… … … AHEM! Please pardon my mansquee. That was completely unprofessional. So the final trailer has been released… and it… looks… awesome!!!! It really looks like the perfect combination of practical effects and CGI.
The Story? I get the feeling that this will be somewhat reminiscent of the Dark Forces story… Why? Because these can’t be a coincidence:
Jan Ors:
Jyn Erso:
Anyway, speculation aside, I really love the way the movie looks and I can’t wait to see how it comes out!!!
Readers, let me know what you think. What’s your speculation on the plot?
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
You can also add me on Twitter!
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
Publisher: Disney Lucasfilm Press (September 4, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1484724984
ISBN-13: 978-1484724989
Author: Claudia Gray
Synopsis:
Eight years after the fall of the Old Republic, The Galactic Empire now reigns over
the known galaxy. Resistance to the Empire has been all but silenced. Only a few
courageous leaders such as Bail Organa of Alderaan still dare to openly oppose
Emperor Palpatine.
After years of defiance, the many worlds at the edge of the Outer Rim have
surrendered. With each planet's conquest, the Empire's might grow even
stronger.
The latest to fall under the Emperor's control is the isolated mountain planet
Jelucan, whose citizens hope for a more prosperous future even as the Imperial
Starfleet gathers overhead...
Review: Spoiler ALERT:
So I wrote a review on this book… and then I reread it. Now I’m going back and deleting that draft. Because honestly when I looked at it, it seemed like I was more on a book-high when I finished reading it. Pure euphoria at finishing that book, that I went ahead and wrote the review. Upon reading it again, I have changed my opinions on this book. So let’s take a look at it shall we?
Setting:
The story takes place before, during, and after the events of the Trilogy. Key places include Jelucan, the Death Star, the Executor, Hoth, and Home One.
Cienna is a farmer from a fairly backwards area on the planet, while Thane is considered more of a noble birth.
What I liked: This story provides a lot of background into the key events of the original trilogy. Without actually focusing on the characters that were center stage from the trilogy. It allows for us to see how the events, such as the destruction of Alderaan affected other people. In the movies, it was something that was sort of glossed over and forgotten after the first movie.
What I didn’t like: There really isn’t much here that I didn’t like. Honestly I’d say that the one criticism I would give is that these events felt somewhat rushed. It was a lot of build up with only a little pay off.
Story:
The story surrounds two new Characters; Thane and Cienna. It surrounds their friendship and surrounds their thoughts on events from the original trilogy and how it affect them. It is also somewhat of a Romeo and Juliet style story where one character (Thane) becomes disillusioned with the Empire and joins the Rebellion, where Cienna is honor-bound by her oath to remain with the Empire. Eventually, they do have to come head to head, on more than one occasion.
What I liked:
The story prior to the Battle of Yavin and after the Battle of Endor made for some wonderful character development, as well as engaging us in new scenery. It also expanded on places that we were familiar with as well as people that we may have seen in the background, but didn’t have much context for.
What I didn’t like:
Well here’s where the story really began to fall apart for me. The book really seemed like it was attempting to showcase these places that we’ve seen and know. It’s like ‘Oh look, we’re on the Death Star, isn’t that awesome?’
Also, the story seems rushed. We skip over months, if not years of potential development to focus on the events of the Galactic Civil War. It’s hard to keep up with the character development when so much jumping happens. It is also a major strain on my suspension of disbelief to see how little the characters have changed during that time. The transitions aren’t done very well.
Characters: Cienna and Thane, two people that reality doesn’t really seem like it wants to be together. One from humble origins, one from more prestigious ones. Perhaps it’s kind of ironic that Cienna, the girl from the more humble background had a better life, while the noble child grew up in an abusive environment. They both find themselves thrust into the middle of a galactic war, after having been recruited by the Imperial Military.
What I liked:
Thane. This guy came from a very well-to-do background. I would compare it to the nobility of the past. However thanks to his father, he’s disillusioned with this life and grows up somewhat resentful and ‘rebellious.’ It’s good foreshadowing for what happens later in the story, and good build up as to why it’s so easy for him to abandon his oath to the Empire and join the Rebellion.
Despite his defection, he seems to be more loyal to the galaxy in general after seeing what the Empire had done to his home world and to other worlds in general. In addition, he is always loyal to Cienna. More than once, he tries to get her to come with him and join the Rebellion.
What I didn’t like:
Cienna. I have to admit that this character frustrated me. It was almost like the story couldn’t make up their mind as to whether she was a protagonist or an antagonist. It is also very difficult to find her likable. From a young age, she is instilled with the value of obedience and loyalty. As such, she views the oath she took to the Empire as unbreakable. Throughout the story, she is witness to unspeakable tragedies and atrocities committed by the Empire. Her reasoning behind her continued loyalty to the Empire is that she believes it to be infallible and if the Empire doing what it’s doing, it’s because these people deserve it in some way.
However even after finally coming to the realization that the Empire isn’t the moral right, her own views of loyalty and obedience make the idea of turning to the Rebellion unthinkable. As a result she continues to serve and be party to other horrific incidents perpetuated by the Empire. Simply put… she was just following orders.
This is where the character falls apart for me. Put who she is and what she does, as well as her motives and justifications, into context. Now compare them with the defenses for the Nazis during the Nuremberg trials. See any similarities?
Yet this character is still portrayed as either an innocent or a protagonist, despite fighting to the Empire to the bitter end. SPOILER ALERT: The story ends with her being rescued from her Star Destroyer, which is plummeting towards Jakku. She ends up in Prison where she awaits a trial for war crimes. Thane believes that the court will be lenient with her, while she disagrees… almost wishing that the court would execute her.
Well… we never find out. She knows that what she’s done was wrong, but she’s never apologetic… and given that her defense for her actions would pretty much be the same defense the Nazis used, I get the feeling that this won’t end well.
My Overall Assessment: 3/5 Stars
The book is not perfect. The parts before and after the Trilogy are great, but the rest seemed extremely rushed. Some aspects of the characters are great, and the tie-in to the bigger picture is well fleshed out, but the glaring issues with Cienna are just hard to stomach… and attempting to generate sympathy for a character whose defense for her actions are the same that the Nazis used is cringe worthy at best.
Don’t get me wrong, its a good book. However it was built up to answer a lot of the questions that exist as to what happened between ROTJ and TFA… In the end… well it answers the question about how a Star Destroyer ends up in the sands on Jakku, but even the battle itself, which has become the subject of much conjecture is really kind of glanced over.
So you’ll enjoy it, but you’ll feel like you’re reading cliff notes on the original trilogy.
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
You can also add me on Twitter!
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
I was wondering if you could comment on how much of an introduction we should give each of our characters? I’ve gotten a good description down, but how much time should we initially spend focused on the characters personality and traits before really diving into the story.
Thanks,
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
Good question and the answer is pretty straight forward; AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE TO GIVE THE AUDIENCE AN IDEA ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER. Sorry to say this in all caps, but it merits saying.
If your character is a good person, made that known with one or two examples and then move on. If your character has a hard life, use a scene to describe that characters living arrangements and move on. After that, let the audience put the rest together through their actions or reveal more as the story goes on.
Example: [Spoiler Alert]
In Soul Siphon, my character Mary is a fairly harshly spoken character. A few of the other characters mention it, but then I let the way she speaks to everyone and their reactions to her do the rest of the work. I also allude to her having a dark past surrounding how she wound up where she is, but I don’t straight out say what happened to her until about half way through the story.
Honestly, if you go about writing a boatload of exposition about how boring the town your character lives in, eventually your audience gets bored… really bored.
I honestly can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a horror movie on Netflix and sit there waiting to be scared. Instead they go on and on about the scenery or the characters’ back story. I sit there watching the character react to how bad their job is, how their relationship is falling apart, how bad their neighborhood is, or how bad they’re being bullied. It gets so bad that I often forget that I’m watching a horror movie!
Honestly, most of the best ones have at least given you some kind of scare within the first few minutes. The Exorcist and Jaws had scares literally within the first few seconds. Most comedies do the same, giving you something to work with.
Honestly, in a 90 minute film, if we’ve hit the 30 minute mark without a single scare/laugh… or even an attempt at one, then I usually leave the movie with a bad review and move on to the next one.
The same goes for books. If I get to a certain point in a story where its just droning on and on about character description and exposition, that book usually gets thrown across the room.
Put it this way, if your characters are too weak for an audience to be able to relate to them without page after page of description, then it may be time to shelve those characters.
Readers, what do you think? Is a lot of description and exposition needed or should it be spread throughout the book?
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
You can also add me on Twitter!
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
I’ve always loved the antihero character archetype. To me, the least interesting character has always been the main hero, the good guy, the knight in shining armor. All too often the good guy is the same basic formula;
A naive individual called upon to take up a weapon (either literal or metaphorical) and go on a quest to vanquish evil. Throughout this quest s/he is tempted by evil, but never falls to it. They usually have their quirks, but all in all they’re almost completely infallible and as such… extremely boring to write. Don’t get me wrong, they have their place and people have done a lot over the years to try to make them more interesting, but even the most well-meaning attempts to add dimension to the basic hero…
Yeah, they’ve left me wanting.
Need a good example? All right, Harry Potter:
This is a scene that pisses me right the hell off. Here’s a good guy character that has seen friends die, people literally all around him turn on him, and even just watched his family die mere seconds ago.
After all of that, he still can’t attack or harm one of the people directly responsible for his pain. I’m not saying that what he’s doing isn’t the right thing, but it’s not realistic at all. At this point, after everything the poor kid has been through, he still doesn’t have it in himself to inflict pain or deal a crippling blow to his enemy?
Heck even by the end of the series, he wins on a technicality and Voldermort’s own spell backfires on his, which completely absolves Harry of killing him. At the risk of blaspheming, this kid could try out for Jesus!!!
No, I take that back, even Jesus had his flaws throughout the Bible!
GASP!!! You’re a fantasy writer and you hate Harry Potter!?!?!?
Ugh… no I don’t hate Harry Potter. The story is intriguing, a lot of the characters are a lot of fun, and the scenery is engaging, but as I said before, the lead character is the most boring of the bunch. There is literally nothing about him that I find interesting.
Honestly in most cases, the villain is the most interesting character in good adventure stories. Heck even in stories that are stale, boring, or poorly conceived, a good villain makes all the difference:
Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. The only problem this leaves is that in stories where the bad guy is actually a lot more interesting than the good guy, the audience tends to gravitate to the dark direction and makes the flaws of the one-dimensional main character more apparent. It also makes the hero’s victory a much tougher pill to swallow.
Okay… So what’s the solution? Well in many cases either ditch the hero all together or relegate him/her to the back ranks. Replace that character with an antihero.
All right, what’s an antihero?
An antihero is a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes. By definition, they lack what makes a hero what he is, yet still is often the protagonist in the story. The antihero can be made from these mathematical formulas:
Hero – Bravery = antihero
Hero – Morality = antihero
Hero – Conscience = antihero
Hero – Scruples = antihero
Villain + Honor = antihero
Villain + Interesting attribute = antihero
Villain + Circumstance = antihero
With the antihero, you get the best of both words and then some. You can mix in the multilayered, multidimensional aspects of the villain in with the hero. What’s even better is that this can come in multiple flavors.
Want to go the more comedic route? How about the bumbling idiotic coward:
Don’t want to go the comedic route? No worries, there are other options in this category, such as the reformed villain, which happens to be my personal favorite:
Or more recently, the one I’ve been trying to perfect; the true antihero:
These characters are not good guys, not by any stretch of the imagination. If you get in their way or impede their goals, they’ll kill you. They function outside of the law and often without any sort of moral code. However, they often just happened to land themselves fighting for what is considered to be the moral right… regardless of whether or not it’s something they truly believe in. These characters are out for themselves more than anything. They can eventually develop a code of honor or get pushed more to the good or bad, but they really do start off in the gray area.
Anyway, I hope that sheds more light on the antihero archetype and maybe you’ll find some new possibilities for your own writing.
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
You can also add me on Twitter!
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
I have two quotes I’d like to share with you today.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about our current political climate in the United States, the Trek Against Trump disgrace, and a lot of my writing. Every time I think about the huge mess that doesn’t seem to have an end in sight, I hearken back to when I was a child and heard both of these:
The first one is ironically from Star Trek the Next Generation. I say this ironically given the statements made by Trek Against Trump.
“By the first link the chain is forged, first speech censored, first thought forbidden, first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably. Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satey, as both wisdom and warning. Any time anyone’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged.”
-Capt. Jean Luc Picard.
The second is a quote from a nearly-forgotten movie from 1937 known as Dr. Syn. It deals with the needs of the people vs. the needs of the state:
“You’re wrong, Captain. Clegg was hanged, but not hanged until he was dead. He had many friends and the rope was rotted with strong acid. No man can stand on the gallows without coming face to face with his soul. On that day truly the old Clegg died, but what the new Clegg has done, you all know. I found you in wretchedness and poverty. Deprived by harsh laws and heavy taxes of the simple comforts, all men have a right to. I took upon myself to change all that at the expense of the revenue. What I did, I did for the good of all, and I stand by your decision.”
-Dr. Syn/Captain Clegg
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
You can also add me on Twitter!
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
I have always wanted to share stories as I have so many in my head constantly, but all I want to do is write some and get feedback as to whether I should go for it or not. Any suggestions as to where I could post something? Please note I work so time is limited sometimes.
Great question. So this is something that has plagued writers from the very get go. Personally, I would say to just write. I’m not kidding, forget the feedback until you have your stories out on paper. Once you do, then read them over once or twice. If they look good from your perspective and you’re happy with them, that is when you can start looking at feedback.
As an INITIAL FILTER I would say ask a trusted friend or family member. I use the term initial filter because in my experience family members and friends aren’t the most reliable critics of your work as they don’t want to offend you… however if even they say it’s bad, there’s a good chance you need to start over.
Now let’s say they give it a seal of approval and give you the usual song and dance about how great it is and how you need to get it published, now it’s time to look for a real critic. The best advice I can give you there is to seek out another writer. There are plenty here on wordpress that are willing to do peer edits in exchange for the same, or you could go to sites like Goodreads and join one of their writing circles. Have someone there look over your writing and see if there is any merit to it. They’re usually pretty good about giving you their opinions straight.
Another option would be to have a professional look at it. I would discourage this because… well they’re not cheap. $.10/word may not sound expensive, but when you’re like me writing books that go into the 100k word range… yeah that’s expensive.
Another option is to have a writing student look at it. A quick google search for student editors usually will give you a HUGE number of student editors that are nearly, if not as good, as professional editors, but they tend to do the job for around $100.
So those really are your best options. All I can say is be careful of which option you choose and do your research before hiring anyone if you go that route. There are con artists and schemers everywhere. Just be careful, okay?
I’m going to open this up to the comments section now. Readers, do you have any advice for Maria, would you be interested in looking her work over? Let her know in the comments below!
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
You can also add me on Twitter!
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
My previous topic dealing with how I create characters got me thinking. How often have writers seen actors or other personalities and written their characters around them? Or even better, how many of us have ever thought about who we would like to see portray our main characters in a movie or TV show. I know I have… so for those of you who have read my books, I’d like to take a moment to go through who would portray a couple of my characters, namely the primary heroes in each. Let’s take a look, I’ll go in order of when the books were written;
Divinity: Adalyn
A few names came up over time for this character. The following excerps from the book describe her: “Her bright blue eyes shined with wonder as she looked up the long staircase of ivory and gold to the massive cathedral at the top. “
“Adalyn nodded as she adjusted her beige maiden’s dress and tightened her sash. The soft cotton tightened around her hips as her hands moved to her hair. She parted it in the middle and made sure that the few loose strands were brushed back behind her ear once again. The blonde strands flowed to her neck and shimmered in the sunlight.”
I also have a concept image that I put together for her:
So who would play her?
Well… at first I thought Katherine Heigl when she was portraying Izzie on Grey’s Anatomy.
However, over time and seeing some of the other roles she plays… given that the role calls for a younger actress, and given some of the other roles I’ve seen her play…
Honestly, I’d cast Chloe Moretz in the role:
Damnation: General Xaphan/Xaphine Lorenzi: This one… oh man… this one was tough. VERY tough. This is her description in my book:
“Xaphan wore a tattered black outfit that flowed below her knees. It was all she was allowed to keep after being stripped of her sword and armor. Her pale white skin was filthy and scarred. Her wings were missing feathers and covered in blood, most of which was not her own. Her black hair was a mangled mess from weeks of her being too busy to tend to it. She breathed in deeply as her pale blue eyes looked up scornfully at Michael.”
She is also a very capable commander, though she appears young, she does have a very strong, mature albeit vicious presence about her.
I’ve made NUMEROUS concept images of her over time, trying to capture this:
Now I know what everyone is thinking; ‘Why not just cast the model you had portray her?’
Honestly, she’s a very talented model, but I don’t really know her personally, I don’t know her acting abilities or her mannerisms. It’s not enough to simply look the part, you also have to be able to act the part, and maybe she could… I don’t know.
So who would I cast then?
Tough call. At first I thought Natalia Tena would do a good job. She’s somewhat soft-spoken, but she knows how to fight… though we never see it really in Harry Potter or Game of Thrones. She also very much looks the part.
However, over time I started shifting away from her. Little by little, I started thinking that maybe she wasn’t the best person to play the role.
So who then? Well… not too long later… I saw this…
Artemesia’s fighting style is very similar to how Xaphan fights, though Xaphan is skilled with several different weapons, not just a pair of daggers. She’s clearly enjoying the battle. The main differences between her and Xaphan are that Xaphan possesses a code of honor, on the battlefield, she can actually overrule Lucifer, and while she enjoys fighting, she views the spilling of her brothers’ and sisters’ blood a terrible waste.
300 Rise of an Empire movie was very lacking on plot and honestly not very good, but admittedly I watch it with some frequency. Why? Because it falls into my ‘Good Villain = Good Movie’ formula. Eva Green steals the movie and is an insane villain, even being a one-dimensional character.
Given how she portrayed Artemesia and given how close that actually is to Xaphan’s personality… and given that Eva Green is one of the few people under 6ft that I find intimidating…
Eva Green would be my choice to play Lucifer’s most trusted General.
(That stare just sends chills down my spine.)
Magnifica: Toby Arrigan: I admit that I never really thought about this one. Toby shook his head as he fixed his dark brown hair, “Gishan you’re a dwarf, don’t you have a stone somewhere to bang?”
He’s your average every day college student who happened to get thrust into a disastrous situation. He’s an unremarkable, but kind-hearted person, and is someone who would give a friend the shirt off of his back.
Tough call, but I’d actually have to go with Thomas Dekker after seeing his performance in Nightmare on Elm Street and being a fan of the Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Soul Siphon: Mary Jane Kelly: This one wasn’t tough. In fact my wife came up with the actor that would portray her best. The only obstacle I faced was that this was a living person at one point. There isn’t much on her in the history books, but we know she worked at a brothel, she young, fairly pretty, but stoutly-built.
No one knows her true hair color anymore, that was lost to history. However varying reports based on nicknames and descriptions list that she was either blonde, raven, or red headed. The most popular theory, and one that I happen to agree with is that she was a red head.
So at first, some people brought up her portrayal in From Hell:
Ugh… yeah every time I see her, I think Red Sox underwear and brownies, or an unfunny gross out movie with a guy from the 70s. PASS!
My description of Mary Jane is a little different, given the narrative of my story: “Even after discovering that she was there, she was impossible to see until she moved. The lack of lighting where she stood cloaked every feature except the curvature of her form. She was little more than a black figure, but as she moved, the nearby light shined on her features. She was slender with extremely fair skin and bright red hair that was long enough to reach below her shoulder blades, and was brushed back to stay out of her face. She had very light freckles that seemed to congregate on her cheekbones and nose just below her eyes. Despite her scowl, the edges of her lips were curved in a way that she almost always had a slight smile on her face. When her lips curled, they caused a small fold in the philtrum under her nose. She was strikingly pretty, even with a disgusted look on her face.”
So then my wife mentions a red head from Game of Thrones. At first I’m like… “Yeah, no. Not Sansa Stark, hell no!”
She then corrects me, saying that there’s another red head featured prominently in the show:
Right age, hair color, right appearance, and given her performance in GOT, right attitude. Rose Leslie would be the person I’d cast without reservation. So good call to my wife on that one.
Soul Siphon Corban McConnel:
I admit that I actually put some thought into this one. He’s strong yet somewhat fragile. He’s not physically tough by any stretch of the imagination and I wouldn’t say he’s a strong, stand-out, lead. The left me with one choice… Nicholas Hoult. His portayals in X-Men and Fury Road make him a good candidate.
In summation; Chloe Moretz as Adalyn Eva Green as General Xaphan Thomas Dekker as Toby Arrigan
Rose Leslie as Mary Jane Kelly
Nicholas Hoult as Corban McConnell
So readers, what do you think? For those who have read my stories, who would you cast? Let me know!
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me. jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Well… I guess being a fantasy writer, this was going to come up eventually. As someone who goes to comic con almost every year, I’m no stranger to seeing grown men carrying MLP stuff around, or perusing MLP artwork tables. Being someone who TRIES not to judge people, I assumed they were buying the items for their daughters and shrugged them off.
However, over time, I noticed more and more that the people around the MLP tables were grown men or young men that likely didn’t have kids. It was at this point that one of my friends informed me that they were most likely bronies… ‘What the heck are bronies?’ I asked.
That’s when I found out that there was a male demographic that loved the MLP mythos. Being a guy fresh out of college, my mind jumped to the most perverse conclusion. Honestly, it sent chills down my spine. Well… come to find out from a friend… who knew a rather suspicious amount about the subject that there was another term for those guys, known as ‘clompers.’ DISCLAIMER: IF YOU GOOGLE THAT TERM, IT’S YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT!!!
Wigged out yet? Well… don’t be. As a father of two, I’ve been introduced to many a new show that I could have lived happily without watching; Wiggles, Cailou, Daniel Tiger’s (Ripoff of Mr. Rogers) Neighborhood, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, etc.
Then my wife introduces them to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Now I have a little sister, so I still have bad memories of the campyness of the dated 80’s show. So I sat down with my kids and watched the modern equivalent with them, fully expecting the same thing with updated animation…
Honestly, as far as kids shows go, it wasn’t bad. The voice actors are recognizable from other shows/video games, the stories while all centered around the idea that ‘Friendship will solve all of your problems’ range from harmless to engaging enough to keep you entertained. The characters… except for Rainbow Dash… are all very like-able and actually quite funny when they have their meltdowns. The situations are actually quite mature and respectful of their audiences. So all in all, it wasn’t a bad show at all.
My one complaint really is a character by the name of Discord.
Essentially, he’s an omnipotent, mischievous, God-like creature that loves chaos and mayhem. Portrayed by John de Lancie, he appears every once in a while to shake things up and teach the main characters a moral in his own twisted way…
GEE, DOES THAT SOUND LIKE ANYONE ELSE WE KNOW????
Yeah, beyond blatant…
But I digress, as time passed, I saw that there are actually social groups for these people, the term has become socially acceptable… and there are even parades in some place for people to congregate who enjoy the show. So yes, it does appear that being a brony has become a lot more acceptable.
So honestly, I admit that despite my best efforts, I had my preconceived notions about people like this, and I can honestly say that I was wrong. Sure there are people out there who like these characters for… unsavory reasons, but having seen the show with my kids and having it be one of the few shows they love that doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out, I can honestly say that I believe that there is a much larger group of people who enjoy the show because of the beautiful animation, engaging worlds, and decent stories. I can admit when I’m wrong.
I wouldn’t consider myself a brony, having only gotten into the show because of my kids, but as long as people are watching the show for those reasons… all power to you guys, go ahead and enjoy it.
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me. jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
So it looks like Soul Siphon has become fairly popular! This is excellent news and I’m thrilled that it is selling so well! However, I have noticed that there has been a lack of reviews for the book. This is very important to me as I like to know how my readers enjoyed it! So if you have a moment, once you’ve purchased/read the book, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, leave a review on Amazon. It would really help me out a lot!
Thanks so much and enjoy!
-Jim
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me. jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance. Please note, I…
I’m trying to come up with characters for my book. I was hoping you could maybe provide a little insight into how you came up with yours. I specifically liked Xaphine, could you use her as an example?
Thanks,
Rich.
Hi Rich,
General Xaphine seems to be a recurrent theme in character discussions… perhaps I should write her into another story.
You may be disappointed on this one, given that her development wasn’t a natural flow like you hear about people taking the personality of someone they met, or someone they like/admire, and create a character around that. General Xaphine didn’t start out that way.
Let me go back in time a little ways to when I was in college. Back then, I was writing stories for my buddies who were playing RPG games, including a Star Wars game. It was at this point that I came up with an awesome nemesis; Darth Malys.
I forget the name of whom I modeled her after, but that’s unimportant at the moment. This character was a fairly young Dark Jedi, born of the force, influenced by the dark side, and possessing powers that are as out of her control as her own emotions. Despite that, she’s a capable warrior and effective leader. She nearly brought the galaxy to its knees by bringing together the imperial remnant and reactivating the old droid factories. Her one weakness was that she was unable to kill the boy she grew up with. No matter how far down the dark path she went, something inside of her refused to allow her to do it.
I was encouraged to write an actual story around her by my friends and that’s where the fan fiction: Star Wars: The Face of Evil. (And in case you’re wondering, no I don’t have a copy I can post. My last copy was lost years ago.)
Though badly flawed and put further and further away from canon as new books… and now the new movie came out.
Obviously, my story was never going to get published. I held no illusions about that. So I let the story fall to the back burner and moved onto Divinity and Magnifica. As I was working on getting Divinity published, I was asked about writing a sequel to the book. It was at this point that I started formulating a new story. I created new characters, but didn’t really have a good premise. At this point, I went back to The Face of Evil and rewrote it, replacing the Republic with the Republic of Florence, the Imperial Remnant with the Holy Roman Empire, Jedi with angels, and Sith with demons.
Okay… so now I had essentially transformed The Face of Evil into Damnation… however Darth Malys didn’t fit the bill as the chief antagonist. My main villain in this case was going to be a fallen angel who worked as Lucifer’s general during the Celestial Wars. Her seizing power, being a newcomer to a scene that had existed for eons didn’t make sense.
So I took the parts of the character that did work; her viciousness, her fighting abilities, her attitude, and her tactical brilliance, and started working on a new character. I really wanted this character to be a demon that people would recognize, given how important she was going to be. So I looked for demons with feminine or androgynous names that were well-known. That’s when I came across ‘Xaphan’ from the Dictionnaire Infernal. Xaphan, a male per that story, was an inventive demon who orchestrated setting fire to Heaven. Perfect!
So I took Xaphan’s back story and name and tweaked them. Instead of setting fire to all of Heaven, Xaphan simply set fire to the Celestial Temple where the Choirs of Angels congregated. It was more of a symbolic gesture in the declaration of revolution by Lucifer and his legions of angels. Against Lucifer’s wishes, she warned the inhabitants of the attack, giving them just enough time to get out. She viewed the spilling of angel blood as an unforgivable waste.
After her success, she was to take command of Lucifer’s forces and lead them in a war that would stalemate for an uncountable amount of time. So now I had a name, a back story, and MOST of her personality. I then added a very strict code of honor to her as a warrior as well. Now I had my character!
So that’s where the ground work of this character came up. She was essentially a combination of another character I created, as well as some legend and folklore. The result was General Xaphan/Xaphine Lorenzi. Granted her appearance changes over time:
Then later, I met a very talented model who matched the look I was going for,
and she became the model and template for the character;
So that’s how I came up with General Xaphan, and she remains my favorite character to this very day:
So sometimes it comes right down to combining various ideas and previously created characters to create the final product. The best advice I could give you is simple. Create your character. Build them up from the ground, then expose them to different situations in your writing. Bend them, mold them… heck, torture them. Yes, I’m advocating torturing your character, especially if you’re going to expose them to tense situations later on. Get a feel for them and see how they’ll hold up, if they’ll hold up, and if they’re the right character to take on a lead. If not, then keep that character for later or relegate them to a back roll and its back to the drawing board, if so, then keep up with the development.
Anyway, I hope this helps.
Readers, how do you create characters, what draws you to a character vs. another? What attributes do you feel make a strong character? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks!
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me. jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
I wanted to continue on to the next opinion I had on writing trends, but I felt the need to stop for a moment to address some of the critical messages that I’ve been getting.
Ever since I posted my responses to the Ghostbusters controversy, the political correctness problems with writing, marvel, etc. I’ve been getting a lot of messages here, on twitter, and other places dealing with my opinions on each. Many of the responses I get are positive; thank you’s, pats on the back, and even more questions. This is great…
However recently, I’ve noticed an uptick in some rather angry people who disagree with me and have done everything from tell me that no one wants to hear my opinion, to calling me misogynistic and hateful, to telling me that my books look awful… to attacking my parentage.
Look, everyone has an opinion. EVERYONE. At times, they can certainly be misinformed, but everyone has one regardless. If people didn’t want to hear my opinions, I wouldn’t have a fairly good following, reader base, and my posts wouldn’t have comments on them. I also wouldn’t be getting emails from people asking me questions about writing… and other issues for some reason.
To everyone who likes Ghostbusters, Marvel, and the direction that this writing is going. All power to you, I’m glad that you enjoy it. However what I’ve seen recently is a huge push for diversity which has come at the expense of good story-telling. Women and minority individuals can be good characters. Two of the best villains of all time in my opinion; Phoenix and Maleficent, are both female. Whereas one of my favorite heroes at this point is also female; Lady Mechanika.
I’ve also enjoyed characters like Bishop, Forge, and Spider Gwen.
Unfortunately, the trend recently is to give story-tellers and movie makers a pass on creating weak stories and bad movies, as long as they’re pushing the right agenda… which in this case happens to be diversity. I think that is patently ridiculous and absolutely condescending. No one deserves a pat on the back for pretty much saying, ‘Yeah, here’s this script I pulled out of my butt last night. Yeah it’s crap, but look at all the minority characters and look at all the women I put in it.’
NO ONE!
I hold writers and movie makers to the same standard I hold myself to. If I see a movie or read a story that’s bad, I’m going to say it’s bad. If it’s bad because the creators are more focused on pushing an agenda than creating something great, or use an agenda as a shield against their laziness, I’m going to call them on that. I think doing any less would be a disservice to my readers.
In any case, I’m not going to stop posting my opinions. I stand by what I’ve said about the various hot-button topics that I posted on, and will continue to post more as they come up as long as there is some kind of writing take on it.
If you want to disagree with me or you have an opinion on the topics I write about that differ from mine, then go ahead and post a comment about it or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you and engage with you either in a new blog post or in a comment thread discussion. But when I get messages from people like what I mentioned above, I’m really not interested in trolls. Seriously, if you think something I said was misogynistic or bigoted, please let me know and I’d be happy to address it. If, however, you’re just going to call me such for the simple fact that you disagree with me, well that’s kind of insane.
So to my readers, sorry for the rant. I will get back to my normal posts later in the week.
Thanks all!
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me. jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
I saw your link on twitter and wanted to ask you a quick question. So I’ve been working with this friend on a political drama. Unfortunately we can never see eye to eye on anything. He’s a hard-left Liberal and I’m a fairly moderate Republican… or at least I try to be.
Anyway, my problem is that we’re trying to write about a political figure who actually existed and whenever we talk about specific issues with this person, it always seems like he’s not listening to me or he’s cherry-picking parts of what I’ve been saying and neglects the rest.
Let me give you an example:
Me: He was removed because some of the things he said were actually proven to be fake. However, he was spot-on with his condemnation of her.
Him: Oh so you think she should be condemned when the things he said were actually fake? I think we’re done here.
Me: No, I said SOME not ALL! Most of what she did was true!
I’m really starting to think that he’s doing it on purpose. I really want to write this piece, but we’re getting nowhere because of things like this. What should I do?
Thanks,
Niko
Hey Niko,
Thanks for the letter. Honestly, I deal with people like your friend there all of the time. He may be doing it on purpose or he may be trying to think three argument points ahead. Either way, he’s clearly not listening to you. I’ve seen this with hard-liners on both sides of the isle, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to sway them in any direction. They believe what they believe and anyone who believes anything else is morally and ethically wrong and evil. There is no in-between. Take a look at my scale below:
Generally speaking, I’d say most people fall into the small area where purple overlaps either red or blue. Sadly thanks to an unscrupulous and blatantly biased media, everyone thinks that most democrats or republicans fall into line either at the regressive or religious fundamentalist end. They and the politicians they support keep their offices and their paychecks by essentially ripping the United States, nay the entire civil world, apart.
Need an example? Okay, how about the new Ghostbusters movie? It was spun into a political debate where the overall quality of the movie was lost in hyperbole. Sony, the producers, the director, and the media, ran with the narrative that this movie was going to be a positive thing and everyone who saw it was promoting girl power while everyone who refused to, was a misogynist, MRA, etc. etc. and used YouTube trolls as the standard for Geeks and Geek Culture.
The end result was geek culture, yet again, wrongfully taking a hit to it’s credibility, and an angry and rightfully bitter fan base that dismissed anyone who said the movie was good as a regressive feminist or a Sony shill, while anyone who criticized the movie (this is perhaps more blatant), was verbally attacked as being a misogynist and/or a hateful person. These people included James Rolfe, Richard Roeper, and… of all people, known radical left-wing entertainment blogger Bob Chipman. This pretty much lead to a lot of forced reviews on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, and so on.
I could go on about this, but I spent way too much time covering it in some of my other posts, so feel free to go back and look. I couldn’t be bothered to keep going on the amount of damage that this type of unscrupulous media coverage has done.
Niko, you have my sympathy. Your friend sounds as though he’s probably someone around the regressive left side of the bar. You can try to talk to him and let him know what he’s doing, but I hate to say it, you’re most likely not going to be able to reason with him. These types of people have usually already been indoctrinated into their beliefs and that is something that is very difficult, if not impossible to break. I’d highly recommend cutting ties with this person and attempting to either finish the story yourself… or find someone between the moderate left and radical left to finish with. These people are usually still willing to listen and open their mind, and that goes the same for the right side of the line.
Thanks Niko, wish I had better news for you. All the best luck on your writing!
Readers, what do you think? Should he try to see eye to eye with his partner or just give up and move on? Let me know in the comments below.
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me. jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
James Harringtons Creative Work 