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Comicality

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  1. Comicality

    Feedback

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    There's an old proverb out there, and I'll have to paraphrase as I don't remember it word for word...but it says 'the Sun doesn't enjoy its own brightness. The river doesn't drink its own water. The tree doesn't eat its own fruit. And living without giving...isn't really living.' As a writer, I really do believe in that. Being able to create something out of nothing and then share it with people who really enjoy and relate to it brings me a lot of joy. That's my way of giving to my readers. And the more they love what I do, the more inspired I am to give them even more. But...there is one part of the process that I have to admit that I truly FAIL at when it comes to giving something back. And that's why I thought it was important to approach the topic this time around.
    So, let's talk about feedback.
    When it comes to writing, it takes a lot of thought, time, and energy to pull off a completed story. Or even a single chapter, for those of us who write in a 'serial' fashion. It can be emotionally draining at times. But every now and then, the payoff for all of your hard work is more than worth it. Sometimes I get an email from a new reader finding my work for the first time, a dedicated reader who's been with me for years, or some young teen who's still struggling to find their place in the world...and their love and support really touches me. I feel a wave of satisfaction just knowing that my words were able to reach out into the ether somewhere so other people can have access to it...and they took the time to reach back to say thank you. There's no greater reward than that, in my opinion. No amount of money could ever compete with that feeling of connecting with someone else's humanity, simply by expressing my own.
    However, I do write an awful lot...and I don't read nearly as much as I used to. I simply don't have enough hours in the day to catch up anymore. And one thing that I definitely want to get better at is giving praise to my fellow authors when they totally deserve it. I have read some really amazing stories on nifty and here on GayAuthors and on Jeffsfort...but I haven't really taken the time to send a personal email with my comments about the kind of genius that these authors are putting out on a regular basis. I mean, when it comes to well written stories, plots, and characters...I'm a fan too! I don't get to talk to people individually often, so I seem a bit isolated at times. And I don't want to play 'favorites' where I'm commenting on this person's story, and not that person's story. But I really hope to correct that in the near future and give more feedback when I'm enjoying someone else's hard work. I definitely do what I can to promote as many talented authors as I can and give them the attention they deserve, but I think I could take a more personal approach and send more comments and reviews when given the opportunity. I think it's important.
    You see...we, as readers, are the cheering section. We are the fuel that a writer uses to keep going and maintain interest in the stories we love and get all wrapped up in. Without our input, some of the best stories that we've ever read could end up fizzling out right before our eyes. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've had people talk to me in email, or post on the Comicality Library, trying to get them to tell their story and share their experiences and really GO for it...but gave up on their projects due to a lack of response from readers. And, believe it or not, I've even had readers come back to contact me months or even years later, asking about 'that one story' and what happened to the author. Well...you ignored him/her the whole time they were writing, so what do you think happened? You're the fuel. You didn't take a few seconds to let them know what you felt about their story...so they quit. And now...we all lose out. Hehehe! What did they expect?
    Again, I'm definitely guilty of doing this myself. And I need to get better at giving my thoughts when I read something that I think is awesome. Or even to give some constructive criticism when I think the story has major potential, and can be even better if the author tweaks a few details here and there. It really helps an author out to know that they have an audience that's paying attention and appreciating the effort that they put in. I speak from experience when I say...sometimes it just plain sucks to look at one of my chapters on GA, and in the first 48 hours...it has 300 views...and 2 comments. I mean, I appreciate the 2 comments, for sure...but that means that 298 people RUSHED over to read the story the second they got the notice (They were THAT hyped for it!), but when they finished? No comments. No hitting the 'like' button. No email. Nothing. Just 'gimmee gimmee gimme' and 'gobble gobble gobble' and then they roll over and go to sleep. Gee, thanks. Glad that at least ONE of us got something out of this! Hehehe!
    Imagine performing on stage in front of crowd of 300 people, dancing or acting or playing music, whatever...and when you were done...TWO people clapped for you. Two...out of 300. Yeah, sometimes that's what it feels like. And authors need that from time to time. Nothing much. Nobody is asking you to share your life story or write complicated stanzas of poetry. No one is asking you to get down on your knees and bow and scrape at the feet of a writer, or spit shine their shoes from a place of total submission. Just be, like...'Hey, I really liked this story. Thanks.' Or, 'Wow. That was cool.' That's it. Thirty seconds worth of typing at the end of a chapter can really do WONDERS for the writers that you truly love. Don't just think it in your head. Let them know. Say it out loud. Leave a comment. Hit a 'like' button. It's an important part of the symbiotic relationship between writers and readers. Don't be greedy and make this a one way street. We should all feel compelled to do our part, you know?
    I want to give an example that may help to demonstrate the feeling that an author gets when people are actually participating in the process of sharing their work and expressing themselves in the hopes to be understood and appreciated...
    Over the past year, since the pandemic and all, going out to movie theaters hasn't really been much of an option for a majority of us. And that sucks, because I still love going out to the movies. I love the 'energy' that's provided by being in a crowded room with people who came out to have a good time. I love laughing with them, cheering with them, gasping with them, jumping during horror flicks with them...it's so different than just watching a movie at home on a streaming service. Or, even worse, watching it by myself on my laptop screen. I think this is the best way to describe the difference between a writer having an audience and a constantly participating source of feedback, over a writer who keeps putting out material without much outside support.
    This is the final battle scene from the "Avengers: Endgame" movie (Spoiler warning, if you haven't seen it yet), and it is one of THE most badass, most amazing, most hardcore cinematic superhero throw down scenes in movie history! Watching this in the theater for the first time, I couldn't even mentally process what the hell I had just seen! Jaw dropping! Jesus! Go ahead and click the video below, even if you've seen it before, and just imagine what it must have been like, and how much hard work went in to filming, choregraphing, and creating, this whole scene! Editing it, adding the soundtrack, incorporating all of the characters, and just making it such a mind-blowing experience for everybody watching!!!
    When anyone pours that much heart and passion into their craft...they want us to notice. I mean, wouldn't you? It's not an ego thing. Creative minds just don't want their efforts to feel so...thankless. You know? And if you're getting a million dollar paycheck to write stories online, well...then at least you have a decent incentive to keep writing more. But if it's just a hobby or something that a writer does to clear the cobwebs out of their head on occasion and share it with the rest of us? The ONLY thanks they get comes from us actually saying the words 'thank you'. That's it. Nothing else. We're the only thing keeping those fires burning. And if we don't openly support what we love...it withers on the vine. Imagine how many awesome stories we've all missed out on because we didn't say something to the author when we had the chance to. I've read some really amazing stories that got abandoned because nobody stepped up to support them. And, like I said, that's a loss for all of us.
    Reading these stories is like tending a garden. If you feed it, fertilize it, cultivate it...it'll grow. If you neglect it and never pay it any attention...well, what did you expect the result to be? Support the things that you love! Why not? Too tired? Too busy? Too shy? What is it? What's the excuse? Do you have any idea how many gay story websites were out there when I first started writing? I couldn't even keep track of the number. And I'm one of very few sites that has outlasted them all over the years. And NONE of that could have been possible if it wasn't for the comments and friendships that I've made since then. I would have burned out a decade ago if it weren't for the support of my readers, and I try to give thanks to them every chance I get. And I think ALL writers need that kind of encouragement when the have the courage to bare their feelings to an invisible audience and are looking for some kind of validation for their efforts.
    Now, I want to show you the SAME "Avengers: Endgame" clip from above...but this was filmed in a theater on opening night. This is with the audience's participation, experiencing this epic moment for the very first time. This is what it feels like when a writer puts their heart and soul into their work, and actually gets to see and hear what the reaction is to their efforts...
    Hehehe, are you smiling? I mean, do you see the difference in the intensity of the energy provided by having an audience that is really enjoying themselves? Compare that to what you felt in the first video. That's all our favorite authors want from us. Nobody puts in all of that hard work without expecting at least a little bit of appreciation. And we are all working on our own projects, and that's totally understandable...but every once in a while...give someone a wink and a nod and a little applause for their efforts. Seriously. Imagine if only two or three people in that entire audience was openly having fun while everybody else was stubbornly remaining silent. Not as cool, is it?
    Bottom line, as readers, we are the messengers of appreciation to every writer who ever sat at their keyboard and created these fantasies for us to enjoy. And as fellow writers, we can consider ourselves colleagues, which has an even more meaningful impact. They deserve our attention. Where are the 'likes'? Where's the support? Where are the donations? Where are the comments? Where are the recommendations? We have time to read the stories, but suddenly don't have time to say thanks when we're finished? It's something that I definitely want to change about myself, and I hope I can bring some others into the trenches with me. Give a few ratings. Send a few emails. Spread the word to your friends. Because, when we stay silent, we end up discouraging the very people that we claim to love so much for their work from ever creating any more content for us ever again. And it's too late to complain when those talented writers have given up and moved on to other things.
    Our feedback gives writers the passion to keep going. It allows them to finish their projects, it gives them the confidence to stretch out and challenge themselves, and it is the best way to maintain our garden. So don't be stingy with your support. Give them some love. It doesn't have to be every day, or every month even...just...once in a while, send them a message to say, "Hey, thanks for the stories! I really enjoy them!" That's it. Don't let more talent go unnoticed and fade away because you couldn't find thirty seconds to say something positive about something they wrote. K?
    That's it for this round! Hope it gave you guys some food for thought! It certainly did for me, and I want to improve on giving comments more often myself. So, please don't think that I'm preaching! Hehehe! I'm probably more guilty than you are when it comes to giving feedback. But I'm working on it! Promise!
    Seezya soon!
  2. Comicality

    Context

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    And then the pig drop kicked the goat into a meat grinder, and finally...he could rest easy, knowing that justice was served!
    Hahaha, WHAT???
    Does that make much sense? Does it have any impact at all? I'm willing to bet that you guys are quite confused. Hehehe! As you should be.
    (Unless you're not...in which case, you should seek psychiatric help immediately...)
    Who? What? When? Where? Why? These are all questions that every writer should be prepared to answer in their projects at any given moment. It should actually be included in the story itself, and not just when they get a message from a confused reader who is trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
    The major events in any story plot, no matter big, or how well written, don't really carry any weight to them if they're not given the proper context beforehand. They're just random events. It's the equivalent of seeing the aftermath of a car accident at an intersection on a random Tuesday afternoon. I mean...sure, you notice. But there's no meaning behind it. Not for you, anyway. I think that there are a lot of really great moments in well written stories that suffer from a lack of context. Scenes or events that could be SO much more emotionally satisfying if the story's context had been a bit more fleshed out ahead of time. It makes a difference, you know? It may seem like such a small thing, but it isn't. It matters. Trust me.
    There can sometimes be a certain eagerness when writing your own story. You have a ton of really great ideas and action packed, or super romantic, or truly heartbreaking, moments that you can't wait to write down and edit and create dialogue for. And there are going to be times when you really just want to skip ahead and write those complex and super interesting scenes out so you can sit back and take a look at them, and then share them with your readers. But one thing that is important to remember is that you have a much fuller and more complete view of the story as a whole...putting you a great advantage over the rest of your readers. They may not be able to see what you see unless you actually include it in the story you're trying to tell. Just a page, few paragraphs, or an interesting exchange during what seems like a random conversation, can make a big difference in how your audience sees the rest of the story unfold.
    So...how can you see the difference when it comes to a scene with context and a scene without much context at all? Let's find out.
    I want to show you a clip from the 2009 remake/reboot of the movie, "Fame". It's all about college kids who go to a school for the fine arts and are trying to make it to the big time. Now, watch this clip...with no context behind what's going on at all, and think about what you're looking at. It's just a single musical performance, so enjoy!
     
    A cool scene, right? Now, watching that by itself, you can get some enjoyment out of it, maybe wiggle your booty a bit to the music. Hehehe! But what is the context behind this performance? And would it make a difference in the way that you watch this particular scene?
    In this movie, the rapper who started off the performance lived in a dangerous neighborhood and his little sister had been killed b a stray bullet. Ever since, he's been holding in all of that frustration and anger, and it was constantly keeping him from really rising to his full potential. And Denise? The singer was sooooo passionate about her singing, and her classmates convinced her to perform on stage with them because they thought her voice was so incredible. But her father absolutely HATED the fact that she would want her to waste her life being an entertainer when he wanted more for her. Even with her mother supporting her, he just wasn't having it. Any of it. However...they showed up in the audience that night at random where she was performing in secret, and the singer was so scared of disappointing and angering her parents that she almost walked out and refused to go on...even after all the hard work that she had put in beforehand. Both artists came together for that performance anyway, bringing one another out of their shells, and finally just let it all go. They totally went for it! And they got to show the public what they were really made of for the first time...unleashed.
    NOW...with that context in mind...scroll back up and watch that same video again, and see if it contains a whole other level of power for you. A whole other emotion. The nervousness. The emotional release. To see the two of them come together and just blossom on stage in front of your eyes, put their fears and bad times behind them, and totally KILL it no matter who was watching, takes on a different meaning than just watching that one video by itself!
    That's what context can do for the major moments in your writing.
    I think that context in stories is everything. You can't just have these big dramatic situations happening without some kind of build up and prior information being given to your readers. Otherwise, they don't really make much sense. When I go back and read some of my older stories from the first few years of me writing these stories online, I feel like I rushed through a lot of the context and just jumped into the drama, or the sex, or the heartbreak, without really giving much information or backstory as to why any of this stuff was happening or why it mattered as much as I hoped it would. I did learn to slow down and add those necessary details over time, but maybe some of you reading this and are starting to write stories for the first time can skip that particular 'trial and error' (mostly error) part of the process. And then you can speed along towards creating great stories a lot faster.
    Context is simply the act of giving your most potent moments in your story more depth and meaning. They're not just details...they are the foundations for a good plot, and a decent motivation for your main character. Whenever you think of a really cool or romantic scene for your story, you should be asking yourself the same questions that I asked above, and have a definitive answer for every last one of them already set up. Who? What? When? Where? Why? What's going on in this scene? Why is it happening? What led to this moment? What happens afterward? If you're planning your story out ahead of time, all of these things should already be in order. Right?
    Plan! Plan! Plan! Always plan! Even if you change those plans later on, it helps.
    It really does add another layer to your storytelling ability to be able to explain the context and nuance of your character's actions. Like, an abused child will have reasons for waiting so long to say how he truly feels to someone he really likes. A poor or working class kid may have reasons to feel that some rich boy at school is way out of his league. These are all circumstances that you can explore as a writer to set up the big events in your story, and have that dramatic moment hit with the kind of power that you're looking for. Like, "Here I was, thinking that I was so ugly...and yet, the hottest boy in school that I've ever seen is kissing me on the lips right now! OMIGOD!" If you build up the insecurities of your main character ahead of time, and then describe how outrageously gorgeous the boy that he's crushing on is ahead of time...when that magical first kiss happens, it will be something special for your readers to look back on and appreciate. Instead of just having him walk up and kiss him for no reason. I mean, that'd be hot, hehehe...but how much meaning would it have? What does this kiss mean without context? It's just...kissing. Nothing wrong with that, but what kind of moment are you trying to create? If it's anything deeper than that, context is a must.
    This is another clip that I wanted to show you guys. This is from the movie "Purple Rain" with Prince. Love this song! Give it a look!
     
    Now, once again...great song! Great performance! It's easy to understand what's going on here on a surface level. But...lets add some context...
    In the movie...Prince had just lost his girl to his rival, who's also a performer at the same club and was much more popular than he was. He was told that nobody understands his music other than himself. His band was mad at him because he never performed any of their songs, just his own. And he was going to be fired from his professional gig at the club. This was his probably going to be his LAST night ever performing on that stage. His mother had been abused and beaten, and his father had just attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head. So this is Prince's ONE shot at giving the performance of his life and venting his heart and soul out and playing the HELL out of that guitar before possibly losing it all for good.
    THAT'S the context behind this scene. Now...re-watch it again...and see how it makes you feel, knowing what you know about the movie and everything that he's been through up to that point. Go ahead, I'll wait. Hehehe!
    Basically, the point that I'm trying to make is that 'everyone likes like the frosting...but you have to bake the cake first'. When writing, don't be afraid to slow down and let things naturally escalate towards the next peak, so people can really get into it and enjoy it even more. That doesn't mean that you have to force yourself to add so much detail that your pacing begins to drag and it slows your whole project down to a snail's pace. That's definitely something you want to avoid. But allow it to be natural when you're writing. What's going on here? How did we get here? Sometimes, skipping around can suck all of the 'magic' out of your work. Create interesting context, and let that guide you towards those special scenes so you can enhance their emotional resonance with your audience. If you want to have a fist fight break out between two enemies...well, why are they enemies? What began the conflict? Who's the bad guy in this situation? Will there be any regrets to follow this spontaneous action? And what was it that finally crossed the line? In your context, you can play with the tension and frustration to the point where your main character balls up their fist and makes your readers cheer when it connects for the first time. Add bits and pieces of that along the way in your story, build it up, brick by brick...and when it happens, your readers will know why. And they'll love you for it.
    Anyway, I hope this helps. Just remember to think back to your favorite books, movies, stories online, etc...and think about all of the places where the context lies before each major event. Sprinkled out through different chapters or parts of the story. Hints. Building blocks. And keep those ideas in the back of your mind so you'll know what to look for as well in your own work. K?
    Have fun! And I'll seezya soon!
     
  3. Comicality

    Character Motivation

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    I always go through a certain three-part process when it comes to putting a story together in my head. The first part is creating the idea and the theme. What kind of tone will it have? Some stories can be playful and happy, others can be sad and deal with heavy subjects, others can be full of anger and/or regret. But whatever the story is about, I try to flesh that out first. It usually doesn't take very long as it's usually just a vague outline of what the story is about and a few of the events that I want to happen in the long run. The second part is to flesh out the characters for my story. What roles they play and bits and pieces of their personality are sketched out a little bit in my head during part one, but this is when I begin creating who my characters really are, what they look like, what they sound like in my head, etc. Family relations, quirks, hobbies, sense of humor...whatever I need to do to make them feel real enough to assign them the roll of carrying this new story forward. And then comes part three...and this one is important...
    ...Character motivations.
    Put, very simply..what are they there to 'do', and why?
    One of the quickest ways to bore your readers into putting your story down is to have a cast of characters with nothing to do. Just milling around an empty parking lot like blind cows in an empty pasture. You have a story to tell. You're trying to get from Point A to Point B, correct? Well how are you planning to do that? And why are your characters so determined to help you make this happen?
    Today, we talk about the importance of character motivations. How to display them, how to define them, and how to get them to the finish line without going too far astray.
    To begin...take a moment and ponder what your story is actually about? That's the easiest way to get started. Are you writing a love story? A horror story? An action piece? What is it that your characters are looking for. Not just your main characters, but all of them. As I've said in a few articles before...if one of your characters doesn't belong or doesn't have much to do...get them out of there. They will only end up being a distraction from your main plot. And for readers who are actually invested in the main goal of your story, stepping away from it will end up causing more frustration than anything else.
    For me...my characters' motivations are mostly surrounding one thing, and one thing only...and that is a feeling of 'lack'. It doesn't matter what I'm writing, what genre, or how long (or short), that story may be. As long as they are lacking something that will make them complete...they will have an instant motivation to go after that. Maybe they lack the bravery to stand up to the high school bully. Maybe they lack the money to help out with the rent this month. Maybe they lack love, or adventure, or closure from a previous relationship, or they lack an escape route from the Island Of Dead Monkeys...whatever. Finding whats missing will motivate them to think about how they can knock down a path towards getting what they want. And once they figure that out...their motivations will guide them from event to event, from obstacle to obstacle, in an attempt to finally seize that goal. (Or not. Every story doesn't have to have a happy ending. But more on that another time...)
    Always remember that the personalities that inhabit the world you built for your story should always have a purpose. They should constantly be 'chasing' something. They're trying to find a missing person, or they're looking for a way to get that audition for the lead in theater performance this coming weekend, or they're trying to maintain some kind of big secret...whatever it is that you're writing about, find a motivation that will give your characters focus. That motivation may change or alter itself along the journey it takes your main character to get to where they want to go...but make sure that those changes are still connected to the number one goal, and that you'll have a way to get back on track if you feel yourself swerving all over the road. Concentrate on the character's pursuit, and make it clear and clean and important to the overall theme of the story.
    Down below is a very simple animated cartoon. Not a word is spoken, but ask yourself whether or not the motivations of the two main characters are clear. Even though some of them vary a little during its runtime, it keeps heading in the same direction.
     
    The motivation here is fairly straightforward. A kitten and a dog form a friendship and escape to find a better position than the one they're currently a part of. The short film takes a moment to introduce the first main character, then the second...and all of this is done within the first two minutes. It gives you your 'actors', and it sets the tone. Then, shortly after those two things are set up, it's time to reveal their motivation.
    Now, while I may have said that those motivations may change and vary throughout the animation...they are still heading towards a similar goal. Especially with the young kitten being so afraid of its threatening new neighbor on the other side of the fence. The kitten's not really big enough to frighten anybody off (despite many attempts to try), and there aren't any other major options available except to run and hide. However, when the kitten sees the dog suffering, a very slight connection is made. And that slightly alters the kitten's motivation. Now, it's still going to the exact same place and heading in the right direction, but the kitten's current motivation switches over to wanting to help the dog feel better, and the only way to do that is to maybe overcome some of his fear. Once that goal is accomplished, the motivation changes again, and the abusive owner comes back out to see an empty yard as the motivation becomes the need for a hasty escape. Now, remember...these are all in tune with the theme of the animation and the main goal of your characters. 'Make a new friend, escape, better your position'...that's where all of your roads are leaning, even though they may seem like a random series of adventures, they're not. The characters are simply growing, and deciding to work together to get to Point B, just like you imagined they would in the first place.
    Now, the changing motivations in this next scene work a little bit different in this next scene. While the two main characters had a simple shared goal that they could work together to reach in the first clip...the second clip is a lot more chaotic. Firstly, because you're dealing with more than just two main characters. But second...all of the characters have their own personal motivations, and they are coming into direct conflict with one another. For some writers, this can be a bit more difficult to pull off. And for others...hehehe, it can be a LOT more fun.
    In this scene, the main character of the movie is actually a nine year old boy named, Cologero, who's living with his parents in a small apartment...and downstairs at this restaurant and bar is a notoriously dangerous mobster type that seems rich and fearless and practically runs the entire neighborhood.
    Take a look at this scene, and see how the different character motivations play out for the boy, his father, his mom, and the mobster...
     
    Now, one of the things that I absolutely love about this scene is that every single character that's involved is trying to benefit by doing, what they really believe, is the right thing. You've got a kid who's torn between two of his heroes and likes being able to be showered with attention and money. You've got a father who loves his son, but it's his job to protect him and keep him as far away from that criminal life as he possibly can. You've got a mother who wants the same thing, but the family is struggling and that money would really help them out in their time of need, even if it came from a bad place. And then you've got Sonny downstairs, who actually treats the boy really well, teaches him some important lessons about life, and tries to inspire him to be better throughout the film, and he likes having him around. So he showers him with cash and gifts and praise every chance he gets. However...obviously...all of these motivations can't co-exist in the same space. They criss-cross and they crash into one another, making for a very volatile situation. This can be highly entertaining for your readers as they begin to see the value in both sides of the argument, and maybe even begin to pick sides.
    That's something that I learned a lot about from reading comic books growing up. Stories like "Civil War", or the heated discussions between Professor X and Magneto from the "X-Men" comics, or the battles between Daredevil and the Punisher...I always found myself just kind of watching their conflict like a tennis match, and maybe thinking, "I think I agree with this side of the argument a bit more than that one...but they're not wrong." Being able to pull off conflicting motivations that aren't your typical 'good guy/bad guy' fodder for the brain can be a little challenging sometimes, but you can do it with some practice. The more you practice, the more it becomes a natural part of your writing instinct. Just keep it in mind that the conflict of your main character should still be heading towards his or her main goal in the story...even when all other motivations are working against them.
    So, if you want to create a certain level of momentum in your writing, stay focused on the motivations of your main characters. Everything that your characters say or do should have a definitive reason for doing so. And that reason should tie into some part of who they are as a character. What are they after? What are they lacking? Why would they do that? Maybe they're afraid to get close to anybody because they've been hurt so many times before. Maybe they need to find a way out to the Grand Canyon...and later you find out that the main character's mother had passed away recently and was cremated...and all she ever wanted in life was to see the Grand Canyon. Maybe someone is looking for a special, magical, sword because it's the only thing that he can use to exact justice on the evil warlord that killed his brother. Whether you reveal the motivation in the beginning of your story, somewhere in the middle, or not until the very end as some kind of big secret or plot twist...make sure that you, as the writer, always have your eyes on the prize and can follow that star to your final destination. Varying motivations and all.
    Anyway, I hope that this makes some kind of sense. Hehehe! Sometimes it's hard to put these concepts into words, but I'll keep doing my best. You've got my word on that!
    Take care! And I'll seezya next time!
     
  4. Comicality

    Painting Yourself Into a Corner

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    You know, when I started the Comicality Library on Voy (http://www.voy.com/17262/), I found out that even when I tried to alter the length of the posts that were acceptable...my chapters were still a little bit too long to fit within the confines of the space that I was given. And I didn't want to put 85% of a chapter in one post, and a measly 15% in the second post, just to split them up to make them fit. That would have looked weird. And, to me, looking weird is bad presentation.
    As Stan Lee used to say...you have to write comic books as if it's everybody's first comic book. And when I write stories, even if I'm fifty chapters in or more...I try to approach it as if this is their very first introduction to 'Comicality'. If I screw up that first impression, chances are they won't be back. So let's get it right the first time if we can, right? So I would go in, and I would follow the little gray bar on the right side of the screen...and try to split my most current chapter into two equal halves instead.
    What I found out, very early on...is that when I did that with my chapters, adjusting a few paragraphs or sentences here and there, that the posted chapters were already split in half. Almost as if I had done it subconsciously. And any one of you can go to the Library link on my site right now and see proof of that in one of the archives when the chapters were longer in word count. (I shortened the chapters so that I could get them out quickly and much more frequently without the usual long waits between chapters. But if you were to divide those smaller chapters in half, the same rule would apply) And that got me to thinking about my writing process a bit more...making something clear to me.
    A story isn't just one arc from beginning to finish. Instead, its a bunch of smaller arcs from chapter to chapter that are all working to reach the same goal. Every separate chapter has a beginning, a middle, a climax, and an end. So I began thinking of them that way all the time. The middle of my chapters are the highest reaching arc of that particular rainbow, and that, in turn, leads me to the end of the chapter. It almost never fails.
    Like I said, without even knowing that I was doing it...it just became the norm of how I write my stories from chapter to chapter. There's an inciting incident, an escalation, a high point, and then a bit of a 'cooling off' period as the chapter comes to an end. Even if it ends on a cliffhanger.
    Why does this happen? Well, it comes from a lot of intense planning ahead of time before my fingers ever even touch the keyboard. What am I doing? Where am I going with this chapter? How was it affected by the previous chapter? How will it impact the chapter to follow it? And how is this all still keeping me in line with my theme, the tone, and my characters' motivations in the long run? All of these thoughts are necessary to proceed when it comes to writing a tighter, more cohesive story. This is how you can navigate your way through each chapter and still make things happen the way you want them too.
    However...there are going to be times (Not maybe...not possibly...but inevitably)...when you're going to find yourselves painted into a corner, with no feasible way out. If it hasn't happened to you yet, chances are, it will at some point in one of your future projects, and I've learned a few do's and dont's over the years that I'm hoping will help you guys out in the future.
    Don't worry about it, or think that it is making any statement on your talent as a writer. Trust me, it comes for us all eventually. It's best to be prepared for it, and maybe have a few tools at your disposal to get yourself out of it when it happens!
    For this article...we're talking about painting yourself into a corner! So lets get started!
    I'm sure that most of you have already heard of this phrase before, but just to reiterate...imagine that you have a paint brush in your hand. You're painting the floor beneath your feet. You keep going and going and you are almost ninety percent done with the whole room....then your back and shoulders hit the wall. You're standing there...with a very small patch of un-painted floor beneath your feet...JUST enough for you to stand in that corner with nowhere to move, no steps to make without ruining the hard work you've put in and leaving footprints in the paint until it dries. Hell...you could be stuck there for HOURS without being able to move in any direction at all. What do you do? Hehehe!
    This is the idea of painting yourself into a corner. Just with your writing.
    Sometimes, we all want to 'raise the stakes' of what's going on in our stories, or we give our main characters some extremely heavy problems to deal with, or put them in a serious predicament that seems like it's nearly impossible for them to get out of. And hat's awesome...IF you know how to get them out of it! Hehehe! If you find yourself headed in that direction, and you're enjoying the ride without having any idea as to how you expect to solve the problems that you've put in the way of your main character...then you're, very quickly, going to find yourself painting yourself closer and closer into that corner. I mean, how are you going to fix the elements of your story that you broke on purpose?
    Is it intriguing? Yes. Is it entertaining? Of course. But the conflict will ultimately fall flat if you don't already have some kind of believable resolution in mind. Don't get your audience all worked up and then just say, "Well...they just got out of it because they're awesome." Um...what? NO! That's not what your readers were looking for. That's not the payoff that you promised them when escalating the situation and working up to some kind of explosive or particularly clever dash around the major obstacles that you put in your main character's way. That's not cool at all.
    This is the time to recognize and appreciate the merits of planning your stories ahead of time. Have an idea in place before you start traveling down that particular rabbit hole. I definitely think that all authors should be 'flexible' with their writing, and allow room for spontaneity in their work as they're lost in a creative moment. Just understand the potential traps that comes with that kind of writing. Because you can find yourself putting your characters into a position that they really can't get out of without some kind of unrealistic 'miracle' rushing in to save them. And that can detract from a really great story for readers who are looking out for that sort of thing.
    You may have heard the term, 'Deus ex machina', many times...but didn't really absorb the meaning of what it means when it comes to your ideas and your own writing. It's a Latin term that means, 'God from the machine'. It basically means that a situation is solved by some random person or situation just 'magically' happens at the last minute without reason, and somehow solves a truly difficult problem with ease, and without explain how or why? To highly exaggerate the idea...one boy asks another, "Wait are you a homosexual???" And while the other boy stutters for an answer...SUDDENLY the Earth gets invaded by the flying saucer people of Neptune! Hehehe! Whew...dodged a bullet there, right?
    NO!!! Don't do that! Just....don't ever do that! LOL!
    Unless you've built up your story in a way where another character or group of characters or certain circumstances are set and ready to swoop in at the last minute to save the day...don't cop out and worm your way out of a difficult situation with an easy (and instantaneous) fix. That drains sooooo much energy from your story. Avoid the Deus ex machina as much as possible if you can. Your readers will get more entertainment out of watching your main character struggle to overcome that difficult obstacle, or maybe even LOSE against it...than they will with some kind of 'shrug of the shoulders' solution to the big mess that you spilled out at their feet.
    This is your audience. They're expecting you to put some work into your project. So put it in. If you find yourself getting closer and closer to that corner...have your character mirror your feelings as a writer. How do I do this? What am I supposed to think? How can I get out of this dilemma? It's ok to let your main character struggle. I know that I put mine through the ringer all the time! LOL! God forbid, if I were to ever meet them in person! They'd probably chase me through the streets with torches and pitchforks! But that is the core of literary drama and tension. Creating problems, raising the stakes, and having your main character fight like hell to figure out a solution. Doesn't that sound like a story you'd want to read?
    No story can start with a 'happily ever after' vibe...and end with a 'happily ever after' vibe, and still be interesting. No matter WHAT events happen in between. Guaranteed joy doesn't intrigue an audience. Questions do. Take that tidbit of advice to heart.
    To sum it all up...make sure that you have at least a clue as to how you're going to wrap up the problems that you put you're characters through. Planning is essential. Always. You can decide to change and alter or bend the details later...but don't put your 'James Bond' in an inescapable trap and make it truly inescapable! Because, when it comes time for him to find a way out...you're going to either get so frustrated looking for a solution that you're on the verge of a brain aneurysm...or you're going to try to think up a way to save him that adds up to...'because God saved him'. Neither one is going to be satisfying to your readers. Write every story as though you're getting paid a million dollars to do so. And, who knows? Maybe one day you will! That's my article on painting yourselves into a corner. I hope a few of these tips will give you a little something extra to think about! Seezya next time! Have fun!
  5. Comicality

    Little Moments

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    What creates a story? What creates an unexpected thrill? What connects the writer to the readers that they're attempting to entertain?
    These are all questions that should be lingering in the back of your mind when you're writing your story. NOT in the forefront, because writing a story isn't all about catering to an audience. Instead, it should be about exploring your true self and your deepest emotions. Having an audience enjoy and appreciate what you do is a thrilling side effect to all of the hard work that you put in to making it a reality and then finding the courage to share it with others. But that response shouldn't be your only reason for writing. Because that response is not guaranteed, and that can be intimidating in the long run. So make sure that you're having fun and pursuing your passion when putting a project together. That's the most important, and most genuine, part of being a writer. K?
    Now, back to the initial question...what creates a story, a character, and a connection to the people investing their time, energy, and emotion, into what you're writing?
    The big secret? It's not the big story as a whole. Sounds weird, right? But I've learned over the years that it's not the major story as a whole that really keeps people coming back for more. Sure, it's a PART of it...but what keeps people reading are actually the 'little' moments. While readers may be excited in the overall story, the sprawling character archs, and the intricate twists and turns of the plot that I might throw out there during major events in the narrative...it's the little moments that most of my readers remember most. It's something that I took note of, and made sure to remember that while I was writing whatever epic scene I happened to be focused on at that particular moment.
    There was an earlier article where I talked about the BIG, monumental, moments in your stories. Making them as huge and as amazing as you possibly could through the build up and the payoff. This time, however, we're going to shrink things down a bit, and talk about the smaller pieces of the puzzle that makes your entire project more memorable from beginning to end. There are ways to do this, but we first have to look at what makes a certain event or plot point in your story something that people will want to cherish and hold on to. Something that will grab them and drag them from one larger special moment to the next. There is 'magic' in those micro moments in between moments. If that makes sense. And that magic is what you're going to use to keep your readers engaged and interested in the story so those bigger moments end up having the kind of impact that you want them to have. (In other words, don't let the readers fall asleep on you and then try to shake them up and get those gears spinning again later. Hehehe! A mind in motion tends to stay in motion. It takes time to re-engage, and it'll slow down the pacing of your story significantly.)
    So let's get together and talk about creating a much more memorable story by concentrating a bit more on those smaller moments combined...
    Now, what do I mean by 'smaller' moments? I think we should start there.
    There are many stories that have huge, dramatic events in them. A big reveal of a deep dark secret. A fight breaks out. A sudden heartbreak. An unexpected betrayal. And all of these things can make for a great story. But, as I've said many times before...you can't keep that up, chapter after chapter after chapter. It gets tiresome after a while. Big moments, in my opinion, should be used sparingly. How can they have any real impact if you keep having them every chapter? It takes skill and practice to pace your story and space these major events out in an effective way.
    So that begs the question...what do you do with the 'space'?
    What I love to do during these moments, is build characters up and really give the readers a glimpse into their personality. Like...who would this person be when he's not following along with the plot of the story I'm telling. That's part of the magic that I'm talking about. Who is this really cute boy when he's not being gawked at by the main character? Or following the breadcrumbs that I set out there to get him together with my protagonist? These are the questions that I ask myself when I'm putting a story together. And the best way to show that, is by creating these little moments of friendship, or cuteness, or pain, or anger, or shyness. Small moments. It doesn't have to be anything major. It can be a simple gesture, a blush, a conversation...hell, it could be a simple line of dialogue. Just a few words can create a moment in your fiction that will become memorable beyond anything that you ever expected it to.
    I think the best example of this comes from the original "Terminator" movie. He walks into the police station, asking for the person that he's there to kill in cold blood...the cop behind the counter tells him to wait...and he says, "I'll be back." now, that wasn't meant to be a big tagline or major writing achievement. But that ONE line of dialogue ended up being one of the biggest catch phrases in cinematic history! I mean, who could have predicted that?
    But...watch the movie again. The build up to that moment, the aftermath a few seconds later...study it. Try to figure out why those three simple words have such an impact, and think about how a seemingly innocent moment in a film could resonate so heavily with audiences for years and years to come.
    This is one of the things that I've thought about a lot, even before the Comicality stories. The big events in a story are highly entertaining, but people always quote the little things. This is that connective tissue that I'm always talking about. It will keep your readers invested and excited for the next big reveal. I definitely focus on enjoying and getting my audience to appreciate these little moments, so they can get to my characters on a deeper, more emotional, level so that it never feels like there's any 'down time' in my chapters. Even when there isn't something hugely dramatic going on in my story...you're still entertained and learning more about some of the quirks and humorous antics of the boys that I'm writing about. The same goes with action, sci fi, or horror, or anything else you might be writing. Remember...tiny moments. They mean more than you might think they do.
    I wanna share this fan made video with you. (God, he's sooooo good! I could NEVER do that!) He's put together what has to be at LEAST 100 different movies together, if not more! Edited it, set it to a beat...it's amazing! But, what I want you to pay attention to...is the fact that most of the clips that he uses are only a fraction of a second long! Thats it! But they're all 'little moments' from these hugely popular movies, TV shows, Netflix series, and anime...and even though they go by in the blink of an eye...I'm willing to bet that many of you can easily recognize the movie, know the scene, and can easily call it out if asked to! Because it sticks with you, right? Hehehe, you know that scene! And it was awesome! You got an instant memorable flashback in a fraction of a second. How crazy is that? Check it out!
    I totally understand that we're not all writing blockbuster Summer action movies here on GayAuthors, hehehe...but I believe that the same technique applies to all kinds of stories, in every genre. Little moments are what give your bigger moments meaning. Something simple. A shared joke, a whispered secret, a bashful grin. All of these things matter when creating a three-dimensional story and bringing your characters into contact with one another. Like I said, I've learned to really appreciate these little moments and utilize them to their full extent whenever I can. Maybe, in "Left Without Words", Shane gets a peek up the leg of Dimitry's shorts. Maybe Ariel spills an ice cold milkshake on a potential love rival, or Tristan passes his Youtube crush on an escalator in the mall. These scenes have power. They're memorable when many of the other scenes in my stories aren't. They can be used to create tension, fear, worry, joy, laughter...don't let opportunities like this pass you by, while racing to the next big event in your storytelling. These little moments are a PART of the storytelling. Whether its an emotional breakdown of an abused boy in front of his friends, or simply throwing a snowball at the cute boy next door. Let these little moments fill out the personality of your main characters and create someone that your readers can get to know on an intimate level so that they'll be all the more invested in what happens to them when you tell your story.
    To me, the most important thing to remember is that a story is not just about 'plot'. Don't use your characters as simple tools to tell your story. Give them life. Let them breathe. Allow them to interact with one another and explore the space that you've built for them. It'll make for a better story overall, and your audience will gravitate to them in ways that you never expected.
    Use those little moments to flesh out and give your story 'life'. You'll be surprised how much it adds to the everyday, 'cute boy meets another cute boy, and they have sex...because....cute' formula. People have read that story a million times already. How are you going to be different? Go for it! And make a classic that your readers will enjoy!
    I hope this helps out! Good luck in your writing, and I'll seezya soon with more! Take care!
     
  6. Comicality

    Angst

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    Hahaha! Raise your hands if you saw the title of this writing article and immediately groaned and rolled your eyes at the idea of hearing me talk about it!
    Yes, yes...I know. If you thought it was a secret, it's not. I am well aware of my use of teen angst in my stories, and have gotten countless angry emails about it over the years. Trust me...I know.
    BUT...if any of my readers feel angry, impatient, worried, or sexually FRUSTRATED beyond belief, when reading my stories...then congratulations! LOL! Welcome back to your teenage years! Did you all live a different life than I did at that age? I lost my virginity when I was 13, and that's pretty damn young now that I'm looking back at it. And I was still living with heavy doses of angst every single day of my life from then until college! In fact, it was a constant struggle with sexual frustration and hints of depression over being in love with my best friend (Who I was sharing a tiny apartment with at the time) that caused me to create the "Shack Out Back" website in the first place! It was a release from all of those bottled up feelings that I was forced to hide from the world. And that was in college.
    So if readers are angry and want me to hurry things along, I'm always compelled to ask...
    "Do you remember what it was like to be that age and discovering love for the first time?"
    Now, all of us have different experiences growing up, and I get that. But the obstacles that I put in my characters' way are (in my opinion) extremely realistic and relatable to my readers. Frustration and all. What 15 year old just goes 'all in' to a frightening situation like that, being fearless and reckless and unaware of the consequences that may follow his desperate, yet insecure, actions? I mean, let's be honest here...was that YOU when you were a teenager? There might be a few of you guys out there who came out of the closet when you were ten and never looked back...but for the huge majority of us, I'm assuming that it wasn't that easy to tell the most beautiful boy that you've EVER seen in your life that you're madly in love with him and want to ask him out on a date. Hehehe, maybe that's just me.
    For this article, we're talking about 'angst' in teen stories...and how folks can just calm down and see it as a GOOD thing in the long run! Geez! Get yourself a drink and relax, for crying out loud. It's just a story.
    I think one of my own biggest flaws is not being able to write as fast as my audience can read. I simply can't do it. I'm not a robot. I need to sleep, I need human interaction with my friends and family, I watch movies, I cook dinner, I play video games...I actually exist outside of the 'Comicality' persona that I've created online. And to people that want to click a link to a story, and gobble up ten whole years worth of hard work and emotional expression in a single day without a definitive end to the story...it aggravates them to the point of wanting to threaten me with physical HARM! LOL! So putting angst in my stories is like a huge 'cock block' to them, and I apologize for that. I'm not trying to get you all triggered and bent out of shape. I'm actually trying to tell a story worth telling, here. K? Hang in there. Have some patience. Just because you read it all in a single day doesn't mean that I wrote it all in a single day! Slow down. Pace yourself for God's sake!
    The thing about angst, when it comes to writing a story, is actually a tool that I use to carry my readers on a journey. It creates a story arc for the main character that brings them from being isolated and afraid...to finally embracing their true feelings and accepting themselves for who they are...to eventually winning the ultimate prize, and gaining access to the heart of their dream boy. It's a plot device that gives the character something to 'struggle' with emotionally and eventually overcome in order to earn their reward. I mean...do you get it?
    How many stories could I write with a boy just seeing another boy from a distance, and thinking, "Wow! He's hot!" So he just walks over and says, "You're hot! Wanna come over to my house later for some sex?" and the other boy says, "I'm gay too! Awesome! Let's go!" And the rest is all written fictional porn? It's good for a 'quickie', I suppose...but I try to hold myself to a higher standard than that, if I can. What is their relationship? What do they have in common? How do they interact with one another? A majority of sex is a mental and emotional experience. It's not just sticking your dick in a moist hole for three minutes. I mean, that can be a sexy interlude for some...but it's not going to cut it if you're looking to tell a longer story with any depth or romance involved in it.
    Trust me...people will jack off to your story, roll over, and go to sleep. And that will be the end of that. So you can decide if that's the level of involvement hat you want to have with your readers or not.
    To me? Angst is what makes the story 'exciting'. As I've said in earlier articles...you draw your readers in with the questions you present to them. What is he thinking? What can I do with this feeling in my heart? What will happen if I tell him how I feel? How will I survive if he rejects me? We've all been there at one time or another. It's a basic, widely known, part of our human experience when it comes to love. It's SCARY the first few times you have to navigate your way through it. And you'd think it would be much less frightening when you get older...but it really isn't. You're putting your heart on the line, people. When you're writing your story, act like the stakes are as high as they should be when it comes to approaching love for the first time. There should be doubt, and fear, and desire, and confusion, and determination, and excitement, mixed with sadness, and hopelessness, and distance, and embarrassment. Love is a complicated emotion. Walk around and explore every aspect of it. And take as long as you feel you need to do that. Don't let people who are trying to rush rush RUSH to the point con you into speeding things up. You're a writer. You tell your story the way you want to tell it. And do it at your own pace. It'll be fine. In fact...it'll be better.
    Angst in your narrative is what gives real 'value' to the reward that follows. Or even the lack thereof. The point is, it adds a layer of tension and depth to your project by raising the stakes and making your characters that much more enticing. You get to dive into their inner struggles as well as their outer obstacles. Embrace that! And use it as a tool to invoke emotion and concern for your main characters. There's nothing wrong with 'porn without plot', if that's what you want to write. But if it isn't, and you want to do something different...then make your protagonist work to get what he wants. Write out that inner dialogue that gives your readers a glimpse of who they are as a person. Who they are on the inside. It's ok to let them make mistakes. It's ok to let them chicken out every once in a while when it comes to the big 'confession' of how they feel. You, as a writer, are allowed to make your characters less than perfect. Less than 'brave'. Just because some people are banging their fists against their heads because the want to hurry up and get to the sexy stuff...that's no reason for you to abandon your game plan and your original idea for the story. Those people can wait. And if not...they can leave. Bye! Will you really miss the insults and the criticism when they're gone?
    Hehehe, yeah...that's what I thought.
    Check out this short film. I think it really displays what the angst of a gay teenager feels like, perfectly. Very well done! Also, it features Seamus Davey Fitzpatrick (Who played 'Damien' in the remake of "The Omen") and Dante Palminteri (Son of Chaz Palminteri, who's just awesome in general! "A Bronx Tale" with Robert De Niro ROCKS!!!). Yeah, this is how you use teen angst to empower the emotional connection to a story. Keep that in mind.
     
    The whole point is...give your main character somewhere to go. I realize that a lot of people have a ten second, TikTok, attention span these days...and that's heartbreaking all by itself, hehehe! But focus on the emotion of your story. That angst? That confusion and worry and frustration? That's going to connect to a lot of people. And even when they complain...they're going to come back again and again to see what happens next! I know this from experience. The folks who have the time to complain...will also have the time to come back and read the next chapter. They might not ever tell you that they enjoyed it...but they did. Hehehe, so just keep doing your thing, and keep letting your characters grow and evolve and EARN that first kiss. That first sexual experience. That emotional 'coming out' scene. Take your time...build it up...and when you (and ONLY you!) feel like it's time to drop that bomb...go for it. Your audience will go CRAZY for it! Let them wait. You know what you're doing as a writer. So do it. K?
    Teen angst...if you're writing a teen story, or even an adult story...try to remember what it's like to be totally captivated by another person, and how difficult it might be to just 'sexually ASSAULT' them on sight! Hehehe! Let your main character and their love interest warm up to things first. Massage your narrative. And weave them together before blowing your entire load in the first few paragraphs. It's ok to take your time with these things. K? Relax. A little angst goes a long way. And it's going to make that big 'moment'...that monumental payoff...all the more special when you decide to let people read it.
    As always, I hope this helps you guys out with crafting your own stories from scratch! I'm giving away all of the secrets that I can! Hehehe! One of you is gonna have to take my place someday. So start practicing now! Go! And do it better than I did!
    Love you! And I'll seezya soon!
  7. Comicality

    Things and Stuff

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    Adjectives...
    The simple act of using extra words to further describe the sights, sounds, and feels, of the picture that you're trying to paint for your audience. A single adjective can change the whole perspective of the current scene that your readers are engaged in at the moment. For example, let's say they walk into their bedroom and there's a body laying in their bed. Ok, so what does that mean?
    The truth is...it can mean a LOT of things.
    An adjective will set the tone for the entire moment that you're immersed in. Is it a 'sexy' body? Maybe it's a really hot guy, and he's been waiting for your main character to come home from work. That's going to paint a whole picture for everybody that's reading it. However...what if it's a 'dead' body? Oh my! Well, that's a whole different scenario now, isn't it? What if it's the sleeping body of a relative or a close friend? What if it's a 'strange' body that your protagonist doesn't recognize? And he's asleep while your main character tries to figure out who the hell he is. This can go an almost infinite number of ways, and the adjective is the key to opening the portal to the story that you're trying to tell. Further adjectives can add even more finesse to pictures in your head, and can entice your audience to lean in and want to investigate further. Just the right adjective at just the right time can turn a plain, informational, sentence into a work of art. So use them wisely. It matters.
    While writing, there will be many times when simplicity is best. But, whenever you can, try to avoid using words like 'things' and 'stuff' and 'a lot of people' and words that are functional...but extremely vague. I'm not saying that you have to stress yourselves out trying to come up with something overly poetic or witty, but try to keep from making this foggy, unclear, words a crutch to lean back on. Because when you go back and look at your work later, you might be shocked how many times you use them. Adjectives are unlimited...learn how to weave them into your narrative. Be descriptive. Let your readers see what you see, feel what you feel. It makes for a better reading experience.
    Now, professionally...I won't beat around the bush about this...you are going to run into some occasional backlash and criticism when it comes to adjectives in your writing. Hehehe, I don't know why, but it'll happen. So expect it. I've had writing classes where teachers don't want you to use an adjective that uses 'ly' at the end of it. (Quickly, Angrily, Happily, Shyly, Sadly) It is extremely frustrating for me to try to write like that! LOL! It can be done, sure. But it can be done the same way that I could probably walk around a shopping mall with two cinder blocks chained to my ankles. I could probably manage, but WHY? Leave me alone! Set me FREE, dammit! Hehehe!
    I think that adjectives of all kinds can be used effectively in your fiction, no matter what you're writing, you just have to find out how to do so without going overboard. And without having those adjectives end up being wasted or sounding empty. As with everything else that goes along with being a writer...it takes practice. Don't ever forget the discipline of practice. I can't stress that enough. It's like trying to build and maintain biceps and six pack abs with no exercise. It just doesn't work like that.
    So, today, I want to talk about adjectives. Some of the do's, some of the don'ts, and the difference between constructive adjectives as opposed to empty adjectives.
    Now...you may ask, "What is an 'empty adjective'?"
    To put it in layman's terms...it's an adjective that doesn't go anywhere or have anything to do with the issue at hand. It is completely disconnected from what it is that you might be trying to say. Now, I have been known to use these empty adjectives myself on occasion, simply because it feels comfortable to me while I'm writing, and I feel like it sounds good. But when I go back to do a final self edit, most of them always get cut from the finished project. They're just not needed. They come of as lame and inauthentic in the long run, and it can take points away from the overall feel and momentum of your story if you're not careful with when and where you decide to break the rules.
    One of the best examples that I can think of comes from a certain American politician that I won't name for the sake of keeping the peace. Hehehe! Let's call him...ummm...'Ronald'.
    This is the epitome of chronically using 'empty adjectives' that go absolutely nowhere and prove nothing at all. It's a conversational trick. It's a lie, wrapped in a lie, wrapped in a fake emotional attachment that doesn't exist. It is literally like nails on a chalkboard for me to try to even make sense out of it. It's like having to dig through a puddle of mud to try to find a point...and then, when you find it...it wasn't worth finding in the first place. It's maddening.
    Imagine if GayAuthors made a post that said, "Comicality's stories aren't really that good. But at least they get attention." And I went out of my way to post, "Well, the failing GayAuthors site doesn't know what it's talking about. And they're not doing big numbers anyway." Well...that has nothing to do with anything. It isn't an argument, it has no point, it doesn't even address the situation. It's just childish name calling, and when looking for a point...where is it? Was that my defense? If Charles Manson told me the sky was blue, and I talked about how he was an awful person for ten minutes...well, ok sure, but...is the sky blue, or isn't it? Where did you lose me? Hehehe! What were we talking about again?
    Adjectives are supposed to cling to the people, the objects, or the subjects that you're talking about. They're meant to add color and detail to what you're describing. Something that I've noticed more and more lately is that people will use random words because of their emotional connection to the words themselves...but that doesn't mean that they have any real 'meaning'. When used in context with the moment that you're creating for your characters, do your adjectives really connect to what you're talking about? If you wrote, "We had a very strong conversation." or "I looked in to it strongly."...well what does that mean? I know what the word 'strong' means, and I know the emotional connection to that single word...but how does that relate to what you're talking about? What is a strong conversation? Were you...wrestling with your shirts off when you said it? Were you shouting at each other? How does 'strong' and 'conversation' match up in any way? You can have two characters that are mad at one another, and they had a strongly worded conversation...sure. That makes sense. Because 'strong' is connected to the words. But you can't just toss random words out there and expect them to have any impact as an adjective. Saying something is horrible, or strong, or bad, mad, sad, rude...and you don't make them connect to an actual point or use them to demonstrate a flair for enhancing the picture you want to pain for your readers...then those are wasted adjectives. Learn how to spot them, and edit them out. Trust me, you won't miss them when they're gone.
    How do you connect your adjectives with focus in order to give them more than a temporary emotional bond with a floaty word that isn't anchored to anything? Think about it this way...
    Let's say that your protagonist is eating lunch in the food court at the mall, and a beautiful boy catches his eye from across the room. And the first thing he notices is hair. So, we're going to use 'hair' as our adjective anchor in this example. K?
    - He has hair. That's obvious. But we know there's something special about it, because it caught his eye. So let's enhance that picture a bit more.
    - He has longish hair. The word 'longish' is connected to our anchor, and now we've got a bit of a clearer picture of what our main character is staring at.
    - He has longish, blond, hair. Ok, a bit more description, but it's not floating away from our anchor. Both longish and blond are still connected to his 'hair'. Does he have 'strong' hair? No. That doesn't really make sense. Unless he's using it to pull a tractor trailer behind him or something.
    - He has longish, blond, curly, hair.
    - He has shiny, longish, dark blond, curly, hair.
    And so forth and so on. You can do that all day if you really wanted to (Don't overdo it though), but you have to make sure that you're staying focused on the very thing that you're trying to describe. That way, anyone can look at the three pics below and know exactly which boy I'm talking about in this particular scene...
     
    000000 Don't mistake the meaning of a single random adjective with having meaning in the context of a sentence. We know what 'failing' means, and we know how that's supposed to make us feel...but what does it have to do with what you're talking about? Why even bother to add that? It's just another layer of mud that readers have to dig through to see if they missed something that made that particular description even remotely necessary. It's like saying, "My dream boy lit a 'heartbreaking' candle." Can candles be heartbroken? I know what heartbreak is, and I know the emotional response attached to the word heartbreak, but how am I supposed to connect that adjective to the candle? You can't just 'trick' people into feeling how you want them to feel by attacking their emotions with random words and hoping it'll bully them into seeing the situation a certain way. Describe and flesh out the moment. That's your job as an author. Appeal to their logic and sense of true understanding. The appropriate emotions will follow on their own once they understand the moment as a complete and detailed experience. Don't simply throw out words like sad, tragedy, and disaster, and expect your audience to automatically think, "Oh man, this is such a sad and tragic disaster..." That's not writing, that's hypnotism. Hehehe, not the same thing. And it easily breaks itself down and falls apart for anybody who is truly paying attention.
    Remember, adjectives aren't supposed to invoke emotion on their own. They're there to elevate the descriptions and the feelings of the scene itself. The emotion has to be earned through the writing itself, adjectives are just a writer's way of sprinkling a little bit of added sugar on top. Don't take shortcuts and try to force your readers to feel something that they have no reason to feel. Find your anchor, whatever you want to latch on to, and make sure that all of your descriptions are there to enrich that one vision...and nothing else. If you say something is big, and great, and strong, and powerful, and massive...cool. What's big, and great, and strong, and powerful, and massive? "My ice cream cone." Ok...you just lost me. Hehehe! NONE of those words are connected to an ice cream cone in any way shape or form. I know what they mean, but...what are you talking about? Thanks. You just wasted my valuable time. Sorry I asked.
    I hope this will help you guys learn to recognize these little missteps when you see them in your writing, or in other people's writing. In movies, in music, and anywhere else that you might want to see if the words are matching up to the meaning behind them. Or if they come off as being completely detached and wander off into some limbo that isn't connected to anything of value. Don't fake it, it will only come off as a distraction and it will give your descriptions less meaning and next to zero impact.
    I hope this helps with your writing moving forward. I know that we all do a lot of writing on autopilot sometimes, and it's relaxing and it's fun, but the way that you think about the words you use can help give your project a really nice shine, and your audience will appreciate that. Cool?
    Take care! And I hope to see you next time!
     
  8. Comicality

    Cliffhangers

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    You know, there's a quote that says that jealousy in a loving relationship is a lot like salt in your food. Just enough can enrich and enhance flavor, but too much can bitter the taste. I think that, when it comes to putting cliffhangers in your stories, perhaps from chapter to chapter, or maybe even from completed novel to completed novel...the same rule applies. I mean, sure, you can write cliffhangers all day long if you really wanted to...but it can get tiresome in the long run. In fact, I think they would get to be pretty frustrating and predictable if you use them too often. And that would be a serious blow to your writing in general.
    Now, when I say 'cliffhangers', I'm not just talking about writing a compelling chapter that will make your readers curious and highly interested in what is going to happen next. I think we should all be doing that with every chapter that we write anyway. I'm talking about a big, shocking, 'dun dun dun', moment that rocks your readers and shakes the story up in one way or another. A major event, or a secret reveal, or a big plot element that comes out of nowhere and threatens your characters' stability and the balance of the story itself. There's a difference.
    The best way for me to describe the difference between the two would be for me to use "The Empire Strikes Back" as an example. The way that the movie ends...there are SO many loose ends that are just left up in the air. It's actually a really dark ending for, what was mainly thought of as a kid's movie. Nothing really gets resolved, the heroes are scattered and defeated, you don't really know what happened to Han Solo, Luke Skywalker loses a hand and finds out his father is one of the most evil men in the galaxy...it's almost kind of depressing when you really think about it. Hehehe! Now that is a definitive ending to that particular chapter of the story...but it leaves so many questions open that everybody watching immediately has a huge incentive to see what happens in the next movie. I guess you could call that a 'soft cliffhanger'. Enticing, but satisfying in its delivery of a clear 'ending' and a break in the overall storyline.
    Now...a 'hard cliffhanger'? That would be like if Luke is fighting Darth Vader, he loses his hand, and hears, "No...I am your father!"
    "Nooooo!!!!"
    Fade to black!
    Roll credits! Hehehe!
    Had the movie ended right there, it would have been a huge WTF moment for the audience! Intriguing, yes...but...ARRRGHHHH!!! You don't even get to see the end of the fight. Just, 'I am your father', cut to the credits, 'to be continued'! Oh yeah...spoiler alert. Hehehe! Well, let's be honest...if you don't know that from Star Wars, and the prequels, and the sequels, and the animated series, and decades of pop culture, by now...chances are you really don't care at this point. LOL! But, that's the difference.
    On occasion, a real surprise ending can be used to spice up your story and really throw your audience into a tailspin that they were never expecting to get caught up in. And when the comments come rolling in, you can take pride in knowing that you delivered the kind of sucker punch to the gut that you were trying for! Hehehe!
    But don't overdo it.
    When used correctly (and sparingly), a really good 'zinger' of a cliffhanger can enhance your story in many ways, and actually generate a much deeper interest from your audience when it comes to the next chapter. It creates excitement, inspires a craving for more, and can actually spawn a discussion between readers outside of the story itself. But you have to know when and where a cliffhanger will be the most effective, and which one to use to carry the story forward. You can only throw so many monkey wrenches into the gears before the whole system breaks down and ceases to work the way you want it to anymore. So you don't want to let those big surprises get stale and wear out their welcome.
    This time around, I'd like to talk about cliffhangers. And a few do's and don'ts when it comes to keeping your readers on edge, without desensitizing them to the impact that you were hoping your cliffhangers would have.
    I can remember when I was in elementary/junior high school, and this was in the 80's, so marketing toys to children was...shameless to the point of being absolutely obscene. Hehehe! But I was the target audience, so what did I know back then, right? Anyway, I remember after school cartoons, and the tons of action figures and sugary breakfast cereals that were being sold to us with every commercial break. Inspector Gadget, He-Man, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...these were the cartoons that most kids would run home to see during the week after school. But out of all the cheesy, patronizing, commercials that I remember from that time...one series of advertisements sticks out to me. It was for this collection of action figures called the 'Sectaurs'! They were half-man, half-insect, warriors that were always fighting with each other for some reason. You know, the typical 'blah blah blah' good versus evil trope. Whatever, kid...just ask your parents to buy my shit! Right?
    But the interesting thing about the advertising campaign for these toys was that it was marketed as a serial story. A commercial would start, where the figures were involved in some sort of combat situation...something 'surprising' would happen...and then the commercial would end with a big cliffhanger that you had to come back to later in order to find out what happens next in this crucial part of the story. Now, understand, this was before TV shows had become like they are today. That wasn't necessarily a thing back then unless it was an actual daytime soap opera. Not really. It didn't matter if you watch the episodes of 'The A Team' or 'Family Ties' out of order. There were no spoilers involved if you missed an episode of 'The Smurfs' or 'Superfriends' on a Saturday morning. Every episode stood on its own, and was pretty much interchangeable with any other episode at the time. But here was a series of commercials that was building a linear story arc, developing characters, and hitting you with a cliffhanger every single episode...and all within the limited time span of thirty to thirty five seconds. You want to find out what happens next? Watch this same cartoon next week, and check out the next installment during the commercial break!
    At the time, I had never ever seen anything like that on TV. It was the coolest thing ever! It FORCED you to watch the commercials. Because, how else are you going to find out what happened to your heroes after the last ad? You couldn't miss a single addition to the story, or you'd be completely lost in the next one, as well as the conversations going on with your friends on the playground the next day! Hehehe, and the term 'spoiler' hadn't even been coined yet! So it was, like...a different world, I suppose.
    I'm so glad that I was able to find a bunch of these old ads on Youtube to demonstrate my point. This is a taste of what I'm talking about. The more I think about it, the more I realize how truly brilliant this marketing campaign was. Imagine watching cartoons as a kid, and having to wait for the next commercial break to get your REAL fix for the afternoon. Hehehe!
    (My apologies for the video and audio quality. But there was no HD anything back then either, so it's a miracle that anybody was able to upload these at all! Hehehe!)
     
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    Now, again...these advertisers were all attempting to tell a story, solve a problem, and create a new cliffhanger, in thirty seconds flat. That's ten seconds for each part of a three act chapter. Luckily, you guys have a lot more room to plot things out as writers. But you sort of get the idea, right? A good cliffhanger is all about questions and choices. What kind of threat does the current situation pose for your main character, and what are his or her options in terms of finding the best way out of it? This doesn't have to be a physical threat, where your protagonist is about to have his skull cracked open with a giant rock or eaten by a monstrous spider. It simply has to leave the story standing at a fork in the road, with the big decision of which path to take left over, consequences and all.
    Is your main character going to finally talk to his big crush for the first time? Is he going to finally speak up and come out to his parents, or his best friend? Is he going to put his key into the ignition of the car and try to drive home...even though he's been drinking heavily and knows that it's a risk to even try? When creating an effective cliffhanger, I feel that there has to be multiple outcomes available for the reader to ponder until the next chapter is available. What now? You've just been caught kissing another boy by your boyfriend! You've just challenged the school bully to a fist fight! Maybe you've had enough of the pain, and you're crying while holding a bottle of sleeping pills in your trembling hand! The question remains...what now?
    THAT'S where you cut the chapter off! Boom!
    And now, any reader who is invested in this character and this story...can't just turn away! Nooooo! Don't stop there! Where's the next chapter? I won't be able to sleep tonight if I don't know how this turns out.
    Cleverly placed throughout your project, these cliffhangers can create an intense escalation of events that will keep your readers locked in until the very end. Present a dire situation to your audience, maybe give a hint or two as to what choices are available to them...and then fade to black without a definitive answer. You want to know what happens next? Keep reading. Otherwise, it's just going to fester in the back of your mind until you decide to come back for the next scene. If this sounds manipulative...that's probably because it is. Extremely so. Hehehe! But one of your main tools as a writer when it comes to generating a flow and a continuous sense of momentum in your story...comes from mystery. And mystery comes from having the readers ask questions. Questions come from choices. If the main character takes Path A...what will that lead to? If he takes Path B...what would that lead to? I think the BEST cliffhangers contain elements of reward and consequence on all of the paths that can be taken, no matter which one your protagonist chooses. The main character can't win without sacrificing something important to them, and sometimes..it may seem like the main character can't win at all...but must make a choice regardless. If you can paint the picture of a serious dilemma in just the right spots of your story? Your audience will drive themselves crazy trying to figure out the next step, and they will come back, thirsty for more. Every time.
    However...you can't keep pulling the same rabbit out of a hat and expect it to have the same 'Wow' effect every chapter. The best thing about cliffhangers is that they're unpredictable. They pop up out of nowhere, and they raise the eyebrows of everybody reading, because they didn't see them coming. One good way to accomplish this in your story is to completely flip the tone of your chapter at the very last minute. If it's a romantic, happy, warm and fuzzy, chapter...have something shocking or maybe even tragic happen in the last few paragraphs. If it's sad, angry, or a chapter where there doesn't seem to be any hope at all of your main character getting access to the boy of his dreams...maybe he comes home and his dream boy is sitting on his front steps...wanting to talk. Instant exhilaration. I like to call this 'flipping the coin'. Immerse your readers in one emotion, and then suddenly drop them or pick them up to feel the exact opposite at the end of your chapter. And JUST as they're getting accustomed to the bait and switch...you cut them off, and you let them decide if they want to jump forward to see what happens next. The rapid emotional shift in tone, followed by that final period at the end of the last sentence in that chapter, will create the desired effect. Trust me. It's a dirty trick, but it works.
    Hehehe, don't judge me! I'm not being MEAN! This is what authors do! Use this technique to your advantage whenever you see fit. It won't turn you into a literary sadist, I promise.
    There is one thing that you DON'T want to do with a cliffhanger, however...and that's cheat your audience. You want to make good on your promise that, whether good results or bad results, the next chapter will be worth the wait and that it follows the precise set up that precedes it. The worst thing that you can do is try to somehow 'rewrite' the previous chapter to say something that it didn't say the first time around. Setting up a powerful cliffhanger takes planning. Events have to not only be set into motion ahead of time, but you need time to let those events breathe in the background for a chapter or two before you bring them back for that special 'gotchya' moment. If your main character was abandoned by his mother at birth, and you have plans for her to come knocking at his front door to introduce herself for the very first time...don't just have it happen out of the blue. You need to start setting up that moment waaaay before then, much earlier in the story, and then let it sort of fade into the background for a while so other elements in the story can take center stage for a few chapters. Then...knock knock...and BOOM! There's your cliffhanger! It has an impact far greater than just randomly having her show up for no reason. It feels fraudulent. Readers will think you just threw that in there for the sake of a gotchya moment...and you end up exposing the magic trick. Plan ahead. The worst thing you can do is finish a chapter, come up with a completely different idea further down the road, and find yourself trying to ret-con your way out of it. That's a cheat. And a big no-no. Hehehe! You have to remember that you have an audience that is truly invested in you as the narrator of this story, and they're putting their faith in you to tell the truth at all times when setting up a big cliffhanger like the ones you may have in mind. You don't want to ruin that trust if you can help it. It'll piss them off, big time.
    Here is a scene from one of my favorite Stephen King movies, "Misery", that depicts this idea perfectly...
     
    Sometimes, you have to remember how long it takes to write a complete story from beginning to end, and you don't want to disrupt the suspension of disbelief and take your readers out of your vision by making continuity errors like these. Your audience is reading closely. Much closer than you may think. So if you're editing things yourself or have an outside editor checking things out for you, try to catch anything that might be bordering on a cop out when it comes to cliffhangers. I think this is best avoided by not 'going back' when you start the following chapter. Don't start off by recreating the end of the last chapter and changing the details. That's walking on thin ice. If you want a cool cliffhanger, just cut the chapter off with your hero in the car, getting ready to go off of the cliff. Stop right there. And then start your next chapter by having 'Rocket Man' find a clever way to escape the car. That would be much more entertaining, in my opinion. And it will show the ingenuity of your protagonist, strengthening him as a character in the long run. Another example, don't have something big happen...and then start off the next chapter with your protagonist waking up in a cold sweat. "Oh, it was all a dream!" That weakens the impact of your cliffhanger, and your audience might not trust you the next time you toss some major drama their way. Stay away from that stuff. It's considered a cheat. And your readers won't be happy about being left in the dark for an extended amount of time, only to be fooled with some fictional sleight of hand. K?
    Anyway, that's my personal take on writing cliffhangers. The important points to remember are...
    Don't overdo it. A cliffhanger here and there is great. But too much ruins the flavor. Cliffhangers are based on suspense. And suspense is created by mystery, questions, and choices. Rewards and consequences. Readers should be asking themselves, "What now?" Pose that question, and bait them into the next chapter by promising them an answer. Don't try to change the details of the cliffhanger by going back to tell readers details that contradict or attempt to ret-con the previous chapter. You're better off cutting the chapter before the necessary ret-con takes place. Reader/Writer trust is important. Never take that for granted. I hope this helps you guys out when you consider adding any cliffhangers into your projects in the future. It's just a few things to think about, and interpret any way that you like.
    Take care! And I'll see ya on the next go round!
     
  9. Comicality

    Suspension of Disbelief

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    It's a part of every story that you've read. A part of every movie you've ever seen. Hell...it might even be a part of the people that you come into contact with each and every single day when you go to school or to work. There's no way around it...at least to some degree.
    Hehehe, can you imagine what ind of existential crisis you'd be throwing yourself into if you couldn't get yourself to believe that any of this is real? How would you function in any effective way at all?
    This is all about the suspension of disbelief. It's a part of being invested in the supposed reality of the story you're reading or writing to the point where you can be immersed in the 'fictional' aspect of it all and actually enjoy yourself without being plagued with doubt and questions and random theories and a ton of other issues that ou probably don't want to wreck your brain trying to work out when you just want to write a damn story and, hopefully, have it be enjoyed by a willing audience. Hehehe! Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't. But with a few tips and, as always, some practice...you can make it happen. So let's discuss it, and hopefully we can figure this weirdness out together.
    If there's one thing that is super easy to notice about the internet when it comes to...well, pretty much anything to be honest...is that ANY story can fall apart if your readers really take some time to sit back and poke holes in it. If, as writers, we were in a boat...and an audience was sitting there drilling one hole after another into the bottom of it, how long could it possibly stay afloat before sinking all the way to the bottom of the lake? The art of the suspension of disbelief is writing a story that is compelling enough to, ummm...not have them sit there and do that. LOL! Thanks, 'detective'...now neither one of us is having any fun. But, when I say that, I'm not giving you license to skip over anything important or ignore plot holes in your writing. Not at all. Just do what you can to hold their focus on the current tasks at hand...and let that guide them towards the next task before they start trying to unravel the whole thing. It'll probably happen anyway at some point...but at least they'll be far enough into the story to be having too much fun to really concentrate on going back to see what they can find wrong or missing.
    There are three things that I try to keep in mind when it comes to trying to achieve this wondrous feat of magic. And I'll be sharing them with you in this article, but first? Let's recognize suspension of disbelief for what it really is, and how we can get around it for enjoyment's sake...pushing all of those pesky questions to the back of our minds long enough to have a good time.
    Me, being the big movie buff that I am, I almost always have a blast, no matter what I'm watching. As long as it's entertaining. I can disassemble it later if I feel the need, but I actually like being lost in the moment while I'm watching. So none of that stuff really bugs me. Now...of course, in the back of my mind, I realize that having an entire Justice League all together in the same place at the same time would pretty much make the whole concept of 'crime' irrelevant. I know that in "Total Recall", when Arnold Schwarzenegger has to leave Earth and go to Mars...there's not going to be a caption that says, '8 Months Later' when he shows up there! Hehehe, it's not like he's taking a plane to Detroit! He's going to friggin' MARS! That is NOT a casual voyage! But...whatever. It's the future, maybe they've mastered a quicker way to get there or something, who knows? But again, that stuff doesn't bother me. I'm in the moment. I think "Aliens" is one of the greatest sci fi/action movies EVER...but I also know that if you open that airlock...alien or not...ummm, that's the infinitely cold vacuum of space out there! So, ummm...no! Hehehe, but I LOVE it though!
    There are no real dinosaurs at Jurassic Park. There is no way for our world to fight off a gigantic swarm of interplanetary hordes that have already mastered the ability to travel through time and space. And I don't care HOW much of a badass action hero you are...if you cracked on the back of the head with a lead pipe during a fight...you don't just wake up with a momentary headache an hour later and walk it off. But, we accept some of these things for the sake of staying locked in to the story. And why do we do that? Because it's too much fun to let go just yet. Simply put. The idea is to create a touch of escapism, where the dream is more alluring than the reality your taking your audience away from.
    We believe our dreams while we're having them, don't we? Even our nightmares. And then we might wake up later and think the whole thing was ridiculous and realize that it didn't make much sense for me to be skydiving with a golden goat into a field of pink turkeys and a shape-shifting lizard man who just happens to be playing 'Uptown Funk' on the kazoo...but it made perfect sense while we were locked in, didn't it?
    Or...should I save a dream like that for my therapist someday? Whatever...moving on...
    Three methods of trying to make pulling this trick off and having readers care more about the story itself than they're attempts to analyze and rip it apart ahead before they get a chance to have some fun with it...a little bit easier. These aren't foolproof, not by any means...but they might be able to help.
    #1- Setup Consistency
    I'm listing this first, as I think it's one of the most important parts of this process. When you're building your fictional world and the characters that inhabit it...consistency is crucial when it comes to luring your readers into your story. This isn't just when it comes to the science fiction or horror or fantasy genres. If you're telling a story about a bunch of college kids on campus...the same rules apply. If you've got two guys flirting with one another in the office at work, or a couple of teenagers in the suburbs, or some runaways who are all living under a bridge somewhere beneath the freeway...you need to set up the rules...and STICK to them! At least for the beginning of the story. If you decide to break those rules later for the sake of character or story development? Then so be it. But you need to build a solid foundation and stay there. Give your audience something concrete and consistent to anchor them to the reality that you're building for them. Have a definitive game plan. If your world, your surroundings, or your character's personality traits, begin to feel unstable or erratic...it will take your readers out of the moment. The illusion is broken, and now it's like you have to start all over again from scratch, trying to get your audience anchored into a whole other level of this reality that you created for them. The immersion takes a hit. Once that happens...some readers will shrug their shoulders and keep reading regardless. But others won't.
    Always remember...you're competing with every single author on the INTERNET when you're writing! There are way too many options out there for you to stumble over this whole suspension of disbelief thing. Figure out your vision...set the stage...and hold it as steady as you can, all while keeping your reader's interest on you. You want them to stick around for your big finish, right? Good! Be tenacious about holding their attention, and getting them invested in what you're doing. It's a big part of building a loyal fanbase over time.
    I've been writing a story called SKYLIGHT which has a sudden astronomical disaster that takes place when a huge chunk of passing meteorite passes by the Earth breaks off and showers down fire and fury down on an entire suburban and an ensemble cast of teens find themselves trapped inside of a high school, leaving the survivors to deal with the tragedy of the aftermath all on their own. And I always look for ways to do something different from the stuff I've seen or read before...so I definitely took a LOT of 'creative liberties' with the subject matter. Reading does take a great deal of suspension of disbelief, but it's not like we haven't done it a million times in the past. So I used the technique of writing it in the 3rd person and switching/transitioning from one character story to another to see how everything might eventually fit together. (Hehehe, giving away one of my magic tricks here! Grrrr! I should shut up!) Anyway, the idea is to keep the focus on the characters' individual stories. I built up my foundation in the first few chapters, letting my audience know, 'Hey...this is how things work in my story. So keep that in mind, and I'll just keep that going strong for now.'
    Reality is mine now. Hehehe! So settle in, and follow me so I can entertain you.
    Now, this is a movie that I thoroughly enjoyed for its drama and massive destruction. Disaster movies have a special place in my heart. But, in the back of my mind, I know that things wouldn't quite work out like this in a real life situation. I don't want to trigger any anxiety attacks or anything for you guys...but if this scenario were to really take place? It's probably a wrap on humanity as a whole. Hehehe, you won't be looking up at the sky to see a giant meteor and a trail of smoke heading towards the middle of the ocean while you wait to be obliterated from the impact. It will be traveling at tens of thousands of miles an hour, and the light from it entering the atmosphere will probably blind you so fast that you won't see anything when the intense heat of it vaporizes you and burns you to ash. BUT...it's an awesome idea and a sweet visual for the movie...so I pushed all that aside and just enjoyed it for what it was. And it worked. I'd LOVE to see something like, firsthand, to be honest. I just find it fascinating. Hehehe!
    The point is...this movie set up the rules, they stuck by them, told you what the potential damage could be...and I was thoroughly entertained! That's the goal, isn't it? If you can complete step one? Then you're more than halfway there!
     
    #2- Theme Stability
    Theme stability is like a literary 'piggy back' to step number one. You have to ask yourself exactly how far you're willing to go with your suspension of disbelief...and figure out how much your audience is going to be willing to accept. It's always important to know your audience on some level. Who are you writing this for? I can break this down into the 'Star Wars'/'Star Trek' category...
    If the vibe of your story is going to be about space wizards with laser swords and using the force and alien planets teeming with life? Cool! Write that story! But the 'Star Trek' audience isn't going to appreciate that in the same way. Now, if you want to write a more scientific story with a deeper anchor in a possible future reality where things have to work within certain boundaries and take a more realistic approach? ALSO cool! Write that story too! But the 'Star Wars' crowd isn't going to always get the same enjoyment out of it. Either way...you'll be pulling your readers out of the moment, and now they're forced to question whether they want to keep reading or not. The rules that you set in place, and are willing to bend or break for the sake of your project...depends heavily on how much you can get away with in terms of suspension of disbelief.
    The more grounded and realistic your story is meant to be...the more you have to make sure that you're keeping your ideas based in a realistic and grounded setting. The more carefree you are with your ideas and situations...the harder you're going to have to work to set those rules and limitations for your world in order and cling to them so you don't just have a bunch of random 'stuff' happening out of nowhere. Learn to find your balance, and choose the theme or tone for your story that will best fit what you have planned out from beginning to end.
    This is a trailer for the movie, "This Is The End". This is a comedy (Hilarious, in my opinion), where all of the actors and comedians play themselves, basically...and there's a party at James Franco's house. Then...BOOM! What do you know? It's the apocalypse! LOL! The reason I put this here is because this is meant to be a silly comedic romp with a heavy disaster movie/sci fi/horror tilt to it. BUT...because of the theme and the vibe of it...suspension of disbelief is EASY here! Readers aren't expecting to analyze and check the 'science' behind what's going on here. No matter what kind of craziness happens in this movie...you can shrug your shoulders and say, 'Yeah. Why not at this point?' You don't upset or distort reader expectations, and they can remain completely invested in all of the other batshit crazy details of the movie! Hehehe! If you haven't seen it before, give it a watch some time. You won't find many better examples of suspension of disbelief than this one.
     
    #3- Plot Momentum
    The third, and final step? Plot momentum. Again...the last thing that you want to do is take your readers out of the story by allowing them to think too much about what's going on. Now, the easy way out would be to simply not give any details about the more difficult aspects of your game plan at all...but let's not cop out on that. Hehehe, at least not entirely.
    Plot momentum is simply the skill of using the information given to explain what's going on (both to the main character and the reader, simultaneously), but connecting it to your main plot in such a way that it draws people back to the main point of the story and how it compares and fits into everything that's happening or anything that could happen further along in the story. What you're doing is basically giving them an overview of the details and the schematics of how everything works (Based on the rules that you set up in the beginning, right? Good! You're getting it now!), instead of allowing them time to fuss over the logistics of it all. Follow the story for now, have fun...ask questions later. At least, that's how I always treat it when I'm writing. It's not being lazy, it's simply realizing that there are certain aspects of any story that are going to have loopholes and errors somewhere along the way. The key is to get your readers to anxiously turn the page and get back to the story before that inevitable analysis begins.
    Hehehe being a writer also means being part trickster' sometimes.
    The best example that I can give you guys about this is the theory of time travel. Almost every movie that deals with it, tries to do it a bit differently...but there are still loopholes, regardless. Although, I did see ONE time travel movie that really went out of its way to be as logical and scientific about how such a thing would work, and I barely remember it, but I remember being impressed by how much thought went into their theories about every aspect of time travel. (It was called "Primer", if you're interested.) For instance, I never thought about this before...but the Earth moves! We're rotating really fast in space when you think about it. So...if you jump back in time ten minutes...the planet isn't going to be in the same position as when you left. You could end up inside of a wall, or in another neighborhood altogether. Weird, right?
    Down below are time travel theories from the movies "Back To The Future", and "The Terminator"! Two of my all time favorites. But yes...there are plot holes in both theories when you stop to think and analyze them both. The thing is...neither movie gives you the chance to DO that. They expertly weave the explanation of time travel in with the current storyline, and create a specific momentum where you just accept whatever they tell you and immerse yourself in their world so you can chug chug chug along to the next chapter. I mean...Marty McFly changes the future and it seems like a happy ending, sure...but when you stop and think about it...his entire family has been erased and he's now living with strangers that he doesn't know at all. That would be a nightmare? And is Marty really Marty anymore? He was raised by an alternate set of parents in a completely different household. So...is he still himself? Or somebody different? And what happened to the other Marty that went back when he came back? Does he get stuck in 1955? Or "The Terminator"...does the war still happen? Because if it doesn't, then there's no warrior level John Connor, which means there's no rebellion, which means there's no Reese...so he can't be born. So he doesn't exist. No matter how you set these stories up, there will always be questions left over to twist your brain into knots at the end of it. BUT...none of us were thinking about that during the movie, were we? It's because the effective exposition about their particular views on time traveling were extremely entertaining, and they were threaded into the overall plot in a way where we just wanted to 'get the gist' of it all and get back to the story as quickly as possible.
    This is an excellent smoke and mirrors technique that pushes doubt and questions aside for the thrill of instant gratification. Whether it's through a bit of comedic timing, or through a rushed action sequence. Watch the videos below to see how they kept you moving forward with the plot, whether the science and logic worked out or not. Two very different tones in these examples, but take notice of how they give a bit of info that 'sounds good enough to me', and then interrupt themselves to bring everything back to the main plot of the story to deflect your focus...
     
    000 Now, using these methods, or at least thinking about them while you're writing...isn't going to save you from the 'why didn't he just do this instead?' crowd. That's impossible. But if you can hold a reader captive long enough to follow you on the journey that ou so elaborately set out for them through hours and hours of hard, emotionally draining, work...then you've truly earned your spot as one of the best of us. And that's something to be proud of.
    Anyway, as always, I hope this all made some sense, and will help you guys out with your writing in the future! If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them down below! Take care, and I'll seezya soon!
     
  10. Comicality

    Lost in the Middle

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    It can be a virtual No Man's Land sometimes when you're writing. A place where you may not be sure or feel quite confident about where your next 'peak' or your next 'valley' may come in terms of telling the story that you wanted to tell. And I feel like it's times like this when you really have your skills and instincts tested in a major way...all for the sake of keeping things moving smoothly. And more importantly...moving forward.
    For this article, I'd like to bring up the subject of getting lost in the middle of your story, how to recognize it as it's happening, and some possible ways that you maybe be able to get out of it once you get find your story stalling in a place where it shouldn't be.
    So let's find a way out of this sand trap, shall we?
    I can remember once doing a term paper on director James Cameron for school. I was such a huge fan that it was ridiculous. But he was making some of the biggest and most explosive movies of all time. "Aliens", "Terminator", "Terminator 2", "Titanic"...he was a total rock star to me. However, there was one little nitpick that I could always see in all of his movies. Nothing that really bothered me or anything, mind you. It was just something that I noticed. Once you notice it...you can't 'un-notice' it.
    When I watching "Terminator 2"...there's a second killer machine made out of liquid metal that is hot on the trail of our protagonists, creating tension and dread and this constant need to keep your eyes open for fear that he might be sneaking up on you. He was relentless in his pursuit, and it kept me on the edge of my seat every step of the way. Now...jump ahead about an hour in the movie to the beginning of the third act. The main characters are going to blow up an office building, the Terminator is shooting it out with the police, there's explosions and massive damage happening all over the place...and then...here comes Mr. Liquid Metal riding up on a police motorcycle to complicate things even further. And you know what one of the first things that crossed my mind was?
    "Oh YEAH! I forgot that he was in this movie too!"
    Hehehe, it's true. So what happened? The T-1000 hadn't really been in the movie at all for about forty to forty five minutes straight. It was a smooth transition to get back to the action that I came to see, sure...but I found myself getting invested in an entirely different aspect of the story that had absolutely nothing to do with the second Terminator in any way, shape, or form. So when he shows back up again, it almost feels like a shock to the system. And where did this giant separation from the main part of the plot happen? Right there in the middle of the story.
    Same thing happens with "Aliens", where the middle of the movie has no aliens involved at all. Even in "Titanic", I saw the iceberg and it was like, "Oh..right. This think is supposed to sink, isn't it?
    Now, luckily, James Cameron has the kind of finesse to pull of this particular trick with (seemingly) little effort in his crafting of a good story...but not everybody can do that. It can be fairly easy to find yourself lost in that storytelling wasteland when you're in the middle of your story. We get excited and anxious when we're getting started...because we have this whole treasure chest full of potential ahead of us, as well as the joy that comes from building up your characters and the world they inhabit and the overall theme and vibe of the story. It's fun! And then...at the end of your story, you get the thrill of knowing that it's almost over, that everything is coming full circle, and that you're prepared to give your readers that amazing payoff that they came for. Again, it's fun! But...there can be times when your exciting beginning is beginning to lose steam, and you're too far away from your big climax to expect to start working on it any time in the near future. And that can leave a lot of writers in limbo. Think of it like a long road trip with a bus load of children. You got them all riled up as they got on the bus and took their seats, they started making noise, conversations are flying back and forth...everybody's happy. And when you get close to your destination, that same fever hits them again. People get antsy and start wiggling and energized again. The middle of your writing project? This is the point when people start getting restless...they're running out of things to talk about...those seats get uncomfortable...and you start getting bombarded with, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Yeah, that's not always a fun place to be. Hehehe!
    Now, when I talk about getting lost in the middle, I'm talking about this from a writer's perspective. Not the readers. This is more about staying on task, maintaining focus, and keeping yourself motivated by pushing the story forward to the next meaningful event or eye-opening revelation. Don't stray too far out from your original goal and lose the road map you created to take you where you want to go. I've made that mistake a bunch of times, myself, and it can create problems in my writing that range from slow pacing, to confusing off ramps, to getting readers more involved in another story or set of characters that were never meant to take center stage in the first place. It's best to avoid those little glitches in the Matrix if you can help it. Easier said than done, but far from being as much of a pain in the ass as you may think. And the first step is being able to recognize a lull in your writing, or a disconnect between your main characters, before they get too far off the planned path.
    I think the key is blending your central act of the story with pieces of the earlier excitement...while adding hints and giving clues about the grand finale to follow. Not much...just a sprinkle here and there. Something to remind your audience why they started reading, and to reignite their interest in what's to come. This will keep the 'middle' of your story from coming off as boring or off topic. It will also inspire you to press on through this part of your project without giving up or going for long periods of time without an update or any significant inspiration for that part of your story. It's all about balance.
    You can tell when your story is dipping into the quagmire of uncertainty when you, as an author, fell some of your own excitement dying off when you sit down to continue writing. You can feel it when it becomes more difficult to figure out how you're going to connect your current events to the next big moment in your story. Just as I described it...it can feel like a wasteland. You know where you want to go, but how can you get there naturally and effectively without suddenly skipping over details or rushing through any important scenes that may come into play later. Don't do it. You may end up diminishing the impact that you want future events to have if you just try to leapfrog your way to the next part that you're excited to write about. Pay attention to these parts of your story. What's your hurry? Really take a moment and think about it.
    That's not to say that you should slow everything down, pacing wise, to ramble on about things that don't matter. I'm just saying that you should take the time to figure out what the important parts of your story are, and flesh them out in their entirety before skipping ahead to get to the next big fight, or the next sex scene, or the next big secret. When you feel yourself stuck in the 'valley' section of your story...take that time to really build up your characters' personalities. Add descriptions and depth to their motivations. This is an opportunity to dive deeper into the world that you've created, and give your story a few extra interesting layers. I think that's important in any story. But I also think that it's easy to go too far with that technique, and veer so far off course that your story has quite a long travel when it comes to getting back to your main point. And that's a major focus of writing any story, in any genre, no matter what. Stay...on...point! Remember that you are the one who is guiding your audiece on this journey. They're going to follow you wherever you take them on this long hike towards the ending you had planned. A wide detour can either cause them to lose interest, change their investment in your main characters, or simply forget what the main point of your story was completely. Neither one of those options are going to help you to strengthen your storytelling skills. They can only weaken them.
    How do you do that?
    First of all...teach yourself how to effectively fluctuate between your main plot and your subplots in your narrative. Subplots are your friends. But remember...they are SUBplots! Maybe you're telling an action/adventure story, but you have a romantic subplot. Maybe you have a romantic story, but with a highly dramatic subplot. Maybe you have a close friendship between your two main characters, but with a sudden sci-fi twist. Whatever it is that you're writing...find your main focus, and stick to it. Even when you're exploring other characters and their motivations for doing what they're doing. If you want to throw a romantic connection in your story? Awesome! Do it! But always be asking yourself...is this the main focus of the story? Does it plug in to the main plot somehow? More importantly, if I begin writing this out at length, will it overshadow the rest of the story and mislead my readers by sending them down a different path? If you can't easily answer these questions...then there's a chance that you're drifting of course. Explore a few other avenues if you like, and experiment with your characters for a while if you feel the need...but then make sure that you get yourself right back on task. Get back to the main highway and remember your game plan.
    I love playing with my own storylines and occasionally just having people talk and laugh and interact in ways that aren't a part of the main story...but I always try to make sure that I treat my main goal like a powerful 'magnet' that is constantly pulling me back to where I need to be. It keeps me from pouring too much energy into my story's subplots when I need to get back to the task at hand here.
    Does it always work? Hehehe, no! "New Kid In School"/"Kiss Of An Angel", and "Jesse-101", are perfect examples of that. But I've been working to get better at it. I really do put a lot of thought into my side characters and subplots, because I love to create a realistic, three dimensional, world for my protagonists to exist in and interact with. But sometimes...I get stuck in that exact same sand trap...and I find myself struggling to get back to my two main characters and what I really wanted to do with my story from the very beginning. And it's been a steep learning process to try to find a better balance along the way.
    But, like I said, it can be done.
    So...be sure to watch out for that 'middle story slump' when you feel yourself even a little uninspired to rush towards the next part of your story. It happens. Sometimes the excitement dims, the thrill dips between the origin and the finale, and we can find our creative juices feeling a bit sluggish between the two points. But don't sweat it. It's not a bad thing. And it's NOT writer's block. You can get that creative spark back by just concentrating on your goal for the end of your story, and coming up with a few more interesting sprinkles of conflict, doubt, danger, surprise, and joy...to get you there. It doesn't have to be anything major. Just enough to remind you and your readers of where your story began, and where it might be going if they just stick with it. K?
    Hehehe, every time I read back over one of these articles, I wonder if I'm doing or saying enough to get my point across. I've been doing this for so long now, that I'm sure that there's a lot I take for granted. It's like trying to teach a kid how to swim, ride a bike, or tie their shoes. I mean...do I even remember how *I* was taught to do it at this point? But I still hope that it helps a bit. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask below! K?
    Take care! And happy writing! ((Hugz))
  11. Comicality

    Plot Twists

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    I believe that one of the best ways to spice up a certain type of story, depending on what you happen to be writing at the moment...is to grab your audience and turn them upside down with an effective plot twist. As many of you have heard me say in past articles...the readers that you are doing your very best to entertain are much more savvy and experienced when it comes to reading fiction these days. This is the information age, and things keep speeding up. You're not speaking to folks with a local library card and a few notable classics sitting on their bookshelves at home anymore. Many of the people in your target audience have read story after story after story after STORY, and consume multiple concepts as though they'll STARVE without them! They gobble them up, ten to fifteen chapters at a time, before you can even post them! And that was probably in the last two or three weeks alone. There's no way humanly possible that you can keep up with that kind of hunger. They've seen the tricks, they know the character arcs, they're looking for clues the whole time that they're reading and attempting to beat you to the punch before you can give it to them. Let's face it...a lot of readers are like 'Neo' seeing the lines of code in "The Matrix", and now they're clicking on your newest project and looking at the first page with their arms stubbornly folded across their chest...saying, "Show me something NEW!!!"
    Well...what's NEW to them at this point? You know? How is anybody going to meet their expectations when their expectations are...godlike?
    Hehehe, now, I don't say all this to intimidate you guys! Honestly...as writers, you still have complete and total control over your own story. And if you're speaking from the heart, from your own personal perspective, you can deliver, satisfy, and entertain, your readers just the same. In the best of ways. But as your audience grows more sharp-witted...you have to try your best to do the same. Find ways to finesse your story around their watchful eye, and see if you can still sucker punch them with a few unpredictable twists every now and then. It can be done. Promise.
    This is the beauty of creating an effective plot twist in your stories. Or even multiple plot twists, if you think you're confident enough to pull them off without any loopholes or missteps along the way. (You know...the 'hard' part!)
    So let's talk 'plot twists'! What they are, how to create them, and what they can mean in the long run when it comes to giving your readers a thrill that they (hopefully) didn't see coming!
    What is a plot twist? I'm sure you all know what a twist is, but to put it into words...it's the art and craft of being able to sell your readers on one story...all while preparing to blindside them with a change in narrative that they didn't know was coming, originally. It is a vicious change in your story that suddenly shakes everything up and snatches the floor out from under your most careful and clever readers as they reel from this new dump of information that they didn't have previously. It's something that can really add a whole new layer of depth to the story that you're writing, and drop the jaws of your readers, if you can pull it off. Not only that, but it also creates a desire to read the story again after it's finished, for readers to look back and see what they missed the first time around. It's a total win/win situation. But it takes planning. And, as always...it takes practice.
    I realize that there are authors out there who aren't really interested in dropping any bombshells in their fiction, and others that may feel a bit skittish about trying to pull off such a feat for fear of messing it up or having it fall flat...but I'm willing to bet that you guys have written big plot twists into your stories before without even knowing it. It's a part of life. How could you avoid it? And what are we writing...if not a representation of life in general as we understand it, right? Plot twists are merely a method of addressing and dealing with unexpected circumstances...as told through the eyes of your protagonist.
    If any of you have ever tragically lost a parent or a family member? That's a plot twist in your life, or your personal 'story'. You didn't see it coming, and there was no way for you to prepare for it ahead of time. Even if you expected it on some level, through an illness or injury...it probably didn't happen on the exact day and at the exact time that you thought it would. If you've ever been suddenly laid off of work, had your heartbroken, discovered that you've been cheated on, found out that you or your spouse was pregnant, came out of the closet to those close to you...hell, the whole 2020 pandemic was a HUGE plot twist for a vast majority of us! It's, quite simply, of thinking that things are going to head in one direction, and suddenly having a monkey wrench thrown into the works...causing you to veer off course and take an unfamiliar detour into uncharted territory. That's all it is. It's not as difficult as some people make it out to be in their heads.
    The first part of crafting a proper plot twist in your writing is just understanding what it is. It's that car accident on the side of the road when you're driving to work in the morning. It's having your boyfriend coming home from work in a bad mood and starting an argument for no other reason than he needs to let off some steam. It's accidentally burning the macaroni that you were making for dinner. It's not as big of a leap of faith as you may think it is. The best way to surprise your audience is to think about your story and its characters...and end up surprising yourself. Hehehe, I've done it many times. Honestly! I've had some of my best ideas at random, and I LOVE that unexpected spark taking a hold of me and guiding me towards something even more awesome than what I originally had in mind! It's crazy. That's why I keep a pen and some paper with me at all times. Like, "Omigod! Let me write that down before I forget it! That would be awesome!"
    Here's the thing...while I was thinking about posting some of the BEST plot twists that I've ever read in books or seen in some movies or TV shows...I decided not to list them here. As, for many of them...the twist is the best part of the fiction. ("WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!?!?!") And everybody might not have seen or read them yet. So I'll save those thrills for you guys' enjoyment, so you can all experience them on your own time, and get the full effect. However, I wanted to give a few examples of what plot twists look like, how they become an organic part of the story itself, and how a slight or super sharp 'shift' in your story can immediately subvert expectations and force your audience to go back to see how you were able to trick them into believing something that wasn't true. I wanted to show a few effective plot twists at work, to help me bring the whole point home in some way.
    These are two short horror films that I've enjoyed sharing with a few other people online. I chose horror, because plot twists and big reveals are a staple in that particular genre. But DON'T worry! Hehehe, k? Nothing overly gory or something that will scare the living shit out of you! Promise. It's not anything more than anything that you would see in a Twilight Zone episode.
    Watch these two short films in their entirety, and pay attention to the methods and techniques that are being employed here to create the desired effect in the end...
     
    00 Now, after watching those...do you kind of get the idea? Plot twists aren't really that difficult to pull off as long as you build up to them in your story in subtle ways and, eventually, deliver an ending that has a significant impact on your story as a whole. It breaks down into three simple steps...
    Groundwork.
    Gut Punch.
    Payoff.
    What you're doing here as a writer is merely creating a narrative where a potential 'secret' is being exposed at a moment that your readers weren't expecting to see it. And you accomplish that by getting your readers to totally invest themselves in one story...and then showering them with a bucket of ice water by introducing another story entirely. You are deconstructing everything that they thought they knew from the very beginning, and sending them on a different course from the one they expected to follow. There's a shattering of the story's reality and the rules that you have put in place to guide that particular narrative in a certain direction. And now...oh shit...there's an upset! The scheme of things that people were planning on and trying to figure out before you did...has now been turned upside down, and you've gained a new level of interest within them as they watch to see what will you will do next.
    I believe that the art of telling a compelling story, one that spans over multiple chapters, comes from the ability to occasionally surprise your readers from time to time. As I always say, the stories are all about a simple question. 'What if?' Plot twists work the same way. It's a bait and switch, but in a good way. Like..."You thought I was telling THIS story...but I was actually telling this OTHER story all along!" Or some personal variation on that concept. Hehehe!
    The way to pull this off comes from planning ahead of time. Now, you don't have to struggle with a heavy plot twist when thinking up the initial theme of the story itself. I mean, if the twist is going to be the defining part of your whole project...then yeah, plan that out waaaaay ahead of time. But, while I feel there's a need to be 'flexible' with your craft along the way, I think that truly effective plot twists should, more often or not, be a part of the original planning process. Know where you're going with your story before coming to that particular fork in the road so you can have a touch of build up to it. That's what makes it meaningful. And nothing ruins a good plot twist than just having it randomly appear out of nowhere without any apparent reason. That can make your twist more 'jarring' than surprising or exciting, and it takes away from the overall feel of your story while your readers try to recover from that sudden stumbling block and readjust to get themselves reattached to the story again. And since many big plot twists happen near the end of said story...you're not really giving them a whole lot of time to do that.
    That brings us to our three techniques...
    - Groundwork. This is where you begin to build a structure for your plot twist later on in the story or series. It's the act of knowing whats ahead for your readers...without letting them know that there's a big surprise just around that next corner. You leave little breadcrumbs along the way. You drop a few hints, a few clues, a few strange behaviors from the characters that will ultimately be involved in the big finish. But you have to be subtle about it. Not too obvious. If you're telling a zombie story, and you show your audience a giant machine that is specifically fitted with grinding razor blades and flamethrowers attached, and then you just walk away from it in your story...yeah. Some savvy readers will roll their eyes and immediately think, "Gee...Ill just bet THAT wont come into play later!" And they'll be looking for it. However...there are ways around that too. Which leads us to part two...
    - Gut Punch. Now, how do you deliver a big gut punch to your readers without them expecting it ahead of time. Hehehe, simple! You end up using their own strength against them! Like a 'Judo' move! If you truly have a collection of readers who have taught themselves the ins and outs of reading stories or watching movies or whatever...you can use that to your benefit. You can accomplish this by using certain tropes and cliches in your stories that you, yourself, might have seen a million times before. You know the ones. The damsel in distress getting saved by the hero...the untrustworthy ally that betrays the protagonist at the last minute...the villain that ends up shouting 'what have I done?' in the end and has a change of heart. You know how to build up these story tropes and you know where they lead. But...if your readers recognize them and the path that they're on...what happens if you completely upset the whole thing and shock the living shit out of them? Hehehe!
    The gut punch is the climax of your plot twist. This is what really counts when it comes to whether or not it's going to be successful or not. Reveal the secret. Decode the message. Shake things up, and send your audience reeling when they least expect it. And no matter what you do...make sure that you commit to it. No matter what. And enjoy the gasps to follow.
    Payoff. This one is the fun part, but just as important as the other two. When I'm talking about a payoff here...I'm saying that your plot twist (if you choose to pull one off) should have some deeper meaning, and a true impact on the story from that point on. Don't just toss one out there for no reason if it isn't going truly change things for your story and the characters within it. That's a plot twist wasted...so don't build up to something that doesn't really make much difference one way or the other. And don't use fictional breadcrumbs to make promises that you can't cash in on later. It'll come off as disappointing to your audience...and if this takes place near the end of your story, that will become a big part of the lasting impression that you lead with them. Even if the beginning of your project is mind-blowing...if a plot twist isn't adding another level to your narrative and changing the plot and behaviors of your main characters in some significant way...it wont matter. The end of your book is what they'll remember most.
    Hehehe, again, I don't want to discourage you in giving these methods a try. Like I said, if you decide to create one in your next story...they don't have to be anything HUGE! Just effective. The whole idea is, again...to sell your audience on one story, and then completely wreck that story by revealing what was really going on all along. It doesn't take any big speeches or exposition or explanations before or after the big gut punch. It's merely a way of causing your story to completely change course from what people were sure was going to be end that they were looking for.
    With that said, I'd like to end this article with a video where I think this is best displayed for you to see and think about for later. Once again, I'm using a horror/thriller model, as plot twists seem to be a special part of those particular genres. This video is an animated version of these stories that you might be able to find on Reddit or elsewhere online. There's only one rule...the story can only be TWO sentences long. So check out the video collection below, and notice how every story can easily use the groundwork, gut punch, payoff, method in such a limited space!
     
    As always, I hope this helps you guys out with your writing, especially if you're going out there and looking for new ways to grow or try out new ideas as an author. Take care! And I wish you well!
     
  12. Comicality

    Unloveable

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    I truly think that Mark Twain said it best...
    "A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory."
    If that's the case...I wish my memory was a lot worse than it is now, because 'a clear conscience', I'll never have. And yet, I don't see that as a bad thing. Never have, never will. The truth is...I had to grow up at some point. And, yes...I made PLENTY of mistakes! I have plenty of regrets. Lost friends, created enemies, and made a lot of bad choices for selfish reason. But...you know what? It made me who I am today. And the mistakes I make tomorrow will make me who I plan to be in the future. And I'm ok with that. Growing up is a process that never ends, no matter old you get or how firm you think your hold on reality is. I embrace that. I'm happy with who I am as a person, flaws, scars, and all. And I like to bring those lessons that I've learned the hard way into my stories and attribute those imperfections to my characters in an attempt to reach out to others who may be going down that same road without even realizing that they're making the same mistakes that I once made. Maybe they can see a piece of themselves in the fiction and correct course before they go over the cliff, you know?
    But...how do I manage to do that as a writer? How can I tackle the themes of self reflection, harsh consequence, and the idea of a person who's trying to find a way out of a pattern of thinking and behaving when it's such a part of what they believe is their natural personality...without having my readers just...hehehe...absolutely fucking HATE them???
    After years of dealing with this, I wish that I could tell you all that I have found the secret formula to giving flawed characters a chance to redeem themselves and keep reading, regardless of their endless frustration. But that wouldn't be anywhere close to being the truth. I still get angry emails on occasion over stories that I wrote years ago! In fact, I often have to go back to whatever chapter they site as their breaking point so I can even figure out what they're talking about half the time. Just to try to find a connection and maybe get some kind of understanding for their outrage. But, the fact of the matter is...I allow my characters to be flawed. Some, I deliberately write that way in order to teach them something during their journey from the beginning of the story, until the very end. And there's a reason for that.
    I just want readers to understand that I'm not writing a certain character a certain way...just to piss them off. That's not why I do it. (Well...hehehe except for "Billy Chase" Book 6...but more on that in a second!) My 'memory' reminds me what it was like to be lost in a few dark places in the past. I remember those mistakes. I understand why I have those regrets. And so I regress to put my main characters back in that mindset so that I can use my story to show readers how I was able to get out of that void and back on the right track. Not an easy road to take...but if they'll just be a little patient with me for a little while...maybe they'll be able to understand why I made the creative choices that I did with the characters, and how it works to bring the story together as a whole.
    Patience seems to be like a really difficult thing to ask for these days, I know...but I'm going to keep doing it regardless. I've got something somewhat important to say here.
    I think the most dangerous and risky part of writing a flawed or unlikable main character is preparing, and ultimately dealing with, the immediate backlash of it all. I won't lie to you...it can be hurtful. It is a corrosive ACID to your creativity and your writer confidence when you're getting an inbox full of angry comments...saying that your main character is so 'stupid', and an 'idiot', and having them judge and condemn him or her...chapter after chapter after chapter...without end. I'm not going to tell you that it doesn't hurt, even when you have a plan in place to redeem that character in the long run. Because it most certainly does. I can't tell you how many comments I've had, telling me, "FUCK this story!!! I'm not reading it anymore!" or "What an idiot! He makes me hate this whole series now!" Oh man...there have been times when I just had to close the laptop and walk away for a while. Hehehe! But, at the end of the day, you just have to try to have faith in your talent and remember that an angry response is better than no response at all. At least you affected them in some way, you know?
    People who never read your story again is one thing. But people who go out of their way to TELL you that they're never reading your story again? Don't sweat it. They'll be back. They won't be able to help themselves...so brush that bullshit off of your shoulders. K? The biggest curse isn't criticism...it's silence. Keep that fact close to your heart.
    Once I learned to let go of the emotional attachment to what some folks were writing to me in frustration and anger, I was able to have a dialogue with them to figure out what the heck I could have done that was sooooo wrong as to have them throw such a rage filled tantrum over the stories that I was writing. And you know what I found out? It was a very personal connection to the story and the characters themselves, as well as some difficult events in their OWN past experiences, that was causing a majority of the frustration. And then, it began to make sense to me. It wasn't about my writing at all. It went much deeper than that.
    "I had a sick friend when I was a kid!"
    "I was cheated on when I was in college, and he broke my fucking HEART! So I can't forgive the actions of these characters at ALL! EVER!"
    "I was REJECTED when I first came out of the closet! My parents disowned me, and I lost my best friend! So your story is unrealistic and wrong!"
    "I told my parents I was gay when I was 10 years old! Why is he waiting so long???"
    "When I was in high school, I'd NEVER cheat on my boyfriend with the hottest boy model on the planet! No matter HOW much I was tempted!"
    Well...I mean...when I write about love, or sex, or abuse, or teen angst...whatever...it's come from a place of honesty and, what I'm thinking, is a realistic take on the gay teen experience. Believe me, I'm not writing this stuff to trigger painful memories and repressed emotions in the minds and hearts of my readers. It's the world, how I see it. How I saw it growing up. And I think, as a writer, every last one of you should be doing the exact same thing. Tell your story. YOUR story! Readers need to calm down, sometimes. And understand that these tales...this new age 'mythology' that we work so hard to weave for their entertainment, isn't about what they want to SEE. It's about what the author has to SAY. Period.
    Again...is this their story? Or your story?
    Basically...characters that may begin with flaws and annoyances that readers don't agree with...they give the story somewhere to 'go'. That should be the point. There's not a single one of us that wasn't, in some way, born of fire. To deny that is ridiculous. It's like keeping the training wheels on your bike forever and never learning how to ride without them. Let your characters be flawed. It makes them interesting. Complex. Nuanced. I'm super honored that readers might be truly invested in the stuff that I write online. But, sometimes...it's like, JESUS! Chill out! He's a KID! An imaginary kid, at that. You've been a kid once, right? Give him a friggin' break and calm down. Is there a single one of us that can say we never did anything stupid in high school? How about college? How about in the last month? Be honest. Don't let the bad memory thing clear your conscience, people!
    Many years ago...hehehe, it still feels weird to say that sometimes...I began a series called, "Magic Man". I had such high hopes for that series and had a real inspiring message to bring to the table in terms of doing something that I had never done before. I planned to really get into people's minds and get them to look at themselves as well as their daily, monotonous, routine. Wishing for a way out...but not willing to really make an effort to make that happen. And...that story was obliterated with negative comments from day one! LOL! But, the main character, Gavin, was written to be somewhat depressed...and thus, 'unlovable', I guess. And that one really hurt, because I felt like no one was giving it a chance to unfold and actually build itself up to create the broad story arc that I had in mind. And it was posted on the site, and on Nifty, and the whole WORLD pretty much watched me fail miserably at it. Or...at least that's how it felt at the time.
    (No worries! "Magic Man" has gone through a major overhaul, and when the new chapters of Book One are finished, you'll be able to grab it as an ebook at the end of this Summer! It's still a story that I really wanted to tell, and I plan to do it my way. You can read the original at https://gayauthors.org/story/comicality/magicman if you want to see if it is as utterly 'awful' as they said it was.)
    But as I was editing the story again through new eyes...I realized that I allowed myself to get bullied out of sharing my voice with other people who might have really gotten a lot out of what I had to say. And I shouldn't have. The story was exactly what I wanted it to be, even though it was just beginning the first act of the project. I doubted myself, and abandoned it for a long LONG time. I don't do that anymore. If anything, I lean in to stuff like that. And that brings us into "Billy Chase", Book 6! Hehehe!
    For those who haven't read the series yet, I'm not giving away any spoilers. I'll keep it vague. But the events that I had planned for Book 6 were originally going to go in an entirely different direction than how it eventually turned out. And for those of you who were on the Library and the Shack at the time will know why. I gave Billy Chase flaws, had him make mistakes, have some regrets, and try to fix them...because, at the end of the day, he had a really good heart. He was just a bit naive, spontaneous, and sometimes a bit selfish. But, I mean...is there a teenager that isn't in some capacity? So, while working on Book 5...all I got was whining and bitching and complaints and this should go 'this' way and that should go 'that' way...everybody's an expert. Right? So...as hard as I working, as exhausted as I was...I'm getting hate mail? Ok...let me take all of their comments and give them exactly what they were asking for.
    I rewrote all of my notes, rehashed the whole game plan, and I did exactly that. "Oh, this is what you want? More of this? Less of that? You wanted a monster with no conscience and no fear of being found out? Does the angst bother you? You want more sex? You want LESS sex? He's stupid? He's an idiot? Why can't he just come out already? Everybody's angry? Ok...let's do it your way, then. You have all the answers, right? You know how to write this story? Cool. Your comments have now guided this teenage boy in this particular direction! Enjoy!"
    I wrote the story they kept saying they wanted me to tell. And I had the consequences pan out accordingly. Hehehe, sooooooo many people were OUTRAGED! Oh God, they HATED it! But, hey...writing stories isn't easy. You don't trust my plan? Let's go with yours, instead. I think the Comicality Library arguments were endless at the time. And eventually it was just like..."Can I go back to doing things my way again now?" And they were more than happy to agree. It really wasn't meant to be a punishment or anything, but sometimes...readers just need an author work their magic and see what happens. A creator's vision has to be seen through to the end in order to be appreciated fully. And if it's not your thing? That's cool. But leave the work to speak to those who are looking to hear what the writer has to say.
    As always...if you want to see your personal story being told online...then write it. You've got a keyboard too. It might be a huge hit with fans and readers who feel the exact same way that you do. Go for it. Why not?
    Don't ever be afraid to let your characters be flawed. Or mean. Or even downright despicable in the beginning of your story. You can make them the most loathsome character in the world if you want to. The way to keep people reading...is just a faint glimmer of hope. JUST a spark...nothing more. Until their journey begins, don't allow yourself to be intimidated out of making them an unlovable character. Those can sometimes end up being the best stories ever written. If you have a tale of true redemption or triumph that you want to tell...then tell it your way. Allow the characters to evolve and learn the lessons that they need to learn in order to trigger a change in them that will be long lasting and inspiring to your audience. Do it! Readers will stick with it, or they won't. I think that a writer's voice is extremely important when it comes to their main form of expression. So tell your story. And make no apologies for having a severely flawed main character as your protagonist. Give them obstacles to battle against, mistakes to learn from, trials to struggle through. And let the audience grow along with them as they find their way towards a better path. It makes for one hell of a great story...and they'll be cheering for the protagonist by the time it's all over and done with.
    Most importantly...keep your eyes on the prize. Meaning...stay faithful to the story arc that you're trying to build. Some people aren't patient enough to see it, and some will attack you with snap judgements that they make from the very beginning. You can't let that push you away from your own project. Not everybody is going to love everything that you write...but you have to have faith in your own projects. Ignore the negativity, and press forward until the story is done. K?
    I made the mistake of letting hurtful comments keep me from sharing expressions of my inner self over the years because I was scared that I'd be further humiliated and all of my hard work would go to waste. But I have a different perspective on that kind of thing now. I think I understand my role as a writer and the role of my readers much better now. And none of this works without us connecting in some way...even when it's a strained relationship at times. Hehehe!
    Anyway, I hope this helps you guys out! Flawed characters can be difficult to sell to an audience, but they can end up being some of the most compelling and most relatable characters that you ever write. It's just a matter of sprinkling a few glimpses of hope and redemption in your story, here and there (even if your main character relapses from time to time) to make them the guy/girl that readers love to hate for a little while. Find a balance. 'Humanize' the flaws that we all possess in some form or another, even if it's exaggerated in the form of this fictional character...and then find ways to help them get over, go under, or force their way through, it in a way that can enlighten your audience.
    It takes patience. I know. But...if you believe...then they'll believe.
    Happy writing to you all! And I'll seezya soon!
  13. Comicality

    Writer Evolution

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    There's an old proverb out there that basically says, "Instead of waiting on your greatness...understand that it is your greatness that is waiting on you." What does that mean, exactly? Well, I've always thought of it as a way to say that you always have a much higher goal to reach for, and you simply can't get there by being 'comfortable' with whatever it is that you're doing right now.
    Does that mean that there's anything wrong with what you're doing right now? Of course not. Take your time, hone your craft, and enjoy your talents and reader fandom comments for everything that they are. Find your 'home'. As always, I truly believe that being comfortable is a big part of the writing experience. You should feel as though you literally own the space that you built with your words and your characters, and you should feel as though you're in total control of it all for as long as your fingers are touching that keyboard. That's a good thing. And SO much fun once you've realized that you've gotten good at it. Your passion is like music. Like a dance. Embracing it in that golden moment is the greatest feeling in the world.
    But...what happens when you feel like you want to grow even bigger and more effective as a writer in general? What do you do when you feel as though you've leveled off somewhere along the way, and want to discover a new frontier or feel the thrill of another challenge when it comes to putting out another story? Because no matter how good one of us might be with a certain type of character or genre of story...we can always get better, right? There's always a juicier fruit on a higher branch somewhere that we could be climbing up towards, just for a taste. In order to do that...we have to evolve. We have to reinvent and redefine ourselves from time to time. Liven things up a bit to escape the inevitable monotony of comfort.
    Hehehe, sounds weird, doesn't it? We all work sooooo hard to get our stories written, learn what to do and how to do it, and we finally reach a point where we can feel, with confidence, that we know what the hell we're doing...and here comes Comsie to screw that up for us and make us start all over from scratch. Hehehe, welcome to the world of the ambitious artist! Kick off your shoes and stay a while. It'll be worth it.
    Today, we're talking about writer evolution. How to create new challenges for yourself, and continue to grow and improve as a writer...even when you feel like you're already at the top of your game.
    As I've said, many times before, I'm pretty sure that I could coast by writing the same romantic, gay teen, stories that I've been writing since the very beginning of all this online pandemonium...and I'm sure that it would be received well by a majority of my readers that know, for the most part, what to expect from me. But...would it really fulfill me? Or satisfy my urges to reach out and try things that I've never done before? No way! I'm constantly trying to see if I can find a different angle, a different twist, or a different presentation, of an idea that we all hold dear to our hearts in one way or another. Something that speaks to a wide audience, but still feels fresh and new and unique in the way that I tell the story.
    That's why I am always trying out different ideas whenever I can. "Let me try something with a science fiction twist, or something in the horror genre, or something more lighthearted, or something much darker than what people are used to." Not long ago, I tried my hand at fantasy for the first time. Just to see if I could pull it off. Why not, right?
    HOWEVER...when I talk about writer evolution, I'm not just talking about changing your genre or trying out something that you're really not interested in. No. That would go against the whole 'comfort' rule, wouldn't it? Hehehe, that's no good. No way, you can evolve and still keep doing what you're doing. Just do it better. Take chances. Risks. It's not some level of pressure being put on your shoulders to somehow top everything that you've done before. That's the wrong way to think about it. You shouldn't be obsessed with trying to improve on our craft...but simply expand on it. There's a difference.
    For me, personally, I feel as though I get closer to my true self with every story, and every chapter, that I write and post for other people to read. The more I write, the more I see my attempts to make some kind of weird sense out of the rest of the world, and of myself...and that peels back another layer of self awareness. It exposes a part of myself to thoughts and feelings that I either didn't even know were there, or that I've never fully dealt with. And that instantly makes me wonder...'what if I gave those hidden emotions a poke or two?'
    Because, that's the most compelling part of any fictional story, isn't it? The question of, 'What if?'
    I truly believe that we, as writers, find our greatest strengths in our vulnerabilities. In being able to talk about those private parts of ourselves that most people are holding back on, because they refuse to believe that anyone else could possibly understand them. Their virtues and their flaws. If you can continue to grow as an artist, even when your readers think you're the greatest thing since sliced bread...you will never cease to entertain and surprise them with every project that you manage to put out there for them to absorb. This is where you begin to find that 'voice' in your writing, and you can conquer it, story by story, by exploring every avenue that it offers you in the space that you've given yourself to work with. And once you've mastered that level of your craft...look up at the sky...and see if you can go even further. Like...what next? You know?
    Perfection is boring! Searching for new levels of success is the spice of life. And there isn't a major artist out there that doesn't already know this.
    You know, when I was still a tiny tyke, hehehe...I remember the Michael Jackson, 'Thriller', video being played for the first time! I mean, I forget how old I was, but I wasn't in double digits yet, that's for sure. And I was SOOOO fucking confused while I was watching it! Because...music videos were still pretty much a 'new' thing at the time. But this was...a mini movie, and the singing and the dancing...a lot of you younger guys have no idea! It was like, "WTF is going ON?!?!?!" I was so amazed! Nothing like this had ever been done before. Ever. And not long after that, Michael Jackson's sister, Janet, came out with the 'Control' album...and she did the 'Pleasure Principle' music video...and we were shocked again.
    Now, understand...this was a different time. This didn't happen. I mean...occasionally you got Lionel Richie to dance on the ceiling, or George Michael shaking his jeans clad booty in front of a jukebox...but that was it. There was no dancing and storytelling on this level. That didn't exist. Later on, if you could dance to Madonna's 'Vogue', you were in the advanced class! Hehehe! But, believe me...you guys have Michael and Janet Jackson to thank for what music videos look like today. Because...it wasn't like that before they came along.
    Anyway, when I was a kid, EVERYBODY learned the dance steps to 'Thriller' and 'Billy Jean'! I mean...everybody. Every single step. You can throw a party right NOW, and anyone who grew up in the 80's knows that dance! All the boys knew 'Thriller', and all the girls knew 'Pleasure Principle'. It was practically a task more important than any homework our teachers could possibly give us. ::Giggles:: And these videos were game changers in music video culture in general.
    But don't take my word for it. See for yourself. These are edited versions, because I can't have you guys watching videos all day. You've got stories to write!
     
    0000 Now...why did I add these videos to this article? Be patient! Hehehe, let me explain...
    You see...the whole world learned every single step to both videos. Like, "Hey! I'm just as good as Michael Jackson!" or "I can do it better than Janet if I add a few extra moves here and there!" They had already changed the game in terms of music videos, and leveled the competition, and could have easily kept on that same path to make many more hits in the future. But they didn't do that. They evolved.
    As an author, you have the ability to do the same thing. When it comes to your passion for writing your stories, there's no settling for something 'satisfactory'. At least, not for me, it isn't. What's next? What are you going to try out? Where are you going with this? Are you going to bring something new to the table? Or are you slowly stepping up the wrong way on an escalator?
    Don't be afraid to challenge yourself. I know that there are things out there that you aren't used to or familiar with. I know that there are probably ideas in your head that you're probably putting off because you don't feel confident enough to handle them just yet. I can completely understand the intimidating feeling you get when your next chapter is bearing down on you and you're worried about getting it right after all the work you put into building up to it. I get it. But this is what writer evolution is all about. You can't reach it from your comfort zone. You've got to put yourself in a state of emotional peril in order to get there. Easier said than done, yes...but far from impossible.
    It's just a matter of allowing yourself to explore your true feelings and inner thought while you are writing. Extend your instincts just a few seconds before your rapidly typing fingers. Hehehe, don't be afraid to surprise yourself with what you write. Do you have any idea how many sections of my own stories that I just wrote by 'accident'? Especially if you read the chapters of "Billy Chase"...where a lot of those passages just expressed themselves according to whatever it was that I was dealing with on that particular day.
    Remember, writing isn't just a skill. It's an art. You have all the room in the world to explore yourself, your feelings, your past, your present, your future, your dreams and fantasies, and your reality. All at once. Feel around, and find your space. You are the architect of your own paradise...drama and all. Write it out. Think of it as allowing your deepest thoughts and concerns about your own existence the opportunity to exhale and relax. Get it all out of your system. It's a liberating practice to engage in, believe me.
    Discover all the parts of yourself that you never really expressed before on that level...put it out there...and then come back to see if you can dig even deeper. There's always a deeper. Hehehe!
    This is how you will find ways to improve as a writer. Not through technical formatting or mechanical punctuation or plot development. Those things are necessary too...don't get me wrong. But there is a piece of you, a true core, that can touch people in ways that other others can only scrape the surface of until they take the same journey that I'm (hopefully) inspiring you to take now. Nobody can teach that. You have to discover it on your own. And isn't that much more rewarding than reading it from some jackass online like me? Hehehe!
    A year or two later after Michael Jackson and his sister Janet Jackson came out with those videos, and everybody was so proud of learning the choreography at home from watching it on TV...thinking that they were just as good as they were? Hahaha! Both Michael and Janet, basically, said, "Oh REALLY? Ok! Hold my beer!" And their next albums came out and the videos were like, "Learn THIS, bitches!" And then...everybody just kind of stopped trying after that! Because...who wants to end up in the hospital, right?
    Now...mind you...this was THIRTY YEARS ago!!! So, the whole...ninja shit was brand new to all of us! And both of them only got more daring from there on. But, hey...thats the point, right? You've got to evolve. Get better. Get stronger. Get more complex. You've got the talent already...so why not push the envelope, you know?
     
    0000 So...why keep reaching when you have so much low hanging fruit right there in front of you? It's a question that a lot of people do ask themselves from time to time. Well, the answer is easy. You end up collapsing in on yourself. Not everybody, but more often than not...the formula gets tiresome over time. It becomes predictable. Especially if you're writing erotica. The outcome of both the main character and the love interest can be somewhat limited, seeing as people know how this story is going to go from the second they click on the link to read it.
    You have to find ways to keep your readers interested by giving them a variety of different set ups and potential conflicts when it comes to gay stories like these. Some have happy endings, some don't. Some are sweet and happy, and some come with obstacles and angst. Give your emotional output a workout from time to time. Don't worry about being TOO different, as a piece of you as an author should still be visible in everything that you write...but never be afraid to stretch out and try something new. Believe in your instincts, and your instincts will grow stronger over time. Confidence is everything. And it'll work, even when a story fails to get the kind of response that you're looking for.
    Also..remember...for every inspired set of eyes that read your story and fall in love it...they will be building off of your blueprint. Which is AWESOME! But, if you want to stay ahead of the curve and remain relevant...evolution and reinvention is a must. People are watching, learning, and evolving, on their own. Read what the next generation of writers are doing and let them inspire you to go even further in your own work. Think of it as an adrenaline shot right in the heart of your creative heart. It'll turn your creative passion into a full blown sport over time. I'll admit, I'm competitive too when it comes to putting out new stories. I LOVE it! There will never be a time when I'm not fighting to show readers why I've earned the spot that I've gotten over the years. There's not a challenge that I won't accept if I can manage to participate. I began writing stories in June of 1998 on Nifty. You can go to Nifty right now, and look at everything before 1998, and except for the authors that truly inspired me and were wriing some amazing stories of their own...the Nifty landscape of 'romance' stories were far and few between. Not like it is now. And I'm thankful that I was there to be a part of that new Rennesaince in the archive. And there's no better feeling than knowing that I can still hold my own...competition be damned, after all these years. LOL!
    Back to music...
    This is a video that is much more recent, with Jason Derulo, and Lay, and NCT...who are some of the best dancers...ummm...well, anywhere. But as cool and fun as this video is...take a close look at it. It is SO cool to see the evolution of the dance moves in this music video...but still see the obvious influence from those Michael and Janet videos up above still evident in the choreography!
    Influences last forever. Make your storytelling ability be one of those influences when you're escalating your talents to the next level.
     
    Bottom line...you evolve by becoming totally comfortable with what you're doing as a writer...and then thinking about where you can go next. In the series, "Savage Moon", I wrote, "A cage a million miles wide is still a cage." And that's what writer evolution (Or ANY kind of evolution, really) is all about. You can have all the room in the world...but if you walk far enough in one direction...you're going to hit a wall. Don't you want to see what's on the other side of that all? Seriously.
    Evolve as a writer. And never stop. Like I said, it's not about getting 'better'...it's all about expanding. What's over here? What's over there? How else can I convey this message? What if I change the point of view? All questions that can take you to the next level. Don't get bored with your writing, and don't let your fans get bored with it either. The world is sooooo big! There are so many perspectives to explore! None of us will live long enough to explore them all...but don't fool yourself into thinking that you're in short supply.
    Stories are more than just what we write...they're who we are. Take pride in that. And share them with as many people as you can.
    I hope this came off as somewhat inspiring. Hehehe, I think we all need that from time to time. It keeps our teeth sharp! Raaawwwwrrr!!!
    Take care, and I'll seezya soon!
     
  14. Comicality

    MaryGary Sue

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    I have to be 100% honest here...
    I had NEVER once, in my entire life, heard the term 'Mary Sue' used in any writer's discussion, ever...until "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was released in theaters a few years ago. Never. Not once. Since then it has become this weird 'buzzword' that a lot of people have weaponized to use as a criticism in a variety of stories, movies, and comic books, and while I don't really use it myself I think it is an attempt to point out a certain flaw that authors may run into when creating their characters and building an engaging story around them.
    I do wish that it hadn't become such an insulting way of describing a character, but I suppose it all depends on who's using it, and why. So this weekend, I'd love to take some of the venom out of the term, and have an open an honest discussion about the concept of a 'Mary (or Gary) Sue' character in our stories online.
    To begin...what is a Mary/Gary Sue? What does that even mean? And how do you spot one in whatever story you happen to be reading or writing at that particular moment? Well...basically, a Mary/Gary Sue character is someone who is written to be absolutely flawless. Perfect beyond the suspension of disbelief. They're always super strong, and super beautiful, and super smart...they almost never lose, they have everything going for them at all times, and they barely have to lift a finger to make any situation in their lives come up roses. Just...frustratingly free from any real challenges of any kind. In other words....'boring'.
    Oh you can have an EXCELLENT story going on around them the whole time...with action and romance and intrigue and all the sprinkles and ice cream scoops that would make for a great reading experience...but a boring protagonist can drag that awesome story right down into the dirt with them if you're not careful. Simply adding a few sentences to 'tell' your audience that this person is confused or conflicted or flawed in some way, only to go back to describing how perfect they are over the next ten pages, is NOT going to balance out in the long run. How can a character who never loses possibly enjoy winning? How does a character with no struggles and no obstacles to overcome possibly express any sense of joy or triumph? What is the value of an achievement that you didn't earn? These are all questions that might arise when it comes to having a Mary/Gary Sue character in your story. And that's something you might want to ultimately avoid.
    I think that the idea is best displayed when you see a character that is SO well loved by the other characters in the story, and has SO little to worry about, that you actually stop caring whether or not they win in the end. It's not that you're cheering for the opposing team. You just don't see a need to give your character any support when they obviously don't need it. What is there to root for? The entire universe is conspiring in their favor at all times whether you agree with their choices or not. They're perfect. EVERYBODY thinks they're perfect! Hehehe!
    One example of this idea, in my opinion, comes from the movie versions of the "Twilight" series. Now, I've never read the books, so they may be totally different from the films, but from what I saw in the movies...Bella is the pure definition of a Mary Sue character. She's a dark and brooding teenager who moves to a new town and starts a new school...and by the end of the first day, she has a group of friends to hang out and eat lunch with, she has a boy asking her out to the dance, a 100 year old vampire immediately falls in love with her (After going from high school to high school for over a century, he's NEVER been more in love? Really?), as well as a boy werewolf that can't stop obsessing over her, and just...ugh! These are TEENAGERS we're talking about here, right? Stereotypes aside, it's been my experience that if you go sitting at the wrong table in the cafeteria on your very first day at a new school, you're going to get a cold shoulder like you wouldn't believe! But...as the series goes on, all eyes are on Bella. Everybody loves her, they go out of their way to make her a part of their inner circle, there are practically immortal beings literally fighting over her, even vampires that are much higher up on the food chain over OTHER vampires are completely fascinated with her...it reaches the point of just being ridiculous after a while. The entire world revolves around her and her wants and her needs, and since she's so perfect and flawless in every imaginable way...there really isn't much for her to do outside of bearing witness to whatever else is happening in the story. The plot unfolds, and she basically watches from the sidelines until it comes too close to affecting her as the poor victim...and then the rest of the world bends over backwards to protect her. She can't lose. She's not going to die! Be honest, that never crosses your mind, does it? When you have a character like this in your story, even if it's a main character, they become more of an observer than a participant. And I think that takes your readers out of the story in terms of relating to them and being a part of the adventure. Like I said, that can drag a GREAT story down to a mediocre level...or worse. So it's definitely something to look out for when you're putting your story together.
    "But Comsie...isn't the story supposed to be concentrated around your main character at all times? Isn't that the point?"
    The answer is YES! It most certainly is. But there is a difference between a 'protagonist' and a 'Mary/Gary Sue'. Even though a protagonist is made to be the center of attention in your story, that doesn't mean that they have to be perfect or void of any unlikable flaws. I understand the idea behind reading a modern day fairy tale type of story where you can live vicariously through a character that can live the life that many of us always wish that we could have lived ourselves. I don't want to claim that there isn't something alluring about the escapism of it all. But, for me personally...I find myself looking for a little struggle every now and then. I think it only enhances the appeal of a protagonist to know that they have to deal with issues that we can all relate to. Even when they're super powerful. Even when they're outrageously gorgeous. Even when they're extremely rich. Give me something 'human' to latch on to so that connection can be made between me and the characters that I read about. It's a part of that reader/writer relationship that makes it so addictive. This is what makes it fun.
    Some years ago, Hollywood decided to reboot the whole Superman franchise for a brand new generation with the movie, "Man Of Steel". Now, I know some people sort of drag that movie through the mud for whatever reason, but I actually really liked "Man Of Steel". I've always been a Superman fan, ever since I was a little boy. He was my very first superhero. And...I still love Superman to a certain degree...but I cannot IMAGINE actually having the task of writing for that character! No way! Superman, in a lot of ways, is the ultimate Gary Sue! You can't hurt him, you can't kill him, you can't run from him, you can't hide from him, you can't corrupt his morals or good nature (Generally speaking. There have been some isolated stories that have played around with some of those ideas)...he's invincible. Period. It makes me ask why there could ever be any crime, anywhere, on planet Earth. How is that possible? We have Superman. You see the comic book cover, and he's fighting an army of space demons or whatever, and there's a blurb asking, "Will Superman survive and save the day?" The answer? Of COURSE he will! He's friggin' Superman! Is this a trick question or what?
    However...there was this one trailer (I think it was the second or third trailer that released before the movie came out) that completely SOLD me on the idea of the reboot!
    While all of the trailers that came before this one, and after this one, were winding people up with how awesome and majestic and invulnerable Superman was...this trailer was different. It mostly focuses on the destruction surrounding him. The horrific decimation of whole cities. People running and screaming and fearing for their lives. And the goosebump raising quote, "For every human you save...we will kill a million more!" I remember thinking, YES!!! THAT is how you get to Superman! THIS is the kind of strategy that a war torn general would use to flush out and defeat a being that is basically God in a cape'!
    Now there's a challenge. Now there's some tension. I'm not worried about some super villain punching Superman in the face. That's not going to accomplish anything at all. But go after the people he loves and cares about? Take advantage of the fact that he can't be in all places at once, and he can't save everybody....THAT'S how you hurt a 'perfect' superhero. I honestly wish that movie had exploited that part of the equation a bit more, but...I was happy with what I got. Decent flick if you get a chance to check it out.
    Here's the trailer that I'm referring to...

    Now, Superman is a highly exaggerated version of a Mary/Gary Sue character, but the same principles apply. If you have a character in your story that seems just a little too 'special' to ever create any doubt or conflict in the minds of your readers...you may just be sapping some of the strong potential that your story has because of it. As sadistic as it sounds, I actually like putting my characters through the ringer on occasion. Because when your main characters are perfect, it gives them no room to grow and nowhere to go. That's not a protagonist. That's an act of nature. They're in the story, but they're not really 'driving' the story. They're just being put in one supposedly difficult situation after another, and waiting for their inevitable stroke of good luck to kick in and get them out of it...again. That can be mildly entertaining for some, but I definitely get more attached to the idea of 'CAN they get out of this?' over 'How are they going to do it this time? Because they always do.' I find the former much more interesting.
    One thing that I usually do when creating characters of my own, is look for some sort of balancing factor that will humanize them. I build them up to be attractive, funny, sensitive, loyal, sympathetic...I want them to be the kind of person that you would truly cheer for if you knew them in real life. And then, almost immediately after that, whether it's my protagonist or their love interest, I begin stripping them down. Like...ok, we've got the whole 'too good to be true' facade going...now let's explain exactly why they're too good to be true. What am I missing here? Sure, this character might be stunningly gorgeous...but he has feelings and insecurities just like anybody else, right? In fact, what if his beauty is more of a curse in his eyes than most people would believe? What if someone who's super famous, on TV, and has crowds of cheering fans...secretly wishes he could give it all up for the genuine love of just ONE person? What if you're blessed with a limitless reserve of special powers and unnatural abilities...but you were too scared of yourself and your past to really unleash them all at full power? It's a Yin and Yang idea. You have all of these great attributes and advantages over many of your other characters, but there are still parts of you that are vulnerable. That can be exploited for leverage or increased for the sake of tension later on. To avoid the Mary/Gary Sue comparison, I think there has to be a weakness or a chink in the armor. No matter how small. Something as simple as a 'secret' between friends can end up adding a layer of depth and involvement for your readers. Because they know it won't stay a secret forever, right? As long as it continues to loom over the story like a mini storm cloud...there's a reason to keep reading. Mr. Perfect isn't so perfect after all, is he?
    From when I first started writing, I sort of learned to dig a little deeper into my character's flaws. And I think I like them better that way. When I started, it was more like, "How can I get a super hot, totally perfect boy, to find another super hot, totally perfect boy, and get them naked together. Hehehe! And that can be entertaining, sure. But these characters aren't super experienced when it comes to sex and relationships and love in general. They're not free from temptation. They're not immune to jealousy, or depression, or heartbreak. For me, the most interesting part of crafting a project from beginning to end is getting my characters to learn, and evolve, and ultimately earn their idea of a 'happily ever after'. If they just happened to be born HOT, and found another hot boy who was gay, and then he got him on the first try without any angst or struggle...? Well, that would make for a forgettable story, in my opinion. It almost seems unfair in a lot of ways, you know? Nah, I'd rather engae my readers with something that was a bit more realistic in nature. Something to say, "No! You TOO can have this if you wanted it! This magical unicorn of a love interest is out there right now, and there's a chance that you might find him tomorrow if you know where to look." I can't say enough how important it is to make your readers an active part of your project. Let them immerse themselves into something that feels real.
    Everybody looks perfect from a distance. Bring your readers in closer for a more personal involvement.
    To keep your characters from being a witness instead of a protagonist...give them choices to make. Plain and simple. And I'm not talking about wanting an ice cream sundae or a milkshake. Hehehe! Put dilemmas in their path, and force them to make decisions that will have rewards and consequences on both sides. Make them an active participant in your story. Behind curtain number one...you've got the love of your life wanting you to come out of the closet and be with him forever. And behind curtain number two...you've got a super religious, homophobic, family that might disown you and never speak to you again if you choose this lifestyle. Yikes! What do you do? THAT'S where the tension comes from. A Mary/Gary Sue might just tell his boyfriend, 'I love you', and his family decides, 'well, as long as you're happy, we'll change our judgemental ways'.
    Wow...exciting...
    Insert a little danger into your character's plight. Drag them out of their comfort zone and let your readers know that they have problems just like the rest of us. Escapism only goes so far. It might be effective for short, one shot, stories, but if you're looking to write something a bit longer and more in depth, allow your characters to take the training wheels off of their bike and get a little dirty from time to time. Not just for the sake of drama, but to accurately depict the shared experience of life itself. We have our hearts broken, we make mistakes, we jump to conclusions, we have bad days and say stupid things that we don't mean, we have regrets, we get scared, and we sometimes get weak in the face of temptation. It happens. But I think readers appreciate seeing that in the characters that we create, and finding the strength to overcome the same problems that they've been through in the process.
    To wrap this up...
    The whole 'Mary/Gary Sue' label may be flung around as an insult more often than not these days, but it's basically just a warning against making your stories too easy for your protagonist to navigate through from beginning to end. Place a few obstacles in your main character's way. Give your outwardly perfect characters a few inner demons to face and tackle as the story goes on. And make sure that your protagonist remains relevant to the story by giving them some tough decisions to make on their own. And then show the benefits and hardships that came with making that decision. I truly think that this makes for a much more intriguing and immersive story, and it will keep your audience coming back for more.
    None of us are perfect. And, while pretending to be perfect for short periods of time can be enjoyable for some...it doesn't last. Reality is like gravity. We've all got to drop back down to Earth eventually. Keep your stories grounded. That's where we spend most of our time.
    I hope this helps, you guys! Take care! And I'll seezya soon! ((hugz))
  15. Comicality

    Emote Control

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    And here we are, distinguished ladies and gentlemen! This is officially the 50th article in the 'Comsie Rambles On' series! Hehehe! I just want to take a quick second to thank you all for the likes and comments, and for offering your own touches and advice on the topics being discussed. I'm still learning too! So I love to see them! And now...let's take the first step taken towards Article #100!!!
    This weekend's topic took some extra effort, trying to figure out how to put it into words that people could understand. Emotion can be such an intangible idea when it comes to explaining it or trying to bring it out in a story. Not to mention the fact that methods of doing so drastically differ from author to author, and it translates differently from reader to reader. But there is a hidden essence in all this that truly connects us all together in a variety of ways...and if we learn to tap into that energy, our stories can truly create some moving moments for everybody involved, writers and readers alike.
    But how can I even approach a conversation like that?
    The best way, I figured, was to do so through music. Music has this incredible ability to truly affect us when we need it most, and expect it least. It takes the intangible idea of being able to emote in your writing, and makes it a little more easily absorbed. It's more than an inner concept. You can hear it. You can feel it. So I'd like to use that as my tool this week as we talk about bringing real emotion to the words we write, and how to dig even deeper once we know what were looking for.
    As always, the idea behind this goes back to the whole 'show, don't tell' mantra that every writer should keep going on in their heads at all times. When you're writing, always remember that it is not enough to say, "My main character is sad." Let your main character's inner thoughts, sullen actions, and painful dialogue, display that. If done right, the sentence, "He/She was sad," shouldn't have to be mentioned. Instead, concentrate on what's going on around that character. What led up to that moment? What might happen after that moment? How does this take the story in a 'sad' direction? If your readers have been absorbing all the details around this particular event or the circumstances surrounding this character, then their empathy should kick in and they'll feel sad for him or her without you having to 'tell' them that they should. It's like seeing a well decorated slice of cheesecake behind the counter at your local bakery. Hehehe, nobody has to 'tell' you it's going to be delicious! You can look at it, you can smell it, you begin to salivate at the very thought of it. (Ugh...now I want some cheesecake!)
    But this connection between you and your audience comes from digging really deep to the very core of the emotions that you're trying to convey in your story. And that takes practice. Not just skill, as I'm certain you all have the skill, without a doubt. But practice. It takes time to really drudge up those emotions and memories and personal experiences that you might be drawing from to create that particular scene, and then put it into words. You have to 'feel' it, so your readers can feel it. I can, honestly, say that I've sat at this keyboard with tears in my eyes MANY times, myself, while writing some of the more painful moments in my stories. And while it may be emotionally draining, and it might force me to take a break from time to time...the effect that it had on my readers worked out even better than I ever could have imagined it would have. Hehehe, so...I guess you could say that I was proud to depress so many people at once. The sadist that I am! LOL!
    But this comes from being able to really understand emotion in general, being able to relate to it from times in your life when you felt the same way, and then bringing that to the surface. Because, at its deepest level...I think we really have the ability to all relate to the shared experience of life itself. We've all been heartbroken at one time in our life. We've all been angry, we've all been scared, we've all been head over heels in love with someone, we've all been full of joy and fireworks. It might have been on different levels or for different reasons, but believe me...a 14 year old boy who got a Playstation 4 this past Christmas and a 65 year old man who got that first shiny bicycle in the store window when he was a kid BOTH understand the same kind of joy and surprise that comes with that. The bike or the video game isn't the connection. The JOY is the connection. And you can touch the hearts of an infinitely wide range of readers once you teach yourself to make that part your focus.
    So where does the 'music' come in, Comsie?
    I want you guys to listen to a few songs down below that I chose specifically for this article. I want you to think about how these songs make you feel inside. The voice. The lyrics. The instrumental arrangements. And more importantly, how they all fit together. These were meant to 'move' you. They are presenting a particular feeling and guiding you to sympathize and possibly end up feeling the same way. Try to let go and feel what it wants you to feel. What is it doing to you? Why are you suddenly feeling something that you weren't feeling before the story started?
    This is a South Korean artist by the name of So Hyang. Now, a friend of mine shared this with me last year, and she is being hailed as one of the most emotionally moving singers in the WORLD right now. Naturally, I was skeptical. I mean...the world? Really? Ummm...but I have to admit, she is pretty damn moving to say the least. What starts off as a really cool, soft, and pleasant song...ends up as a near religious experience by the time it's over. She's about as close to a living, breathing, Disney princess, as you can get. Hehehe, I just listened to this again a couple of minutes ago, and I feel really good now!
    Give it a listen...
    Hehehe! Did you feel that? Maybe a little bit? Maybe a lot?
    Now, when you think about the song itself and her performance of it...how did it affect you, emotionally? And why do you think that is?
    No matter whether you're a singer, actor, writer, painter, or architect...the unique value of your art comes from your personal 'choices'. For a singer, it comes from knowing when to draw a note out, or to cut it short. To reach a higher tone, or a lower one. These choices may be pre-planned or totally subconscious and spontaneous...but it is those choice that personalizes the song to them and them alone. Writing is no different.
    Can you move someone with text on a screen the same way that song might move you with visuals and audio and expert arrangements? YES! You can do all that, and a LOT more, in fact! Because the people reading your story have more than a few minutes to spend with the characters and themes that you're hitting them with. If anything, your writing should be able to touch them on a level that a three to five minute song can't reach. And while it may not be as immediately devoured as a song or a movie...the impact can be just as powerful. Just like these singers, you, as an author, have a 'voice'. Your choices will make your story relatable and unique to everyone who lays eyes upon it. It's all in how you communicate the emotion that you're looking to broadcast to your audience.
    I think that there's something 'unspoken' between us all that can be instantly discovered when an artist presses the right button or finds the right trigger. Something about hearing that song above touched me. It connected to something within me that I might have buried or forgotten about. An old memory? An emotional experience? A faded dream? A release for some bottled up feelings that I never faced or dealt with properly? Who knows? But something about this particular song made contact with a deeper part of me. It went searching for certain emotional strings...and then gave them a little 'tug'. THAT'S the power of being able to emote with your work. You can have all the vocal skill and training in the world, perfect pitch, breath control, and the best sound equipment that money can buy...but it's the emotional connection that will always make your work stand out over everything else. There's a spark, an untitled glow, to it that can't be faked, manufactured, or imitated. I believe that emotion easily separates a really good story from a GREAT story. One that your readers will never forget.
    Like I said, it takes practice. It takes exposure. And sometimes, it's going to be exposure to feelings and memories that you may not want to relive or dwell on for any length of time...but the more experienced you become with experiencing those feelings, firsthand, the easier it will be to project those feelings through the characters in your story. Spend some time thinking about it. Take a moment, and think about that very first time that you really got your heartbroken. Go back to that time in your life...the pain, the tears, the denial, the acceptance...honestly approach those feelings, and think about how you (at that particular moment in your life) would have to explain how you were feeling. Put it in focus. "I felt like my heart had been torn in half by someone I trusted." Good! Put that in your story! "I was so ANGRY that he cheated on me!" Great! Put that in your story! "I wish I never met her! It was like she destroyed my whole life!" Excellent! Take those emotions, and tell that story through the eyes of your main character!
    I won't lie...sometimes it hurts. It does. I've dealt with some really painful moments in my life through my stories. From "My Only Escape" to "Save Or Sacrifice" to "Never Again"...I had to draw from some pretty disturbing memories in order to write those out. But it can be a truly therapeutic experience when it's all said and done. I don't know...tears are good for the soul and all that.
    But the more you sort of dig around in that wound, the more you pick at that scab...the more you begin to get a clear understanding of the subtle differences involved when dealing with one emotion or another.
    In the two songs below...they are both dealing with heartbreak. Someone that you love who is now attempting to be happy with someone else. Now, hearing that part of the emotional description, one would think that the songs would be pretty similar to one another. "I love you. You left me behind. I can't let go." They both deal with loss. They both deal with a mixture of pain and anger...so, I guess 'painger'! Hehehe! However, give them both a listen. The emotion and the theme is the same, but lyrically and emotionally...they're both sending out a very different message. Sad, yes. But the Yebba song is a bit more determined. She seems like she's in pain, but there's a certain feeling of strength and empowerment in her delivery. I can feel the pain in her performance. But she's still standing strong, despite her being so close to breaking down.
    However, in Conor Maynard's highly emotional cover of Drake's 'Marvin's Room', he seems a bit more somber. More defeated. It feels more like he's trying to maintain some kind of strength, but he's struggling through it. It's almost like he's lost as to whether he's going to make it or not.
    And is he crying? it almost looks like he was crying! Geez! Where was this coming from? I think he was 17 when he covered this, so...recent heartbreak maybe? Who knows?
    Anyway, you can tell two completely different stories from this subtle difference alone. One of someone getting over a massive heartbreak, or one of someone being crushed by it. Put yourself in both situations. Feel it in your heart. And think about how you would put those feelings into words when your characters are going through something similar.
    000 The thing to remember is to always draw from your personal truth. Somebody out there has been through the same things that you have struggled through in your life, and when you make that connection...when you find a way tug on that heart string...the reader/writer dynamic becomes a symbiotic experience. When you dig deep enough...you're no longer just telling your story, but their story as well. You reach out and you actually 'touch' a part of them that they didn't even know was there.
    Hehehe, I didn't mean for that to sound anywhere NEAR as perverted as it did!
    The subtle changes on one side of the emotion or another comes from the words you use, and the way you describe the plight of your character. If you want to empower them, your word usage should reflect that. The tone should be different. Convey strength through your descriptions and vocabulary. If you want them broken and hurt beyond repair...change the way you describe their handling of the situation. You wouldn't describe both sides in the same way in real life if it were happening to you. So don't do it that way in your stories. Pay attention to the difference. A sentence or two can make a huge difference in how your readers perceive your protagonist's state of mind. And that state of mind can be the rise or fall of an emotionally potent scene in your project.
    These next two songs show a slightly different take on the idea of misery. Just...plain misery. Now, this first one will always have a special place in my heart. Johnny Cash and his wife, the love of his life, passed away about 4 months apart from each other. After losing her, he said that his music was all he had left, and he made this cover of 'Hurt', originally from Nine Inch Nails' album, 'Downward Spiral'. This was the last video he ever filmed before he died, and the flashbacks to a long life of entertaining and basically being country music's number one badass, mixed with the heartbreaking lyrics, is sure to twist a few hearts here and there when watching it.
    The second video, however, is more 'angst' than misery. You watch the video and listen to the song, and while Alessia Cara is 'miserable' where she is, it has a totally different vibe to it. She isn't sad about it. She just doesn't want to be there. I remember seeing this for the first time and thinking, "Omigod, I remember being like that at a party!" I'm supposed to be having fun, but...I'm just not into this at all. I'd uch rather be somewhere else. Anywhere else.
    Again, these songs have different tones to them. The inspire different emotions and therefore need to be treated differently in order to connect to different people. It all depends on what you're looking to broadcast with the picture you're painting for your readers at that moment.
    Will it be Johnny Cash, a dark place with a slightly optimistic outlook? Or an Alessia Cara party place with a slightly darker, isolated, outlook?
    000 Now, emotions don't all have to be sad and depressing! Hehehe! Of course not! Evoking emotion comes in the form of love and joy and blissful happiness as well! So, don't think that you have to have some kind of heavy drama going on in order to explain making an emotional connection with your audience. Some of my more lighthearted stories are extremely fun for me to write as well. "Kiss Of An Angel", "Jesse-101", and others have given me a few giggles and good vibes, typing them out. But still...joy is an emotion that you want to push forward when you're writing your story. Let your readers feel it like YOU feel it. Right?
    The slight shift in these two videos below is expressed mostly through an 'internal' and 'external' version of joy. Both by the same artist, same voice, same theme. However, in the first song (Which ALWAYS makes me smile when I hear it! Hehehe!) is all about feeling good. It has the kind of feeling that you get when you just wake up, the sun is shining, you've got the day to yourself, and everything is AWESOME! This is an internal joy. Nothing can touch you. It can't bother you. It just makes you feel good inside! The music, the lyrics...everything about it is all sunshine and good vibes!
    The second, while having the same theme, is more external. It's sharing that joy with other people. It's inspiring. It tells you that you can feel just as amazing as she does, if you only shrug off the bullshit and realize how beautiful you really are. (A song that I desperately needed to hear when it first came out and I was feeling down. Because...sighhh...'the internet'!) Both of these themes can connect to readers in a way that will keep them smiling until their cheeks hurt while reading your work. And that is what is going to make your writing memorable. It's more than a story. It's an experience. Something that they can go back to when they want to feel that way again. Something that they can share with a friend or family member when they're in need of connecting to that happiness the same way that they did.
    If only you knew how much power you had when it comes to affecting people on an emotional level. You really can change lives with what you write. One emotion at a time.
    000 So, there we go! Emote control! It's not about me telling you what to write or how to write it. You all have the talent and the passion to figure it out for yourselves. Your very presence here proves that. This is just meant to shine a spotlight on a few things that you may have a feel for, but never really pay attention to. It's there. Many writers think about emotions in terms of joy, sadness, anger, jealousy, and indifference. But there are infinite shades of grey in between. Combinations and lethal cocktails and conflicting ideologies, that you can personalize and use to your story's benefit. But the first step is diving into those emotions, feeling them fully, and attempting to figure out how they work for you and for your readers. Learn the subtle shifts from one to another. Teach yourself how to deescalate or intensify those emotions at will. And, as always...practice, practice, practice.
    I've been doing this for almost 21 years now...and I still find new blind spots that I didn't pay attention to before. So get familiar with your own hearts, and go out there to give them your best. Do it better than I did.
    Thanks for the love and support you guys! I hope the music/writing comparison helped to get my point across. Like I said, it's kind of a hard thing to put into words. I love you all! And I'll see you next weekend with more!
    Also...one more...
    If you think you can't find the emotional power within yourself, check out the video below. This is a Latin pop artist, Abraham Mateo. He made this back when he was only TWELVE years old! How a twelve year old was able to tap into such heartfelt emotion is a complete mystery to me! But listen all the way through. By the end of this song, its like, "Who IS this kid???" It just takes passion, effort, and practice. That's it. If he can do it...you can too.
    Best of luck!
     
  16. Comicality

    Writer Confidence

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    The biggest trick that any writer can pull off when it comes to their finished product...is making it look like writing is easy. Hehehe, getting your readers to think that you just sat down at a keyboard with a cup of tea or coffee, and tapped into some level of genius to type something out from beginning to end.
    (Cue snickers and laughter from the writing community.)
    Obviously, this isn't true. Sure, it becomes easier through practice and discipline, and we get used to the habit of expressing our thoughts in this particular way...but there is nothing 'easy' about writing a story. Not at all. From conception, to creating characters, to plot devices, to dialogue...it takes a LOT of time and patience and skill to pull off a story from beginning to end. You have to juggle a series of different talents all at once, and once you're finished...you've got to edit it and start all over again to catch anything that you may have dropped along the way. Yeah, to say that it's easy to do is not only a mistake...it's an outright lie for many of us.
    Because of this pleasurable, self torturing, practice that we love so much...it can sometimes cause our most ambitious ideas to seem more intimidating than they have to be. At least that's been my experience so far. There are stories that I wanted to write years ago that still intimidate me to this day. Every time I consider sitting down and just getting it started, I almost get overwhelmed with anxiety about how I'm ever going to create that story, those characters, and actually get it right. I get intimidated by the time I'm going to have to put in. Intimidated by the emotion I'll have to pour in. Intimidated by whatever research I might have to do for the details. I feel the story idea looming over me to the point where I'm forced to back away from it, and like the procrastination savant that I am, hehehe...I put it off until later. And as we all know, 'later' often never comes.
    This week, I'd like to spend a few moments talking about writer confidence, and maybe clear up the smoke and mirrors aspect of possibly beating the intimidation when it strikes.
    For me, personally, it doesn't always take some massive new project to intimidate me into shying away from putting the work in. Sometimes, it might just be a particularly important chapter that I'm worried about getting right. Or a specific scene where a big secret is revealed, or a dramatic argument or major event has to come along to change the course of the rest of the story. As I mentioned in a past article, sometimes I know exactly what I want to say and how I want to say it...but there's a 'hesitation' involved anyway. For me, that's WORSE than writer's block! LOL! I can deal with writer's block. But fear or lack of motivation? Nothing makes me feel more helpless when it comes to my writing.
    Also, there are times when the intimidation isn't even creatively inspired. Sometimes I have to ask myself if I'm going to have the time and the focus to really dive into this new chapter/story the way I want to. What is my work schedule like? What are my friends and family up to? Will I be able to remove myself from the world for a week or two to get this as well polished as I want it to be? Some of you guys have kids or partners that need attention and quality time. Some of you have a busy few weeks of work ahead of you, and you know that's not going to leave you with a lot of energy to write when you come home. There are more factors that you can ever imagine that have to be shifted around in order to concentrate on the task at hand. And that can cause a writer to hesitate as well. It's nothing to feel bad about. It happens. And if you decide that this isn't the time for you to jump into that particular project...then so be it.
    However, you can't let these things destroy your writer confidence.
    See...being intimidated by a story, chapter, or important scene, in your project isn't going to be like an explosion at the base of a tower, causing it to crumble to the ground all at once. It's more like an aggressive army of termites. It erodes the foundation in secret. You start making little excuses for why you can't jump into it today. You start getting randomly distracted by things like getting your house cleaned, or a sudden Netflix binge. "I'll do it later" and "I'll get around to it when I have more time" become your mantras, and before you know it...it's six months later and you haven't so much as brought it up on your laptop once in all that time. Don't believe me? Look at your files right now? Do you have any lingering projects that you were going to 'get around to', and haven't? When was the last time you opened that file? It might be longer than you think. Hehehe! It usually is for me.
    So how can we fix this?
    I think the first step in starting this new project or getting a previous project back on course comes from asking yourself...'What am I so afraid of?' When I mention fear, I'm not talking about outright TERROR or anything! Hehehe, it's not that serious. But something is stopping you from sitting down and typing out the thoughts and emotions in your heart. What is it? What's bullying you out of tackling the next chapter? Find out what is giving you the most hesitation, and give it some thought. Loosen that knot. And be brutally honest with yourself. Maybe you don't like where the story is going. Maybe you're bored with it. Maybe some negative comments on the last story made you doubt your abilities as a writer. Maybe you have such high expectations for this next chapter that you worry you're not up to the task? Whatever it may be...find it, face it, and think about how you might be able to get around it. Diagnose the problem so you know what to fix. As long as you keep putting it off or making excuses, the actual issue that you might be trying to avoid is going to remain vague and unclear. In fact, you may deny that there is a problem at all. "I can't write tonight because...it's National Hot Dog Day! That's all." Hehehe, yeah, that's not a reason.
    The second step? Take a leap of faith. Find a few minutes of peace, open that file up...read what you've read so far, maybe doing a soft re-edit and making a few changes along the way, and then move right into the next sentence without hesitating. You just read what you wrote, your memory's been refreshed, you've got the file open, your fingertips are touching the keyboard...do it. Right then and there. Pick up where you left off and just start writing again as if it had only been a few hours since your last entry. If you're starting something brand new from scratch, and you're not sure how to begin...stare at that blank scene and think about ONE thing that you want your readers to know about your main character. And then create an opening scene that displays that one trait or attribute (or flaw). Put them right in the middle of it. Like, let's say that your protagonist is madly in love with some boy on the basketball team, right? Your first sentence...
    "I don't even really like basketball all that much. But I show up to the high school games for 'him'. Only for him."
    This is an opener that you can easily build off of. That little bit of text both gives answers and creates questions. The answers? This person is probably in high school. He's infatuated with someone on the team. He doesn't like sports. The questions? Who's speaking right now? Who is 'him'? Why is he so infatuated with him? You've immediately planted the seed, and you know have avenues to pursue your next few sentences. You can get into the thoughts and feelings of the main character, or you can describe the beauty and allure of the boy he's watching on the court. You end up writing a few more sentences to complete your thought...and that thought leads to a few more thoughts. You're already a few sentences deep into this new project, right? You might as well follow that path to the next logical idea. And when you complete that thought, you open the door to two or three more things that you might be able to add. Before you know it, you might be 1000 words into your project, with enough inspiration to keep moving forward. Sometimes, getting your brain to operate in that creative mode will create the momentum needed to get things started, and far enough along to actually enjoy yourself again instead of worrying about whatever problem you had getting started in the first place. Believe me, it works. But only with practice.
    I feel much more confident when I play around with my stories and sort of feel my way through it. I have to put things into motion, and that takes a push and a few extra nudges when I feel myself getting distracted again...but once I actually start writing and get my wheels turning again, the intimidation of taking that project head on ceases to be a problem. I think about what I'm feeling, and what I want a certain scene to accomplish, and I just keep feeling my way around until I feel good by what i see on the screen. That doesn't mean that everything I write is going to be flawless or error free. I don't even worry about that part. The emotion is what matters most. Capturing that moment, and bringing it to the people reading. Most of the time, I'll start a sentence without any idea as to how it'll end. The same way that I might have a spoken conversation with a friend. I don't plan what I'm going to say ahead of time, or what he/she will say after that, and how I'll respond. Stay in the moment. That's important. more times than not, the intimidation you feel is coming from this magnificent vision of what the final product is going to be. But you haven't built it yet. Don't start worrying about the dangers of life on Mars when you haven't even figured out how to get there yet. Hehehe, one brick at a time.
    I'll just start writing a sentence, let the emotion sort of swirl around in my head for a bit, and I may stop halfway to stare off into space for a second or two, trying to find that one magic word to add next...and then keep going. Don't worry about it being good enough. Worry about it being honest enough. Take one step, and then another, and then another. Learn to trust your instincts. The only way to do that is by putting your instincts to work for you. They're like any other muscle in the body. You have to give them a workout in order to strengthen them. Build them up, sentence by sentence, through little leaps of faith.
    With time and practice, it'll become second nature to you. Your confidence will grow, your instincts will become more involuntary...and then...there will be these truly magical moments when you truly feel in tune with what you're doing. You own it. You start typing and you feel as if you're in complete control of everything that you're doing, to the point where you might get in the zone and turn out half a chapter in one sitting. Let me tell you, that's the greatest feeling in the WORLD! There are nights when I feel like I'm playing this keyboard like a piano at the Philharmonic! And when I click that 'save' button...I'm truly proud of the work I put in, and get excited for the reaction I might get back from the readers.
    Now...mind you...I might come back the next day, look at it, and rip it to pieces again, because we're all our own worst critics. LOL! But at least I put the work in, and I got it done. That hesitation that I felt because I was intimidated by my own expectations of what I wanted the story or chapter to be didn't beat me. It didn't bully me out of my creative expression, and once I actually made the decision to get it started, it wasn't anywhere near as scary as difficult as I thought it would be. But it will be a leap of faith. Each and every time. That's not going to change, but you learn to deal with it. And before you know it...you'll have much more written than you ever though possible.
    As always, I hope this article helps any of you guys who might be struggling with a few 'I'll get to it later' issues as well. Whether it comes to you starting something new, getting back into something old, or even going back to edit and ultimately publish a story that's already finished...you can get it done. Just find your earliest opportunity to sit at your keyboard, and dive right in without waiting. You're all creative people, and you've spent a long time honing your craft. Have enough faith in your instincts to carry you once you make the effort to get started. Start writing, and let your instincts take the wheel from there. They won't fail you.
    Take care! And I'll seezya next weekend!
  17. Comicality

    Taking Notes

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    As many of you guys already know, I grew up being a fan of Stephen King's writing. Something about it creeped me out, but more importantly...it spoke to me. The setting, the characters, the almost claustrophobic feel of the events taking place...I could feel it as if it was really happening at that very moment. So, I was, and still am, a fan.
    I remember watching an interview with him once as he was talking about his writing process, and he was asked if he actually sat down and took 'notes' and jotted down his ideas before he started a new book, or at any time during his efforts to finish it. He was quick to give a clear and emphatic, "No!" Hehehe! He doesn't keep notes at all. The reason he gave was that, if the ideas he had were good enough to make the book, then they'd stay in his head and there would be no need to write them down. And if they weren't good enough, then they probably faded away for a reason. Makes good sense, I suppose. I can see where he's coming from.
    I, on the other hand, am the exact opposite!
    To me, my notes are just as important to me as the actual story itself. In fact, it's rare that I throw the notes away, even after I've finished the project. Sentimental value, I suppose. Plus, it's rare that I use all of the ideas that I come up with...so I end up going back and sliding some of those ideas right into the next story. Why not? Consider it my 'literary recycling program'.
    This week, I want to talk about the benefits and the possible drawbacks of taking notes for your stories, both before you get started and during the writing process!
    For me, taking notes on my ideas are essential. I make sure to keep a small pocket notebook and at least two working pens with me at all times. Inspiration can hit me at any time without warning, and when my muse gets all fired up and is looking for a way to channel itself into something productive, I want to make sue to have that outlet ready in the form of a pen and a pad. Maybe I have or overhear a particularly interesting or funny conversation and it sparks an idea. Maybe a beautiful stranger passes me in the street and I start thinking of ways to describe him as a character in one of my stories. Maybe I'm having a shitty day at work and I have some frustration that I want to get off of my shoulders. Whatever the situation, I like to develop my ideas when I'm in the moment. I tend to self reflect a lot, so when something happens, good or bad, I'm constantly asking myself how I feel about it. And how would I be able to explain that feeling to somebody else if I had to. That's where my notes come in.
    I can honestly say that there have been plenty of times when I've been riding the train, or sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office, or standing in line at the grocery store...and I'll suddenly get flooded with some really vivid ideas out of nowhere. So I immediately look for a way to jot them down before I forget anything. I have an entire shoe box full of scraps of paper at the foot of my bed right now. Hehehe! Little scribbled notes on the back of candy wrappers, store receipts, junk mail envelopes...some of them are short pieces of dialogue that I thought up, some are basic layouts for what I want to accomplish with the newest chapter, and sometimes they might be ideas for an entirely new project altogether. I'm constantly trying to capture a written 'snapshot' of that moment, as some of my best ideas can be fleeting. Telling myself that I'll remember it when I get home is not an option. Because I won't. Not like I would have if I took notes in the moment.
    The method to my madness is this...once I get a decent idea in my head, I want to expand on that idea. I want to explore it with the same energy and emotion that created the idea in the first place. What was I feeling that made me suddenly think up this sweet and tender moment for the next "Jesse-101" chapter? Who knows? But let me see where else this feeling will take me. You see, by writing it down...I can allow the idea to grow and change without worrying about losing its original form. Have you ever tried to memorize someone's phone number without a cell phone or without writing it down? Do you see how MADDENING that is??? Hehehe1 you end up repeating it over and over and over in your head until you nearly drive yourself insane, and just 30 seconds before you're able to find something to write it down on...you forget one of the numbers! Or you forget the area code, or get the order wrong! Arrrghhh! That's how I feel when I'm trying to remember story ideas as they come to me. My brain gets clogged up with more and more ideas, all spawned from that one momentary feeling inside, and there's no way for me to remember them all. My creative brain swells up with a ton of info sometimes, so I have to write it out like people in a sinking canoe, trying to use buckets to scoop the water out before it fills up and sends them to the bottom of the lake.
    So, rule number one? Get rid of it! Hehehe, if it's in your head and in your heart att that particular moment...write it down. You don't have to pen an entire chapter right then and there, but get your details scripted out. Names, faces, places, events...put it on paper. The bonus of making this a habit is not only saving your initial thoughts...but you don't have to stress yourself out over remembering it for later. You won't have to repeat the details in your mind again and again, only to lose some of them anyway in the end. Also, your brain can sort of push that idea to the side and build on it. It's been my experience that any idea, no matter how small or how vague...the second I write it down on a piece of paper, my mind starts coming up with ways to support and expand on it. Right away. It's become an automatic part of the process for me now.
    Example...I might hear a song on the radio, and it'll inspire me to think of two characters sharing their very first kiss while listening to that very song. The melody might just trigger something in me, and I reach for my pen and pad. I imagine that kiss, and how I would visualize it, what words I would use to describe it, and where it takes place. I might just write...
    "Ethan and Drew look at each other, music playing, drawn in slowly, so nervous, lips touch, heart racing."
    They're just a skeletal structure of a scene, but it's enough to remind me what I was thinking of and how I wanted it to look. However, once that's written down and I don't have to worry about remembering it later...my mind starts to add details. Maybe they're laying on the bed. Maybe it's raining outside. Maybe they use their feet to kick their shoes off and let them fall to the floor. As the moment expands, I start thinking that maybe they were having some sort of softly spoken dialogue that led up to that moment. Then a brief silence. Then the kiss. And then I'll add a few notes about what that kiss leads to. Maybe they go further. Maybe they stop and just enjoy the sound of the rain against the window. Maybe Ethan's mom comes home and they get interrupted. Maybe a friggin' Tasmanian Devil jumps out from under the bed and devours them both! I don't know! LOL! But whatever it is that's got me feeling the urge to start writing...I want to catch it. I want to hold onto it. And then recall that emotion as soon as I can get back to my keyboard to type it out. So keeping a pen handy at all times is an absolute must for me. I'm pretty sure I would have lost volumes of work and ideas if I didn't have a way to keep my most spontaneous thoughts with me.
    However, you don't want to get too dependent on your notes in the long run. You want to remember your ideas and free your mind up with enough space to make room for more...but you've got to remember that they're just 'scribbles'. What you jot down in your notebook is NOT some sort of binding contract, where you're now forced to put every single thought in your head into your story. As I said before, I make an effort to collect all of my ideas and keep them handy if I need them, but I don't use them ALL. That would be crazy. Think of it like leftovers in the fridge. The night you had that dinner originally might have been amazing and delicious and awesome all around. But, you may look in the back of the fridge a week later and still see it sitting there. You might start thinking, "I really don't feel like keeping this any longer. I might as well throw it out." These random ideas and spontaneous thoughts are no different. So if you go back and look at them later or you put some more thought into them and decide they don't really 'fit' into the framework that you're trying to create...let them go. Or use them elsewhere. Don't be discouraged. It wasn't a BAD idea...it was a spur of the moment idea. That's all.
    Also, don't let your notes, outlines, or its of dialogue constrain you. Be flexible when you're writing. more spontaneous ideas will come to you as your typing out your next chapter. Trust me. So don't feel like you're handcuffed to the notes you took before you started writing. If you want to cut something out that was in your notes? Cut it out. If you want to expand on an idea by adding things that weren't in your notes? Add them in. The beauty of writing your own stories is that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. The only rule book you have to follow is the one you write for yourself. And alll rules are subject to change at any time. So proudly take advantage of your freedom and only use your notes as a grab bag of helpful treats...and not some rigid set of laws that has to be reproduced exactly the way it was written when you thought of it. Relax. Allow you talents to flow organically and bring all the heart it can to your story.
    Anyway, I hope this makes some kind of sense. I always have to keep notes when I'm thinking of these articles too! Hehehe! ::Holds up my trusty piece of folded scrap paper:: I know what it's like to really enjoy writing and the thrill it can give you when the ideas are just flying at you to the point where your typing fingers can barely keep up. But I also know that 'passion' and 'opportunity' don't always line up the way we want them to. We won't always have the chance to run for our laptops and start writing every time the creative lightning strikes...and there's nothing worse than having a really good idea, or cleverly worded block of dialogue...and forgetting the best parts of it before you get home.
    So keep something to write on and something to write WITH in your pockets at all times! That would be my advice.
    Take care, you guys! Happy writing! And I'll seezya soon!
  18. Comicality

    Writer Flow

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    Can you guys believe that this is the 47th writing article I've done already? LOL! I talk too much! Geez! Reaching that big 50th milestone in the next few weeks! Can't wait!
    Anyway, let's get into it, shall we?
    Whenever you read something, whether you actually realize it or not, you are speaking the words on the page/screen aloud in your head. Even while you're reading these words right now...there's a voice in your head narrating the text for you. Then again, there are some people who actually read out loud, and that's ok too. However, when you read something in your head, even though you don't have to use your lips or your tongue or control your breathing...the same rules apply. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you may find yourself doing these things anyway. And I'm willing to bet that a majority of your readers do too.
    When I talk about writer 'flow', I'm talking about the ease and comfort that people experience when reading the words that you wrote. This is an aside from content, plot, or character. It's different. Subtle. You have to make an effort to notice it and smooth things out if you want your project to be as awesome as it possibly can be. How do we do that? Well, that's what this weekend article is all about! So...let's talk about writer 'flow'!
    Have you ever read a story that you really LIKED, but kept stumbling over words every now and then...preventing you from loving it as much as you really wanted to? Sometimes its due to spelling errors, or maybe just awkward wording in a sentence, or sometimes there's a language barrier and certain phrases don't translate well. Whatever it is, it can cause that inner narrator to pause or get confused, and that can interrupt the flow of a story. See...there's a rhythm in writing that may seem natural to you guys as authors, but the truth is, it's a skill that you build over time with a ton of practice. If we go back and read our earlier works, we may be able to see the difference in our old rhythm and our new one. At least that's how it is for me. The word usage isn't as refined, the sentences aren't as well structured...I can always tell my older work from my newer stuff. I guarantee you that my readers can too. So, I think it's important to go back and pay attention to what we've done in the past and compare to what we do now. You may be surprised to see a pretty big evolution there.
    I really started noticing this when I began re-editing my stories for eBook releases. Some sentences needed to be rewritten to keep from sounding...'clumsy'. Sometimes I would add new material, reword certain scenes, or add a little finesse to the dialogue to make sure that the rhythm that I was looking for could be maintained throughout the project. The first rule of creating a flow for your stories? Keep it consistent. Let the tone and feel of your scene play itself through, and then if you decide to shift speeds, segue into it as smoothly as possible. Try to picture the colors changing, like a sunset. It doesn't go from high noon to midnight in a snap. There's a slow and steady transition from one to the other. A sunset. A sunrise. Give yourself enough space to move through your story with graceful curves instead of harsh angles.
    Hmmm...wait, is this making sense? Hehehe, let me try to put this into words that may seem a bit more 'user friendly'. There's nothing mystical or philosophical about writer flow. It's just a means of taking notice of what you're doing and how you're doing it.
    When you get a chance, read some of your writing out loud to yourself. Treat it like an actor's audition. Put your feeling and emotion into it. Look at the text on the screen, think about the character and the scene, and then read it out loud. If you have trouble with a word or two, or if it sounds awkward when read aloud...think about how you could change that sentence around to make it sound better and create the emotional vibe that you're going for. Sometimes, changing a single word or adding a few extra can create a whole new 'feel' for your story. I happen to be a bit obsessive about this kind of thing, myself. Hehehe, which is one of the reasons that I know that anyone who offered to be my editor would end up in a mental hospital by the time I got through nitpicking my own stuff to the point of madness. But stories are personal portraits of who I am. If I don't feel it, how can I expect my readers to feel it. So, occasionally I read through a sentence or line of dialogue, and I'll realize that it could be done a little bit better. For example, sometimes I'll say something like..."We stared at each other." Which is simple enough, but I might go back later and change it to..."We stared at one another." it's saying the same thing, but sometimes 'one another' sounds slightly more intimate in my mind. (Hehehe, I told you it was insanity!) I might change the word 'hug' to 'embrace', or the word 'beauty' to 'allure'. It all depends on how I'm reading the sentence and how it makes me feel. Always be aware of your emotions when you're reading your own work. You'll know when you've got the flow just right. Just keep at it.
    Now, if you find yourself reading out loud and you stumble over the way a sentence is worded...fix it. Try thinking about what you're trying to say with that particular sentence, then close your eyes and try to convey the same message 'naturally'. As if you were talking to a random person on the street. Treat the story as if it was some sort of high school or office gossip that you witnessed yesterday, and now you're telling somebody else about it. Don't think about the writing aspect of it. No mechanics, no structure...just say it like you would say it to a regular person. Let it come out smoothly. If you speak a different language, say it in your own language where you feel most at home, and let it roll out naturally. It's possible to overwork a sentence and over plan our dialogue when we're writing. Sometimes simplicity is the key. If you find yourself having to reread a sentence, if there's a clumsy jumble of words on the page, if you run out of breath or feel that there's an awkward pause that shouldn't be there...get rid of it. Smooth it out. Grab some mental sandpaper and wear it down until those rough edges are gone. Because if you stumble physically, you'll stumble the same way mentally. And so will your readers.
    As I've mentioned in previous articles, the length of your sentences create pacing. Make sure that the pacing matches the tone that you're looking for. Longer sentences slow things down. It gives your readers time to absorb more details, inhale all of the fragrances you've provided them, experience beauty and color. You can use this tactic to flesh out emotional events and deep conversations. Shorter sentences, however, speed things up. This makes the heart beat faster. It puts you in a different state of mind. Short sentences can be used to increase tension. To enhance the heated back and forth of an argument. To shuffle your readers through an intense action scene. Every time you use a period, it's like an editor's cut in a movie. Cut, cut, cut, cut...look over there, look over here now, back to you. But always remember to try to keep your flow consistent from one moment to the next. Don't throw your readers off with a weird mix of the two. Remember the sunset? If you start off with long sentences that are full of detail and flowery language...and then want the scene to change into something more aggressive or intense...start making your sentences shorter and shorter as you progress forward. Let it smoothly transform from one extreme to the other without it coming off as jolting or out of place. And vice versa for the opposite effect. Again, this is subtle when it comes to writing, but if you read enough stories and have practiced writing your own, you'll be able to 'feel' the difference once you start paying attention to it.
    Now...this isn't an exact science. Nothing artistic or creative ever is. That's what makes art beautiful. The freedom from rules and regulations, and the dreamlike ability to express yourself without boundaries. But I hope that bringing your attention to the idea of writer flow will help you to notice it a bit more when your writing your own story or reading somebody else's. That way, you can build your own methods of pulling this off and develop your own instincts on how to use it to be the best writer you can be. I feel that writing is both an art and a craft. The craft is being able to put words together and tell a good story. But the art is being able to transcend that craft and translate your emotions for your readers to feel it the way that you do. That only comes with dedication and practice. So keep at it! And I'll be cheering for you the whole way!
    Take care! And happy writing!
  19. Comicality

    Plot Holes

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    There are five words that always make me laugh whenever I watch one of the videos from the Youtube series below, hehehe! Because it's SO true for every story and every TV show and every movie that I've ever seen! And it's true for your work too. Can't help but to get a few chuckles out of it!
    Those five words?
    "Super easy! Barely an inconvenience!"
    Don't worry, an explanation is coming.
    One thing that I hope many of you will take from this week's discussion is the idea that any story...literally, ANY story...can be picked apart and scrutinized to the point where it simply might not work as an effective story anymore. Sad, but true.
    I don't say this to discourage you guys. I say this to 'free' you. I say this to make you guys aware of the reality of the situation when it comes to writing a story of your very own. Especially if it's your first time. Please keep in mind that you are writing a fictional story. Let me repeat that before moving forward...you are writing a FICTIONAL story! You are creating something out of nothing. Your goal is to entertain an audience by getting your fictional main character from a fictional point A to a fictional point B, by whatever means you can use to advantage while keeping your readers locked in while you're doing it. You are creating a dramatic series of events to provide opportunities for your story to move forward. It's not real. NONE of this is real. It's a story. And it's meant to get your readers to enjoy the ride that you have planned for them.
    (Unless, of course, it's autobiographical...in which case, that's real! LOL! But even then, who's to say that your memory is as accurate as t should be.)
    I wanted to start this discussion with this statement, because I feel that it's really important for every writer to remember this when they go into writing their next project. PLEASE, keep in mind that you will never ever EVER be able to avoid or find your way around the "Why doesn't he just...?" crowd! Never! Not EVER! Hehehe! Trust me, I've spent 20 YEARS trying to write stories that the nitpickers couldn't possibly dismantle and make my main characters look hopelessly stupid, frustratingly clueless, and unforgivably fake! And those aren't MY words...that's from my fans who claim to actually love the stories I write.
    Anyway, when writing a story and plotting it out, putting all of the pieces together to reach the desired effect that you're looking for...you have to construct a certain formula in order for your story to work in your head. You have to build a foundation and keep adding bricks until you reach the top and are able to put a roof on your project. It takes practice, but you learn to connect dots, bond events, set chain reactions in motion. But that doesn't mean that you won't miss something or slip up every now and then. It happens, and people will catch it and call you out on it. Sometimes, it's a plot hole that you can fill in and make your story better. And other times...just let it go. Hehehe, sometimes it's just a part of the story. Let readers know, 'This is something that we built, exclusively, for you to enjoy', right? Just...hopefully they'll enjoy it for what it is. It's all a matter of telling the best story that you can, and concentrating on what you feel is most important.
    This can...and will...lead to plot holes in your story. Don't feel bad about it. This is inevitable. No writer is out there looking at ten thousand different alternative solutions for your main character's every thought and action in any given story. And even if you could, there would be ONE reader out there that saw ten thousand and two possibilities, and will bring it up anyway. You can't beat them, don't try.
    This weekend, we talk about plot holes! Figuring out what you can fix, and what you should leave alone. And those unavoidable literary speedbumps in the road that we TRY to avoid...but still hit, despite our attempts to swerve around them at the last minute!
    Before I start, take a look at some of the videos below. I really love these, as they always make me think about things I never thought of before and laugh! We're all potential suckers for a good (or bad) story sometimes. But, yes! There are plot holes in every movie you see! And if you sit there and make a sincere effort to pick everything apart...then yeah, I doubt any story/movie/TV show would make much sense at all. But...that's only if you work at stripping down every element of it. And where's the fun in that? LOL!
    These are all parody versions of what these movies would be if broken down to their core. Many SPOILERS are involved! So, if you haven't seen the movies listed, then you may want to skip over that particular video. But, for those who have seen them all...
    ...Take note of the plot holes and conveniences included in this as the jokes fly by...
    - - -- - - Hehehe, are you beginning to see what I'm talking about here? No story is exempt from contrivances or cliches. Plot holes pop up because we don't all see the world with the same eyes. That's something that you really have to keep in mind when you're trying to get around this problem in your writing. Something might be wrong with my car, and an experienced mechanic might tell me, "Well, why didn't you just move this wire to that wire and reroute the electric charge? Hehehe, or whatever. Ummm...ok, well I didn't think of that. Thanks, I guess? And you guys know how I struggle with programming and computer stuff that, I'm sure, makes me look like a full blown idiot to people who know computers much better than I do. But, hey...sorry. I didn't think of that either. Shame on me.
    The point is, if you're going to share your art with a wide audience, they may see blindspots that you can't. And this is where having a Beta reader, or even multiple Betas, read your story (I suggest 'chapter by chapter', just in case you spin off in a direction that you can't come back from later) ahead of time. Maybe your friends and fans can pick out a few inconsistencies in your writing, and let you know before you get too far ahead of yourself. They can be extremely helpful in that regard.
    I've made many mistakes in my stories in the past that I didn't really think about until someone pointed it out to me. I've had someone in a wheelchair show up on the roof of an abandoned building without thinking about how he was able to get up all of those flights of steps without assistance. I've overlooked obvious answers to story conflicts, I've mixed up continuity issues, I've dropped the ball in potentially major scenes...but that's all a part of honing your craft. Live and learn, I suppose. I was trying to tell a story that would be excting and memorable to everyone who took a look at it, and I was definitely trying to guide it in a certain direction so I could achieve that. A young artist, Ruel, said about creating his own music, "Writing is exaggeration." And I really couldn't agree more.
    It's not so unrealistic, you know? Any honest portrayal of our own lives might come off as convenient and contrived as well when seen through the eyes of an observer. Take a look at your own experiences, good times and bad. How closely does it play out to the stories you read online? Is it really all that complex? Sometimes, you meet your best friend by chance. Sometimes you fall in love with someone you didn't expect to care for. It happens. It almost feels like 'fate', when it does because...how the hell could I have been so lucky/unlucky on my own? Should our stories not reflect that in some way? Sure, we add a little flair here and there, but truth be told...a majority of the greatest moments of my life happened by 'accident'. Spontaneous reactions to unexpected opportunities. Falling for my best friend, losing my virginity, coming out to a few trusted friends, lucky breaks, and hilarious failures. Even writing my first story for Nifty. "What's the story behind that, Comsie???" I found Nifty by accident online one night, read a bunch of stories, wanted to write one of my own...so I sat down and wrote it. "Oh." Exactly! Not exactly a page turner, is it? Hehehe, but it's life! Exaggerated life, sure, but life just the same. That's what I write about. And that's been my personal experience.
    I want flawed characters. I want spur of the moment mishaps and bumbled conversations and knee jerk reactions. As a writer, we all get the chance to plan and plot things out in order to create the story we're trying to tell. Stories that take place in the 'moment'. Readers, however..have a bit of an advantage. They have time to detach emotionally, take time, pause, back away from the situation, and crate a variety of alternate scenarios in their heads to poke giant holes in what you've written. Which makes sense, it's what readers do. But it's not always fair. Hehehe! Keep that in mind.
    Have you ever had a heated argument with somebody, walked away angry, and spent the next few hours thinking, "I SHOULD have said this!" Or, "I should have pointed out how much they SUCK when they said that!" And hey...if you had time to think and analyze and push your emotions aside for a biting zinger that would knock your opponent to the floor in the heat of the moment...that would have been great. But, the truth is...we don't get a do-over. We don't get to remove ourselves from the situation and pick it apart from a distance until the moment is already over.
    I say this because I believe that an author's passion is important, and writing should feel natural and fun to you guys. Create your vision, and have it play out the best way that you know how. You shouldn't be stressing yourself out, trying to outsmart the world's greatest detectives with every plot point and word of dialogue that you add to your project. You'll never get anything finished that way. Have confidence in your ability to craft a series of events that will get your characters where they need to go.
    Create your story line, write it out, go back and self edit to see if your plot is missing anything or if there's anything that doesn't add up...and then give it to your Beta readers to see if maybe they can find some of the errors that you can't see for yourself. The big thing here is to get the story finished! If you need to add something or change something later to keep from confusing your audience or spoiling the suspension of disbelief...then so be it. But while I challenge you all to write the best story that you can at all times...please don't give yourselves brain aneurysms trying to fill in every plot hole and make your story 'critic proof'. It won't happen. There's no such thing as 'critic proof'. They're critics. Criticism is what they do. Hehehe! It's like trying to make a kite 'wind proof'. It's pointless. And you need that wind to make the kite fly, so why try?
    A few more of these...
    - - -- - - Plot holes occur...these things happen from time to time. Don't stress yourself out about it. I definitely challenge all writers to do their best to write as airtight a story as possible...but I'd be lying if I said I thought it was possible. Plot holes exist. Hehehe! If 'The Terminator' had a time machine...why not go back and kill Sarah Connor as a baby? Or her mom? Or her MOM'S mom? When the weaponry that could stop him didn't exist yet? Instead of becoming Batman...Bruce Wayne was a massively rich, highly influential, member of society? Why not create a giant, non-corrupt, police force to take care of all the crime in Gotham City, and take out all the crime at once, 'Elliott Ness' style? And how did the elderly farm couple in 'Superman' suddenly explain to everybody in their rural town that they have a new BABY living with them? How did they enroll him in school with no prints, no birth certificate, no previous history of him existing at all?
    Sometimes...you just can't address a million questions in one story. Every story you write can't be 'War & Peace' length. Every story can't have a 'Lord Of The Rings' foreword with history lessons and languages and world building bonuses. I definitely think that we, as writers, should always cover as many bases as we possibly can when we're working on a project...but, sometimes, you've just got to get your story to work the way you want it to work. Period.
    The answer to a lot of question that readers may ask when it comes to plot holes is, quite simply..."Because the story would be OVER if I did it your way. And that wouldn't be satisfying at all." Hehehe! I cant imagine how boring my life would have been if I could go back and 'fix' everything to make it perfect. I'd be so dead inside. LOL!
    However, don't take this to mean that you should ignore all of the comments you get when it comes to potential plot holes in your stories. Some of them CAN be fixed, and probably should be. Especially if you're getting the same questions fro a variety of different people. As always, hear your critics out, and then see if they're making a decent point. Is this plot hole big enough to cause your whole story to fall apart without addressing it? Or can you sneak it by with a few tricks and puffs of smoke?
    If you find something that needs fixing, you might be surprised to know that you could probably correct the problem with a few sentences and get your story right back on course again. It may just be that simple. However...if you want to go the 'smoke and mirrors' route...hehehe, I can give away a few secrets on how you do that too.
    - Focus on the moment. Bring the emotions on and put your readers in the moment with your protagonist if you can. Really dig deep into what they're thinking. What they're feeling. I will admit to being a full blown savant when it comes to teen angst in my stories. Hehehe! And it's easy for someone older and wiser to scream, "Why doesn't he just walk up and ask the other boy out already??? Jesus!" Take that argument and make it a part of the moment. Make that a part of your protagonist's inner monologue. Of COURSE he thought of that too, but, ummm..."I'm 15, I'm deep in the closet, and I'm being asked to approach the cutest boy I've ever seen for the first time ever while my body and emotions are working against me all at once!" Sometimes it helps to actually address the obvious (and probably more boring) solution to the problem, and use that confusing fluster of emotions to further explain why he may be taking a different option instead.
    - Re-read your story from beginning to end, and try to ask yourselves the questions that readers might be asking later. How specific are they? Visualize them in your head. If you were to fix certain details, would it derail the events and special moments you had planned for future chapters? SOMETIMES...(probably bad advice, but...) you can let these things slide by for the sake of the story. I know that sounds lazy, but honestly, many readers will be along for the ride. They want to follow the roller coaster and just have fun. Whereas...if you were to sit on a roller coaster and concentrate on the physics of how it works and the probability of a tragic accident...um, it would be TERRIFYING! If you need your characters to suddenly run out into the street for some reason...have a fire alarm go off. Hehehe, because...'story'! Ugh, I hate to say that, and don't overuse that technique...but I'm being serious when I say that just has to be the answer sometimes. 'Because...'story'.
    Why hasn't Marty McFly's trip back to the past screwed up the entire time continuum, creating paradoxes that threaten the existence of everything that he's ever known when he gets back to the future?
    'Because...'movie'.
    Why are Morpheus and Neo constantly jumping into the Matrix to free people when they can just go out and free them in real life and destroy the machines power supply in the process?
    'Because...'movie'.
    Or, as one of the videos called it, "A scene called 'shut the hell up, everybody!'" LOL! I hate to say it, but sometimes it's the only way to keep you from painting yourself into a corner. So embrace it.
    - And, last but not least...the things you don't think you can fully explain without turning your plot on its head and messing things up? Don't. Keep those scenes short and sweet, allow the scene to serve its purpose, and hopefully you'll be able to move on to something else before readers start thinking twice about what just happened. Take a scene and follow it up with something with some emotional weight. A different focal point. If you're lucky, it'll act as the shiny object to keep readers progressing forward instead of slamming on the breaks and trying to figure things out. This is where pacing will be important for your story. If you provide too much lag time after a scene that might act as a plot hole in your story...you're dead in the water. Hehehe, so, before they can ask...just shout..."Look! Elephant!"
    And then run away.
    Alright, just a few more before I wrap this up!
    - - -- - - Now...as I said before, PLEASE don't take this as a Comsie license to be lazy or cut corners when you're writing. You should give every story you create the heart and soul that it deserves. One hundred percent of your best effort. And then get your Betas to help you find all the little blindspots that you might have missed. Take pride in what you do, and always give it a champion effort. No excuses.
    However...I wrote this article so you all realize that plot holes can, and probably WILL, happen. Know them for what they are, try to see if you can fix them without bringing your story to a screeching halt and having it fall to pieces...and if you occasionally run into a brick wall, where no other option is available to you, well...'Because...story.' Sometimes you've just got to go with your gut and hope it works for the best.
    That sounds pretty difficult, choosing when to grind harder and when to let things slide...but I guarantee you...
    ...It's "Super easy! Barely an inconvenience!"
    I hope this helps! And I'll seezya soon with more! ((Hugz))
  20. Comicality

    Killing Off Characters

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    When writing your stories and creating a tapestry of drama and conflict, occasionally putting your readers through a roller coaster ride of ups and downs from beginning to end...you may make the choice to lose a character or two in the process. It happens. It's a part of more stories than most people realize. In fact, with very few exceptions, all of your favorite Disney cartoons from when you were young...have an orphaned protagonist. From Peter Pan, to Bambi, to Dumbo, to Aladdin, to Cinderella, to The Jungle Book, to The Lion king...all of them have either been permanently separated from their parents, or have their parents violently murdered in the first act! It's practically a Disney cliche at this point. Death happens often in the stories we create and the stories we read. Hell, even the BIBLE kills off its main protagonist at a certain point in the story! Hehehe...oops! Spoiler alert! That 'Jesus' guy? He doesn't make it out alive! Very sad.
    But, if you want the death of a major character to be a part of your story, and you want it to be a part of your project, then I say go for it! Just make sure that it has some sort of meaning, and that it is bringing about the desired dramatic effect for the story you're trying to tell. That's the most important thing to remember in this mess, hehehe!
    I've only killed off a few characters in my stories online (But i won't say who, because...'drama'), but I've definitely learned a lot from doing so. I would like to share that knowledge with you guys this week. So let's talk about killing off characters, shall we?
    I think the first thing that we, as authors, should be aware of...is the supposed need to create an 'event' to push our stories forward. It's been my experience that it is a total coin toss as to whether this will work to your story's benefit or not. The death of a main and beloved character can be both tragic and upsetting to your audience, and I'd assume that was your intention in killing them off in the first place. However, the big question that you should have playing over and over again in your mind is...why? Why are you killing this character? What will his/her death mean, and how will it affect the rest of the story? There's nothing more frustrating than having someone bumped off for no real reason, and then not having that death have any impact on the rest of the plot. It's almost like, "Well, why were they ever introduced in the first place?" You know? It's like when you watch a horror movie, and the main character sees all of their best friends and family members slaughtered and gutted in the goriest ways imaginable...and two minutes later they seem totally unphased by that. Hehehe, ummm...no! To say that seeing something like that should be highly traumatic is an understatement. But, what can you do? Horror stories need fodder to be scary sometimes. ::Shrugs::
    Always remember that your readers are attempting to relate and invest time and emotion into the characters that you create with your writing. So if you're going to give one of them the axe, then you'd better make it count for something. If you're doing it for shock value or to subvert expectations by taking off the plot armor and nothing else? Chances are, your readers aren't going to like that a whole lot. In fact, it can end up backfiring on you in a major way. So I think that it's something that needs to be plotted out and planned for ahead of time, and a reason for your character's untimely demise should have a certain impact on the rest of the characters in the story. It should bring about some sort of awareness, or trigger some level of growth for your protagonist. And this all has to be planned ahead of time. It needs a build up. Readers have to care about this character and be shocked and awed by the fact that they're no longer going to be a part of the story. Which is tragic and hurtful to the people who loved that character...but if you show echoes of their impact on the main character, then your audience may just nod their heads and think, "Well, it's a shame that this person had to die...but I get it now." And THAT will give their death meaning, making it a cathartic part of your protagonist's evolution into the person that you wanted him/her to be.
     
    Now, if you're looking for opportunities to kill off a character in your story...and give your main character a "Noooooooo!!!" moment while dropping to his knees and screaming up at the sky, hehehe? Then I would, personally, narrow it down to three specific 'types' of character deaths. I use this as my three-point guide as to how I want the death of a character to affect my story. There are different degrees of reader attachment and story plot elements that you have to play with here, and each one affects your story in a different way, depending on where you place it. So give it some thought, and see which one might be right for you.
    Level 1 - "The Catalyst"
    When you place a character death near the beginning of a story...this automatically signals your audience that this is going to be the 'jump off' point that will ultimately set everything else in motion. The character that dies only needs a minimal introduction and little background information, but should be seen as someone that is goodhearted and important to the main character. You will only have a short time to develop this character and make his death meaningful when it happens, but it doesn't have to be an epic look into who they are. Their death is what you use to ignite the spark you need to get the story going. Nothing more.
    For example...Bruce Wayne's parents get murdered in an alley by a guy with a gun in Gotham City. That's the catalyst for him to grow up and become Batman. Uncle Ben gets killed, and it becomes the reason that Peter Parker decides to become Spiderman. These deaths are a significant part of your story's beginning, and you can use that plot device to explain why your main character does what he does, and creates opportunities for your readers to connect with his reasoning.
    Level 2 - "The Escalation"
    Now...if you have a character die in the middle of your story, or near the end of the second act...this can be used to escalate the tension in your project and truly raise the stakes when it comes to what your main characters are trying to accomplish. This time...you have much more time to flesh out the character that you want to 'bump off' later on. You get your audience to get to know them more intimately, and therefore, their sudden death becomes much more heartbreaking. If you've spent the proper amount of time building this character up and making him/her a special part of your story's cast...only to have him suddenly bite the dust...the reaction will be MAJOR! It immediately takes your story and ramps it up to heights that your readers might not have expected. It creates a sense of dread, because, "I LOVED this character! And if this person can be killed off....who might be next?"
    When you kill off an important character mid story, you're letting your audience know, explicitly, that the gloves are coming off, and anything is possible now. It's a flare to signal the masses that things just hit a new level of 'bad', and that your favorite characters are facing real danger now. This is a writing tool that you can use to heighten tension and set your future events in motion, making them a frightening ride for anyone who bares witness as they cling to every word, wondering where things are going next.
    Level 3 - "The Sacrificial Lamb"
    Now this method is most often used when you reach the climax of your story. And it is just as advertised. The 'Sacrificial Lamb'. When you write a major character death near the end of your story, it is often seen as a noble sacrifice for the greater good of whatever it was that the protagonist was fighting for. This can also have a hugely dramatic effect on your story, as the person sacrificing their life is usually the one who has made the protagonist's journey towards winning the day complete. At this point, you're dealing with a character that has usually been along for the entire ride, and that readers have come to love and adore along the way. So...word to the wise...if you're going to kill this person off...have them bite the big one doing something important. Don't just knock them off over something petty. You've got an opportunity to really engage your readers emotionally with their sacrifice...don't waste it! Give them a send off that you think is worthy of your reader's attachment and emotional investment in them from the very beginning. Have it mean something. I think that Level Three is the most important and touchiest writing tool of them all. Missing a step on this one can either get your audience to cry and keep reading...or it can totally piss them off and cause them to stop reading entirely. So be careful. Like I said...it's all about planning things ahead of time. Make sure you have your act together, and build up to the ending you want your story to have. Even if your protagonist dies at the end...make it worth the reader's time to have him/her go out with a bang. You know?
    So there it is! Comsie's personal guide to killing off characters and not traumatizing your audience in the process! Hehehe! Just remember that a character death in a story should have the same impact as a death in your own life. Things change. They shift. You don't just lose someone and go on as if it never happened. If you're going to kill off a character, ask yourself why, and how will this affect the story in the long run? If you can't answer that question, then don't kill them off. Put them on a bus and send them to Detroit or something! LOL! Death isn't something to take lightly, even in online fiction. So get it right! K?
    I hope this helps! And I'll see you guys next weekend!
  21. Comicality

    eBook Publishing

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    I have such fond memories of working in a big music store in the heart of downtown Chicago for a number of years. Easily, the best job that I've ever had in my life! No other job has ever been more fun, more meaningful, more beneficial to me in my growth as a person. No contest. Hehehe! Just a bunch of high school and college kids with a love and passion for music and art and film, to the point where we appreciated the 'misfit' in one another and embraced as being something to be proud of, instead of judged. It was one of the most tight knit families that I've ever been a part of that wasn't blood related. And I miss them terribly. I really do.
    One thing that I remember, distinctly, however...are a few of my co-workers who could sing, or rap, or play guitar, or were going to school for film...and they were all really GOOD at their individual crafts, too! But, there was always this idea among them that, "I'm just a regular person. I don't do this to get famous or anything. I just do it for free...just to do it. You know?" And then we'd feel compelled to ask one simple question...
    WHY?
    Understand...I am well aware of the fact that 'art and commerce' very rarely make for good bedfellows, because each one thinks they know what's best and are constantly fighting for control. I've seen it happen more times than you can imagine. They're just thinking from two different sides of the brain, so it can't be all about artistic expression that a wide audience might not understand...but everybody can't just sell out for money and cheering crowds either. Without some sort of balance, both parties are bound to fail eventually. But...if you really believe in your writing, and you happen to be good at what you do...what's stopping you from taking a shot at something bigger than a non-profit 'hobby'?
    You'd be surprised how incredibly EASY it is to edit, format, and publish, your own story as an online ebook these days. One that you can actually sell and make some extra pocket change off of, month after month, for as long as you keep it posted. Setting up an account is absolutely free in most places. You can set one up right here on GayAuthors, as a matter of fact, and sell your books to people who are already big fans of your work, or people who may become fans once they see what it is that you have to offer.
    Today, we're talking about possible ebook publishing...and why you guys should get in on this right away!
    Before we get started...let me sweep the rumors and BS right out of the back door, k? You will NOT get rich off of ebook sales! Hehehe! Put that idea right out of your mind. If you go looking on Youtube or Google for tutorials on how to get started, sell more books, or quit your day job so you can stay home and make six figures a year just typing away at a keyboard...you will have been misled. I never once bought into that idea, myself, and you shouldn't either. In fact, the truth is...if you're able to make gas money for your car and grab some extra groceries every now and then for the first six months to a year of you having your work published...you'll be doing GREAT! Don't dive in expecting much more than that.
    The good news is...you've got something to build on once you've reached that six month mark. When I say six month mark, I don't mean just publishing your story and coming back six months later to see what your profits look like. I mean six months of a true (and DAILY) dedicated effort to promote your work! Promote to the point of exhaustion if you have to. If you need eight hours of sleep before getting up at 9 AM for work...and it's 1 O'clock in the morning...spend an extra 15 minutes getting your name out there. Lose some sleep. You're going to have to really work at making this happen. Because, if you thought it was tough getting your stories noticed on GayAuthors or Nifty or on some other story site online...you're going to get absolutely CRUSHED by the lack of attention you will experience on sites like Amazon.com where people have to actually pay to read what you have to say! So promote, promote, promote! And don't ever stop. Making some extra cash for your art, and reaping the rewards of the hours of hard work that you put into getting your voice heard, is awesome! It's a great feeling to know that your words are worth a few dollars here and there. But it takes time and a lot of effort to get noticed. So why not get started today, right?
    Stop reading this right now, and take a moment to think of the possibilities..."
    Are you smiling? No? Hehehe, ah well...maybe by the time I finish this article.
    The thing about ebooks is that they are, essentially, a goldfish in an ocean when it comes to getting your name out there. You will be competing with millions of other authors, from all walks of life, of all ages, from all genres. And, make no mistake...some of them will be BETTER than you. Hehehe, that's just the honest truth. But, in life, we don't get what we want...we get what we work for. And if you're willing to stay up late, and keep typing, and promote your work...you can outsell any writer who's got their ego telling them that they can relax. No matter how skillful they are, or how huge their fanbase. Your hard work will always win in the end. Just stay focused. Stay disciplined. And keep going.
    You'd be surprised how quickly the word of mouth can spread once you've 'seduced' a few people into reading your work. As writers, you all have something to say. You all have a story to tell. And even if you've posted it already on GayAuthors or elsewhere...go back and see if you can improve on it. Re-edit it, give it some extra polish, and put it out as an ebook. Why not? Do you have any IDEA how many people there are out there who are looking to read exactly what it is that you have to say?
    Take a shot. At the end of the day, it's no different than posting your stories here or on Nifty for free. Except...maybe you get a little extra income on the side. If you only make five dollars, it's five more than you HAD, right? So...score! Hehehe!
    That being said, I want to give you guys seven quick tips on how to get your ebooks noticed, and make some extra income every month that you can use to spend on making life a bit easier, and being able to have a little fun every now and then. K? There are plenty of places online that offer free accounts for self-publishing ebooks. Like I said before, there is an ebook section right here on GayAuthors. Feel free to look up the guidelines and find out how to get in contact with the right people to make that happen. Also, Amazon.com has the KDP program which is excellent and available to a wide variety of readers from all over the world. So that's a great place to start once you get comfortable with everything. Signing up is also free. Another good place is Smashwords, although, their submission standards for formatting is a bit 'precise' for my tastes. Hehehe, if you don't format it EXACTLY the way they want you to...your book will get rejected until you fix it. And the system doesn't even tell you what's wrong with it...so you can spend weeks trying to figure out WTF is going on before you get your books published. So, it's a rough 'audition', but if you can get in...Smashwords probably has the widest reach of any site that I've been associated with so far. So, it's worth a shot.
    Again, it's a one in a million chance that you'll make enough money to actually retire and become a writer, full time...but if that's your eventual goal, it's not a bad place to start. So consider these seven rules as a 'ground floor' tutorial.
    #1 - Editing and formatting! This is important. Before you submit anything to a 'professional' ebook site...do your best to be 'professional'. Every ebook that I've put out, I've gon through and read every single word and edited it from beginning to end. Every open tag, every misspelled word, every plot hole...I tried to make a champion effort to find every last one of them and fix them up so that it reads like a book that I would, personally, pay money for. This isn't little league anymore. If you're going to put a book out on the actual market, and it's riddled with spelling errors, misused punctuation marks, and character flaws? Then you're wasting your time. Remember, you're basically starting from scratch all over again as far as a fanbase is concerned. These people have no idea who you are. So you need to make a good first impression. Otherwise, you can kiss their support goodbye. So get it right! You've only got one chance to grab their attention. Make it count.
    #2 - Keep your prices LOW!!! At least in the very beginning (Meaning for the first year or two. Or until you have a loyal group of followers who believe in you enough to pay a little more for your work after a few successful outings). Now, in my case...I already had a pretty big catalog of stories finished and an established fanbase before I started publishing ebooks. So I never charged much, because I would rather have ten true fans buy every ebook that I put out there, then just one or two curious customers who might splurge on one or two ebooks a year. That's counterproductive in the worst way. Again, nobody knows who you are yet. Your goal is to get people to take a chance on you. You want them to think, "It's only a couple of bucks. I'm already here. Let me make a little impulse buy and see what he/she has to offer." Don't go trying to make ten dollar sales on your first book. It won't work. If you have a story that's 100,000 words or more? Save it for later. Try a few short stories first. Something you don't mind putting out there as an appetizer to get people interested in something more substantial from you. You're more liable to make a ten dollar novel/novella sell from someone who has enjoyed four or five of your shorter stories than you will from a new shopper who doesn't have any idea what would make you any more special than other authors who are charging half the price.
    Even if you wrote a ten dollar novel, and you put forth a ten dollar effort...hehehe, try giving it away for five. Tops. Remember, it's better to have fans than 'customers'. Fans come back for more. And they won't do that if you tax them too heavily on what you're writing. On Amazon, my ebooks are almost all $2.99 (Let me shamelessly promote them while I'm here! Hehehe! https://imagine-magazine.org/store/comicality/! That's another rule! ALWAYS be in promotion mode!). The only reason they're even that much is because anything cheaper gives Amazon 70% of the profits. Even though I set up the account, wrote the story, did the formatting and editing and all of the hard work...your ebook has to be at least three dollars for you to get a decent percentage of the profits from it. So keep that in mind. It's as cheap as I can possibly make it...but I also have over 30 books available. So it's a much better deal to gain a fanbase that wants to collect them all...like Pokemon! Hehehe!
    #3 - Free shit!!! Hehehe, tell me...if you saw that on a sign on the side of the street...wouldn't you look over there to investigate? LOL! Yes, the best promotion you can possibly put out there is gathering the interest of new readers. Readers who have WAY too much quality stuff to read online for free to want to grab their credit cards and pay for someone to give them more of the same. So, I can't stress enough how important it is to keep writing and putting stories out there online. Let people see your talent. Let people wander by and stumble across the amazing stories that you have to tell. Then, once they've built up their faith in you to be consistently awesome...let them know about your ebooks. Let your free stories be the trail of breadcrumbs that lead to the stuff that might put some extra pennies in your pocket once a month. It's not a 'trick'. Think of it as a kick ass party that's taking place in a club, and everything is free...but there's more in the V.I.P. area upstairs if you want to check it out! Hehehe!
    Also, ALWAYS allow a review of your story to be available on Amazon if that's the route you want to take! There is an option where readers can see what your writing style is like, and they can read the first...ummm...I think it's 20% of your story, before making a purchase. I ALWAYS allow that for all of my ebooks. If you want to gain new readers, but you tell them they have to 'buy' before they 'sample'...you just cut your readership in half. Not a good strategy. Let them see what you've got. Grab them in the first few pages, and seduce them into wanting to read more.
     
    Even drug dealers know that if you give the first taste for free...you've got a customer for life!
    Annnndd....now i'm using drug references. Don't do drugs, kids! Stay in school!
    Moving on...
    #4 - Bring your online fanbase with you! If you have people that have been reading your stories from the very beginning, or have been corresponding with you through email or chat or whatever...let them know that you have ebooks available. Give them the address, and ask them to leave comments and ratings when they get a chance. This will only help your ebooks to sell better. You may not think that people look at these comments and ratings...but I can assure you...they do! I have to admit that I look at them myself. So ask your biggest supporters to get involved in making your ebooks a success. However...remind them to be HONEST with their reviews. That's just as important. If your best friend, 'Billy Bob', shows up on six of your online ebooks, and he's giving every single one of them a five-star rating and saying, "This is the greatest book I've ever read!" On every single one of them...that's obviously going to look suspicious. Especially if it isn't true. Inspire commentary, and tell folks to be sincere about it. It's not going to hurt if you get a two or three-star rating, once in a while. THAT review will get more attention from new readers than marks giving you all aces all the time. Because they'll be curious as to why one person thought it was great and the other one thought it was awful. Either way...another sale for you. So go for it. Don't try to cheat the system. Play the game like everybody else and let the cards fall where they may. Amazon is set up to know when folks are being fake in their reviews. They can even tell when someone left a review without purchasing the ebook. So if you think you're going to fool anyone...hehehe, you won't. It's better to be confident and let your ebooks succeed or fail based on the merit of your writing.
    #5 - Set up a home base! I'm sure that I've mentioned this before a few times, but it really is more essential than ever when dealing with ebooks online. Find a place that you're comfortable with, and STAY there! Keep a reliable email address, a website, a Twitter account...whatever. You have no IDEA how many people I've tried to answer their emails or send thanks for their feedback, and had the email bounce back to me. It's frustrating as HELL!!! LOL! STOP friggin' changing your email and contact info every 60 days! It comes off as flaky and unpredictable to new readers. They're trying to get in touch with you, and they can't because you decided you don't like Gmail anymore or whatever. Sit still. If fans can't reach you, then they won't be fans for much longer. My email is Comicality@webtv.net right now, and it has been the same since 1998! Webtv doesn't even exist anymore, but I was given the option to keep the email and I definitely wanted to do that. I don't change my screen name, I don't change my Twitter, and i don't change my website address. So if you want a stable fanbase...then stay stable! Give them a place to go where they can talk to you. Where they can get updates and teasers and release dates from you. Stop moving around so much. It's not good for business. Hehehe!
    #6 - Get your synopsis and keywords together! People may not always judge a book by its cover, but they WILL judge it by the brief description that put underneath it. I wrote an article on story blurbs a few weeks ago, just before the holidays, if you guys want to check it out. Make your story sound interesting to anyone who's looking for something to jump into. it's all about getting them to ask the question, "Well, this is what you told me...but what happens next?" If you've got an intriguing story blurb, an 'impulse buy' type of price, and an honest review or two for your ebook...then congrats! You just made another sale, and possibly made a new fan of your work! Make sure that your synopsis makes people curious, and that your 'keywords' are specific. If one of your keywords is 'gay'...hehehe, well, congratulations...you just put your story in a GIANT cauldron with a million other stories that will probably get noticed before yours will. Try 'gay TEEN', or 'gay COLLEGE', or 'gay VAMPIRE'...whatever it is that you're writing, don't be too vague with your keywords. A lot of people out there are looking for the exact story that it is that you want to tell. But they can't find it if it''s just un the gay or erotica or coming of age tags. Think of a few tags that will separate you from the horde of other stories out there, and narrow their search down a bit where finding your particular tale isn't so difficult.
    #7 - Make a few exclusives! Now, if you're writing stuff for free, but you want to draw attention to the fact that you have ebooks available as well...write one or two stories that are exclusive ONLY to your ebooks sales! Hehehe, I feel like I'm being a big con man by filling you guys in on this part, but I swear, that wasn't my intention. Er...not entirely.
    Now, you guys know that I've always often my stories for free online 99% of the time, and I love doing that. But the ebooks that I put out have added material and a much more polished execution than the stuff that's on my site. The "Gone From Daylight" and "Savage Moon" books have a LOT of added stuff that can't be found anywhere else online. And then there's "The Boys Of Widow Lake", books 1 and 2, which are only available as ebooks and nowhere else. (Book 3: "Depths Of Devotion", coming soon!) So...is that a mean spirited trick to get people to spend money? Hehehe, maaaaaybe! But I do occasionally lure people into that special V.I.P. section when I can. And if people don't want to go, there's still plenty of freebies for them to enjoy. No harm, no foul. But...eventually...many of them is going to want to know what's behind that magic curtain. And while it won't make me rich, a few diehard fans might end up inadvertently buying me a lunch or two. And that's alright with me! LOL!
    SO...that's my secret reveal on ebooks! if any of you are interested, get online and do some research on where you want to go and what the standards are. You can start right here on GA, and it doesn't take long to figure things out. If *i* can figure out how to do it, you guys can probably learn it in half the time. Just remember, you put a LOT of work into your art! As authors, you pour your heart and soul into every project that you put out there. And while we may not be overly obsessed with material gain, and would rather just enjoy the prestige of being appreciated by an audience that we built on our own...
    ...A few dollars in the pocket wouldn't hurt. Hehehe! if you don't want them, feel free to donate them to Comicality! I've got a link for that too! LOL!
    Take care! And I wish you all the best of luck!
    Seezya soon!
  22. Comicality

    Connective Tissue

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    I can't imagine anything feeling better than finding some level of pride in one of my projects. (Well, there might be a few things that feel better, but I can keep my clothes on for this one! Hehehe!) And that pride doesn't just come from favorable responses and good ratings. In fact, it comes from finishing a new chapter or project before anybody ever even sees it. It's like the planets and stars align, and everything is finally fitting together the way that I pictured it...or at least as close as I can get to that ideal presentation. I honestly get excited about releasing new stuff on the site. More than the readers do, believe it or not.
    But one thing that I always pressure myself to remember is...'I need to get this right first'! That's the most important part of the process for me. The wording, the emotion, the structure...that final 'spit and polish' that's going to make the whole medley truly sing. That takes patience. Getting that part done right takes time, and it can be frustrating when my muse is being stubborn, but once I get it to sparkle the way I want it to...I'm practically beaming with a grin for the rest of the week!
    Now...not everything that I write is going to be a big hit with my audience. Everything that I release is not going to have some huge, dramatic, event take place that will leave readers angry, overjoyed, or sobbing uncontrollably at the end. I don't expect it to. Sometimes, writing a story feels more like drawing a detailed picture, or building something out of old school Legos. In my mind...I know exactly how I want the final picture to look when it's finished. So being certain about where the lines, the colors, the building blocks, go in order to make that happen, is just as important as the major events that they're either building up to, or coming down from. You can't skip to building an awesome attic in a house without building the basement first, right? It's something that I've learned to appreciate, and pay more attention to since I first started.
    In my earliest days of writing stories at Nifty, I had four points that I wanted to hit with every short story and every additional chapter that I added to my list. Introduce the cute boy characters, find a way to get them together, find a way to express their feelings for one another, and then...let's get some mattresses squeaking! Hehehe! I figured that, as long as I got those four main parts of the plot right, then a lot of readers would probably just skip over most of the other stuff anyway. Why concentrate on the details? At best, they'll 'skim' through it and keep scrolling down the page until somebody gets naked. The same idea was applied to my sci fi stuff when it was still in the planning stages. People want to see the alien, the vampire, the spooky ghost...get to the point already before you lose their attention and ruin the story!
    I feel like that was a novice mistake on my part, looking back on it.
    One that I've learned to correct over time, and with a lot of practice.
    Details, depth of character, backstory, clearly defined motivations...these are not meant to be seen as boring parts of a story. They're not meant to slow down the pacing or to merely act as 'filler' for readers who are immediately looking for something juicier to jump out at them with every few thousand words. In fact, when done with the right amount of flair and a hint of mystery...it can become the most intriguing part of your project.
    This time around...I'm going to try to express the importance of 'connective tissue' in our stories, and how we can use them to enhance a story, rather than flatten it out. (If that makes sense)
    My older stories and chapters were often a lot shorter than they are nowadays. In fact, many of them are only half the size of the chapters I try to put out every week or two. And while those stories were straight to the point, and said what they needed to say...I felt my love for details and connective tissue spreading out as I got more relaxed with my own voice in terms of writing. Reading feedback and emails from the people absorbing it all...I found that they weren't skipping over the so-called 'boring' parts at all. I mean, sure...I know that there are readers that are in a big rush to have certain issues resolved and certain events to finally take place...but I refuse to rush it. I absolutely refuse. And it's because I can see the finished work in my head. Even if the readers can't. And those tiny little intricate details and casual mentions of past or future events are all needed to build the design that I want my stories to have.
    I think that, with writer maturity, you learn that it's more about telling the story you want to tell, and less about trying to simply 'entertain' with the words you put together. And as authors...isn't that the whole point?
    One quote that I live by is, "Some people write because they want to say something...and others write because they have something to say." And if any of us are having trouble figuring out the difference...then that's the first journey that we should all be taking to be a better writer. Hehehe, it's something to meditate on when you have some free time.
    There are times when fans will politely (or not so politely) push you to turn tricks in your story without fleshing it out properly. But you have to train yourself to resist the urge to 'perform' instead of 'create'. If you have a plan in place...stick to it. And mold it into what you want it to be. This is when I get to truly be selfish and tell everybody, "WAIT! I'm getting to the good stuff! Just hold your friggin' horses!" Hehehe! And that may lead to some folks feeling aggravated and impatient...but if they rush back to read the next chapter? Then I've already done my job as a writer. And, here we both are...back in the saddle again.
    I want to show you a few fun videos. It's basically cartoon rabbits re-enacting some of your favorite movies, but rushing through them in 60 seconds or less. Now, even though this is an exaggeration for comedic purposes...THIS is what your story looks like with no connective tissue! With so-called 'filler'. This is what you have when a rabid 'event oriented' fanbase pushes you to skip the boring stuff in order to hurry up and get to what they say they want to see.
    -
    -
    Entertaining? Sure. But will it be your best work? Will people remember these a day later? Can you shove the depth and meaning that you wanted your story to have in these few short moments?
    You're an author. Have confidence in your art. And don''t let anybody force you off the road when you're pursuing your passion. Is this your story, or their story? Take control and be proud of your creative choices, cheers or jeers be damned.
    One thing to remember is to constantly build upon the foundation that you created from the very beginning, and to remember the essentials every step of the way. When I say that, I mean that every chapter of your story should be an evolution of the chapter before it in some way. Now, that doesn't mean that your protagonist has to go from a painfully shy bookworm to a full blown gigolo within a chapter or two, or from a farm boy to a powerful Jedi knight in a week's time. The growth can be gradual, steady, and in sync with who your protagonist is as a character. Give them time to learn, and bring your audience in to the learning process with them. If you've got a big action scene coming up, or a dramatic character death, or an explosive first kiss...then that's awesome! These things are the benchmarks of a great story, and those will be the scenes that most people will remember when they're finished and think back on your story later on. BUT...that connective tissue can add a few extra sparks to those bigger scenes that you're so anxious to get to. They are meant to give those bigger moments meaning.
    I've discovered SO many missed opportunities in my older stories as I was going back through them to re-edit and fix them up to release as ebooks. Moments that I skipped over, dialogue that ended too abruptly for my tastes, opportunities for character development that were ignored...if I were to rewrite those stories all over again, I would definitely do things differently.
    However, since I write and release my stories, chapter to chapter...there are some scenes, or even whole chapters, that some may see as 'filler'. But I can assure you...they're not. I'm always thinking ahead, and whenn those future chapters come around, readers will be able to look back at those old boring chapters and say, "Omigod...NOW I see where that came from." That's the whole point.
    Connective tissue in a story can have a variety of effects on your plot. It can display the aftermath of a recent event, and explain how your main characters are dealing with it...and how they plan to progress from there. It can also drop hints and clues and create a trail of breadcrumbs for your readers to follow towards the next big event. Creating speculation, foreshadowing soon to be revealed secrets, or increasing tension for a building conflict. Connective tissue can bring two unlikely friends or lovers together through a seemingly mundane situation or conversation, or it can shift the focus of your main story to concentrate on a few supporting characters or a related subplot while giving the main plot a rest. Think of it as an opportunity to take all of your best ideas, your most memorable moments...and gluing them together with something interesting enough to hold it all together.
    Connective tissue is all about answering your reader's questions before they're asked. That's all.
    "Why did this happen?"
    "Who is the woman in black?"
    "How is this kid going to come out to his homophobic stepdad?"
    "Where is this thing with the college roommate going, and is he flirting or not?"
    See...without a series of scenes to ask, and then provide possible answers, to questions like these between the big moments in your story...then all you have is a bunch of dramatic 'dun dun dun!' moments with no reason or meaning to your audience. Always remember...'show', don't 'tell'. You can't just convince your readers that a gay teen coming out to his stepfather is scary by simply writing, "I'm scared to come out to him because he's a homophobe." Well...I mean, technically, you can...but it won't have the same impact. It's just words on a page. It conveys a message, but not the emotion behind the message.
    Instead...why not try having a few short (but effective) scenes where you demonstrate that this stepfather doesn't care for gay people? Maybe he hears something on the news and makes some off colored remarks about it. Maybe he's trying to get his stepson involved in sports to keep him from being a 'sissy'. Or maybe there's a TV show with a gay character on it, and he swiftly changes the channel to display his distaste for the subject matter. This might seem like boring filler dialogue to some, but what you're actually doing is building a history of behavior for this side character in your story, and explaining why his stepson is afraid to come out to him as being gay. You're providing actual reasons for your protagonist to feel the way he does. This is necessary when telling a good story, even if your audience is in some big hurry to skip over it because they don't see where it's leading the way you do.
    Now, let's say your main character finds a love interest, and decides to come out in order for them to be together. But...in a rage, the stepfather ends up kicking him out of the house and screaming that he can never come back. Not ever. This is (finally) where you can see why the connective tissue was needed. You can see the last domino fall, and trace it back to where the chain reaction happened in the first place.
    If you skip around...and write, "I'm scared of my stepdad, but I'm in love now. I'm going to do it. I'm going to tell him tonight." And then you have a short dialogue and have him kicked out of the house? Well...it's functional. Not bad. I would have written it the same way when I was still finding my way around a keyboard. Hehehe! But now? I want that connective tissue there to bring color and understanding to what's going on here. I want readers to see the stepdad for who he is ahead of time, anticipate his negative reaction, feel the tension when coming out becomes a necessity for the gay teen, and then be shocked and appalled when the explosive conflict happens at last. There's a build up. An arc. Your readers are already entrenched in the situation before they even read it. Then they experience the emotional impact, first hand. They're given a clue as to what built up to this moment, and how the main character is planning to press forward towards the next big event. They're a part of that journey.
    I wish I could stress how much these chapters mean to building a better project when you're writing. A few missing bricks in a wall can cause it to collapse. DON'T RUSH! Take your time, and craft your story your way! K? People will either like it, or they won't. You don't have any control over that. The goal is to give birth to a project that you can be proud of, and that went exactly the way you wanted it to go. Much like sex...sometimes it's better to slow down and take your time so your 'partners' can enjoy it.
    As always, I hope this helps! Happy writing to you all! And it's good to be back! Hehehe! Sorry about disappearing for the holidays! But, you know...'family' and stuff!
    Seezya soon!
  23. Comicality

    Ensemble Casts

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    Ensemble In one of my stories, "Savage Moon", I write about a teenage boy who gets drawn in with a bad crowd of misfits...who later turn out to be a pack of werewolves. (Don't worry, that's not a spoiler. It's, literally, the plot of the story. And it's practically given away in the title. So I didn't ruin any surprises with that one! Hehehe!) However, the 'alpha' tells their potential recruit about what it takes to build a strong pack. A family unit. And the key is in the personality traits of everyone in their circle. Every member of the pack has something unique to bring to the table. Something that none of the others can do without them there. Having any two of them exactly alike isn't efficient for the pack to thrive. Every character is filling in a hole that couldn't be filled by anyone else...and therefore, they are given purpose and a direct reason for being there. They strengthen the whole by covering certain blind spots within the group.
    I've learned that, if you're going to populate your story with a broad cast of characters...the same rules apply. While it's realistic to have people in your life that you recognize and, maybe, speak to on a daily basis...but don't really have any major impact on your life...allowing that to exist in your fiction can actually detract from the focus of the overall story. Obviously, we all have family members, coworkers, classmates in school, etc...but if you were to take out a piece of paper and try to list them all right now...you'd end up with a LOT of 'characters' that probably jump in and out of your life all the time. But your story can't be about all of them, now can it?
    It's a fun experience to work with a variety of different characters in a single story. I feel the interaction between characters, whether a positive interaction or a negative one, adds depth to the whole cast. You get to let them show the readers who they are by how they approach, engage, and respond, to one another, as opposed to just telling your audience who they are through narration. However...it can be really easy to get carried away when doing so. Any story can quickly spin out of control if you try to divide your focus among too many characters. It dilutes the potency after a while, and can make all of your characters suffer from a lack of proper development in the long run.
    SO...this weekend, we're talking about building and 'tightening up' an ensemble cast in your stories! Let's get to it!
    I, personally, use ensemble casts a lot in my writing. Not always, but quite often. Especially in my sci-fi or horror laced fiction. Definitely with stories like "Gone From Daylight", "Savage Moon", "Agenda 21", "Shelter", and "Skylight"...but also with stories like "Billy Chase", "New Kid In School", and "A Class By Himself". The idea is to have each side character bring something 'out' of the protagonist that the others usually don't. It allows you to see your main character from a different angle, existing in a different element as he or she bounces from interaction to interaction. It's like...in real life, I have a certain relationship with my mother. We talk, we laugh, we spend quality time together. But the relationship that I have with my very best friends that I've known since high school is completely different. The relationship that I have with the people I work with is different from both of those examples. It's not like I'm suffering with some sort of personality disorder...our interactions are just based on a variety of relationships to one another. So, when creating an ensemble cast of characters for your story, this is something that you might want to keep in mind. Why is this particular character there? What are they bringing to the table? What meaning will they have in terms of furthering the plot? And, most importantly...if you cut this character out of your story completely...would it have any real impact at all?
    If you have to even think about that last question for longer than a few seconds...take that character out of your story. Do it right away, before you get attached to them. You won't miss them. And neither will your readers. Trust me.
    I think my love for ensemble casts comes mostly from the works of Stephen King. More so in his writing than in the movies or TV mini-series, but he has a really cool way of putting ensemble casts together and using the technique to its full effect, in my opinion. It's as if he can take a group of friends, or just random strangers...toss them into a serious situation, and somehow weave them all together into a story where every single person has a role to play, and a seemingly predestined reason to be included in the story. Whether you've read the books or watched the movie versions, this is evident in stories like "The Stand", "IT", "The Langoliers", and others. Each character is contributing something to the plot. Maybe someone is a detective and has a keen eye for detail. Maybe another character has some sort of psychic ability. And another might end up being a traitor in their midst. But you bring them all together and put them in the same space? And, much like the wolf pack in "Savage Moon"...the whole becomes stronger by focusing on the attributes of its many parts.
    The key to creating a strong ensemble comes from being able to define who each character is and what each character does. You can start with a vague idea in your head at first, and narrow it down as you go along during your planning process. Think about what 'elements' you want to have in your story beforehand...and then create characters that will embody those elements in their attitudes and through their actions. I've found that to be the best way to go about it.
    Maybe you need a bashfully beautiful love interest. Maybe you need a character to lighten things up and act as the 'comic relief', even in dire situations. Maybe you need some muscle. A rebel who can bring the pain and provide protection when the plot calls for it. Maybe you need someone to be the asshole, or a best friend to act as the voice of reason, or a mysterious wildcard to keep the other characters on edge, or perhaps a sacrificial lamb who will end up saving the day when the time comes. Whatever elements you want your story to have? Create them in your mind first. Then craft your cast of characters around them and assign roles that will help you breathe life into those elements and carry the plot forward however you see fit.
    So...the big question becomes how to determine who belongs in the story and who doesn't. Well, I feel that ensemble casts should connect to your story in one of three ways. Whether the play a major role in the main story, or are just there for the blink of an eye, the reason for their inclusion should be attached to something in order to give them purpose.
    Connected to the other characters. This is something that I initially think about when putting my characters together in my head. I write gay teen romance, so I begin with my protagonist and then create his love interest. That goes without saying. So...how do I go about creating the world around these people? Maybe I'll give my protagonist a best friend. Someone to comfort them when they're down, lift them up, or maybe just someone to vent to when they're upset. It allows me to get outside of the main character's head and turn his thoughts into dialogue with another person, which is often more entertaining. What else? Maybe I'll add a bully at school, or a love rival, or a particularly nosey neighbor. Adding characters like this can offer challenges to our protagonist and can create some very interesting obstacles for our main character to skate around. In some of my stories, the parents are in the background. Present, but not really important. They don't enhance the story in any way, so they're not the focus. However, in a story like "A Class By Himself", the main character's mother plays a much larger role. A hard working, single, mom who's just struggling to get by so her son can succeed and have a future is an important part of the plot, so having her fleshed out and involved in what's going on is important. So...if you have characters that are directly connected to the main character, whether it be a friend, an enemy, a relative or sibling, or even a nasty teacher or school principal or boss at work...then you can figure out whether or not you really need them there pretty easily. Just remember that they should have some sort of impact on your main character's journey. They should greatly affect their moods and their actions. That's how you know they belong there. Connected to the plot. Sometimes there are plot elements that you want to express, or a series of events that you either want to set into motion or eventually resolve, and you can use a few side characters to accomplish that. Now, this isn't to say that you shouldn't flesh these characters out or push them into the background fog of your storytelling...but they are here to carry the plot. That's their purpose. In the story, "Never Again", I had a side character that makes a brief appearance in the beginning of the story, shows up for a few seconds in the middle, and then makes one last appearance, I think, in the last chapter. However, his role in the story ends up delivering the 'punch' that the story needed to reach the ending that I had in mind. Now, was he a major character in the grand scheme of things? No. But his inclusion was plot related. He had a role to play, and he played it well! Hehehe! When creating plot related characters, they don't have to be as deep or as layered as your main characters, but they still need to have an effect on the story that is significant and ultimately understood by your audience. They have something to do. This is less about how they interact with your characters, and more about what your readers can learn from them within the context of the story. Think of them as mail carriers. They're there to deliver a message. They can piss your protagonist off, or they can enlighten them, or they can destroy a romantic moment, or they can bring certain emotions to the surface. So concentrate on the moment that you're trying to create. You want the story to take a sad and dark turn? You want to fire your main character up and inspire him to give it his all? You want to create a sense of danger or dread? These are where your plot themed characters come into play. They don't have to be a big part of the story, they just need to provide the catalyst for the emotional ups and downs that you're trying to weave into your project. Connected to the theme. These characters can be 'temporary' in your story. This doesn't make them unimportant, though. When thinking of a theme for your story, you are creating a certain feel or tone for what you're writing. So ensemble characters that are connected to the theme are basically used as examples of the mood you're trying to express to your audience. Hmmm...how to explain? Let's say that you're writing a story about war veterans who are dealing with post traumatic stress syndrome. If your main character is going to meetings to deal with his issues, a 'theme connected' character or two might bring more depth to what's going on with him. They may not play a major role in the story, but may show up on occasion to offer some advice or possibly display what could happen if the protagonist goes down the wrong path. Maybe you have a story where the main character is dealing with drug addiction, or is a part of a Gay/Straight alliance club at their local rec center, or a group of runaway kids who happen to settle in the same abandoned building. Basically, you can tell as much or as little about them as you want...but their main purpose is to flesh out the world you've built for your characters to inhabit. They don't have to necessarily have to be connected to any of your main characters in any significant way, and they don't really have to further the plot. They're there to 'show' your readers the world in which they live. If you've got a homeless teen on the streets, you might want to have somebody he wanted to think was a friend...but ends up ripping him off. Or maybe you have some random kid beat him up for his shoes. Or maybe you have a truant officer constantly breathing down his neck and searching the streets for him. These people can come and go, only having short interactions with the other members of your cast...but they're there to demonstrate the theme of your story in a very visual and engaging way. So whether your main character lives in a Utopian paradise or a dystopian shithole...having a few meetings with other people who exist in that world to demonstrate exactly what it's like to live there, can be a huge bonus for a writer, and can make their story all the more immersive in the long run. So, bottom line, ensemble casts can be a useful tool in creating a more three-dimensional view of your characters and your story as a whole. It's all about how relevant they are to the plot, and that can be determined by how you view their contribution to the big picture. Always make sure that the characters you create are there to do something. To have some impact. Even if it's a little thing, make sure they know their role in the grand scheme of things. If they're just there for the sake of giving your audience another name to remember...let them go. Don't be afraid to cut a character that isn't going to work out for the best interest of your story. It's not always an easy decision to make, but unless you want that person to drag the rest of your story down into the mud, give them a hug and say goodbye.
    I hope this helps! Take care! And I'll seezya soon!
  24. Comicality

    Leave Room for Readers

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    One thing that I have always loved about writing stories is the idea that I can finally allow my mind and my emotions to exist in a world that I, alone, can actually control! Hehehe, and that probably sounds pretty narcissistic, but it's the truth. In the worlds that I create, the shy guy can get their first kiss from the prettiest boy on the block. The lovable 'friend zone' kid can get the boy of his dreams to finally see him for the perfect mate that he is. Justice is always served where needed, bullies and evildoers always get their comeuppance, and fate is always conspiring in the favor of my main character.
    Naturally...spoiler alert...real life doesn't always work that way. To be honest, it's a coin flip decision, figuring out whether you're going to be treated fairly or unfairly by life itself. Sad, but true. But a guy can dream, right?
    Being able to write fiction and fantasize about what a perfect world might be like if it followed our individual ideas of love and romance and beauty were at our very core is an exciting and satisfying release for any creative mind that decides to take it head on. However...I, personally, believe that there has to be a little bit of room left for the readers to enjoy their fantasies too. Them being engaged in the stories we write is half the battle. Maybe even more so. And I'd like to talk about that a bit more this week. Feel free to join me if you like. Hehehe!
    You see, one thing that can be hard for me to do sometimes is to take 'myself' out of the equation when I'm writing. I cling to every emotion, every expression...my stories are SO personal, and so closely connected to who I am as a person. I can see and feel and almost touch every last part of my story as if it were real. I think it's a good thing, and I love being able to bring my personality, thoughts, dreams, sense of humor, and fears, to my readers. But I also try to remember that this is their experience too. The idea for me as an author is for us to share that experience. I can't create a sense of perfection for my audience, because we all have drastically different ideas about what 'perfection' is. How can I possibly 'tell' somebody what they want? That's just not the way to go. So...how do I get around that and still bring that heart and that extremely personal touch to my stories that a wide audience can relate to and identify with.
    The answer is...leave room for their input.
    Hehehe, don't look so confused. I'll explain. LOL! When has 'Comsie' ever NOT run off at the mouth?
    I always enjoy reading your comments on these weekly entries, and I love to hear about how you guys handle all of these writing tactics on your own. I can remember a few times in the past where some of you were talking about 'sex scenes' in your stories, and how sometimes you just allude to a sexual encounter and then get back to the story. You don't have to graphically describe every thrust, every kiss, every heavy breath and droplet of sweat, involved. The sex is simply suggested, and the audience understands what happened when the story 'faded to black', right? This is a perfect example of leaving room for your audience. Because, even though we don't write out some lengthy description of what was going on in that scene, in the minds of your readers...they're probably picturing the most erotically charged sex scene they've ever seen! LOL! It's true! Tell me you haven't done it yourselves. Wherever the author leaves off...your personal fantasies fill in the details. And nobody is ever going to write something hotter than your own sexual desires. Those desires are tailor made to you and you alone. Giving you an opportunity to explore and enjoy those fantasies during the story, makes them a part of it. They personalize it, and therefore...become much more involved.
    That's the secret!
    It's the 'eye of the beholder' theory at work. If everybody reading this were to post a picture here of who they think is the most beautiful boy on planet Earth...chances are, despite some similarities here and there, no two pictures would be alike. So, when I describe my characters in my stories, you may notice that the details lay out a 'guideline', but I don't go out of my way to make them overly specific unless I feel it's needed for the story. I may describe hair color, eye color, vague body type...but other than that, I use words like 'beautiful', or 'gentle', or 'delicate features'. I describe them as being bashful, or intimidating, or merely cute. And that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Instad of trying to force my version of 'cute' on my readers, I try to explain that my protagonists finds them to be stunningly gorgeous...and I give them room to interpret what their idea of 'stunningly gorgeous' means to them. Maybe they're picturing the typical, soft bodied, boy next door. Maybe they're picturing the sexy track star with the rock hard abs. Maybe they think back to that very first crush they had in the tenth grade, or they might think back to that first boyfriend they nabbed in college. Hell, maybe they're thinking of a singer or actor that they're currently obsessed with. The point is...when you give you readers room to create some of the details with their own vivid imagination, they become more attracted to the story itself. The perfection in their own minds becomes an overlay for the story you're giving them...and that symbiotic reader/writer relationship gets enhanced tenfold.
    The way to accomplish this is to simply allow certain specifics about your characters or events in the story to be vague and malleable, according to who might be reading. That doesn't mean that you should purposely exclude details. You still want to paint a picture that will bring your readers into the world that you wanted to create...but there are ways to finesse your wordplay in ways that gives a description without intruding on your reader's imagination.
    For example...
    If you write, "I thought he was so beautiful! He was about 5' 7", and rail thin...150 pounds, tops. He had a few pimples, but nothing major. And a lip ring on the right side of his bottom lip. An emo boy with reddish brown hair and spiked bracelets on each wrist." there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. This is a detailed description of a character that you wanted to create, and it's perfectly normal for you to do so. So if that's the picture you want to paint, then go for it!
    However, in most cases, I would personally write it a bit differently...
    "I thought he was so beautiful! Slender, with longish reddish-brown hair. I liked his bracelets too. I just couldn't get over how cute he was. Scattered pimples and all."
    So what's the difference? I left more room for the reader to put the picture of this boy together. I don't mention how tall he is. What if my readers want to picture him as being really tall and lanky? Or what if they want someone shorter? What if the term 'rail thin' turns them off? They might like someone with a bit more meat on their bones. What if the term 'emo boy' puts a certain vision of what that means...and they decide they're not into it? What if they don't like lip rings? All of these things come into play when writing a story. ESPECIALLY when it's a romantic or erotic story. So it's something to think about. This is why it can be difficult to write fanfics sometimes. What happens if you pick a fictional character or a celebrity that other people don't find sexy? They skip it, immediately. You want to avoid that. Let your readers define the characters for themselves. Give them an outline, sure...but unless a super detailed description is needed for that particular character...leave the window open for them to do some creative world building of their own.
    I learned this after years of having readers give me ideas or pictures or drawings of how they imagine my characters would look. They're all so different! But I LIKE that. When they read the stories, they have the best cast, the best score of music, the most erotic and visually appealing love interests, imaginable! The story that they're building in the back of their minds is FAR superior than anything that I could ever hope to type out on this screen. So it's almost like we're developing this project together as a team. And I find that to be a bonding experience, personally. Sometimes they have hotter sex scenes in mind, sometimes they have more action packed fight scenes in mind, sometimes they're imagining the saddest song ever made during a heartbreak scene...and I won't even try to match that. Hehehe, let them build it their way. It's a big part of the process when it comes to building and maintaining a loyal fanbase and increasing their personal connection to the characters in your story.
    So...set the stage, pick the costumes, and flesh out your characters and scenes however you want...but always remember that the reader is a big part of this creative effort. Whether you know them or not. Detail is essential in literature, but sometimes...less is more. If someone is beautiful...let you readers figure out what beautiful is. If someone has longish blond hair...let your readers determine how long 'longish' is. If your characters made love all night long...sometimes it's sexier to just say "We made love all night long. Over and over again. And every orgasm was better than the one before it." Trust me, your audience will imagine what that must have been like, and it will be everything they ever dreamed of! "Wow! You're story was awesome (enter writer's name here)!" Hehehe, well THANKS! You did half the work! ::Giggles::
    Junk food for thought! I hope this helps!
    Seezya soon, you guys! And happy writing!
  25. Comicality

    Story Arcs

    By Comicality,


    Writing Tips
    Beginning. Middle. End.
    Setup. Conflict. Resolution.
    All stories have a certain formula to them. That formula can be played with, rearranged, and altered, in a variety of different ways...but even that has some form of structure, when you sit down and think about it. Straying from a conventional method of telling a story doesn't mean that the original blueprint doesn't exist. We just choose to find a way of subverting expectations concerning the norm. A norm that set the standard for us in the first place.
    The most interesting stories and character revelations aren't drawn as a straight line. Most memorable stories have an 'arc' to them. The beginning, middle, and end, are bent into a shape that gives our readers somewhere to go. A journey. An adventure. And I know that we hear about story arcs all the time, but do we really take a moment to think about what that term actually means?
    Let's discuss...
    Many people may be familiar with the depiction of the theater masks, 'comedy' and 'tragedy'. One mask is smiling, and the other one is frowning. But what many not be aware of is the fact that these two masks aren't just grins and frowns, but the visual representation of two true story arcs. It describes how the story is going to begin and how it ultimately ends.
    Look at the smile on the comedy mask. That's how comedies or 'feel good' stories work, isn't it? It starts at a high point, then it dips down to a low point where things look dark and hopeless for our main character...but then the smile slopes up again, and with the dodging of a myriad of obstacles and hardships, the story ends up on a high note again. This is the natural story arc of a comedy. (Not always a 'Ha Ha' comedy, but a story with a happy ending.)
    Now...take a look at the frown on the tragedy mask. This is the exact opposite. Things start out being dreary and miserable. A serious low point. Then...it slowly rises up to give the main character feelings of hope and salvation. Things begin to turn around for the better. However, to complete the frown, the high point is short lived, and then it's a downward slide back into misery again. The character ends up back where he started, and that brief glimpse of joy and promise makes the tragedy all the more unbearable in the end. It's a crushing blow to the protagonist, and there are no pots of gold at the end of this particular rainbow.
    Whichever way you go, the story arc is what keeps things interesting for your readers. You want your characters to have somewhere to go, whether it be to their benefit or to their ultimate demise. It is that journey that creates the feeling of purpose when it comes to people reading your story. They're looking for a reason as to why they read your book from beginning to end in the first place, right? You've got to give them one.
    Imagine if your story was traveling along a straight line instead of an arc. What if the protagonist started off miserable...ended up miserable in the end...and was miserable every moment in between. I mean, would YOU want to read that story? I wouldn't. There are no moments of hope. No promise of rescue or happiness...no shining light at the end of the tunnel. Just...more tunnel. And a depressing journey that never gets any better than it was when you started.
    In the same respect...imagine that your character was soooo perfect and soooo beautiful and happy at the beginning of your story...ended up getting everything he wanted in the end without any struggle or sacrifice...and had nothing but good fortune and heartfelt giggles every moment in between. That would be equally boring. I wouldn't want to read that story either. There's got to be a FEW pitfalls and missteps along the way, right? Otherwise...I'd know how the story ends just from seeing how it begins. That's not entertaining, in my opinion. Even a baseball pitcher knows to throw a few change ups in there every now and then to keep people guessing. Why should your art be any different?
    Remember...people scream on a roller coaster...but they fall asleep on a train. Take that any way you want to take it.
    Have you ever been on a long road trip? Driving down a straight road with no scenery, no turns, no buildings....just an endless road? Yeah, that would be your story without an arc. When you create an idea for a story...think of your plot as a yin yang symbol. Think about all of the wonderful parts that you want to add to it, but also keep in mind that there have to be a few challenges and obstacles in the way as well. Whether you're writing a comedy or a tragedy, these same rules apply. A happy story needs moments of misery to create a sense of joy for your readers. And a tragic story needs moments of levity in order to keep your audience from being so depressed that they stop reading. If you can master a sense of balance on either side, then you will attract an audience willing to laugh and cry along with the characters that you create no matter what. But it takes some finesse. And finesse takes practice.
    Now, I'll admit...I've never been the bravest soldier in the battle of growing up as a kid. Hehehe! I was the shy guy. I had secrets, I was scared to reveal a lot of the feelings I had for other boys, and well...hindsight is always 20/20. So I do include a lot of teen angst in my stories. Silly mistakes and bad decisions. That was my life back when I was trying to navigate through life for the first time ever. And believe me...I get HAMMERED for it sometimes in my comments and emails. LOL! My characters are 'stupid' and 'ignorant' and 'GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!!!' But that's not how I remember it. Not when I was a teenager myself. There were peaks, and there were valleys. I remember being scared out of my mind sometimes, and being brave to the point of being downright reckless other times. But that's life. We all go through it. And we all don't have the wisdom and experience of a full grown adult when we shuffle our way through it for the first time. But, that aside...when folks ask me, "Why can't this character just throw caution to the wind and tell the whole world he's gay and get it over with?" Or, "Why doesn't he just profess his undying love already for the most beautiful by EVER in chapter TWO of the series?" Hehehe...well, because I wouldn't have a STORY to tell then, now would I? There's no arc to constant misery or constant perfection. My teen years weren't like that, neither were yours. Be honest! So why would my characters' teen years be like that? I don't WANT my stories to read like, "I saw this boy. He was cute. I asked him out within the first ten minutes of meeting him. He said yes. We had hot sex. The end." I mean...how entertaining is that? Where's the meat of the story? Where's the fear and the folly and the reward for going for broke? That's 'porn without plot'! And there's an audience for that, but it's not what I write. That's not why I started creating my stories and sharing them online. Am I crazy? If I wrote that story, none of my 'romantic' fans would read it. None of them would connect in the same way, or relate to the situation at hand. What would be the point?
    Can't writers just paint a decent picture from their hearts without being 'jumped' on all the time? Hehehe! Let me give my characters somewhere to go, something to learn, something to deal with and wrestle their way through to a satisfying end. The 'arc' is everything in a story. No matter how short or how long it may be. Give your characters something to triumph over. Some kind of opportunity for redemption. Or even an unfair hardship that eventually leads to them crashing and burning at the end. Either way, the idea is to have your character start somewhere...end somewhere...and have a change in mood and tone and experience significant challenges along the way. That's the fuel that makes writing fiction fun. And if the writer is having fun, then the readers should be having fun too.
    And if they're not...because they desperately want the story to go a different way? Then...sorry...but they should be spending time writing their own story instead of wasting time telling you how to write yours. As I've said many times in the past...you don't write for your readers. You write for yourself. Then you SHARE it with your readers when you're finished. Don't get those two things confused. I've learned that 'all' readers will never be happy with anything you write. Hehehe! Not ever. Don't try to sacrifice your voice to please them, it won't work. If you're going to write a story, at least make yourself happy with it. And if others jump on the bandwagon, then that's a bonus. But if they get mad and complain...at least you know that you put out a good project. Your best work. And those readers have the entirety of the internet to go find what they're looking for. So don't you dare feel guilty for one second about being true to your own voice. K?
    Alright...had to say that, because...'tangent'...
    Anyway, an arc is created when you visualize where your character begins, and figure out where you want him/her to end. Then you try to find an interesting way of getting them there. Think about the lessons that you've learned in your own life growing up. Think about what defines your thoughts and beliefs surrounding everything that you do. It may seem mundane now...but those beliefs might have come from somewhere.
    Maybe you have a policy to never date a musician. Hehehe, ok...well, why? Do you have a history with someone who was a musician? Maybe you fell in love with him, the had some good times...then saw some pitfalls in the relationship, then it ultimately ended in tragedy. Well, that's you're story arc. You learned something. Experience was achieved through good or bad fortune. You traveled from your starting point to where you are now. It's hard for me to put into words, but if you keep writing and drawing from your past experiences...the grand design will present itself to you naturally. And you'll adopt that same practice to all of your characters when writing your stories in the future. You just have to be able to visualize the arc in the planning stages.
    Think of Scrooge. How he progresses from one attitude about life to another. But only when being shown the truth, and making an attempt to take that journey to see what's on the other side. That journey...the struggle...that creates the arc. The need to succeed or to fail is what pushes the main character forward within the storyline. So the key is to create the 'opposite' of where the character started from...and then bring them back 'home' in the end. That's the secret.
    If they're happy...put them through the ringer and give them some significant obstacles to maintain that happiness. There ya go! Character arc!
    If they're miserable, then their obstacle is being confronted with glimpses of joy and hope. They 'overcome' that obstacle by screwing it all up and letting everything go to shit. And the end up back where they started. Miserable.
    Either way, changing emotions is the hidden key to creating interesting character arcs in your stories. So play around with a few ideas, and see if you can find a comfortable way of creating story arcs of your own. Remember, you want to give your character somewhere to go...therefore, giving your readers somewhere to go.
    Everything you write should be a journey. And that comes with both good and bad times for the characters you use to tell your story. Give them something to do. K?
    I hope this gets a few brain cells sparked up, and it helps with your next story. Take care! And I'll seezya next week!
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