There’s really nothing I can provide in terms of sweet updates to my projects.
Artists can drop a panel or two of their artwork. Video or game developers can drop clips. What I can do? Five sentences from my latest project that makes no sense without context?
Just some concept sketches from Megatokyo’s Fred Gallagher for my current project in development. MT fans might know who this is, but what she’s doing dressed like that is still a secret.
I tend to cringe at the idea of offering writing and creativity advice; mostly because its hard to overcome the feeling that the only thing I’m good at is pigheaded tenacity to simply not quit when any rational human being would have, and that any successful creation is an accident more than design. Any revelation into my “method” will reveal the heinous reality that I’m a hack and a fraud, and so it’s best to just maintain this sage like aura of detachment. But as people keep slapping me about… I need to reach out and be engaging, no matter how much I’d rather just sit in the corner and do my work and let everyone come to me.
I’m told this whole creating professionally thing works like that. Who knew?
So, I think what I’ll do instead is just throw out some of ideas I’ve developed over the years and maybe it might give people something to think about.
I’m trying here okay? Chatty-content stuff is hard.
There’s No Such Thing as a Likeable Character
In that, I mean there is no way to guarantee that your audience will like any character, no matter how you try. Designing a story around the concept of your audience becoming emotionally invested in Character A is a risky proposition. If it gamble works, great. But if it doesn’t… the impact your hoping for could likely wind up the exact opposite, assuming your audience sticks around for what you hope the payoff is.
There’s No Way to Write a [x] Character
One of my guilty pleasure movies is “As Good as it Gets.” Not because I think it’s good (it really isn’t all that), but because it mercilessly tortures the “rules of writing”, and I find that endlessly fun.
Like this particular exchange:
“How do you write women so well?”
“I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.”
Now that’s obviously not true, or even remotely close to good advice, and that’s the point really.
So What IS the Point?
You aren’t writing characters. You’re not writing a “likeable” character. You’re not writing a “female” character, or a “male” character, or a “gay” character, or whatever label you attach as a prefix.
You are writing a person. Who happens to be female, or male, or gay, or black, or white, or with downs syndrome, or in a wheelchair, or with six eyes and scales, etc… (I think you get the picture here, right?). As much as people in real life identify with their traits, ironically enough I have found that the most well-rounded characters are the ones that are built with the traits tertiary. You need to pare it down to the core first, because really at the end of the day, there are so many different people who behave so many different ways that as long as the person is internally consistent, the traits fall into place around that. Much like how I think people really develop. The identity builds around the person… the person doesn’t build around the identity.
So that would be my advice when you sit down to make your character. Start from scratch. Don’t come into the process with any preconceptions as to what you want that character to be, then start filling it in, and see what comes out of it.
Any other concepts you want to pick my brain on? Ask away… I might actually answer.
(via Exiern)
One theme I wanted to play with in this story is how a person’s actions can be interpreted very differently based on preconceptions or prior influence.
This is one such payoff for me; what many characters took as a demeaning action to try and put a strong woman out of sight and out of mind turned out quite differently once the full reasons were revealed; but I’d like to think that hints that things weren’t like they seemed even at the time I set the stage.
For example; on this page, it’s noted that the fishing grounds was an area that could lend itself easily to an attack. Denver’s little friend commented that it had been a concern, but not anymore. Now we know exactly why, and that rather than a demeaning post (for a culture that values hunting one of the highest and important duties), it was in truth a post that was granted to Diana because she was only one that Wyll-Line felt could do the job right, to keep a level head and not do something foolish just in case the pleas for peace from their old enemies was a ruse.
A further subtle hint that things might not be how they seemed was the authority Diana projected here. Knowing what we do now, does it look like a woman upset at her station? She’s fully in control, she knows she has the authority to speak for the chieftain, attempting to negotiate a “smaller weir” to use for fishing.
To go even further on Wyll-Line’s intentionally poor lighting, starting here, when he puts Tiffany’s companions to work. I intentionally cast the scene to make the chieftain’s actions quite insulting… now think of it this way;
Sending Niels to work with the senior men of the camp, who he hoped wouldn’t be dumb enough to pick a fight with the armored bear (and they managed to avoid that)…
Peonie wound up “working” right under his own roof…
And Denver was sent where Diana could keep an eye on him.
Yes… this is the sort of stuff that runs through my head as I plan out stories.
No… I’m not normal.
Initially, I was going to put this in with all the other short stories I had written, and sell them on Amazon’s Kindle Store for $0.99.
But, ‘eff that. That’s not cool. It’s a money grab (even if it would only net me about 35 cents a sale). And I don’t do money grabs.
So, what’s the answer?
THIS.
Yep, like all my other short stories, it’s right here, for free. The print buyers still get their moment of exclusive content, and I keep with what I had been doing. This small stuff has always been free. It should stay that way.
Just an update for anyone who was interested in delving into the series, but didn’t want to spend $15 for that first taste, The Broken Prophecy is now on a permanent price drop to $10.99 (buying if from Amazon through the link above actually has it cheaper). Kindle and Nook versions will have a price drop to $5.99 in the next 24 hours as well.
So, if that is more to your liking, hop on in and give it a look!
Okay… just the Kindle version currently… but oi did Amazon hit the ground running with that one.
Other versions should be updating soon, so keep your eyes open if the Kindle isn’t yer thing!
Nook and Print versions ARE LIVE!!! Whoo!
Soon… very soon in fact.
Like within the week soon.
I won’t lie, I’m really quite excited about it. It’s only been a few months since the first book dropped, but that’s far too long for my tastes considering how long I sat on the whole manuscript (The Sixth Prophet and The Broken Prophecy were written for the most part concurrently, you see).
Jorge Rivas (who did the color work for the first cover), takes his hand at the whole shebang this time around, and I think did a marvelous job.
Now… I know there’s a handful of people who bought the rough manuscript of both books, and want to know what’s changed. Well, nothing much again. It’s a lot cleaner, it reads a lot better, some character names got reworked to fit their proper theme…
Well… then there’s the whole added short story to the print version.
Oh? I didn’t mention that yet? Silly me. Yep, as a special gift to those who order the dead tree version, it includes a never before seen short story, “The Head of the Beast”, which gives additional insight to the Endtimers, the person in charge of them, and helps to set the stage for the third book in the series.
Now, before you Kindle and Nook users get too upset, rest assured, “The Head of the Beast” will eventually be made available as part of an e-book compilation of all the short stories currently available, which print users won’t see in dead tree format (sorry folks, even all of them together winds up to not be worth the cost of printing in dead tree). This was the best way I felt I could give both the dead tree AND e-book users a little something special… print readers get a little head start on never-before-seen content, while my e-book readers will be able to have all the short stories at their little fingers with the flick of a button… just a little while down the road.
It’ll be 99 cents. Really. I won’t be breaking any wallets here. Promise.
Thanks again for reading… hopefully it won’t take too long for The Endtimer’s Legacy to be ready to read!
On November 17, 2011 I took the writing reins from Drowemos for this comic. It wasn’t always the smoothest ride, to be sure, but I’ll have put a good two and a half years into this story when I hang ‘em up and move on.
It had taken a lot of thought, a lot of hang wringing, consulting with friends, family, and fellow webcomic creators… but I’ve made the decision that I am moving on at the conclusion of the Wild North storyline, which will at the current rate of publication be somewhere in late April to mid-May.
Why? Wasn’t I setting up plotlines for the future? Absolutely. But the more I give it thought, the more I’m coming to the conclusion I’m not the fellow to tell those tales, or to be the creative mind behind this webcomic at all. I have my own stories I want to tell, and I really don’t want to keep putting them on the side as I work through this one. The real epiphany occurred during the final construction of my second novel, and being asked by reps at Amazon when they could expect the third.
I kinda went silent for a few seconds… because I realized I hadn’t worked on that manuscript at all since I started this story. It wasn’t fair to me… nor was it fair to readers to have a quarter of my attention (along with other projects I’m taking part in as well as my day job). As I don’t make nearly enough money to support myself on my writing alone; the decision was sadly easy. That’s not meant as a slight to Exiern or its readers, mind… merely that of all the things I want/have to do… this was the easiest to let go of.
I won’t make this some long send-off piece, because I’m not going anywhere just yet… and don’t mind me if there’s a bitter aftertaste to this post. I feel like I’ve failed in a way, not being able to press on and complete everything I wanted to say. But I’ll have said enough, I think. It’ll have to do.
Thank you.
And now, as we reach end of the penultimate “chapter” of this particular storyline (yep… the next segment is the return to the clan grounds and resolution of the Wild North storyline), we now reach the point where the mirrored glass bends about as far as it can go without breaking.
Some of you may find Osir’s monologue to be familar, and to be honest, it’s because it was inspired from a particularly chilling line from a much longer part of what was (and in some ways still is) one of my favorite video games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGordtzVZhs
At least until Bioware absolutely butchered the entire storyline, that to me was a remarkable bit of discovery for me as a developer of stories. I create things just to destroy them. I make people and worlds, then subject them to tortures for the sake of making a greater point to otherworldly beings. What would those characters think to know that their every action is subject to the whim of something they can’t fully understand for reasons they can’t fully comprehend? Would Tiffany think any better of her past to hear, “Well, you see… this is necessary for the theme of self-discovery and redemption I want you to have?” I doubt it.
As a result, as I sought to delve more into the unique perspective the “Narrator” (or DOOM! guy) has within the greater Exiern story, the emotions that kept bubbling to the surface was fear and contempt. He is aware of this vague being beyond the created world, that even the Travelers, Authorities, Beyonders, are strung to. In a world of puppets, the Narrator is one that can see the strings for what they are, and I cannot imagine that would be a pleasant thought for anyone. In fact, it almost makes you understand how his predecessor went a little nuts trying to cope with it.
For this one moment, his mask has cracked, and Tiffany sees what Osir really thinks. I can only imagine Osir would think I’m a despicable, insufferable dick.
The mirrored glass will give way to a more solid wall shortly… at least for the moment. Thank you again for helping me explore it.
TKO Creations 