Aw man, that number is really getting up there. It's both awesome and a bit depressing. I mean, I'm happy to have kept writing this blog EVERY DAY for 47 weeks, but at the same time, I was hoping I'd have The Paladin done and ready to submit to agents. I guess life moves at its own rate, regardless of my desires. Betas too, but that's another matter. Today I thought I'd share a song that was actually one part of my early playlists, before I had even dreamt up Jonathan Sutter as a character. Apocalyptica's Hall of the Mountain King is a wonderful take on a classic song. It's strong, intense, and even a little scary at times, but through all of it, it paints vivid pictures. Of what? Well, in my case it was ... well... I guess you'll have to read the next book in The Paladin series. Point is, I had a vivid scene, complete with scriptural quotes and all the mental special effects I knew it would need. My internal Director of Photography has planned the camera shots for years and I can't tell you how often I keep coming back to this. This song, along with only a choice few others, was largely responsible for the entire path my novel took as well as the potential sequels. What will it paint for you? Please... relax, close you eyes, and let Apocalyptica paint something for you with Hall of the Mountain King. DFTBA
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I think, perhaps with the exception of my blog posts, I am not much for brevity. The Paladin currently stands around 20,000 words over the limit and is likely to get a little thicker in this next edit. Still, I'm getting favorable impressions, so I can only try to justify my bad habit with this: I write a lot, but I write well!
That feels a bit arrogant, but it's the spirit of what I'm going for. I really hope that everything I've put into The Paladin is worth it and that readers don't think anything is really extraneous. Actually, as I've mentioned before, they've asked for more! I thought of this topic while doing what should have been a quickie job for my employers at C+ Studios. The instructions were simple: make some stings/bumpers to go between each segment on the Vlog/podcast. First one went quick enough. Five seconds, in and out. Just finished the last one. Took me two hours because I felt the need to build sprite art for graphics. And it's almost thirty seconds, which I shaved down from like... almost forty? It was basically an intro for an entire show instead of a little segment bumper. Yeah... not good at keeping things small. But at least what I make, I make well. Enough. DFTBA Got a little more writing in and spent today mostly filming for C+. Got to share a fun video with them, though, and the sentiment behind it has been on my mind all day. Superheroes are allowed to be fun and colorful every once in a while. Let's look at the top example right now and that's Teen Titans Go to the Movies. Man, people have been hating on Teen Titans Go! since it premiered, and I think a lot of that is from the idea that Cartoon Network making that show prevents them from making other shows fans want. You know, I actually liked Teen Titans Go! I said it. Fight me. And you know what? I was excited for the movie long before it started getting better reviews online than most of the summer's CGI special effect blockbusters. I think maybe people forgot that comics were once fun and colorful. That things were lighthearted. Sure, we've always had dark themes and always will, but comics rose to prominence when they were all about fun. The worlds in them were always bright, hopeful depictions of what our world could be. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing something dark and gritty, but there's also nothing wrong with fun and colorful. After all, this is Batman... ... and so is this! And if you've got a problem with Adam West... well... I just don't know if we can be friends. Be Excellent to Each Other I just listened to the latest Writing Excuses podcast the other day. They have a lot of great advice from published authors, advice far better than anything I could offer, and I highly suggest you check them out here. The latest topic was "Writing Heavy Subjects," or in other words, writing about potentially sensitive topics like race, gender, or sexuality.
I'll be honest, I'm someone who believe in writing whatever you want. If you write something terrible, so be it. If someone finds it offensive, they don't have to read it. If nothing else, it documents the thought process of people who we could really use some incite on. That said, I was really impressed with Writing Excuses' take on the matter. I was waiting for "not your experience, not your story," but instead I got a much more more nuanced approach. Summed up (and mind you I'm summing up half an hour of details from a traditionally fifteen minute show into one little blurb) it is this: If you only write from your experience, you'll only write very closed off, potentially boring things. But if you're going to write from another's experience, weigh the risk of damage you might do. It's not, "don't write it," it's "consider whether what you're writing will hurt that community." Now, I'm ready for people to disagree with me. I'm fine with that. I encourage discourse. I love to hear what others think and, in general, I don't think there's too many wrong ways to look at a situation. In this case, I think those guys are pretty spot on. They treated the subject matter respectfully. So what do you think? Is it okay to write about other people and cultures if you're not part of that? Don't forget to give that episode a listen, because they explain it far better than I ever could. DFTBA Okay, you I need to vent a little. Are you ready for the ultimate in first world problems? Well... that's today for me. As you know, I've been doing game reviews, and I don't always get to choose the game I want to review. Sometimes I end up with some treasures, and sometimes I end up with some terrible abominations.
I don't have an abomination today. I have a frustration incarnate. The game's not hard... well... not usually. It has it parts. But functionally, it's not good. Stuff is hard to control, the game has issues loading properly, and overall, it just needs a LOT more polish. I've gotten to the point where I'm dreading playing it. Its... work. This is where I came a realization. See, I love games. I love the stories, I love the entertainment, I love the art, I love everything about them. But now that playing is a requirement, it's become a chore. True, sometimes it's fun, but sometimes it's so... forced. Why am I bringing this up? Because... I also love to write. I'm afraid after this game review gig that once writing becomes my job I'll cease to enjoy it. If I'm supporting myself and my family on my writing, what's going to happen if I suddenly feel forced? If I feel like writing's become a responsibility instead of a release? I really don't have any answers for these questions, but it was certainly something to chew on. Until then, I guess I'm going to just have to do my best and cross that bridge when I come to it. Be Excellent to Each Other Hey everyone. Just finished editing a video for C+ Studios. If you're into incredibly irreverent, borderline offensive ranting from two guys getting stuff off their chests, check 'em out HERE. They hired me to clean up their podcasts and up their YouTube game and they could use a little love. Tell them Matias sent you.
But, on topics of a more literary persuasion, I thought I'd share my feelings today on tropes and cliches. You know, story-telling shorthand that gets repeated often throughout movies, films, book, and games. Now, please don't confuse the two. There's obviously some overlap, but they are not the same thing. Tropes are just same ideas and themes repeated over and over. You see them all the time, from the Five Man Band to the Monster with a Heart of Gold. Now, there's nothing wrong with these. We use them all the time because they're concepts that resonate with us as human beings. The problem becomes when they're overused and are lazy or predictable. That's when you're dealing with cliches. You know a cliche when you see one. Movie studios are notorious for them because they, more than any other form of media, rely on giving people something familiar. That's why it's a huge deal when movies step out of those comfort zones. Remember Frozen? You better, that damned song was on everyone's lips for the better part of a year! But beyond the great music, it did something people weren't expecting. It played with the cliche of "love at first sight" with Anna and her would-be-beau, then tossed it out the window. "You can't be in love after one day." We've all thought that when watching Disney movies and the like, but when one of them actually came out an said it, they were breaking away from the cliche. We heard about "true love's kiss" and assume it was Anna and Reindeer-boy, but OMG! It's the love between sisters? Okay, I apologize for using "omg." It was illustrative, please forgive me. Point is, we take notice when these cliches aren't there. Does that mean Frozen was the first story to subvert that particular trope? Highly unlikely. Does that mean all tropes must be subverted now? Definitely not! As I mentioned before, they're story-telling shorthand. For instance... let's say you want to write a story about a team. If you haven't made up your mind about the make-up of the team, following the Five Man Band trope is a good start to filling out your ranks and figuring out what everyone's role is. New to writing long stories? The Hero's Journey is a decent guide for outlining your adventure. Heck, I keep TVtropes handy when I write, because finding examples of people doing what I've thought about doing is really helpful. It lets you look at others' examples, see where they went right, where they messed up, and what you might want to consider in your telling. DFTBA Mmm... now here's a another song from a talent artist I've featured before. Sometimes you can get some really good, really intense songs from lesser known artists, especially those enthusiastic about their work. Last time I featured Madame Macabre, it was Painted Smile, but today it's God Syndrome, with vocals from Ashe. You can feel the passion these guys put into this song and, of course, the subject matter makes it perfect listening material for The Paladin. If you're looking for creepy... if you're looking for intense... if you're looking for dark, well, you can't go wrong with something from Madame Macabre. So please take a listen to God Syndrome. An an aside, I'm always looking for new music to listen to while writing, so if you have any suggestions, shoot them to me in the comments or on social media! DFTBA Okay, today I'm going to share the single greatest resource I've had since becoming a writer. Are you ready? It's... friends! Cue the My Little Pony music! In all seriousness, though, getting out of your own brain and hearing someone else's thoughts is the best tool I'm aware of for pushing forward. Writers block is especially weak to the power of a good friend with willing ears. I can't tell you how many times I've been stuck, pound my head on the wall, screamed at the night sky, listened to random playlists on YouTube, and just continued writing and deleting the same lines over and over when all I needed was to talk it through with my wife.
Critique partners, beta readers, or just someone who genuinely wants to listen, having another brain to check things out for you can be an immense boon to your writing process. I know writers have been portrayed as lonely, secluded hermits who just want to shut the world out and write, but come on. Really? I'll agree I have my days like that but if you don't experience the life, you can't write life. And if you don't engage with people, you can't write people. So, that amazing resource. Just look around. If you can find one person, just one, who thinks what you're writing is interesting and is willing to genuinely listen, treasure them. They will help your writing more than a thousand style guides. Don't Forget to be Awesome! If yesterday was all about sentimentality, then let's swap it up for today and talk about dark humor. Also called black comedy, dark comedy, or gallows humor, it's basically being able to laugh at things that would normally be taboo.
Now, I'm not going to say that The Paladin is devoid of dark humor, but it's not to the extent that I've seen elsewhere. It's... a smattering. It what I think is appropriate given the dark nature of the job the paladins do. For instance (and this isn't the best example because, you know, spoilers), one character, Reagan, has an ongoing thing with correcting peoples' semantics. Especially in inappropriate times. Specifically, this instance deals with a demonic possession of a young girl and the description of her as "literally going through hell." Reagan, a paladin that has seen demons on a regular basis, corrects them. They didn't literally go through hell. He's familiar with Hell itself and just wanted to set the record straight. Dark humor is something that, I think, becomes necessary when you have characters with jobs like the paladins. Laughter is something that keeps a person sane, especially in the face of overwhelming hardship, danger, or terror. The paladins deal with death, blood, and the powers of Hell on a fairly regular basis, so it makes sense, to me at least, that their sense of humor might be twisted. So what about the appropriateness of dark humor in general? Well, as I've basically laid out, I think there's a time and place for it. I'm very much someone who believes in free speech. What author wouldn't be? Yes, there are times when things are inappropriate, but the fact that this humor exists is just that: a fact. It's not a reflection on anything political, just an observation that, given terrible conditions, humans will find a way to suss out the humor in the most terrible of conditions. I think one of my favorite people that plays off dark humor is the musician Aurelio Voltaire. I like to invoke his name a lot, but when you're writing a book like The Paladin, it makes sense. His stuff isn't depraved by any means, but the jokes can be dark. They can be a little twisted at times, but in the end, they're still funny. His songs joke about death. They joke about hatred. They joke about things most people wouldn't joke about. And you know what? I'm okay with that because sometimes, making light of scary, heavy things can make them that much easier to digest. And remember... Be Excellent To Each Other. So, first thing, if you haven't seen Christopher Robin, go out and do it. If you have any attachment to Winnie the Pooh, if it was part of your childhood, if you enjoyed it growing up, you will want to see this movie.
With that out of the way, let me talk about sentimentality. Not every book has it and certainly not every book needs it. But done right, it can really enhance your story and connect with your audience. I feel like it doesn't work well with debuts, though. You won't have to worry about too much sentimentality in The Paladin. Right now is the time to build that relationship, I need to get my readers caring about the characters first. After all, there was nothing to be sentimental about in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but by book seven, we had followed these characters, grown up with them, and now it was time for things that would tug at our hearts. Time to reminisce. Time to wax nostalgic. As all the terrible things came crashing down around Harry, it was fun to remember when the biggest problem they has was pronouncing leviosa. Or was it leviosa? I'm building toward those moments in my series. I certainly think that in my next book there will be some poignant references, maybe some fun memories. But really, I think my series is all about moving forward. About the world changing and how someone needs to find a way to roll with that change. Still... there's nothing wrong with looking back on the ways things used to be and smiling. Be Excellent To Each Other |
Matias TautimezKeep your eyes open for my debut novel, The Paladin. Archives
January 2023
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