What's a World Without Characters?

Creating Characters in Fantasy

Once the "suspended belief" world is defined, it must be filled with characters.

One of the obvious choices is to "people" the world with fantastical beings such as elves, fairies, ogres, dwarves, or other imaginary creations. All well and good, as long as they suit the tale.
But, how do you make those creations "real" for the reader?

I like to describe the way to do this as establishing "touchstones," in each character. The word suggests, to me, that there is some quality developed in each character that readers and latch on to, or relate to that makes the character become real to them. It's a quality, behavior, emotion, or attitude making the character "human" enough that he/she can be understood.

It's hard to relate to a totally alien creature. I often think of characters from successful science fiction as an example of this. For instance, Mr. Spock, of Star Trek fame, is a Vulcan, an alien being whose life is supposed to be devoid of emotion. His "rule of life" is to be totally logical about everything. If he were that cold and calculating about everything, it would be hard to really sympathize with him.  If he felt nothing at all when confronted with conflict, acting only with precise, logical responses, the audience would soon lose interest in actually caring about him.

But Spock is, himself, in conflict. Born half-human, he is often overwhelmed with human emotions preying on his Vulcan indifference, challenging him to feel and respond.  This internal conflict actually makes him more sympathetic as the audience, themselves often fighting to control their own emotions,  powerfully relates to his struggle. In this way, an alien being is connected to their own lives and becomes a beloved hero.

A successful fantasy character needs to connect to the reader in the same way. He/she must have some traits, feelings, reactions, or behaviors the reader can recognize and relate to.  Does he love, hate, dream, feel pain, suffer, laugh, or struggle in some way a human reader can actually understand, not only in mind, but also in heart?

Even monsters tend to have at least some "touchstone" connection. Do they kill to survive, to protect, or even out of hunger?  Most monsters do.

But there are exceptions, and to me, they become the most frightening ones of all. The unrelenting killing machine with no rhyme or reason is a terrifying foe.

More about that later.          

Saga of Magiskeep for Kindle                                                 

Why Magic? Why Fantasy?

What Would the World Be Like?

Why do readers enjoy fantasy? Why do writers write fantasy?

Of all literary genres, fantasy is the most removed from reality. Authors create impossible worlds where impossible things happen. The world of fantasy is the world of the "unbelievable."

Or is it?

Good fantasy inspires the reader to "willingly suspend disbelief." This is an intriguing concept and one of those phrases written in "negative language" to make its point. What it means is that the reader must be willing to believe whatever world and situation the writer creates.

This is tricky, because when writing the unbelievable, it's not always easy to entice the audience to actually believe in the impossible. What the good author does is create a world with laws, rules, manners, characters and everything the real world has, and then add the impossible in the most logical, and consistent way.

Consistency is the key. If, in a world where magic exists, a magic user cannot fly himself, but can make other things fly in the "rules" of the impossible world, the writer must be careful to never let that magic user fly on his own at some point.

In Magiskeep, Magicians cannot directly use Magic on themselves. They can change someone else's appearance for example, but not actually change their own appearance. They can, however, use an illusion to hide their identity, but that only serves as a screen, not an actual change.

Nor, in Magiskeep, can a Magician Heal herself. Early on in Kingdom Beyond the Rim, Sarena, the Mistress of Healing slices her hand as she is demonstrating something for her class. The wound is serious, and bleeding badly. There is nothing, despite all her skill, she can do. In a dramatic moment, Jamus, her young and untrained student, rushes to her side and with an unexpected calling to the Magic, Heals the injury.

Jamus' act sets in motion the primary conflict of the novel as the Masters of Magiskeep discover his hidden talents, all too potentially powerful. And so, the unbelievable element of the story--Magic itself--sets up the all too believable jealousy of Sagari, Magic's master, when he realizes Jamus may well be a threat to his dominance.

Sagari's plot to destroy Jamus, and Jamus' own ingenuity, luck and skill form the primary plot of the novel, creating the "touchstone" of reality each time Magic comes into play. Without solid characters, conflict and a story with high stakes, a fantasy cannot live in the reader's minds, no matter how fascinating the magical elements might be.

Kingdom Beyond the Rim, the first novel in The Saga of Magiskeep strives to keep its audience involved with the story and in that state of suspended disbelief.

Why not find out for yourself. You can find the book on Amazon.

Kingdom Beyond the Rim

The Long Journey: Part 3

The Saga's End?

I had conceived that the final novel in The Saga of Magiskeep would focus on Jamus' confrontation  with the Black Dragon and the need to master the Black River's Magic.

The Black Dragon, Kesel--"Everendings ever be"--had tormented Jamus from the first. Knowing the Magician's potential to be the Rivermaster--master of all Magic--the black tentacles of evil intent had reached for Jamus in the darkness he so feared as a child. As he grew and developed his skills, the Dragon pursued him in nightmares and visits to the Way of Mirrors where Shadows lurked to steal the life of any foolhardy traveler.

The power of his own Will helped Jamus elude the monster's black intent, but Blackwing persisted, commanding Lord Tamor and his army of bloodthirsty Shadows to conquer all of Turan.

Jamus confronts this army in The Wall Between, faces its threat again in White Wind and finally, in the fourth novel of the Saga battles again in Blackwing Rising.  

All was well. With the publication of the fourth novel, I thought I was finished. A project I had begun nearly thirty years ago had reached an end. 

But then, I realized there was more to the story. 

There was one more Dragon--The Fifth Dragon--a creature who had lurked in the background for quite some time. Mentioned and met in the earlier novels, this Dragon was the key to Magic. I knew him well, and also knew he was the final element the Saga needed to truly draw to a close.

And so, I began writing his story.  I hope to finish the novel by Spring of this year. Since I know where the story is going, I've already thought of possible cover designs. David Melanson, a super friend from The Halfwittenberg Door is my cover designer. So far we've collaborated on these two ideas. I'm not yet sure which one I'll choose as they offer decidedly different perspectives on the story. 

There are more stories of Turan, notably a series I began about adventures in Arcula, the land Jamus visits in The Wall Between.  I will eventually publish them in a separate volume, but once the final Dragon flies, The Saga of Magiskeep will be finished. 

The Long Journey Part 2

The Saga Continues

Writings on The Half-Wittenberg Door eventually included six tales of Magiskeep.  With a short summary of "Kingdom Beyond the Rim," as an introduction to the new tales, these stories formed bridges between the novels of the larger Saga. 

I have since published them as part of the Saga in "Honor's Way" and "Silvren Shards," two story collections.  "Honor's Way" fills in the story of Jamus' and Salene's marriage and introduces a young boy who identity will figure into the final novel of the Saga.  "Silvren Shards" develops backstory and other adventures in Jamus' life as he continues his journey to master the Four Rivers of Magic.

Again, with the writing of the second full novel, "The Wall Between," I thought I was developing the standard trilogy, but again, the story took charge. Characters and the Magic itself tugged at my imagination until I knew there would be one novel for each "color" of the Magic. 

"The Wall Between" uncovers the secrets of the Silver River and introduces the Silver Dragon, Rath, who becomes a pivotal character in each of the later books. Once again, whatever overall plan I started with found itself being challenged by the characters I'd created who's somehow managed to take on lives of their own. Each demanded attention and helped shape the Saga's story line. 

I started the third novel somewhere along the way, managed to write about half of it and suddenly lost my inspiration.  I'd developed a rather complex plot involving riddles and tapestries for Jamus to solve, immersed him in a world controlled by the White Dragon, and sank into a snowdrift of writer's block. 

This is a curious problem for me. What usually happens is that I'm sure I know how the book is going to end, but not quite sure of the best way to get there. At that point, I just wait. My brain seems to work on plotting strategy in the background, tossing about various possible routes to the end, solving and re-solving difficulties I've encountered along the way. It was going on a year or more before I finally sat back down to finish "White Wind."  

That meant, in the general scheme of things, that there was only one more novel to write--the concluding book of the Saga where Jamus confronts the dangerous force of the Black Dragon, the creature of  "Everendings" that has been tormenting him since his childhood. 

It was time to start writing anew. 

The Long Journey

How One Book Became an Epic Series: Part I

Nearly thirty years ago, I started writing a fantasy novel. My first version was about two hundred typed pages and I was convinced I'd created a good story.  I packed it up in an envelope and sent it off to a few publishers. Back then, that was the only option for getting a book out.

Now, I'd written it originally on steno pads by hand. Then I'd laboriously typed it up on an electric typewriter as computers were still in their infancy. Somewhere along the way, I did get some of it typed an printed on an IBM mainframe computer at school where I worked. The copy was a dot matrix version on rolls of computer paper. (Only you older readers will know what I mean, I fear.)

My queries to publishers didn't get very far and I still have several vanilla rejection letters lying around. They were form letters with nothing in them to encourage me.

I have a friend who is a professionally published writer and I showed him my manuscript. He liked the story and suggested it needed a rewrite. Soon, we were meeting several times a month, fleshing out characters, descriptions, and action to bring the skeleton of a tale I'd written to new life.

Over the next few years, I wrote and re-wrote, developing Kingdom Beyond the Rim into a full fledged epic fantasy of nearly a thousand double spaced typed pages. By then, the personal computer market had exploded and I had a PC and a laser printer at my disposal, so life and editing had taken a much better turn.

Off wen the manuscript in a cardboard box--still no digital submissions at that time--to potential publishers. Caught in the evil circle of:  "You need an agent to submit a book, but you can't get an agent unless you've published,"  the market was limited.  My book would vanish into the abyss of publisher slush piles for months on end, only to return to me without a dog ear or smudge on a single page. At that point, I surrendered. I still felt I had a book worthy of print, but without a way to get it published, things looked bleak.

Over the next few years. I found myself still writing. As a high school English teacher, I was always creating lessons, worksheets, stories, and all kinds of materials for my students. I used my fantasy character and setting to develop a writing site for my classes to use to learn how to write creatively themselves. Always, in some way or another, Jamus, my main character, and the world of Magiskeep just keep on living.

Then, through the pure fun of playing computer adventure games--most notably Sierra's Quest for Glory series, I joined an on-line message board, The Half-Wittenberg Door, and the Saga of Magiskeep was born anew. .

The Fall of Heroes

And So It Goes

I don't have a long list of famous people I really adore. I'm not a big fan of any sports heroes, rock stars, or movie stars--at least not to the point of swooning over them.  But I have been let down more than once by famous people I've admired over the years. Suffice it to say, my list is short, but I must admit, it has taught me a lot about human nature. 

Very few humans can quite stay up on the narrow pedestal worshippers create for them. I'm sure we've all been disappointed by people in our own lives, but when a high profile person disappoints us, it can be even more significant. Often, fans invest themselves in the hero, live their own dreams through him or her, and then feel a personal loss, when that hero falls. 

I think one of the reasons I like to write is so I can control the characters and the worlds I create, allowing me to decide who wins and loses. 

But the writing world is not reality. Over these last few years, I've been let down more than once by famous people I had grown to admire. 

Lance Armstrong, the former Tour de France winner is one. I learned to understand and enjoy the Tour by rooting for him. I read his book, respected his story of a long and hard recovery from cancer. I listened to endless praise of how hard he worked to prepare for the race, how he used strategy to win, and how his amazing endurance won time and time again in the torturous climbs in the mountains. He was accused over and over of using performance enhancing drugs and always tested clean. I believed in his talent and athleticism. He made me a fan of the Tour. 

Then the truth came out. Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour victories because of blood doping. It hurt. I was truly disappointed that someone on my pedestal had fallen so far. 

Tiger Woods was a disappointment of another kind. The world's and my impression of him was taht he was an upstanding gentlemen both on the golf course and off. He was a superstar and I watched gold tournaments just because he was playing. 

Then, he too, fell from grace, proving to be an unfaithful husband. Again, another pedestal had at least partially collapsed. After his personal fall, Woods seemed to have lost the luster on his game as well. I still root for him when he plays and hope he will somehow manage to regain his skill and standing as one of the world's top golfers. But the golfer and man will never be quite the same for me. 

And then, there's Bill Cosby. He was always one of my favorite comedians. I still remember some of his old comedy routines, especially one about a Volkswagen he drove, and cherish the laughter he brought into my life. 

Of all my heroes he has fallen the farthest, mostly because the reason for his fall is so morally reprehensible. He is a villain of the highest degree ruining far more lives than the others. 

Traditions of literature demand the tragic hero must have the tragic flaw which ultimately leads to his/her downfall. Looking at the real world, it's sadly easy to see that tradition holding true as well. 

I think I'll stick to fantasy. At least that way, heroes only fall if I want them to. 

Merry Christmas And All That

Long Time, No See

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog of late. I was so wrapped up in the final editing and formatting of "Blackwing Rising" that it seemed to consume all my author energies.

For some reason, MS Word's quirks managed to make the manuscript translate incorrectly into some of the Epub formats. I lost paragraph indents. It took"forever" to get it all fixed. When a book is over 400 pages long, editing takes hours.

Apparently, when I transferred some of the pages from one version of Word to another, the formatting floated off into one of the black holes Microsoft Office likes to offer now and then. I've fallen into them before and learned how to work my way back out, but sometimes it takes a lot of experimenting. At long last, Smashwords accepted the book for its premium distribution channels, so it's finally available in just about all electronic version.s

Then I headed back over to CreateSpace to publish the paperback version. First I had some cover problems--relatively easy to fix this time.  Bless its little heart, the interior was just fine, but it didn't get there easily. This time it was trying to get the page numbering to work the way I wanted it to. Setting the section breaks kept sending my first chapter off into the black hole of even instead of odd page placement, no matter what I seemed to do. I must have "killed" another couple hours getting that right.

Then, of course, there is the filing for ISBN numbers. I have purchased a block of ISBN's to register for my books. Each book requires three ISBN numbers, one for each kind of publication. So each book has a Kindle number, an electronic text number, and a paperback/print number--well, not really. I could use the same ISBN for Kindle and the other electronic text versions, but I haven't. (I do need to check on this.)  At any rate, I do have to enter a lot of data to get the books registers. (There is a "clone" feature I discovered that helps, however.)

While much of this work is a nuisance, I do find having control over publication is empowering. Of course, I would love to have a publisher take me on, but for now, I am happy to do it myself.

I am now immersed in the coming holidays, so I may not post much again for a while. So, with the spirit of peace, joy, love and hope, I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

How To Write a Novel

What's Important, After All is Said and Done?

A Facebook friend was stuck with her novel. She had a good main character--a protagonist, a good setting and a basic premise. She'd started to write and then gotten stuck. She just had no idea where to go from there.

Novels and short stories all have something in common. They do need good characters, good settings, and good basic ideas, but the most important element is that they must have a plot.

If you ever studied English literature in school, you probably, at some point, ran into that infamous diagram of the structure of a short story. Here's an example:

http://www.englishessaywritingtips.com/2010/12/how-do-i-write-a-short-story-essay/

All the elements are essential to have a real short story. The basic idea here is that in a short story, all the action is directed towards solving a problem of some sort--the conflict. Eventually that leads to the moment in the story where the problem is confronted and solved--the climax. 

So, the problem is introduced in the exposition. There is where the story setting is established, the characters are introduced and the potential problem is introduced as well. Then there is story action that takes place to develop the conflict and define the problem. The action continues to build until the climax. Usually, there are consequences to the solution and finally the story reaches some kind of conclusion. 

Here's a short example. Joe and Jim are students at a small high school. They are both superstar athletes and members of the basketball team. (Exposition)  They both try to outdo each other during games and practice. (Rising Action) This leads to a rivalry as during the games their selfish attempts to get the ball to score starts to undermine the team spirit and success. They both want to be captain and to be the heroes of every game. (Conflict) Despite the two, the team makes it to the championship playoffs. During the game, however, Joe's and Jim's actions start to cause trouble when the other team focuses on guarding them and they start to have trouble scoring. The game goes to the last quarter with Joe's and Jim's team down by two points. (Continued conflict builds as the stakes get higher.) Neither one can get in a shot but then Joe gets in the clear. Jim has the ball and is close to the basket, surrounded by defensive players.  At the last second, Jim passes the ball to Joe who makes a basket from mid-court to score three points to win the game. (Climax)  After the game, Joe is hailed as a the hero for scoring the winning points. (Falling Action)  He is named captain of the team. (Falling Action)  Ultimately, though, Joe declines the honor and tells everyone Jim really deserves the captaincy because he was the one who sacrificed his chance at glory for the team. (Resolution/Conclusion) In turn, Jim insists the two should be co-captains instead. (Conclusion) 

Sure, it's a cliche story, but it illustrates plot structure for a short story. 

Novels are basically short stories expanded. Instead of one line of structure, they often have many. The plot must still be there, with an overall problem that needs to be solved and, indeed, it too much reach a climax through rising action, but the action rises, falls and often reaches a number of smaller climaxes along the way. There are also likely to be several different conflicts going on as the novel progresses. The heroes might well need to overcome dozens of smaller obstacles--essentially finishing little short stories--along the way to solving the large, overriding problem of the main plot line. 

Lord of the Rings illustrates this well as each set of characters in the epic meet and conquer numerous challenges along the road to finally destroying the Ring and freeing the world of Sauron's evil force and returning mankind to peace. There are dozens of crises and conflicts along the way, any one of which could be a short story all its own. 

But here is the crucial difference. As novels, all of the side journeys and quests are linked to the one overriding conflict--ridding the world of the destructive dark magic of Sauron. While each novel in the series does have its own conclusion, all is not resolved until the final pages of The Return of the King. 

Drawing a plot diagram of the novel is an almost impossible task. I once saw a picture of the story board JK Rawling had created for her Harry Potter novels and it easily covered the entire wall of her office.  Conflicts, plot, and character connections abound. Each novel has its own structure and that needed to be carefully linked to the other books. Yet over and over, the essential structure of the story was repeated. 

Create the world. Create your characters. Create a conflict--a problem to be solved. And then, go about solving it.  Create tension for the reader along the way as he wonders whether or not the hero will win over the odds. And then, find that climax when the problem is faced head-on. 

That's all there is to it. I always hope the hero wins. 

Work Ethics: Fantasy and Reality

Every Job Has Its Worth

This is not a political rant, but rather a human one. One of the recurring themes in my Saga of Magiskeep is how most men want to work for something in their lives. In a sense, some of the Magicians in the Saga are "the idle rich" who so depend on their Magic to meet all their needs that they have no need to work for anything. Their lives, because of that, have a certain purposelessness which leads them to seek ways to satisfy their needs.  This often leads to dominating others just for the sake of having "something to do."

Jamus, the hero of the novels, recognizes this need, and respects it in his role as Master of Magiskeep. While Magic might certainly be able to solve every problem with no effort except the lifting of his hand, more often he chooses a more human solution, both out of his own need and out of respect for those around him who lack Magic as an answer.

Although the Saga is a fantasy, its culture is rooted in reality. In this case, the reality that people do want to earn their way in the world. Several real world examples reminded me of this reality lately.

One was an encounter in my doctor's waiting room. A middle-aged woman came in to deliver something and then sat near me to relax for a few minutes. I soon struck up a conversation with her and found out she was a newspaper delivery woman. From what she said, she delivered papers all day long for several different distributors. She told me about a car accident she'd had recently, the problems it had caused with her truck, and of the financial issues she was facing.

I'm sure her job does not pay well--most likely minimum wage--and I suspect most people would think that it also requires very little skill. Driving, following a specified route, and tossing papers out the window certainly doesn't seem very high tech to most of us. But as I talked to this woman, I realized there was much more to it.  She explained, with certain pride, how she had mastered the technique of throwing the papers so they would hit people's driveways. "Papers today are much lighter than they used to be," she said. "You have to throw them flat instead of up in the air so they land where you want them to. I've figured out just how to throw them so they almost always hit the driveway where I want them to"

Clearly, her job was something special, both to her and to the customers she served. I know she worked hard every day with long routes and long hours. Then, as an even better revelation, I found out that she was the person who delivered a local free paper to my house. I told her I was delighted to get the paper, but apparently whoever was delivering it thought my two driveways were for separate houses, so I was getting two papers each week. Immediately, she asked me where my house was. I gave her my address and told her the driveway with the mailbox was the best one for the paper.

Sure enough, the next week, and every week since, I have been getting only one paper, delivered by special throw, right by my mailbox.

Talk about pride and a job well done.

More in the next blog.

Writing for Contests 2

So, Who Wins?


If you read my last post, you viewed a contest from the inside out, looking at the entrants from a judge's position.  Clearly, there are some lessons to be learned.

First and foremost, you must plan and complete your entry according to the directions. In the case of the essays, there was a 700-1000 word limit and essays were to be submitted as either MS Word documents or PDF files. There was a deadline for submission as well.

Some contests will be even more specific Perhaps an entry must be double spaced, paginated, with the document name on each page. Your identity information needs to be submitted somewhere. Is is a separate page, on an entry form, on each page? How long should your entry be? All the details for submission are important.

I recently entered a contest where my manuscript actually received scoring points based on whether or not I followed all the rules. The rules are there for a reason. Read them carefully and follow them to the letter.

Then, of course, make sure your entry meets the other requirements. If you are answering a question or posing a problem solution, as the students were, make sure you read the topic carefully and then address all parts of the questions posed.  If you are required to submit a short story, make sure what you've written really is a short story. Know the literary format you are offering and write an piece that suits the demands.

Clean copy matters. Check and recheck for spelling errors. Proofread and, if you can, have someone else proofread your copy. Spelling counts, and so does grammar. Don't depend on MS Words grammar/spellchecker or even such programs as Grammarly. I've used both and neither one picks up all the errors. They are good starts, but in the end, a good human editor does the best job.

An outside reader is always an asset. Quite often when we write, we think we are saying one thing when, in reality, our words are saying something quite different. When my students in class used to complain about how I graded a paper when their words just didn't make sense, they would say, "Well, you know what I meant."  I may have known, but my reply was, "I only know what you wrote."

As far as content goes, there isn't much advice I can give beyond, "Be true to your voice."  Avoid the cliche' and cherish your own original ideas. Don't try to copy someone else's style unless it's part of the contest. ("Write a Story in the Style of William Shakespeare") If you win, and the world expects more writing from you, then you will be expected to be able to write with the same quality and style again, so the more "you" the writing is the better. There's no reason to pretend you are someone or something else than you honestly are.

I think, especially for beginning writers, this is often a real challenge. Finding your "voice" is not always easy. That's one reason I usually read what I write aloud. Often, when I hear myself saying the words I discover what works and what doesn't. "Tell me a story. Write what you would say."  Flowery word and phrases don't score points unless they are essential to the story.  Don't be afraid to experiment with words, but use them wisely and well.

Will you win? That all depends on the judge, and, as you saw from my last post, a portion of judging is always subjective. Losing is never easy, but remember, there's always another contest, another judge and another opportunity. Just keep on writing.

Writing for Contests

And I'm The Judge

If you've ever entered a writing contest and not won, perhaps it's time to hear from the judge.

Recently, I was asked to judge a contest with essay written by high school students. The topic was: "A Solution to Conflict Resolution in Your High School."  The background information suggested that because of diverse culture groups in schools, there was often conflict among students with different beliefs and backgrounds. Contestants were asked to discuss the problem and then pose a program to adopt in their schools to resolved these issues.

There were a dozen essays submitted. Even though they were digitally submitted, I ended up printing them out as it was much easier for me to judge them on paper. (The teacher in me has old habits that die hard.)

My first read-through separated the top essays pretty quickly. How?  Grammar, spelling, and construction mistakes were a top priority.  One student, for example, wrote and entire two page essay as one paragraph. Another had repeated spelling errors. Another had sentences that simply did not make any sense.
One essay, impeccably written, only focused on analyzing the problem of conflict and its causes, never once proposing a solution or school program. Of all, that was the most disappointing, as the student missed the entire purpose of the essay.

Several of the essays I eventually rejected as top placers suggested similar solutions of assembly programs and rather ordinary solutions.  What I was hoping to see were some original and creative ideas.

Ultimately, I ended up with four essays in the top tier. All were extremely well-written, and all had fresh new ideas.  At that point, the judging came down to deciding just which ideas were the best of the best.  I finally decided on a Fantasy Friend program which set up a plan to pair students of different ethnic/social backgrounds based on mutual interests and a proposal for a Food Festival where students would share cultures through sharing ethic dishes. Of the group, these were the two most innovative and well-described projects.

It was not easy to decide from the essays presented. Surprisingly, the two winners were freshman students.  One older student wrote an impressive essay full of high level vocabulary that simply did not communicate its ideas well. Another simply proposed bringing in speakers from outside the school to present formal talks to students--not particularly innovative. So, in this case, the younger students had the edge in both innovation and communication.

All the essays were eventually published in a booklet presented at the awards ceremony.  I was unable to attend due to my recent surgery, but I did put a statement in the booklet, commending each contestant and charging students to put their words into practice by working to establish their programs in their own schools. "Words to have great power. Converted into action, they can change the world."

My only concern is that I found out later that one of the people who helped with the booklet had proofread the essays and made some corrections. This was not a happy discovery. As I noted before, some of the essays were judged lower because of grammar and spelling errors. If those were "cleaned up" for publication, then others reading the essays might well question my judgment in scoring them.

I stand by my decisions, as any judge must. Overall, it was a wonderful experience to read the essays and see so much good writing from our students. I wish them all well, and hope they do find a way to put those ideas into action.

Writing Your Own Words

Who Writes What?

I've been away for a bit, partially because I had some surgery to take the metal out of my repaired broken hip bone. I'm doing just fine and have several good blog topics in mind.

The first has to do with recent posts on Facebook regarding companies offering essay writing services to students.  College and some high school students can order custom written essays on line to submit in their own names for credit in school courses.

I cringe at the thought. Having taught for over thirty-eight years as a high school English teacher, I saw my fair share of questionable essays. Except for perhaps one case I can remember, however, they were essays largely written by the students who turned them in. The biggest problem regarding legitimacy was plagiarism.  With the development of the Internet, this became more and more common as students would "lift" good portions of written material right off webpages and add them to their essays.

I had limited means of checking on this and can remember one search that took me on a long research journey before I finally found the source of one paper a student had written. In that case, he'd lifted pages word for word from an obscure source. I only followed the investigation because this particular paper was far better and more complex than anything the student had ever turned in before.

Now, schools invest in websites that will do the searching for teachers to seek out plagiarized passages.

The "write your essay for you" phenomenon is a whole other story. In this case, the papers written are original, especially written for students by master academic authors who are paid as much as twenty dollars a page. (Double spaced???)  These authors do all the research, analysis, and thinking involved in creating the essay while the student simply pays the bill at gets the finished product to turn in for class credit.

There are lots of excuses proponents of these services make for students.  Heavy course loads and the need to hold down a job to pay for school expenses are two often offered. Students claim that essays are really not relevant to learning course materials, so they claim they are irrelevant "busy work" of no value.

Both parties are wrong. Work loads and jobs are a part of life outside of school, so learning to juggle schedules to still get things done is a valuable, and often exhausting skill.  Taking the easy way out when in school...where life, limb, and financial security are not a consequence of failure.  School is the place to learn, in relative safety, how to cope with the stresses and challenges of the real world.  And writing essays, organizing thoughts, finding ways to explain topics, insights and analysis of ideas are all essential thinking skills incredibly valuable in solving problems in the real world. Thinking a problem through is the first step, but putting it down on paper so others can understand it as well, is the cement holding knowledge together.

What value will a college degree or a high school diploma have if the student who receives it has not met the challenges of school but rather has paid someone else to do the work?

Keeping Motivated

What Gets in The Way?

I have been a bit neglectful this last month regarding both my blog and my writing.

Summer doldrums seem to have set in. The interesting fact is that I am not suffering from writer's block as far as the last Magiskeep novel, "The Fifth Dragon," is concerned. I know exactly where the story is going and how to write to get it there. It's just the daunting job ahead that seems to have stopped me in my tracks.

That, and trying to get ready for some upcoming surgery.  I broke my hip falling off my horse over a year ago, and the metalwork put in to repair the break has been bothering me.  Now that everything is healed I will be having the pins and probably the rods removed.

Fortunately, this is a "same day" surgery, if all goes according to plan, but once I am home again, I will be limited as to just what I can do.  That means I need to make sure the house and the horses are well-prepared.

I am hoping the horse sitter will be able to care for the Boys while I am recuperating, but I do need to stock up on hay and grain before that. As well, I need to get a lot of things organized in the house, and make a shopping list of everything I might need for several weeks when I'm not supposed to be doing much walking around.

Seems that once my mind is occupied with preparing for that adventure, the adventure of Jamus is on a bit of a hold. Is that a rule? One story at a time?

I must admit, I've left Jamus in a bit of a pickle. He has a dangerous mystery to solve in a new and treacherous land.  At the moment, he's not at all sure who are his allies and who are his enemies.

I do feel a certain obligation to help him along, I must admit.  It is a fact that the characters we authors create are real people to us and we are responsible for their "health and welfare."  So, the sooner I get back to writing the better.  I so expect that it will be a prime focus of my attention while I am laid up with my hip.  Keeping my mind occupied with a fantasy world, especially one where Magic abounds and is able to solve most problems, will be a great escape from my own discomfort.

After all, isn't that what fantasy is all about?  It offers us an escape from the real world and the problems we cannot solve by ordinary means. We enter a place where Magic has the potential to make things right when all is lost.

For authors, fantasy offers a decided power over worlds and characters we create.  Call us "gods" if you will, and our words command whatever reality we decide to invent. We make our own laws and essentially can do whatever we want.

In this case, I will write to forget my own reality.  Perhaps, if my words can actually work a spell, they will actually make me feel better.

Abuse of Power

The Problem of Power

As some of you may know, the Saga of Magiskeep began when I assigned my English class a short story writing topic:  What would you do if you had a magic power? What would that power be and what would you do with it?

My students challenged me to write a story too and that idea eventually expanded into Kingdom Beyond the Rim.  

It seems like a simple enough question and certainly one to inspire all kinds of fun ideas. But like nearly everything in the world, there can be another side to it all.  Even in the world of fantasy, actions have consequences, and Magic is no exception.

Just recently on Facebook, one of my fellow authors posted the statement that Magic must have a price to pay, and asked us other authors what the price of Magic was in our fantasy worlds.

In Magiskeep, using Magic usually does not "cost" a Magician anything. Gifted with the talent to cast spells, Magicians do not lose strength, suffer pain, or lose anything when they use Magic. But, their actions do have the consequences of whatever happens because of Magic. As a result, the wiser Masters of Magiskeep have set down Rule and Vow: "Magic is the power, no other need be sought. If deeds for any other need be done then deeds had best be deeds undone."  This concept, a bit of a conundrum, sums up one of the main themes of the Saga.  Magic is power, so the moral Magician does not need to seek any other power--including power over other people just for the sake of power. If he/she feels the urge to use Magic to take over others lives, or simply gain more power, than better not to use Magic at all.

Rule and Vow are intended to control the conflict that could arise with one Magician dueling another to see who is strongest in the Magic. It also stops Magicians from trying to dominate others with Magic, forcing them into submission.

From this concept arise some of the important conflicts in the Saga.  The first example, of course, is the Master of Magiskeep himself, Sagari.  A Seven Arts Mage, blessed with more Magic skills than anyone else in his world, Sagari rules the Keep with an arrogant hand.  He resents anyone who challenges him and certainly uses his power to control others.

In essence, he can have anything he wants.

Instead of needing to seek more power, his "problem" is what to do with the power he possesses. In his case, this leads to discontent. One way he tries to satisfy himself is by conquering others--in particular women.  He is surrounded by powerful female Masters of Magic.  Nearly equal to him in their skill, his only means of dominating them is physical.  A battle of Magic would be dangerous and unsatisfying. So, he chooses to satiate his need for control by sexual assaults. Conquering a woman is one of the few things in his life that poses any kind of challenge at all to a man whose Magic can give him most anything else he may want. But a woman who does not want him becomes a tempting mark for his advances.

Sagari is not at all content with his control in Magiskeep and seeks to conquer the rest of Turan. Becuase of the abuse of power, Magic and Magicians had been driven from the rest of Turan in ancient times, in an event called "Wizardchase."  While they were not actually ever conquered, social pressure and a certain sense of morality on the part of the Sorcerers made their leaving more a matter of choice. At that time, the enchanted mountains of the Rim were erected to separate Magiskeep from the rest of the world.

But the end of Magic did not end the abuse of power in mortal Turan. That world too had its dictators in the form of petty lords and ruthless princes, who found themselves always seeking ways to control others.

In the Saga, the hero, Jamus constantly faces the battle of power's corruption. His own Magic power has an uncontrollable allure to other Magicians, particularly women.  Like many in the world of the Saga, the desire for power and control often overrrides reason and common sense. Jamus, the ultimately moral man, must thread his way through the many snares such desire sets for him.

Must power corrupt? Can a man be stronger than power's temptation?

That is the question of the Saga of Magiskeep.  

Writers Are A Different Breed

The Writer's Eye

I don't know how many times people have asked me where or how I got the ideas for my fantasy writing. "Where do you come up with those things?" is often how the question is posed.

Of course, the obvious answer is, "My imagination."

But there is much more to it than that. Certainly, writers and other artists do have more active imaginations than other people. The fact is, we see the world differently.

To the artist, everything is a question. And the answers are the food of creation.

I remember riding my horse on a hunter pace years ago. The idea was to ride a marked course through the countryside trying to match the time the pace riders had set earlier in the morning. It's kind of a fun ride. My horse was "into" it, ready and eager to go. But about halfway through the ride, we came upon a farmhouse set in one of the fields. Mind you, it was just a normal house, nothing special. But for several miles we'd been riding in the woods and suddenly, there was this HOUSE.

Why the capital letters? Because my horse focused his attention onthe HOUSE and was ready to spook (leap away in panic) at a moment's notice all because there was a HOUSE over there, some hundred yards away. 

I managed to keep him settled, but as I did, a story started racing around in my head--the story I imagined was racing around in my horses head. That house was dangerous. Was it going to rise up on its foundations and attack us? Was it possessed? Did an evil wizard live there whose sole purpose in life was to capture and devour horses? It just looks like a house, an ordinary house, but it's actually a dragon in disguise, poised there on the verge of flight.  Will it get us? "Ohmigosh, ohmigosh," my horse kept saying. "I know it's gonna get us!"

Now, I could have ridden past that house, just keeping my horse under control sd many other riders might have done, but instead, stories filled my head.

I happens all the time. Writers observe the world with a unique perspective. Simple things trigger all kinds of ideas. They pass a car for sale on the side of the road, and wonder why someone is selling it, where its been, who's going to buy it, and will it sell?  They see a woman dressed in blue and wonder where she's going, why she picked out that color for the day, what's going on in her mind as she waits at the crosswalk?  There's a father in the shopping mall walking along holding his little son's hand. Where are they going? Are they off to buy a present for Mom? Maybe this is the one day Dad gets to be with his son and they're headed for the ice cream parlor.  How hard is it for the little boy's legs to keep pace and did you see how Dad noticed and shortened his own stride? That's love.  And that sale sign in the store window....who put it there?

Every sight, everything around can inspire a story, if we just ask the questions.

One of my friends was dreading an annual holiday party because she had so little in common with the other people who attended. They all had jobs in another profession quite different from hers and she always felt left out of the conversation. I gave her my all-purpose advice for how to spend the evening. "Ask them questions," I said. "Ask them about their jobs, ask them about their lives, ask, ask, ask. And then just listen."  People generally like to talk about themselves, and their interests. I've learned hundreds of interesting things just by asking other people questions.

And many of those interesting things have ended up as parts of my stories. I haven't yet put an attack house in my novels, but you never know.

If one shows up, readers here will know where it came from.

Just the Right Word

And How Many of Them? 

The English language has its own rhythm, and most writers know how to take advantage of it.
Shakespeare, of course, is noted for his poetry, writing both stand-alone poems (mostly sonnets) and full plays made up of myriads of poetic forms. Even when characters within his plays speak in prose, there is a sense of rhythm to their phrases.

Ernest Hemmingway was noted for short, quick sentences all somehow managing to convey strong images in few words. William Faulkner, on the other hand wrote long, complex sentences to do the same job, admitting that he was glorifying the language.

Most authors fall somewhere in between. To my mind, sentence length needs to vary, depending on the circumstances. When time needs to pass slowly, or a scene needs to unveil itself little by little, long sentences work fine. But when there is dramatic action going on, the sentences need to move along.

In The Saga of Magiskeep, one short sentence repeated a number of times in various places in the novel is full of significance.  It is the command Jamus speaks when Magic is at its most powerful. He says, "It is enough,"  three words as potent as any spell. It is his command to the River and to himself that he has taken control. They are words of mastery able to stop storms in their tracks, check Spellfire's devastation, and end the impact of a charm.

Clearly, in this instance, words have power.  But unlike many Magicians of fiction, Jamus and his fellow sorcerers do not need words to cast spells. The River answers a silent call--the Magician's Will. The stronger a sorcerer's Will, the stronger his power.

But word still have power in the novels. Prophecies are expressed in poetry, as are the dark intentions of the Black Dragon. Simen, Jamus' brother often sings poetic tales of old stories that often reveal significant truths.  And then, many of the riddles Jamus must solve to complete his journey on Turan's Way are cryptic poems.

In between, the prose seeks its own rhythm, and I'm never quite happy with certain words unless both their meaning and their sound suits the sentence. I tend to keep a Thesaurus on hand when I write so I can find a suitable "sounding" synonym for words that just don't fit the flow.

How many words? Hundreds, I suppose. According to the Grammarly program I use for basic proofreading, I used 1350 unique words last week during my writing.  That's quite a mouthful.

Speaking of word count, I am currently reporting the number of words I write in my current novel, The Fifth Dragon, in a Facebook writing challenge of sorts. We have a small group of writers who are trying to inspire each other to complete our latests works by keeping track of how many words we write each day.

I'll be a bit slow today. We had a power failure this morning and by the time I managed to get my generator running and later fuss around with my computer internet connection--including hooking up a new modem--I think I wore out much of my creative energy.

And then, I just spent over 500 perfectly useful words here.

Guess I'd better go and see how many more I can find to use in the book.

Leave Me Alone, I Need to Write

Obsession

Perhaps only other artists really understand what happens when inspiration strikes. When there's an idea running around in your head and suddenly it lights up like one of those light bulbs cartoon characters have over their heads, shedding some kind of mystical force into your brain.

Then, the art just needs to spill out. With writers, it's words. When the time comes, the demand to write becomes overwhelming to the detriment of all else.

Daily chores become a monumental annoyance. Having to wash the dishes, tidy up the house, or even go to the market for food is torment. The blank paper or computer screen in front of you demands attention. It needs words--your words--filling it, page by page.  All other activities fall by the wayside. Writing demands all your time and attention. Heaven forbid that the phone should ring or someone knock on the door. Hospitality and polite greetings would be just too much of a nuisance.

Fortunately for most writers, this doesn't happen every day. If writing were that simple, we'd all be turning out a novel a week.  Instead, bursts of obsessive creativity usually strike with random unpredictability. Here one day, gone the next.

Worse, if they go unfulfilled for too long, they might even vanish of their own accord.

It happened to me yesterday. I'd written over five thousand words the day before and was really on a role with my novel's plot.  Characters were taking over and the story was making its own demands. I finally finished a chapter and, bleary-eyed, made my way to bed, my brain still churning with words for tomorrow.

I slept well and rose with that nagging desire to write tickling my keyboard fingers.

But there were tasks to complete first. I have three horses in my backyard stable. No matter how inspired I might be, they needed breakfast and their stalls--since it had rained the day before--needed a good cleaning. My cats needed breakfast too and their litter boxes needed tending.

And then, there was the sunshine. It was a gorgeous low humidity summer day, exactly the one I'd been waiting for to do some much needed mowing in the horses' paddocks. (Fenced in areas.)  The weeds mocked me, and the mower batter was all charged and ready for an easy start. Of course, I had to pump up one of the tires first, and fill the tank with gas--all time-adding tasks.  Then, despite my initial plan to "just do a little mowing around the barn," I ended up spending nearly two hours, nearly as obsessive about cutting down the weeds as I had been about the book.

Perhaps that says something about writers? Do we obsess about everything?

By the time I was done, the sun had warmed everything, including me, so I headed for the swimming pool and there found myself doing at least five more laps than I'd planned. That left me just at the right time to head to the CSA to pick up my weekly basket of veggies. A quick stop at the supermarket on the way home to get sour cream for some squash pancakes and I alit at my doorstep close to dinnertime for the horses.

Once again, my keyboard sat silent and by the time I sat down again to write, the passion that had consumed me the day before and in the morning had faded. I had to re-read everything I had written the day before to remember exactly where my plot needed to go, and what my characters needed to do and say.

So it's back to the slower slog where words come at a snail's pace in comparison. I have to think through each scene, actively deciding where and how it needs to go. The "muse of fire" is on flicker instead of full flame.

It isn't exactly the writer's block some authors claim, it's more of a muddy pool to cross in the fast flowing river of inspiration.

I'm sure I'll ride the rapids again soon, but for now, writing really is work.  Still fun, but definitely work.

The Story Takes Charge

Sometimes It Just "Happens" 

I am working on what should be the final novel in The Saga of Magiskeep, The Fifth Dragon. 

I started, as I always do, with a general plot plan which included the basic premise and the grand finale.  I'm still heading in that direction--no plot spoilers here. But, once again, the story seems to be taking charge.

Just how does that happen? I suspect that somewhere in every author's brain there lurks a little gremlin that's always thinking and making connections between ideas and images in a storyline.

I remember speculating on this in my college literature classes. We'd discuss a certain imagery in a piece of literature and part of the consideration was whether it really was something the author consciously intended or something created by his/her natural writing skills.

I'm beginning to think it's really a combination of both. My current novel has four simultaneous plots going on at the moment. They are connected and relevant to the main plot, sort of "branches of the same tree."  To say I go out on a limb with them might be appropriate at times, but somehow, the common thread, the tree trunk, if you will, holds them together. Images and symbols in each one reflect what's going on in the others. In fact, as it's turning out, what's happening in one subplot actually helps to develop what's happening in another.

Is it deliberate? Sometime it is and sometimes it's pure serendipity. It's my little writing gremlin at work and I must admit, at times he surprises me.  I remember when I was working on Kingdom 
Beyond the Rim,

the first novel in the Saga how I'd be writing a scene only to find my brain light up with, "Hey, that's really cool how what that character just said reveals the answer to that secret I just posed in the last chapter." I hadn't planned it all out, but the situation of plot and the character's personality just seemed to lead to the right end.

It's happening again, perhaps even moreso with this current effort. That may be because now the world of Magiskeep has been fully realized and defined, as have the main characters. Both the world and the people already in it demand they have their own way no matter how I might try to push them to some contrary position. Their actions, responses, beliefs are inevitable and, the nice thing is, they fit perfectly into the story I'm weaving.

I'm sure we'll all run into a few conflicts now and then. And there is a new cast of characters and a new "world" in this novel to contend with, so nothing gets stale in my mind. But the Magic still rules, and Jamus remains the man he has become in the six previous books. He and his companions dictate the story's direction, no matter where I may have expected it to go.

I'm not so sure I'm actually doing the writing any more. Instead, my characters and that little gremlin seem to be taking charge. At this point, it's all becoming as much of an adventure for me as I hope it will be for my readers.

Detour

Romance for the Modern World

I took a detour from my fantasy novels to publish a romance novel I'd written a number of years ago. As I reread and edited, I noted a number of striking character similarities with the Saga of Magiskeep and it set me to wondering.  Do all writers tend to stick with certain themes, character types, or even plots when they write?

It always leads me back to Shakespeare somehow. As an English teacher, I read and studied a lot of Shakespeare and found many themes, ideas, images and figures of speech he used over and over. One example is his exploration of appearance vs reality.  "Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it," says Lady Macbeth in one of the later, greater plays. While in Hamlet, written earlier, Hamlet remarks on his uncle's deception, "Oh, smiling damned villain. That one may smile and smile and be a villain." Or the villainous Iago, "I am not what I am," as he lies to Othello about Desdemona's fidelity.

Now, I would never dare to compare myself to the Bard, but reading my writings, I do have to see the same pattern. I have another romance novel written which I haven't reread yet, so it will be interesting to see if the trend continues.

Similarities aside, The Loving Cup is a romance mystery with horses. What struck me was how many of those horses are actually based upon real ones I have known. Most striking was my Russell R. a talented jumper with a wicked sense of humor. Russell loved to jump and gave me the most confidence riding over fences I could ever have. Astride him, I felt we could jump almost anything, and until we got in a bit over our heads at one jump on a cross country course--no one got hurt--we got over most every jump we ever tackled.

In The Loving Cup, Russell shows up in several of the horses I portray.  Some of the horse show scenes in the novel are also taken from real experiences I had in competition. In one scene, after a rider completed her jumping round, a famous professional trainer approached her to compliment the ride. For me, that was the day I finished up a hunter round and George Morris, one of the most renowned equitation trainers in the US went out of his way to tell me I had ridden a really nice round. It is a memory I cherish and sure enough, it showed up in my book.

My fantasy world is peopled with characters based on people I've known, but the world in which they live is totally invented out of my imagination. The Loving Cup was my real world.

It's a change of pace--walk, trot, canter.

Fantasy Lost

Fantasy Found

Strange post title, but it does connect my blog posts about fantasy writing with my blog posts decrying standardized testing in the classroom.

Aha! Confused?

Don't be. There actually is a connection. I have in earlier posts, written about how fantasy writing is liberating as it allows the author to be godlike.  Fantasy writing allows us to escape reality and create worlds of our own free from the rules, regulations, and frustrations of the real world.

If there is any representation of rules, regulations, and frustrations in the real world that stands out, it is the current situation with standardized tests in our classrooms. Filling in bubbles on a multiple choice test and writing essays that must somehow fit into a strict rubric or format to gain maximum points takes all the creative thinking out of education.  Essays, the only place on the test where students might actually be creative are scored quickly and by certain standards.  If the new tests are anything like the old tests, really creative, original, "out of the box" answers are never going to get full points.

(Aside here:  Pearson, the company that created the PARCC test used in New Jersey, is still hiring people to score the tests.  This article offers some very interesting insights into that potential debaucle:  Hiring Scorers for PARCC )  Please note too, if you scroll down on my blog and look at earlier posts, you will be able to follow my series of posts on standardized testing in schools.  (Series started on 3/9/15)

"Out of the Box" is the way fantasy writers need to think. Their minds must be open to unexpected flights of imagination, and a desire to make the unbelievable seem real. Fantasy writing demands creativity beyond the norm and a willingness to take chances challenging reality.

It is the absolute contradiction to standardized tests. Fantasy opens minds. Testing closes them. Fantasy allows freedom of thought. Testing denies it.

I keep remembering some of the very clever, original tales my one English class wrote in response to some of the essay topics we encountered in "test prep" books.  How frustrating it was to "bring them back to earth" with the sad truth.  The fact was, a story about unicorns would never score full points on the test unless somehow there was a unicorn mentioned or pictured in the assigned topic.

Unicorns don't usually exist in standardized tests. They live in fantasy worlds invented by creative minds who know the value of imagination.