Tag: writer

Wyvern

Frequently mistaken for dragons, wyverns are a completely different species. These differences are quickly distinguishable at a glance, or upon an encounter.

Wyverns, aside from elemental and regional differences, have a distinct overall shape. Their sharp scale forms possess powerful hind legs and a wide wingspan, webbed with a skin material, attached to their dexterous arms. This is the most distinct feature to set them apart from their cousin species, dragons, who possess four legs and wings, covered in heavy scales, coming out of their shoulders separate from their limbs.

Other physical observations of wyverns include: a narrow, sharp snout; large, protruding fangs similar to those of a snake; a pointed tail tip; and claws useful for prying and climbing. Regional variants provide a wide range of coloration; though interestingly, there always seems to be an overall grey hue.

Past the physical differences, wyverns have other observable traits once encountered in close range. This is, as you can imagine, quite the difficult task to accomplish making a majority of the information we have to be gathered from deceased specimens. This provides accurate enough information, though it is far less ideal than living subjects. Those rare reports from someone who has had such living interactions are worth the weight of their subject in gold and are closely guarded and diligently copied.

A consistency across all reports are the substantial venom sacs. Similar to a snake or Gila monster, wyverns are highly venomous, able to fell creatures much larger than themselves. Dragons, hippopotamuses, elephants, and the giant sky beasts that live in a covering of cloud their entire lives are all supposed victims in a handful of reports.

(For good faith, the last one is only mention in a single, less than reputable, instance which also serves as the only record to the sky creatures actually being more than a supposition or mistaken classification.)

Less consistent overall are tail spikes. While they are always pointed, there seems to be a genetic split between those having venom in their tails and those not. The split doesn’t hold up to any one region such as north or south, dry or wet; nor does it match with the gender split. I feel this is one thing we will be unable to understand until living observations are made more consistently. The reigning theory, however, is it is a recessive trait.

For those who know of the animal mind trait possessed by some, it may see a sore excuse to say we cannot observe wyverns up close. Indeed, I thought the same when I first began to research the topic. The facts answer the question: wyverns live in inhospitable environments. Whether up on the tops of mountains, in the middle of the desert, or deep in the dense rainforests; it can be near impossible to find them.

Our known specimens, less than fifty in number, are only encountered when a single wyvern approaches the edge of its normal territory and into areas humans inhabit. From this pattern, we assume wyverns are primarily solitary. It is unknown if the overflow is a sign of a growing population or limited resources, something time will have to tell.

I would be remiss if I did not mention what little we do know about their elemental abilities. As mentioned, wyverns tend to stick to their own territories. This is important due to the fact a majority of the ones found are one of the four primary elements; fire, water, earth, and wind. While there are some examples of primary tier combinations of the elements, located in regions between the other element clusters, they are few and far between.

This is one of the only data points we have in support of the centuries-old belief all elements stem from these four originals. There are a few others to suggest this, also solitary creatures who do not stray far from their original location, and each one adds a small sliver to our knowledge about our worlds.

Forbidden Words in Writing

When wrapping up my first draft of Debut, part or book one of my current WIP, The Great Awakening, my mind started to turn towards thoughts of editing. Polishing and nailing down all the different plot threads introduced before moving on to the next sections made the most sense to me. As this is the first work I’ve ever extensively edited, apart from school reports, I turned to the annals of knowledgeable, established authors on the internet to learn what I could.

There were a handful of tips I found. From the obvious ‘self-editing does not replace the need for a professional editor’ to the less obvious tips for checking for voice inconsistencies in your characters; there was plenty to learn. One repeated lesson stuck out to me: words to avoid in your writing.

Top ten lists are dedicated to the subject, some even go so far as to suggest there are fifty or more words you absolutely should never use when working on a novel or other piece of writing. I was incredulous when I first came across articles and videos on the subject. Surely, words we know and use in everyday life can’t be ripped from writing wholesale? Yet a majority of the articles emphasize they are not making a suggestion; claiming you won’t get published if you don’t heed their advice.

The reasons given for the rule follows a consistent line of reasoning: the selected words can bog down your writing, they are unnecessary filler, and/or they are associated with showing as opposed to telling. Articles that give more leniency admit dialogue is an entirely different beast, taking these words out completely is just unrealistic. Some even suggest using dialogue to sneak in the words you “can’t” use in your narrative voice.

I decided, due to the overwhelming presence of this topic, to attempt pulling these words out of my writing. Right away, I ran into issues. The first of which is the fact many lists can’t agree on what words are forbidden. Yeah, that will put a damper on things.

The first step became trying to pinpoint which words I was supposed to take seriously. Some of the most common words to avoid were: that, very, like, and all adverbs (-ly words). Expanding from there, it was said you should avoid any simple descriptors (big, small, good, nice, many), shouldn’t use any form of ‘to be’ (which is one of the most common verb groups in language), and definitely can’t use any words that ‘tell’ (feel, seemed, thought).  

As you can see, it gets ridiculous in my not so humble opinion. But I was willing to try; after all, I do agree it’s a bad idea to have an excess of repeated words on the same page and as these are all common words, I knew they would be a good place to start with killing the repetition in my novel at least. Some of the words, I didn’t use at all; others, I overused, and, so far, I’ve been liking the changes being aware of these words has led me to make.

That being said, as you can see from this article alone, there are times when I think it makes more sense to leave the words alone than to take them out. One of my biggest observations is taking out every single suggested word can lead to over-flowery writing that is a chore to read.

While I’m still working on perfecting my craft, I find myself in camp “use sparingly and be aware of your word use” as opposed to camp “cut every instance out of your writing.” My suggestion, that I think is far more worth your time, is to use a word breakdown tool on your writing. There are several you can find online; how they work is you post your writing in their script box and it will process your most common words. If you work in Microsoft Word, you can also open the Find tool and type in words to search your manuscript for repeats. Most importantly, read your work. Does a word stick out as repeating too frequently? Do your descriptions lack a vibrant feel? These are both much better indicators of the health of your manuscript than some arbitrary list of words.

Also, don’t forget the beta reader process and to hire a professional editor. Both are again, far more effective than an impersonal list.

Thank you for reading and sharing! I’d love to know what you think on the topic in the comments!

Book Setting

A primary factor of any story is the setting in which it takes place. The where of your story will be not only a backdrop to the action, but a central cog moving events taking place. The weather, people, environment: all contribute to a good story, meaning an author will devote hours of writing and development time to their setting.

What makes up a setting?

The dictionary definition of setting is the location something is or happens. In a book, there is much more to it, though location is a sizeable part of the equation. It also tends to be the easiest decision to make, at least in the broad sense.

When you have an idea for a story, in most cases you already have a rough idea of where you want it to take place. Are you writing a historical fiction pirate story? Your setting will most likely be the Caribbean ocean. Is your story about the first generation of human enrolling in an intergalactic school after mankind enters into a pact with other races? Your setting will probably be on an alien planet. This part is simple enough, but only the first step of journey.

Once you have the general idea of when and where your story will take place, it’s time to dive into location specifics. This part will absolutely take research, even if you’re writing about the city you grew up in. What plants grow in the region? What are the rivers like? The topography? The last thing you want to do as a writer is add a plot hole by introducing a plant or animal into your story which absolutely could not survive in the environment you have it set in.

It is also important to look into what sort of housing is available in a given region. Indiana won’t have adobe houses, but Texas will. Your icy alien planet will most likely need heavily insulated, practical buildings as opposed to open, glassy show pieces. Environment will also dictate jobs, needs, and behaviors.

Once you have the environment and cities planned, the people who will be part of your world also need to be thought up. Depending on your needs, you will have to decide how each community your characters will interact within is going to function. What diversity is present? If you’re in a pre-Civil War southern town in America the answer will be not much. If you’re in present day New York City, the diversity will be much higher.

Even if you create a planet, if you’re not looking for a homogeneous masked society where any one person can be mistaken for another, looking at real life statistics for the distribution of social groups, morals, customs, and other aspects will make your writing far more believable. Speaking of morals and customs, what are those? People are hard pressed to agree on those even when they try; it is unrealistic for any place to be of one mind. Unless you’re dealing with a hive-mind situation.

Challenges with Setting

As you may have guessed, this is far from an all-inclusive list. Each piece of what makes up a good setting for a story can be given a full-length 1,000-word article. Similarly, an article could be devoted to each different challenge presented during setting construction.

The first coming to mind when going over a list like this is just how much more an author will need to come up with than will ever reach the novel page. You might not spend a long time detailing plants in your book, but you had better know what kinds are local to your organic herbalist. The local customs of your alien race may seem trivial, until you have them all acting in a certain way but can’t pinpoint why. Multiple book and movie franchises will release some of this lore in exploratory compilation works. Other than that, much of it won’t reach the page.

Skipping out on the research stage can create an entirely new laundry list of problems, primarily with consistency. Why did this group act differently than that one? How can your character tell one person or group from the next? How did a parrot get involved in a story set in Michigan? Even if you plan on handwaving the event through science, magic, or irresponsible pet ownership, it helps to know what needs to be handwaved and how soon to avoid alienating your readers with a mix-up.

The Great Awakening Setting

The setting for my current WIP, The Great Awakening, is our present-day earth. I haven’t made any extensive changes to what you might experience on the streets today. What I did include is an alternate, sealed away history (so it won’t be remembered or contribute to how the world runs), plus a process of change taking place throughout the story to relearn lost information and return the world to how it once was.

That, of course, doesn’t eliminate my need for research. Most events take place in Washington state. I’ve never been far west of Indiana, so there were definitely things I’ve had to learn about the weather and where the most desolate locations are; to name a few.

I’m also trying to be slightly nebulous with some facts, not wanting to single out any place too specific to free up the imagination. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t look up what sorts of trees grow in the national parks in the state, nor does it completely erase some subtle clues to real-life counterparts to some background characters, even if I only give then a title.

There is also time travel involved in my story. Ancient time travel. To make it believable, my main character is going to have an opportunity to learn a dead language from one of the few ancients who still remember it before hand so she will have a reason to understand what is going on once she enters the past.

If you’re a writer, what is your favorite part of world building? What part could you just as soon do without? For readers, what book or movie has your favorite world building? The worst? Thank you so much for reading and commenting! Have a great day!

Top 10 Favorite Tropes

Everyone knows what a trope is, right? A person, place, or thing included in a story–book, movie, or video game—used so frequently that anyone who has read more than one book can pick out.

Writers are warned to avoid tropes; told they make their writing worse or predictable. I say that with thousands of years of storytelling and human experience to draw from, tropes are recognizable for a reason and, as long as a writer puts in effort to freshen up the idea, tropes are a fun part of the writing process that can connect your work to the history of the craft. And if there is one thing I love, it’s near pretentious sentimentality like that.

In the spirit of praising tropes for their impact on literature, I decided to make this top ten list.

1) Treasure Hunts

I’ll attribute this to my favorite moves growing up. Muppet Treasure Island, The Goonies, Indiana Jones: I loved anything with a good treasure hunt. Bonus points for the wild and crazy traps that the main characters had to overcome along the way. I feel that either with the technological advances or our rapidly decreasing attention spans that show are moving away from this type of story and sticking with races and explosions. Which is a shame: bring back my bone pianos and riddles about invisible bridges!

2) Off Gender Hobbies

This one is something that I noticed more in 90s and early 00s media. Like the episode of Fairly Odd Parents where Timmy becomes a girl for a day to choose a good present for Trixie. This leads him to find out she likes video games and comic books. Their day together helps him feel better about getting a scalp massage and manicure while watching soap operas at the end of the episode. This was huge to me as a child who liked knights and knives more than jewelry and tea parties. It made me feel normal and helped me to realize that I didn’t have to restrict myself to choosing between ‘girl stuff’ and ‘guy stuff.’ I wish more people would bring this back, especially without any added subtext.

3) Redemption Arcs

Who doesn’t love a well-thought out redemption arc that isn’t contrived and that centers around a villain actually making character growth? See what I did there? This trope has the unfortunate symptom of too many authors wanting a redemption arc but not wanting to take the time to properly write them. This often centers around handwaving, or completely ignoring, any sort of character development in the ‘redeemed’ character. If a character is going to be believably redeemed, they need to hit their lowest point, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally, and realize that they just can’t continue what they are doing. After all, they chose their side with conviction. They should have a reason for overcoming that decision or it will never feel genuine.

4) The sassy talking weapon or mascot trying their best

You know this character. The talking sword, the computer with an attitude problem, the cute cat who thinks it’s a lion: they are fun to watch and read about because they offer levity and personality to any situation.

5) Rival friendships

The rival or arch nemesis doesn’t have to be an evil person. They usually just don’t like the protagonist. That doesn’t mean they don’t like anyone, and that’s very rare; even for a lone wolf personality. This is why I love when they are given real friendships. Someone to help them through their struggles and often helps them realize when it is time to give up.

6) Rivals or villains with a moral code that the hero can sometimes get along with

Just because I’m trying to take over the world doesn’t mean I don’t have standards. Rivals and villains normally confront the protagonist on sight. Occasionally, by the time they hit the scene someone else has already put the hero on their back. A rival or villain who are not really evil as much as just antagonists will sometimes help them to the hospital with a note saying they will be back to totally defeat them later. Other times, they will put in the effort to help themselves with only mild suspicion and a few over-exaggerated threats strewn into the mix. I live for those interactions which show the humanity of everyone on different sides of a conflict.

7) Fights that are more like a game

Give me the wild eyed, grinning fights with powers between friends or rivals. Ones with banter and over the top moves that they can only use because of their respect for one another, even if they don’t always see eye to eye. It’s especially fun when they wind up laughing and exhausted in a draw and are toted away to recover over food and conversation.

8) Rivals joining forces with the heroes

If you haven’t guessed it, I like rivals and heroes who come around to being friends in the end. This is normally one of the things that pushes them to that point, or at least to the point where they care and trust each other enough to not just throw hands the second they see each other from that point forward. When someone so loathsome comes along that the hero and normal rival or villain team up together; it makes them all relatable and leads to emotional growth and I love it.

9) Grizzled adult changed by the love of a child

Naruto killed me so many times with this. The traumatized men who recognized the suffering they went through in someone else and strove to change things for that child. Before that, my favorite example was in the Redwall series. In one book, an otter (who was experiencing PTSD and possibly psychosis of some sort from being tortured by toads for an extended period of time) is dragged along on an adventure because his brother needs to go and no one trusts the otter, who is still running on feral survival instincts, to not murder them all in their sleep. Through a distracted moment, a happy-go-lucky squirrel boy, who takes no nonsense for grumpy breakfast skippers, makes a connection with him through not showing fear and talking to him like he is still a person. By the end of the journey, though he still has his issues, the otter is leagues better thanks to his new best friend.

10) Emotional release

I didn’t really know what to title this, so let me explain. When a character has gone through hell and has put up that angry front to cope, and they find a friend/someone else they can trust, and suddenly, they KNOW they don’t have to deal with their pain like that anymore. The abuser is gone, they can trust and love again, when the burden of the world falls away in a cool breath of air. That’s one of my favorite moments in a story. I love when a character who has been through so much finds that safety and happiness.

I think I found something of a theme in there. What are your favorite tropes? I’d love to read your comments and find out! Thanks for reading.

Living Fire

Near the volcanoes to the south, where I searched for salamanders, I met a group of people of a composition I had not thought possible. Climbing through arid stonescapes, I saw, in the evening, what I thought for certain was a brushfire. It was the middle of summer and rain had not touched the region for close to a month, causing all but the most resolute succulents to wilt and die off, making this a reasonable assumption. What was a concern, both to me and my guide, was the thought of the blaze spreading across the landscape and razing those few plants still clinging to life. To prevent this was the aim that pulled us over to the orange crackling flames and led to our discovery.

How surprised we were when the fire turned towards us as we arrived. Clothed in woven grasses, astonishingly not ash in her flames, the being seemed confused and frightened to see us. Its flames flickered as it pulled back from the tree it was disassembling into a basket it carried; staring at us with wide eyes near lost among its shimmering face. With caution, we attempted to address it, and, after a series of reassurances and queries, it spoke.

Words slipped out of the slit of its mouth; crackles beneath a hissing smoke. It was rather enchanting, the sound. The lady, who gathered materials outside of her community, led us back to meet with the head of her family who better knew our language and welcomed us as academics.

The elder explained the life of Living Fire; how they, for generations, have labored to keep the dry region from catching fire to protect several settlements near the mountains. They trade and work with those villages as well, which is how they have learned our speech.

Living Fires have a unique makeup; we were given an in-depth examination for the purpose of scholarship. Starting with a recently deceased member of the community, we were shown how, at the core of each Fire, is a solid body similar to a human’s but shrunken. It’s skin hard as rock, inside are organs familiar despite their different composition. For this reason, though large quantities can be fatal, water is still a necessary part of their system. It is far less than any other living thing, and is attained through the consumption of fruits and other watery foods.

This core must remain lit for life to be viable, the flames licking through their blood alongside streams of moisture that maintain them. The flames themselves build out most of their form, solid and warmer than the flesh of humans without being hot. Unless you were to anger them. Despite their normal control, they do have the same traits as fire when they choose to implement it. Even those individuals colored in jewel tones unfamiliar to normal flame possess the same effects.

This gives rise to the necessity of the way their society is structured. Family is the quintessential apex of their lives. An elder will be over his children and siblings, their family stretching out in a network of life down at least to the third generation. Once great-grandchildren arrive large families may break away into sub families, remaining close despite the split. If the family is smaller, however, it is common for them to keep their bond until the area they inhabit cannot house them further.

At the center of these units is the understanding that family is the greatest priority. They keep, nourish, and maintain each member which prevents any from falling behind due to illness, disability, or age. They also instill a knowledge of consequences: should a member commit a grave offense such as murder they know with their entire being their family will be the first to take action to correct them. It is not seen as a burden or imposition; rather, it is a duty, an honor, and the security of a grand future for the unit. Not even elders are immune to such correction, with self-reflection and independent reasoning the second and third most preached lessons. I can express nothing but greatest admiration for their structure and rearing.

Though we were unable to stay longer than those few hours with them, I feel they are shining examples of community. Given the chance, I would love to spend more time interacting with them in the future. For now, the journey continues.

Self-Marketing and Quarterly Goals

I’ve been writing and thinking about writing for years. I’ve worked on stories, and I’ve even published some early, less than stellar works on free publishing sites when I was younger. Recently, I decided to buckle down and create a novel fit for publishing. To help myself, I began to search the internet for tips and tricks to perfect my craft. Among the grammar and style tips were things that I not only didn’t expect to see, but things that downright terrified me. As you can likely guess from the title, self-marketing, and marketing in general, was one of those horrifying new realities.

Not only am I an introvert in real life, I’ve always been more of a creeper on social media as well: I never think to pull out my camera when something happens, I don’t feel the need to talk about my day, and I’ve never wanted to spend hours keeping track of myself online. This has led to a handful of problems from stopping and starting, overstretching myself, and being unrealistically frustrated at every turn. Just looking at the dates for posts here shows some of this.

Setting realistic goals is probably my biggest struggle when it comes to anything in life. I have always had a tendency to bite off more than I can chew, which quickly results in me falling flat on my face. When I first heard about self-marketing, I panicked and opened accounts on multiple platforms, some that I had never used before, and I poured over them for hours before staring in frustration at the two likes and three followers that had appeared after a few days, unsure of what I was doing wrong.

This was when I first dove into this over a month ago. It took stepping back from it all to realize how ridiculous I was being. No one becomes well-liked overnight, especially when everything is so inconsistent due to me being overwhelmed. With this in mind, I have been trying to get a better look at what I am doing. My blog here has become one of my steady accounts, and I feel I’ve had some nice results (when I stick to my schedule). My AO3 account, where I post small story chapters in the hopes of getting an idea about what I can change about my writing on an ongoing basis, is another I’ve been keeping up with this past month, and I’m happy with the results I’ve been getting. The other accounts I made in that panicked flurry have either been dropped or merely followed along with the occasional like and retweet.

I have still been running into issues with consistency, and, despite an adjusted outlook, I feel that I could still be seeing better results than I am. This has led me back to the drawing board to think of ways to incorporate those other platforms and to improve both my quality and consistency.

It’s not much of a surprise that working a full-time job and trying to write my first full novel takes up much of my time. Trying to make three 1,000 word blog posts a week, three 2,000 word chapters a week, and planning to add even more content on top of that isn’t realistic for my situation. For this reason, I’m scaling back on my commitments. From this point on, I’ll only be posting two blog posts a week, two chapters, two Instagram posts, and a few other platforms as well. Essentially, in creating my plan I decided that the best solution for me right now is to have One Thing that I focus on each day.

Another problem that I’ve run into, in part due to over committing, is having next to no idea what to post. A video on Skillshare by Kickstarter that gave real-life examples of other people’s outreach gave me ideas about how to move forward in that regard. My schedule no longer has vague squares too broad to fill. Now, when I look at my plan, I see exactly which kind of content I am going to prepare for each day.

For each of the eight blog posts in a four-week cycle I have a set type of article I’m going to feature. The fourth week Tuesday will always be my book review. The first and third Fridays will always be me adding to my Beastiary. I’ll have to do the selection from there, but it’s a much more controlled setting and I’m feeling confident about it. The only problem is going to be how it migrates through the month, which I plan to solve by adding a fifth week every three months.

It still remains to be seen how this works for me. I will, in all likelihood, still need to tweak it several times. Hopefully it leads to less stress and better content, so thank you for reading and stick by as I sort this out!

As a last bit, I want to share my writing and life goals for the next three months. Multiple advice blogs say this is the best way to stay motivated and accountable, so I’ll give it a shot.

  1. Moderate edit of act one of my story.
  2. Finish writing act two of my story.
  3. Miss no more than five social media posts.
  4. Lose 5 pounds.
  5. Have a total of 100 followers across my media pages.
  6. Read a full-length novel.

Some of those may seem low, but I’m still guessing my way though. If I hit any of them too easily, I’ll try to double what I planned. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day!

Seven-Point Story Structure

I think I’ve said something similar before, but I feel like I was cheated out of a great deal of lessons when I took classes on writing in high school and college. There are so many unique and interesting ways to order a story and to think about progression that I honestly don’t understand how the basic three act structure managed to monopolize all of our lessons. Perhaps, it has something to do with the fact that our teachers had to squish stories, poetry, creative non-fiction, and more into a single semester. It is a shame how some of the most enjoyable parts of life and education are cut down to the point of being hardly covered.

The seven-point story structure is one that has caught my attention with its heavy focus on cause and effect. It is simple and helps to keep the story moving forward if applied correctly. It is also a great template to add to and subtract from to create a more flexible work. I’ll talk about each of the seven points, and illustrate this flexibility.

Hook

The hook is, as always, the initial bit that latches onto the reader and drives them to pick up your story beyond that first chapter. It should be the introduction of the main character and, in most cases, the main objective and stakes as well. These are especially important in a shorter story where you don’t have a great deal of time for expositing. Longer stories can usually get by with focusing on the main character and the setting as long as something interesting (and plot relevant) takes place.

First Plot Point

The hook captured the audience and flung the protagonist into their journey. As a result of them taking off, they are going to encounter something new and central to the objectives of the story. Whether that is a guide, a contest, a quest, a match on their dating profile, something that carries them to the goal and forces them to make a decision is going to pop up.

First Pinch

Your character made the decision to engage with the first plot point. They signed on with a mentor, accepted the quest, or entered the death mash gala. Actions have consequences, and their decision is the action that is going to propel your character straight into the gaping maw of their first real problem. Does their new teacher have a stuck-up favorite student who trashes your character on the first day? Does the quest prove to be 10x more dire than they have the training for? Did they think the death gala was about metal music and not having an ax shoved in their face sharp side first? These are all things that your character is going to have to deal with very quickly.

Midpoint

Your character survived their encounter with the first pinch. Maybe they were able to pull a trick out of their back pocket and get away, or maybe someone had to bail them out, but they emerged all the same and are now at a cross roads. Are they going to keep acting in a way that will allow the first pinch to cycle back into their life? Or, the much better option, are they going to change something about themselves and how they act to enable them to deal with any future issues? Hiding behind the teacher is only going to get you pummeled again. Training your butt off and learning to defend yourself is an active way to prepare for the next attempt so you don’t wind up flat out on the train grounds again.

Second pinch

The midpoint has passed and your character decided to be a doer and not wait to get in trouble again. This, however, does not stop trouble from arriving. In fact, their decision to not run away and hide is the precise reason trouble decided it was within its rights to waltz up to your character and strike once more. Depending on your story, and the specific choice your character made that propelled them from the midpoint to the second pinch, the second pinch will take shape. A larger group of bullies, a secret organization that wants the hero dead, your character’s crazy abusive ex with a baseball bat at three in the morning in a dark alleyway; these are all potential second pinches as long as they stem from that midpoint choice and bring your character to the brink of disaster. We’re only two points away from the end, after all, so if it’s really the main second pinch of the story, it’s going to be a big deal.

Second Plot Point

Your character started a journey. The faced a trial and decided to change themselves to reach the goal they set out to accomplish. This did nothing to stop another problem from knocking them down to a level of pain and despair that they didn’t realize could exist. What decision did they make to get out of that darkness? They resolved to be stronger before, what is there to decide now? There is a climax looming in the distance and one more decision that needs to be made.

Resolution

Did they make the right decision? Did they get back on their feet from the pit of despair and continue on? If so, you’re going to reach the climax and resolution of your story. Everything else should have been building to this moment, all the character’s training and suffering have led to what is happening here and now. They’ve made their choices and dealt with the consequences. This is their final consequence to face and the glory they receive afterwards.

Flexibility

It’s not much of a surprise to think that as long as you have a set of probably cause and effects, you can carry a story like this on for more than just the initial seven points. You can also increase the length and strengthen the pacing by overlapping several characters’ decision arcs to create an ample supply of sub-plots to fuel your story. The seven-point structure is also good for a wide variety of genres due to the fact that decisions are made in romance, fantasy, sci-fi, and more. If you’re looking for a plotting structure with options and simplicity, I would definitely recommend giving this a try.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite movies growing up. Like Peter Pan and the Wizard of Oz, it crafted a magical land that let my imagination run wild; even if I didn’t care for the main character as much as I like Ariel or Peter or Tinker Bell. When the reimagined Alice in Wonderland came out just after I finished high school, I adored the land even more and finally had an Alice that didn’t annoy me completely. Love the world of imagination and nonsense as I did, I never managed to read the book itself as a child. I decided to rectify this when I came across an old copy.

The book, while containing all the wondrous wackiness that made it into both films, had exponentially more insanity than I would have imagined. It also had more annoying, know-it-all Alice. The narrator’s humor, which pointed out how silly she really was the whole way, actually helped to balance out the girl who thinks a bit too highly of herself.

There was an introduction poem before the main story got underway, All in the Golden Afternoon, that was turned into a song for the animated version. I could never understand the lyrics when I was younger, but reading them really put me in a different mindset about the story. It talks about little children begging for a story and the author delivering one that spun fanciful for hours as they repeatedly asked for just one more verse, one more chapter. The story has a feel like that: a narrator who is just taking the whims of a young audience and flying through whatever thoughts they prompt in the silliest way possible. I think it would be fun to see more stories like that, winding and weaving like the imagination of a child.

Other parts of his writing style are not as endearing, however, and left me baffled in an entirely different way. On the second page of his manuscript, Carroll writes a paragraph that is 145 words long. This wouldn’t be odd if it wasn’t also a single sentence. There are parenthesis, quotations, commas, and semicolons strung together one after the other in a way that I both admired and feared. As unimaginably odd as it was: having snips of dialogue hidden in parenthesis, trifling thoughts pushed into the middle of the sentence to interrupt the flow, and sentences that wound on forever with nary a period in sight; I have to admit it added to the overall feel of whimsical insanity the book had. You could feel the way thoughts started and stopped, and the way it felt like the author was making it up as he went along. Dinah, Alice’s beloved cat who she continuously torments a mouse and other small creatures with, is introduced (in parenthesis) halfway though Alice’s ramblings about her beloved pet.

So much about the book throws everything that story telling “should” be out the window. It has odd pacing, subjects, and characters that are all handled in the manner of the fun uncle who was left to babysit on a rainy day. It adds a level of charm to the story that can’t be recreated in a film. It also has a deranged cook and a crude Duchess and several other things that just couldn’t make it into the movie but were all fair game for an old children’s book.

I’ve heard debates centered on this particular story and the meanings woven into it. I’ve read articles and heard reviews that say the book is about puberty, drugs, anxiety and the effects it can have on your mind, among others. I’ve also heard it said that Lewis Carroll himself dismissed such claims and held fast that it was merely the rambling musings of the mind of a child. Reading through, I can see why the argument would happen as I can easily spot hints of both in the work. There are times when all that you can see is pure and innocent fun, and then between the cake and the potions and the mushrooms edibles seem to be secret meaning. In my own opinion, I think there is a bit of both going on.

When writing it, Carroll most likely had nothing but humor on his mind. However, no person, adult or child, exists in a vacuum. Our experiences, both good and bad, are melded into how we perceive the world around us. This means that if anxiety tinging the author’s reality gave him the occasional sense of being taller or smaller (called Todd’s Syndrome or Alice in Wonderland Syndrome) even if he didn’t intend to include it as a tribute to the illness, the symptoms still made their way onto the page.

Things like this happen in most, if not all, stories. Biases and trauma make their way into the work, even if we aren’t yet aware of what we are experiencing. Going over my earlier writings I’ve found plenty of examples of this happening. My favorite are the Happy Time flowers I invented as a child which could both help you relax from any amount of stress and give you jitter-free energy, depending on the color and tone of the flower or leaf you consumed. It also had the ability to clean out your lungs of all other damage if you smoked it. Knowing now that I have general anxiety, and taking into account that I lost my grandmother to lung cancer, it’s easy to see where these ideas stemmed from when ten-year-old me just thought I was being clever and silly.

Even if such experiences snuck their way into the story, it doesn’t take away from the whimsy of the book itself. It doesn’t remove the spirit of fun and adventure and silliness that was created. In fact, I think one of the things I like the most about the story is the way it showed how the fun could go on, even when things became odd and stressful. Every moment of tears has its fun after. Every terror filled moment will give way to the discovery of something new. Taking yourself too seriously is the real enemy in life. So throw aside the over analysis and just have fun.

Satyr

Now for the next part of my explanation on the differences between hoofed humanoids, when the argument in the tavern mentioned in my page on Fauns truly began. A Faun is simple enough to recognize, a Satyr, however, is less so.

When I mention Satyrs, I refer to the old type. The original holders of this title who have in recent years seemed to become less prevalent or less willing to interact with humans on a regular basis. These Satyrs are, in fact, human and horse hybrids. Akin to the Centaur, yet they have only two hooves for their hind legs and horse-like tails and ears.

This is often contested, I won’t pretend this is the first night that I’ve been engrossed in attempting to knock drunkards off their self given throne. However, in the annals of the Greeks it is easy to find the recordings of these true Satyrs. It was only a few centuries later when the contended holder of this nomenclature was recognized more than the original.

Satyrs have, again like Centaurs, never been as easily enfolded into human society. Their strength and pride causes them to craft their own communities and laws in many cases. They also tend to favor other animal humanoids over humans proper. This has led to a long line of intermarriage with Fauns. These unions most often produce the hybrid offspring that most associate today with the the title of Satyr when it would be more fitting to call them a Goat Satyr or a half Satyr.

The standard and goat Satyrs tend to have many similar features. Both come with the firmer, shoe-able hooves of a horse, both have a face much more human than a Fauns, and both have less body hair on their human half than Fauns. There are also some distinct differences between the two as well.

Fauns generally pass their horns and goat-like tails to their descendants. Goat Satyrs as well are more inclined towards the elemental as opposed to the raw physical strength of the True Satyr. This is not to look down on their physical strength as, unlike a typical Faun, Goat Satyrs in many cases are much stronger than a human. This coupled with their mischievous nature and tendency to have a greater interest in human settlements can get them in a great deal of trouble.

This prevalence near cities and the absence of true Satyrs is perhaps why the confusion comes around. It is also occasionally attempted to wedge the Goat Satyr under the title of Faun which is similarly incorrect.

Considering that both Fauns and Satyrs are part of the process of arriving at their split offspring, in causal conversation it would not be inexcusable to use the terms interchangeably. When one attempts to exchange the grit at the bottom of their tankard of mead for a knowledge of paleontology to rival both explorers and the learned, that is when I personally find offense. So too do I think the proper preservation of terms is useful when it comes to a crime that might otherwise be placed on the head of another.

Balancing Writing and Revision

Writing is a long and sometimes difficult process. Some days, it feels like you just can’t write no matter what you do. Others, it’s like a burst pipe streaming content onto the page at all hours. Mostly, it’s a steady medium which is enough to get your ideas down on paper. However, no matter the speed of writing, there is always one thing that needs to be done throughout the process: editing.

While looking through some tips on the lesser known sides of writing, I came across many different ideas on how the editing process should work and what should be avoided. I’m going to point out the top five ‘do’ ideas that have worked for me, and the top five ‘don’t’ ideas that I feel need the most attention.

My Top 5 Editing Do’s

  1. Do a brief edit every few chapters. How many that ‘few’ is will be up to you to decide; five, ten, or twenty could all be appropriate depending on your style and the size of your chapter. Some would put this in their ‘don’t’ category, but I find that it’s helpful to overall story progression to go back over, do a brief look over for typos, and check the overall pacing and plot progression. It’s especially helpful if you’re stuck in a rut and feel like nothing is happening. It can be helpful to step back and take in part or all of the story again to help put the one sequence you’re working on into prospective. It can also be helpful for keeping details like injuries or upcoming events fresh in your mind so you don’t have a scar that disappears for long periods.
  2. Do take a break before diving into your editing. If you’ve been struggling to put words on the page, you’re likely going to be frustrated with your story once you end that chapter. If you’ve just gotten off of a six-hour binge of writing, you’re most certainly going to be exhausted. If you feel like you still need to keep going that day, take a fifteen-minute break to drink water, make sure the blood circulation in your legs is still going, and take care of any other health or sanity needs that you’ve been putting off. This not only will help you to clear your mind and allow you to have a fresh take on the issues at hand, it will also prevent that nasty, aching feeling in your body that will be a major distraction to anything you try to do.
  3. Do edit for one thing at a time. There are many different things that you’ll need to be looking for during edits. Grammar, spelling, flow, overuse of a word or phrase, consistency; all this and more will be striving for your attention. It can be overwhelming when you attempt to switch back and forth between tasks. This is why you shouldn’t do that; especially at the end stages when you are working with your entire work. Take one piece at a time: get rid of those red and blue squiggly lines on your first read through, then search for any word that stuck out to you during that read-through, and then you can move on to more in-depth things.
  4. Do have multiple edit cycles. I’ve already mentioned how you should edit every few chapters and edit at the end for a list of things. To add to that, you will likely have multiple edit cycles like this. You will also eventually involve others in the process and will need to repeat the cycles afterwards. Don’t just look it over once and then mail it to the publisher, you won’t really like the outcome.
  5. Do involve others. When I was younger, I knew what editors were. I was mistaken to think that they were optional. Beta-readers are still a new concept to me, though I did have my mom and a few friends look over my old pieces. That doesn’t tend to work if they are super nice or don’t know how to give feedback. Neither process is optional, and if I’m not mistaken, can also take several tries to make sure your piece is as good as it can be. Skipping either step will likely show drastically when the final product is scrutinized.

My Top 5 Editing Don’t

  1. Don’t skip editing. This may be obvious but it bears keeping in mind, don’t skip the editing part of the novel writing process. People will be able to tell. If you are aiming for traditional publishing, they will be able to tell too. Especially an editor you hire will be able to tell that you skipped the self-editing process and will fill the pages so full with red on small details that there won’t be room for serious edits.
  2. Don’t wait until the end to edit. Again, some may disagree, but I feel that if you don’t go over your work occasionally, you are more likely to have plot holes, inconsistencies, and be completely overwhelmed when it comes to the final edit. Balance is key, so it’s also important that you…
  3. Don’t go overboard with the edits. While multiple rounds of edits are extremely necessary, there has to be a cutoff point. Editing every chapter more than a quick glance over is pushing it, trying to edit every page as you go is only going to grind you process to a halt. You need multiple cycles of the editing process, but if you’ve done five rounds of beta reading with ten self-edits in between, you’re never going to get your book published. Perfection is an illusion, it’s unobtainable. At some point, you’re going to have to take a deep breath and go for broke.
  4. Don’t lowball hiring an editor. You get what you pay for is as apt here as it is in most other industries. If you are searching for editors and one sticks out for having dramatically slashed prices, chances are they are going to have dramatically slashed results as well. Going for the most expensive isn’t the answer either, necessarily, but you don’t want to spend money on something cheap only to turn around and realize you have to buy the more expensive option anyway.
  5. Don’t rush the process. By the time you reach the final editing stages, you’re probably about done with your book, your writing, the colors black and white, and anything and everything associated with the process. There can be a temptation to rush through the final stages and just get through with it. This would be the greatest disservice you can do to yourself and your novel. Hang on for a bit longer and make sure all your hard work has the biggest success imaginable.