though the comedian who was MCing was pretty funny at points.
All in all, much better than last year, and a good time overall.
Did you guys hit DCC? Been to a con lately? How did you like it? Would you go again?
