Category Archives: writing

Quick Hits for July 23rd

No long form essay today just a few quick thoughts to kick off the morning.

 

Ladyhawke this film from 1985 doesn’t get the love that it deserves. A romantic fantasy directed by Richard Donner and starring Mathew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, and Michelle Pfeiffer this movie has it all, action, comedy, romance, and one of the best magical curses ever devised and yet it doesn’t get a tenth of the fan love and devotion as The Princess Bride. Both movies deserve to be in the Fan Cannon.

 

The year 2020 sucks. Not a new or shocking revelation but one I think constantly. I never expected that the year I debuted as a published novelist would be so terrible.

 

It’s hard getting people to leave reviews on Amazon. Please if you’ve read Vulcan’s Forge leave a review even if it is one star and you hated the book. Though of course I pleased that so far people seem to really like it and got what I was shooting for. Reviews raise visibility on the shopping sites and all of this year’s debut authors need the help.

 

Though it doesn’t look like I will return in in-person role play gaming before next year I have been hard at work on my Space Opera Campaign. I’ve been spending weekends working on Excel spreadsheet to do the tedious calculations that slow down the flow of play and last night I had an epiphany for solving a calculation that has been bugging me.

 

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Intertextuality and Vulcan’s Forge

Last night I watched a video essay on YouTube that argued the central flaw of most of Disney’s newer slates of film came down to a misuse of intertextuality. Intertextuality is when the text of one work impacted by the text of a previous work. It can be used as a powerful tool to explore themes and idea raised by the original work either in that work’s own text or as interpreted by the new text. An ideal example would be Tom Stoddard’s play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead which follows as its central character Rosencrantz & Guildenstern two minor characters from Hamlet and uses that conceit to explore concept of narrative and fiction.

The essay argued that lazy utilization of intertextuality in the Disney live action remakes and the extended Star Wars trilogy resulted in a cheap ‘fan service’ rather than using the references to earlier works to comment either those previous pieces or to deepen the content of the new ones. The exception for Disney being the Marvel Cinematic Universe which stretching across more than 20 films and ten years is a grand experiment in intertextuality and uses those connections to paint deeper, richer, and more engaging emotional lives for its characters.

This leads me to think about my own debut novel Vulcan’s Forge. I shall avoid spoilers for the plot of that story but I will touch on how it itself is a work of intertextuality.

The protagonist of Vulcan’s Forge is Jason Kessler and on the colony of Nocturnia his job is to use mass media, principally film, to create, sustain, and reinforce the colony’s culture derived from mid-twentieth century Americana. To promote an idealized version of that culture, which honestly is more mythology than history, some films are elevated in their importance while others are banned as ‘corrupting.’ Jason, an ill fit for this suffocating version of American culture, is dismissive of some films and longs for the forbidden fruit.

Ideally, and only someone who has read the novel and also is unaware of the films it references can answer if I succeeded, the story can be read and enjoyed without understanding the film references but on an intertextual level the movies that Jason derides and the ones he adores informs the readers of the nature of Jason’s character.

Hopefully my use of intertextuality expands and deepens Vulcan’s Forge but even if I missed the mark making all of those film references was damn fun.

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Perilous Pedestals

Placing people particularly artists upon pedestals is an action inviting disappointment and hurt. People are flawed and when some are exalted it nearly always turns out in addition to their better natures, they possess darker ones as well. Artistic people are no more immune to this condition than political ones, contemporary or historical.

Roman Polanski is a brilliant filmmaker and apparently a rapist preying upon little girls.

HP Lovecraft blazed a trail into cosmic horror that people still follow today and was a virulent racist and xenophobe.

Joss Whedon championed strong, complex female characters and was a philander and an apparent control freak.

Orson Scott Card created a series that plead for understanding of the other and called for the suppression of the rights of gay people by ‘any means necessary.’

The list, sadly, is nearly endless of artists and creators that wielded considerable talent, adored by many, and then revealed corroded souls. Which brings us to the current participant in this sad parade, J.K Rowling author and creator is the massive franchise Harry Potter and The Quest for More Power.

Rowling’s recent comments, tweets, and postings on her stance attacking the rights people of the transgendered community have provoked pain, suffering, and emotional trauma among not only the target of her tirade but among her devoted supporters many of which have grown to adulthood with her fictional creation Harry Potter.

I believe that the hurt from Rowling’s abhorrent stance is amplified by a couple of factors. One, the sheer scope and penetration of her creation into the popular culture. There is scarcely a corner of our nation or world that has not been touched by Harry Potter and the wizarding world. The sheer number of fans is simply staggering gifted her with tremendous reach and power to influence.

Secondly, people crafted a tremendous mythology around Rowling and her life. The single mom who became a billionaire and then gave away so much money to charity she lost that status. The repeated assertion that the core theme of the work as a plea for understanding and a denunciation of hate. (A theme that, in my opinion, the work does not fully succeed at, but this is not a place for my issues where Harry Potter artistically fell short.)

It is that second factor that I think powers the real hurt felt by the fans. The idolization of Rowling, her morality, and the power of her myth not only lifted the artist onto a pedestal but bathed her fans in a reflected glow of morality. That they shared in her goodness by being such devoted fans so when it turns out that she has darker less admirable beliefs that too feels as though it is reflected on her fan base.

Both glows were illusionary.

Your morality is your own.

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Understanding Your Material

It’s interesting and instructive to compare two bits of film, though one is television, and their approach towards the military and their depictions of military men.

In Them! military characters confront giant ants created by mutation induced from the first atomic explosions. It is simply amazing to see the nuanced actions that are correctly capture in their bearing, their methods, and in their characters. One excellent example is when attacking a nest in the open desert and they are using bazookas as part of their assault. When you load that WWII weapon there is actually a wire lead that goes from the round to a terminal on the firing tube. I know this because I’ve watched training films from the war on how to properly load and fire the weapons. The characters in the movie correctly follow the weapon system’s procedure.

Nearly 50 years later in the iconic television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer the titular character Buffy is working with an elite special forces unit hunting down demons and monster in her hometown. When these best of the best warriors are briefed by a scientist on their next target thy have no questions for her and are silently dedicated to the mission and following orders. Buffy is the outsider and non-conformist with a string of questions and concerns.

This scene entirely misses the boat about what it means to be an elite warrior in U.S. service. These men are smart and those smarts are part of why they are elites. It is simplistic and reductive to think of special forces personnel as silent followers of orders.

The difference between the two productions likely comes down to the fact that in the 1950s nearly everyone knew someone who served and that close association informed the writing and production choices. For Hollywood of the late 90s and early 2000s people will actual services records in the production pipeline are likely to be rare to non-existent. Production companies get their writers and producers and directors from college and industry training with very few coming to film production later in life with the sort of life experiences that could help avoid these sorts of mistakes. It is also unlikely that anyone in the production system knows or knew anyone that served is such a capacity. All of us lead lives that are far too insular. Having veterans among the staff and having veterans review the material to help assure accuracy would be baby steps to getting such characters correct.

And the same is true for characters beyond those with military service. It is true for characters of religion, nationality, or ethnicity.

 

Representation matters.

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Quick Hits

I’ve started outlining a new novel proposal. I have already stepped through the five acts and bullet pointed all the major beats, Now it is time to produce a prose document synopsizing the story and show that to my editor. It’s another dark cynical SF story.

Also, I am working my way, finally, through Netflix’s Marvel Limited series The Defenders but so far, and I have watched six out of eight episodes, I am far from impressed. The writing on this one fails to lock into the voice for the various characters and they instead feel like that they have the shape of the personalities but lack the depth. There has been a tendency, possibly created by time pressures, to go for the most obvious plot turn or bit of dialog. Several times I have mentally delivered the upcoming dialog before the character on screen actually utters it.

San Diego has recieve3d the go ahead from the State Government to move forward into loosening social distancing restrictions and Saturday I will be at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore to sign stock of my novel Vulcan’s Forge.

 

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Things Named Vulcan’s Forge

I titled my novel Vulcan’s Forge as a reference to the Roman god of fire and smithy because the McGuffin at the center of the sf/noir was capable of producing effects well beyond the character’s normal access. Of Course, I was aware that Star Trek had popularized Vulcan as an association with its particular alien species. In fact, I had expected that there might have been a push from the publishing house to re-title the novel and that would have been fine with me, I am generally not precious about my titles.

The book sailed through the editing and publication process without any ever suggesting or hinting that an alternative title should be explored and now I am discovering all the other things that are called Vulcan’s Forge.

Vulcan’s Forge 1998 a techno-thriller, that’s when you don’t want to be marketed as present day science-fiction a category invented by The Hunt of Red October, by Jack Du Brul.

Vulcan’s Forge a 1997 Star trek­ tie-in novel set a year after the events in the movie Star Trek: Generations.

Vulcan’s Forge a custom Jewelers located in Kansas City Missouri.

Vulcan’s Forge a thoroughbred racehorse from the 1940s.

 

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No Two Books Get Written the Same Way

Mind you that title isn’t referring to no two authors write their books the same way I am talking about that as an author myself each book follows its own unique process from concept to manuscript.

My editor recently told me that he’d like to see material that is closer in tone to Vulcan’s Forge than the military SF adventure I recently showed to him. I’m good with that, after all I did write Vulcan’s Forge and I understand the wisdom of keep a stylistic and tone consistency to help build a readership. So, I responded with a few ideas that had been bouncing around my head and he came back indicating which one at this point interested him the most.

Now, I’m drafting the outline for this book using my typical five act structure as a framework. Her, it is was good enough for old Bill Shakespeare it’s good enough for me.

As is typical for me the very act of outlining, in even the basic form, expands and deepens my concepts turning vague ideas into concrete story and plot elements.

But, it’s not the same process I used on other books. Sometimes I just write out a long prose document telling the basic story from front to back, leaving spots that I know are too thin that I will have to work out later. Sometimes I craft careful character studies and maps first and then start the outlining, and this time it’s numbered bulleted points for act of the five acts with a separate character files that grows as I explore the story and structure.

The point is when you attend a con or a writing workshop and someone tells you from on high that this is the ‘one way’ to write a story know that what they are passing is bunk. There isn’t one way for different writers and not even for the same writer. Experiment, investigate, and discover the way that works for you for the project at hand.

 

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Revisiting Previous Works

For various reason I pulled out of duty digital storage a novel that I had written ten years ago back in the distant annals of 2010.

This novel was the first attempt to set a story in the fictional universe where Vulcan’s Forge takes place. In fact, without that previous setting creation I doubt that there would ever have been a Vulcan’s Forge as the setting gave me the answer as to what the McGuffin and core plot elements I had been searching for.

However, that manuscript when presented to the first batch of beta readers fell flat and I determined that the flaws were so deeply seated it would require a complete re-write from the ground up and place it aside.

Thinking it might be worth revisiting that story I loaded the manuscript up on my iPad and began my re-read.

The flaws from 2010 are still there and the book would have to be written over again from page 1 to be salvageable. Moreover, I can see where I rushed through sentences and scenes hastily putting things down without taking the time to let them breathe and create the tone that would have been required to sustain the tale. Still, the core conflict, characters, and plot elements all work. This is a book I can make work and now with a decade’s more experience I can see how to do that.

I am also in the middle of craft a new outline for a new story. The couple of sentence description interested my editor and so I have at least two worthy projects to chase.

 

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A Prolog and Chapter One Are Not Interchangeable

I’ve started reading a new novel, no I am not going to name the book because as this is not a review site I only name titles when I love the work, and I am concerned about how the whole thing has started.

This novel opened with Chapter One and spent about 12,000 words on a set of characters that I realize we are unlikely to ever see again. The event of those pages clearly was important to the plot that unfolds in the rest of the story and set up many crucial details that I can see the author intends to use through the adventure. However, since none of our principal characters are around in these scenes this feel terribly like a prolog to me and not the opening chapter of a story.

I may have spent 12,000 words getting to know characters, understanding their emotional lives, and concerned about the troubles they face, but now all that emotional investment feels wasted.

This is related to the troubles with stories that end with ‘it was all a dream’ an its variations or sequels that undo all the emotional stakes from previous installments. (I’m looking at your Alien 3.)

Ideally when people engage with your fiction, by reading, listening, or viewing, they should become emotionally invested in the characters and the outcomes of their struggles. The resolution of the story and the plot and the return on that investment with catharsis or pathos being the final reward. When it ends as a dream then it’s like that check bounced and we’re left with nothing for the emotional currency we’ve spent. The check has bounced. In the case of Alien 3 after we’ve come to really care about Newt and Hicks in Aliens and desperately wanting for Ripley to save them both the sequel comes along and repossesses out victory making us into suckers for caring.

This novel has pulled me into these characters lives and now has waved a hand and said, ‘Don’t think about them anymore. Here’s new people to get emotional about.’ But I’m now burned and I am more likely to keep my emotional distance wary of the author is going to again steal characters away. Had this been labeled a prolog I would have been emotionally ready to learn things but not become attached. The poor doomed rangers at the start of A Song of Fire and Iceare not our main characters and telling us that it is a prolog allowed us as the readers to learn the vital information their story needed to tell us without playing us for suckers.

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The First Negative Review Has Arrived

Wednesday evening just before I slipped off to bed, I got a Google alert of a new review of Vulcan’s Forge. Yes, I have an alert set up over at Google to keep me informed of when people post things about my debut novel. The review came from a person in the United Kingdom which makes sense as the publisher is a UK entity.

It was my first unqualified negative review.

I say ‘negative’ and not ‘bad’ because I do not want there to be the slightest suggestion that I imply that the review itself is poor. As I have said often in my writers group meetings no honest critique or review can be wrong. It is how that person reacted to that piece on that day. It is the underlying assumption upon which is build the critique phrase ‘Your mileage may vary.’ What is wonderful for one person is terrible to another.

How did I react to my first truly ‘I did not like this book’ review?

Shrug.

It is part of the gig. Now, I am not suggesting that anyone else is wrong is they feeling more strongly when that get a negative review. Authors are people and people differ wildly but for me I can accept that someone really did not like by work and not feel any real emotional distress. If fact I read the review and then went off to bed and slept quite well.

If it didn’t matter to me then why did I read the review? why seek them out?

Well, taking criticism is a skill and it requires practice. It’s good to get hit and learnt that you do survive it.

I’m also curious. It is fascinating to see the wildly different interpretations people have about the work. This applies to positive reviews as well as negative ones. Everyone bring their own lenses to their reading and so the exact same text will never be interpreted the same way by any two people. I love seeing the various internal codebooks through which this is deciphered. (Of course, I bring my own to the reading of these reviews and not matter how diligently I try I can never fully escape them, but still I do try.)

Perhaps for other it is very good advice to never read reviews but for me it is a fascinating glimpse into the inner working of another person’s mind.

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