Writing Action Scenes

Quan

A good action scene is almost like a miniature story unto itself. I particularly enjoy writing action (I like writing dialogue too), and I have a pretty simple approach to it. Action is conflict, and conflict is the crux of what drives a narrative forward. 

I use a rather simple formula when mapping out and choreographing my action sequences. It’s really just a matter of figuring out your character’s immediate goal, then asking yourself what could possibly go wrong within the parameters of the setting and situation your character is in, and making that scenario happen. After that, you have your character react to the situation,  and then your situation reacts to your character’s action. This is one of the few instances where Murphy’s Law is your friend. 

Whatever the worst thing that can happen to your character is in that moment, make it happen. Then you have to figure out how your character can overcome that problem, after your character has overcome that small setback, make something else go wrong. Rinse, wash, and repeat until your character either works his or her way towards accomplishing their goal, or it becomes clearly evident that there is no way they can possibly, logically complete their task. Then you go inside that character’s head and record his or her thoughts and feelings during this whole sequence. That way you get to relay how high the stakes are in that character’s mind.

Keep your sentences relatively short, because that speeds of the pace of the story. Also, writing with some uptempo, aggressive music in the background helps set the mood too. The goal is to have your reader constantly thinking “Wow he’s in a tight spot! how’s he gonna get out of this?”

Let’s break down each step of this process.

1. Your character’s immediate goal. 

This does not have to be some large or grandiose goal. You’re writing a scene, not a book. The goal can be as simple as getting from one end of a room to another. Just ask yourself what the character needs to right now, and how do they intend to accomplish that goal.

2. What could possibly go wrong?

The key here is putting an obstacle in front of your character that will not only inconvenience them, but prevent the goal from being accomplished altogether. Remember that you’re writing drama here, so trivial obstacles won’t be enough to keep the reader’s attention. Go Big.

3. Make the worst case scenario happen.

This is where the rubber meets the road. Take into account the setting and situation so that your obstacle happens organically. You don’t want a dude trying to go to the store, and then have some aliens come out of nowhere shooting lasers at him if you didn’t set up that possibility earlier in the story. The obstacle has to be logical, and you have to be fair about it: there has to at least appear to be a solution to the obstacle that the character can get to, even if they have to do some thinking and problem solving to get to it. The guys that write MacGyver always made sure that whenever MacGyver needed to cobble something to get out of a fix, the necessary ingredients to do so were within reach.

4. What does your character do about it? And what is going through their mind as they do it?

Writing your character’s response is the crucial element of moving the narrative forward. Be sure to stay true to your character’s personality and mode of operation. A character that is a planner reacts differently from one that is used to thinking on their feet. You want to make sure the actions are consistent and fluid within the setting. Make sure everything flows.
The thoughts and emotions going through your character’s mind is also crucial. The reader wants to see how that person’s mind is working their way through the dilemma. That will give a lot of insight into your character’s personality and thought process. It also lets the reader know what the stakes are and how important it is to the character to figure out how to solve the obstacle.

5. Now what?

Now that your character has made their move and overcome that obstacle, the environment and situation have changed. Every action has a reaction, so this changed environment now creates a new challenge blocking your character’s path. What is that new challenge? Perhaps your heroine escapes from bondage only to now have to find her way out of the building she is being held in without being noticed by her captors. After she finds her way out of the building, now she has to figure out where she is and get some transportation to safety. What dangers are posed by the method of transportation she finds? And so on. This process repeats until either the goal is complete, or there is absolutely no way the goal can be completed.

EXAMPLE TIME: One of the scenes in Godmode features Elijah trying to escape a room full of minotaur-like creatures. His first obstacle in the maze of cubicles he finds himself in. So he has to navigate through that to find the exit. But his curiosity takes him to one experiment chamber, where he is then confronted by his second obstacle, the minotaurs. So his immediate goal of getting out of that room is met with the biggest thing that could go wrong at that moment, which was these savage beastmen looking to slaughter him. So how does Elijah react? He runs, zigzagging through the room, trying to find an exit, some refuge, or a way to fight them off. He finds the latter in the form of a dead security guard with his gun still in the holster. Now the goal is get to the gun before the minotaurs get to him. He reaches the gun…but wait, he can’t get the holster to unclasp so he can get the gun out. And the minotaurs are still coming. So what does he do to react to that? He rips the gun out of its holster and shoots at the minotaurs….and misses every single shot. Now what?

Incorporating this method should bring you some clear, concise action sequences for you to build around. Give it a try and see how well it works.

Oh and if you want to see my example in realtime, grab a copy of Godmode here.

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Interview with Konrad Cowell and Jaylenne Austin

Quan

The interesting thing about Konrad Cowell is that he was incarcerated when he first hired me to typeset and design some books he was looking to publish. The former drug dealer turned motivational speaker had me help him publish his autobiography and upon his release, partnered with Jaylenne Austin to launch a new publishing company. This interview covers their debut erotic urban novel, Desires of the Flesh.

What inspires your writing?

KONRAD: Life.

JAYLENNE: I’ve always loved to read. I will read almost anything but my favorite genre has always been fantasy. But there was always something missing. Then I realized that I was missing. Not me, but people who look like me. Many of my favorite books are less than diverse. And if there are people of color, they are not main characters. So, I just wanted to see “me” in a fantasy novel.

What is your process of developing characters?

KONRAD: I meditate about people with various life situations and envision how they respond to them. I start with a storyline and structure the dialogue with the characters within it.

JAYLENNE: Honestly there is no process, my characters are like real people. They have their own personalities and I’m still getting to know them myself.

Did you start with a story outline or did you make it up as you went along?

JAYLENNE: Free style. Outlines kill the process for me.

How much research did you do for Desires of The Flesh?

KONRAD: Even though the book is considered an erotic novel, it has a religious overtone to it. I’ve been involved with Church protocol for over 25 years, so I was privy to the culture. Also, a lot of my research for this story was based on personal knowledge. Including, the sex.

JAYLENNE: Many, many hours. I had to research everything because the best fiction is grounded in reality.

What researching methods did you use?

JAYLENNE: Internet.

Did you draw on personal experience?

JAYLENNE: No, lol. My life is not nearly that interesting.

How did you publish?

KONRAD: I self published. My reason for doing this was to cut out the middle man. That’s what most publishing companies are. Many take advantage of new authors offering them literally pennies for their work. I was willing to take on the challenge of starting my own publishing company, King Jewel Publications, and marketing my own work. That was really a challenge due to the fact I started this venture while incarcerated.

JAYLENNE: When we co-founded King Jewel we did it with the intention of giving marginalized populations a platform where they could express their creativity. As a Black woman, I am a member of that population, so King Jewel was the obvious choice.

How long did it take for you to get representation?

KONRAD: I’m still doing this without representation. It’s just me and my business partner, Jaylenne Austin.

Who did your cover and marketing?

KONRAD: J.D. Williams of JQW Graphics laid out all my graphics, including website design.

JAYLENNE: We are still sourcing marketing options.

How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?

JAYLENNE: Desires only took three.

KONRAD: It took about 3 revisions before we were ready to release Desires of The Flesh. However, most authors are never fully satisfied with their artistic literature. They always feel there’s something more they could’ve added or changed. That’s the life of a writer.

Why is corruption in the Church something you chose to write about?

KONRAD: There’s has been a number of well known prominent pastors who have been caught up in all types of sexual indiscretions. I wanted to paint a picture to the public one example of some people in the church struggling with these indiscretions. At the end of the day ministers and pastors are human, and have human urges like anyone else. People need to think about that before they start judging.

What are you writing now?

KONRAD: Currently, I’m writing a screenplay called, “Pharaohs of Egypt.” It’s a dramatic TV series based on ancient Pharaohs.

JAYLENNE: My current labor of love, Lightning Strikes, will lbe available at kingjewelbooks.com in July.

What is your advice to other authors?

KONRAD: Challenge your creativity, be true to who you are in your writing, and live your dreams.

JAYLENNE: Write what you love.

Be sure to get your copy of the debut novel from Konrad & Jaylenne, Desires of the Flesh!

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Writing is the New Running

Quan

One of the more intriguing things to me about pop culture is the portraying of “running” as a person. The first I had heard of this was in the Mel Gibson movie “What Women Want,” where the hit ad campaign concocted by Mel and Helen’s characters features a Nike shoe campaign aimed at female runners.

 “You don’t stand in front of a mirror before a run…
and wonder what the road will think of your outfit.
You don’t have to listen to its jokes and pretend they’re funny.
It would not be easier to run if you dressed sexier.
The road doesn’t notice if you’re not wearing lipstick.
It does not care how old you are.
You do not feel uncomfortable… because you make more money than the road.
And you can call on the road whenever you feel like it,
whether it’s been a day… or a couple of hours since your last date.
The only thing the road cares about…
is that you pay it a visit once in a while.”

Since then, I’ve seen a number of ads promoting “running” as this anthropomorphic person all runners have an intimate relationship with. This person even wrote a blog about it (http://www.irunfar.com/2014/09/my-relationship-with-running.html) Even recently I heard a commercial saying “Running does not like the shoes you bought for it,” as if Running is going to dump you for another runner with better shoes. I personally think the metaphor has been taken to a ludicrous extreme, but that is the nature of advertising. I’m actually impressed that the idea lasted as long as it did.

But that got me to thinking. Why should Running have all the fun? What about those of us who might not have had relations with Running, but have instead courted someone else? Someone, like, maybe…Writing? Pretty much everything you can associate with the amount of discipline, dedication and passion it takes to be a serious runner you can also apply to being a writer. Writing can be every bit as fickle a mistress as running; every bit as time and life-consuming, every bit as painful (although in different ways) and mentally taxing, with just as much chance of ostracizing you from so-called “normal” people. Non-runners will never understand why runners run. Non-writers will never understand why writers write.

So let’s change the metaphor a little bit. Let’s take all of those cool sayings and catchphrases for running, take the word “running” out and replace with the word “writing.” The road is now the page. Your trusty pair of running shoes is now your favorite writing pen (or your laptop) What would a Nike commercial for “Writing” be?

“There are clubs you can’t belong to.
Neighborhoods you can’t live in.
Schools you can’t get into.
But the page is always open. Write.”

“Write happy. Write grumpy. Write speedy. Write slow. Just write.”

“The biggest mistake a writer can make is to be afraid of making one.”

“If you want to become the best writer you can be, start now. Don’t spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it.”

See how easy that is? So why are you still reading this? You’ve got writing to do, so…uh...Just Do It.

Oh, and if you’re interested in that campaign I was referring to, watch it for yourself in the movie What Women Want.

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The Osh Moment

Quan

Here’s a little tidbit for all of you writers out there. This is something that I feel is essential to any good story, and something that you must be able to master for your stories to reach their full potential. I personally use it quite a bit.

I call it “The OSH moment.”

What is the OSH moment, you may ask?

The OSH moment is, simply put, the moment where the feces hit the fan. This is the one moment where everything is either going wrong or is about to go wrong, and your protagonist is wondering “what the hell am I going to do now?”

If you look at basically any movie – let’s say a love story – you’ll see this principle in action. You have your boy meets girl moment, but there’s always some twist to the meeting, some secret or tidbit of information that the protagonist has that his or her love interest isn’t privy to. The two have their ups and downs throughout the movie, but everything seems to be progressing along. Then that little tidbit becomes public knowledge, and the truth comes out, and this moment puts the whole relationship in jeopardy. That is the OSH moment, the crossroads where things can go either way.

And it doesn’t just work in romance stories. You have it in your spy novels where the spy’s cover is blown, or in action movies where the hero meets the foe he can’t beat. All of those old “wanna get away?” airline commercials are based on the OSH moment.

You especially get this moment in real life. For instance, I was working at the plant many years back, and the machine I was working on was acting snarky. The maintenance guy comes around to try to fix the durned thing, but can’t quite figure out what’s wrong with it. So he goes out to get some more tools. I’m standing there waiting for him, and I don’t like standing around when I’m getting paid to work. So I pick up one f the components he was looking at, thinking “Well, maybe he missed something.” Yeah, like I’m going to find something a trained mechanic missed. Complete brainfart on my part, but I digress. Almost as soon as I pick the thing up, little bitty parts of the component fall out, bounce off of the machine, and roll over the floor. And when maintenance guy comes back, I just knew he was going to be livid that somebody messed with the part while he was gone.

In my book The Hand You’re Dealt, Tika was tasked by her roommate and best friend to watch over her prized pet goldfish while she was away on Spring break. Tika had stayed behind in the dorm to hang out on campus with her boyfriend. So on the day when her roomate was expected to return, Tika is hanging out with her man and their circle of friends, when she realizes she had forgotten entirely about those fish for the whole week. She rushes back to their dorm room, and finds her roommate there, standing over her dead fishies, with tears in her eyes. Those fish had extra special sentimental value to her roommate, and she trusted her best friend to take care of them. And now they were dead. This does not bode well for Tika.

This is the OSH moment; the moment where you’re most likely to yell

“O’SH…!”

Get it now?

As a writer, you want to have as many of these in your story as possible, especially at the end of chapters or acts or commercial breaks. It’s a crucial element to help ramp up the tension in your story. And you want to have at least one big OSH moment towards the end. Give it a try, and I guarantee your stories will be that much more fun to read.

By the way, there’s a song you should be listening to that illustrates my point perfectly. Check out “Oh Sh*t,” by the Pharcyde. It encompasses everything I just mentioned, and it’s even named after my new term. Check it out.

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The Secret of a Good Title

Quan

For me, one of the more challenging aspects of writing has surprisingly been coming up with good titles for my stories. It’s not as easy as it would seem. You have to remember that whatever title you give to your work will be the label that work is known under for its entire shelf life, and will be one of the first things people think of when they think of your book title.

With that in mind, you want to have the right title, and it is something you need to put some thought into.

So what are the elements that make a story title the right one?

1. Resonance. First and foremost, the title has to “sound” right. Titles within themselves have cadences and rhythms to them, and it shows when you speak them out loud. That’s why many iconic titles have three syllables or less. A shorter title just flows better.

2. Relevance. The right title will have a direct relation to the story it describes. Ideally you will be able to get a good idea of what the story is about just in the title. This isn’t a hard and fast rule (none of these are. You can find more than enough exceptions), but as a rule of thumb if someone reads your story, they should be able to get a good idea of where you got the title from. It doesn’t have to be a literal representation of the story, but it can be an allusion to a major plot point, character, setting, or some other aspect of the story that is worthy of making a title. Sometimes you can take an actual word, title, name or passage in the story and use that as the title. Sometimes the subject matter of the book, if unique enough, will suffice. For instance, “The Leopard Man” was my title for that book from the start because there was a literal man that changed into a leopard mentioned within the story. But the idea of a “Leopard Man” was unique and guaranteed to stand out. The title of “Godmode” came about because the book was originally going to be a literal written video game, and Godmode is a popular term in gaming.

3. Catchiness. This is hard to quantify, but it is nonetheless very important to the marketing of your story. How sticky is the title? Does it have some aspect that makes it stay in the reader’s mind? There are lots of ways to give a title that extra “it.” Some titles are clever plays on words. One of my favorite books is Terry Pratchett’s “Going Postal.” The title has a double meaning which ties directly into the story, but the fact it is also a quirky cliché makes an interesting juxtaposition against the established world the story is set in. A title like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” has a grand, adventurous tone to it that feels like a dangerous quest which sounds like a fun story to get into. In this instance, word choice becomes very important, as different words have different psychological and emotional attachments to them that help craft the reader’s attitude towards what to expect from your story.

There is always a possibility that the right title comes right to mind immediately, or may even be the starting basis of your story. A potential reader turned off by your title might not give your book a chance. No pressure, right?

So if you’re having a hard time coming up with a title, first ask yourself a few things:

1. What is my story about? This is where coming up with your vaunted 30-second pitch will come in handy. If you can describe the essence of your story in a couple of sentences, you can possibly find a word or phrase to encapsulate that summary.

2. Who are my central characters? Lots of stories are simply named after one or two of the principal characters. Are your characters strong and engaging enough to where you can name the entire story after them? Or does a character have a unique enough name to where that can stand out?

3. What are some key details and moments of my story? You can name your book after an aspect of  the book that is crucial to understanding what is going on. “A Song of Fire and Ice” works because of the two big details of the Game of Thrones world: the fact that “winter is coming” and the looming presence of fire-breathing dragons. On top of that, the “Fire and Ice” cliché is known and relevant and evocative, which makes it catchy.

4. What are some of the more memorable quotes of my story? Do your characters or your narrator say something profound or memorable in the story? Many of James Bond’s best titles come from something that one of the characters said during the story.

5. Is there something outside of my story that can refer to something in my story? This is a clever way of entitling a story that might require a little more work. Basically, you are taking a word or phrase that really has nothing directly to do with your story, and finding something in your story that it can reference.  It could be a song title or lyric, or a quirky, unique word, or a catchphrase, or something that has more meaning to the pop zeitgeist than to your story, but can be used to refer to some aspect of your story. Once again, Godmode was a simple video game term to refer to the player having the ability to play the game without any of the normal challenges of the game. When in Godmode, you are invincible, or you have unlimited ammunition, or you can jump higher, or some other hack that makes the game a lot easier for you to play. Conversely, in my book, my protag gets to experience his own twisted “Godmode” whenever he is consumed by rage. He becomes stronger, faster and much more dangerous…but this only happens in short, infrequent bursts. For most of the book, he is running for his life, running out of ammo, overmatched and out of his depth…which makes calling the book “Godmode” rather ironic.

Aside from Godmode and the Leopard Man, titles were something I struggled with for some of my books. Double Entry was a story I wrote because I wanted to write a semi-romantic drama set in a corporate entrepreneurial environment (something I hadn’t seen a lot of before, especially with African-American characters), but it was hard coming up with a title that referenced that. I chose Double Entry because it is a literal Accounting term and the protag is a CPA. In hindsight, I should have realized that the phrase can have entirely different connotations, especially when applied to a romance novel. I’ve had my share of disappointed readers due to that.

That was an issue I tried to avoid with The Hand You’re Dealt. The book was originally going to be called “Spades” because a lot of the story involves people playing the card game of Spades. It was a simple and catchy title that would have been perfect…had there not been so many negative racial undertones attached to the word “spade.” And the fact I was using it for a book written about primarily African American characters. So I had to come up with something else, and I had a really hard time doing it. I tried “Queen of Hearts, King of Spades” to tie in to my two protags’ relationship, but Spades continued to be a toxic word. So I just used Queen of Hearts, but that implied the book was entirely about the female protag, when she was the focus for only half the story. I found my solution in my thirty second pitch for the book that I wanted to use in my query letters: “it was a book about finding love, keeping love during tough times, and playing the hand one is dealt.” The book’s theme is perseverance and adapting to whatever life throws at you, which plays perfectly with a card playing cliché that ties in to the many card games that are played throughout the story.

Currently I am working hard on deciding titles for two manuscripts that I just finished, with the added challenge of them both being the first books in planned series. So I have to come up with a title for the series as well as for the individual book. This presents an added challenge of coming up with a catchy series title that can encapsulate everything that happens over the course of the saga. I also like titles of individual books being consistent throughout the series, which makes them more memorable, like Sue Grafton’s letter-themed Kelsey Milbourne book titles, or The Early Alex Cross Novels from James Patterson that referenced nursery rhymes. So I wanted book titles that were like that. So far, I’ve settled on entitling my urban fantasy thriller “Needle of the Southside,” with the follow-up book being “Jewels of the Eastside.” The overall theme of the title is the name of the big macguffin that the book centers around, with the dangerous area that the macguffin is hidden in. The title of the planned series as of this post is either “American Artifacts” or “The Reliquary.” I haven’t decided yet.

For the other book, my working title of the series is “Aftermath Saga,” because the saga is literally a sequel to an untold story. But to me it’s not quite catchy enough. It doesn’t have that “it” factor to me like a “Lord of the Rings” or “Books of Swords” or “Song of Fire and Ice.” Problem is, I can’t think of anything better. The titles for the three books came easier, though. I wanted each title to get shorter, while describing a key element or moment that drives the story. The first book is called “Return of the Tyrant.” The second book, which I am developing now, will be called “The Queen’s Betrayal,” while the finale will simply be called “Extinction.” Hopefully a better series title will come to mind before I’m done writing all three books.

So my advice to you is to be very cognizant of your story’s title and put a good amount of thought into what it will be. It might be the difference between your story being forgettable and being a classic.

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Interview with Malcolm Harris

Quan

Another accomplished and talented guy in my network is Malcolm Harris. He has created everything from Comic Books and Graphic Novels, to tabletop Role Playing Games, to High fantasy novels. He is very meticulous and dedicated when crafting his worlds and characters, and you will see the results of that when you read or play his work.

What inspires your writing?

I’ believe if you are a writer you must write. Life and living, in that case, become the inspiration and vice versa. As a wise man once said (Okay I’m actually quoting myself, so maybe not wises but.. you get it.) I’ don’t swing the hammer, the hammer swings me.

What is your process of developing characters?

I write short stories with them, I run scenarios in my mind and I build stories and lists of likes and dislikes. If you want to make a great character you should have info on them the reader will never know. Like every gift on every birthday.

Did you start with a story outline or did you make it up as you went along?

I’m one of those crazy people believe if you place the characters in a situation and let them run free in your imagination they will tell the story. It’s my job to write down and organize that story.

How much research did you need for your story?

My novel Adventures born: Taking the high road took a lot as I really wanted to give it a sense of history. The Nyumbani people in my world language is based on Swahili and lots of African cultures mixed with a lot of old African American culture. Also Aerix, the world of my novel is 19th century America if colonization and the history of the world was different… hint magic is the ultimate equalizer. So I looked at history and thought what would change if magic or actual miracle-based religion was in the mix. So yeah lots of research.

What researching methods did you use?

I read a lot, the internet and I have a host of friends and family who are historians who I can ask questions to.

Did you draw on personal experience?

Yes of course. Experience is a great teacher. With my graphic novels, I looked at people who I knew and interactions. With my novel, it was more personal. One of the main family in the novel is my family only in a fantasy setting. It’s the African American experience only with magic, lol

How did you publish?

Self Publish.

Why did you do it that way?

I control my content and I have a higher profit margin. Any mistakes are mine but so are the rewards.

How long did it take to land representation?

I’ve been represented for over a decade. It came right after my first graphic novel witch girls was optioned as a movie (never made) and I wrote the first draft of the script.

Who did your cover and marketing?

I did the cover on my Novel, my other books by various artist. I love working with artist and a big shout out to Ewelina Avionetca Mroczkowska and Abby Soto, to of the best artist around for a lot of Princess Lucinda and Witch Girls covers. As for marketing, That’s my agent and me. I love marketing, I spreading the word and doing signings and cons. A hint to would be writers, shyness is bad for success.

How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?

Seven is my number. Although it depends on the book. The princess Lucinda Graphic Novels took three, but that’s because I wrote it first as a spec movie script. Then I did a revision as one graphic novel then as three.

How did your background in Role Playing Games help with creating your fantasy story?

Rules, as a game designer, I built the rules of my world, how everything works. My characters are stated on paper and in my head so their limits are defined as are the rules of the world. For instance, I know how much damage an injury does and how much a healer can heal or how a spell is cast and how its resisted… and so on. That kind of thing gives an order o a fantastic world. I also LARP with a group called Amtgard. Unlike most LARPs which are very “light” on combat, Amtgard is down and dirt and heavy on it. I swing my battle ax and you feel it, and you might land on your bottom. In fantasy novels, people have to guess how magic changes a battle or how it works. I don’t: I’ve “seen” it. That gives a unique visceral feel for the combat in what I write.

What are the differences between writing for comic books and writing regular prose?

Comics are is a visual medium so you work with the artist to use that for a better story. It’s also faster. With prose, I can take my time and build characters. Also the comic is a script while Prose isn’t.

What are you writing now?

The sequel to my novel, two tabletop RPGs and lots of short stories.

What is your advice to other writers?

Write, yeah that sounds obvious, but a lot of people are so afraid of failure or think they don’t have time. But simply put, if you do not write, you are not a writer, so write! Perfection is a lie and believing in it is a chain that will hold you down. Just do it, make mistakes, get better, do your best and “don’t be afraid be relentless “. (that’s me quoting myself again)

Be sure to check out Malcolm’s latest Novel, Adventurers Born: Taking the High Road!

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Magic: The Gathering and the Art of World Building, Pt. 2

Quan

If you’ve read my previous post about how the card game Magic The Gathering uses its cards to build worlds, you know that I feel this could be a valuable tool to help a writer flesh out the setting of his or her story. I briefly explained how I did it, but now the question becomes “how can YOU do it?”

I have a few tips.

In MTG, the cards are elements of a world: flora and fauna, people, cultures, landmarks, important events, etc. Each card has its own mechanics that tie in not only to the game, but also to the element represented. For instance, if I were to make a card for one of my characters from my new manuscript Return of the Tyrant – an elf that is the last surviving elf in his world because he killed every other elf, it would be a creature card that destroyed every other elf in play and prohibited anyone from bringing any more elves out until that elf was destroyed. Now the card itself tells the elf’s story whenever you play it. To the makers of MTG, this is called “flavor.”
Each piece of flavor you add to a given element, whether it be a picture depicting the element, or some text explaining the element, or built into how the card works, deepens the story of the element and adds new dimension to your world.

Magic: The Gathering’s Color Pie

MTG’s foundation is a color-based system that defines every aspect of the game. there are five colors, each with its own personality and methodology, and that is the lens through which every aspect of the game is focused. (broadly: red=freedom and emotion, white=order and selflessness, black=selfishness and pragmatism, green=nature and balance, blue=intellect and invention) Each culture, creature, event and landmark is seen through the view of what color ethos it most closely represents. This actually makes defining the core aspects of worldbuilding elements easier because it gives you a base to develop around. If you have a culture of stoic warriors, you might want to lean them in the direction of a red-white combination, if you want some mad scientists, you make them red and blue or green and blue, and a mafia-like organization would be white and black. A cold, calculating manipulator could be blue-black, while a classic good guy could be monowhite.

Using a Game to Discover Your Story’s Theme

By using a game to develop your world, you can also detect broad thematic elements that can help you develop your story. Every world in Magic the Gathering has an overall theme, whether it be the adventure world aspect of Zendikar to the History-reverent world of Dominaria. once you discover the themes behind your world, you can use that as an aspect of your story. for Return of the Tyrant, the theme of extinction and lost civilization became prevalent as I was developing the cards in my game.

I’ve discovered two approaches to this method that work well. The first is what I call a Tourist mentality. You are a visitor to your world, and you are merely recording the stuff you observe as you travel through it. This is good for coming up with the people, animals, vegetation, landmarks, etc. that make up your world. The second is what I call the Historian’s mentality. Your job is to archive and describe in brief the histories and cultures that shape your world. This is how events, backstories and traditions get created…and often are good incubators for spinoff and follow-up stories.

Now, you don’t have to use MTG exclusively to do this. Any game can be used this way. even such classics as Monopoly and Chess. Or better yet, you can try your hand at inventing your own tie-in game. This would be a good idea because you now have a ready-made merchandise item once your book gets published.

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Magic: The Gathering and the Art of World Building

Quan

If you’ve never played the popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering, then this blog entry might sound like gibberish to you. Magic: The Gathering is a quasi-role playing card game where you and your opponent play as dueling wizards, with the cards representing the spells you fling at one another. But that’s just the broad explanation of the game.

The story behind it is that each player is a powerful mage with the ability to travel to different worlds, each with its own culture and identity, and the spells are things the player has learned or picked up from observing life on that world. There have been alien worlds made entirely of metal, Scandanavian/Norse themed worlds encased in ice and snow, Japanese-themed worlds full of Spirits, samurai and ninjas, Greek mythology-themed worlds, classic horror-themed worlds, and even a Mongolian-styled world where everyone is at war all of the time. Fascinating stuff.

Of course, now the question is “what the heck does all of this have to do with writing a story?”

The answer? “Everything.”

The thing that sets MTG apart from every other board/card game is the extensive amount of worldbuilding that goes into every set of cards. Through the cards, as well as the tie in e-books, website articles and videogames, you get immersed in a given world that has its own ecosystem, its own bestiary, its own heroes and legends, and its own struggle. And if you’re a story buff, it’s easy to get drawn in and really feel like you are a part of this world.

That is the feeling every writer of fiction should strive for in his or her stories. You want your settings to be living, breathing extensions of your story because it adds more weight and believability to your characters. In fact, some of the greatest stories in fantasy and science fiction were just about the central character exploring his or her world, with hijinks ensuing. (Pratchett’s The Color of Magic and Asimov’s Prelude To Foundation come to mind).  This is where the whole “City is a character” motif comes from, and BTW my buddy Anne Mallory does an excellent job of it in her steamy historical romances.

I thought I’d take a novel approach to said worldbuilding utilizing my passion for MTG. As an excersize for a competition to get a design internship at Wizards of the Coast (makers of Dungeons and Dragons, Duel Masters, and you guessed it, Magic The Gathering), I was given the task of creating an entire set of Magic The Gathering cards, along with the world those cards were set in. there were specific problems I had to solve to flesh out my world, which really stretched my creative muscles. So for this exercise, I decided to use a world I had been planning on telling a high fantasy epic on: a world so ravaged by constant wars, cataclysms and tragedy that it had collectively given up its will to live. (This is actually the world my book “Return of the Tyrant” Is based in). The themes were failure, despair and extinction, with a ragtag band of heroes and former villains fighting to give their world a reason to live, against a mammoth monstrosity poised to destroy them all…and the people actually welcoming the annihilation.

Through this exercise I was able to really flesh out my world and give it its identity, to add layers of myth and lore and create backstories I could explore endlessly if I so chose. I created unique creatures and events specific to my world, and new mysteries, like why the Goblins, Elves, and Merfolk that are fantasy staples are only found via ancient ruins in my world.

I didn’t win the contest (made it to the second round though). But I enjoyed the exercise so much I continued developing my set of Magic cards long after the contest ended, adding new wrinkles and twists. I used as a guide some of the articles written by MTG head of R&D Mark Rosewater which cover the process of designing a set of cards (fascinating stuff. You can read the articles here). As a result, I have a nice toybox to play in for follow-up books and spinoffs to “Return of the Tyrant”.

I also plan on using this technique for an old story idea I was working on in college with a few buddies of mine. We were looking at doing an epic high fantasy adventure set in a world similar to feudal China, and loosely based on the legends of Shaolin and Wu-Tang (and yes, inspired by the rap group). But if I’m going to effectively tell this story, I need to create a believable world.

See where I’m going with this?

Whether I actually start writing the story or not, I think it would be an interesting exercise to see if I can build this world the same way I build the other one. I wouldn’t involve any big creatures, but it would be nice to know if there are any in this world. Also, I’d have to do some more research into feudal China and Shaolin mythology to make sure stuff was reasonably accurate – it doesn’t have to be an exact match to the stuff you see in kung-fu movies, but it has to be close enough for you to recognize the source material. Also there’s the little issue of writing believable kung-fu action when kung-fu works best as a visual. I think that’s the biggest hurdle. But hey, I was able to effectively write video game action, so I think it’s a challenge worth undertaking.

In any case, if you are having any struggles with worldbuilding, I strongly recommend giving this a try. And while you’re at it, give the game itself a try. MTG has been my hobby for over 20 years, and I think you’ll like it too.

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There Has To Be A Payoff

Quan

Like many others, I’ve always been fascinated by stories that have sad or dour endings. There always seemed to be something deeper, more profound or cathartic about the Protagonist NOT getting what they were striving for the whole story to get. But as a writer, you have to be very careful with how you handle sad endings. It can often be a cop-out because you wrote yourself into a corner and gave your protagonist a problem they can’t solve without some sort of deus ex machina interference. In that instance, you have to better plan your story in advance so your protagonist will have the skills and resources available before hand to find a way out of their ultimate predicament beforehand.

But even if you choose to have the bad ending, there still has to be a payoff of some sorts for the journey that the reader took with you for this whole story. There has to be some modicum of closure, even a small one. As a reader, when you follow a story, you are taking this immense journey through the ups and downs and trials and tribulations of the protagonist as they work to solve the big problem that set the story into motion. You are suffering along with them, experiencing their highs and lows with them, and investing a lot of your emotional and mental energy into their plight. To not get some form of payoff means you had essentially a wasted trip.

This does not mean every story has to have a happy ending. But it does mean that something the protagonist sets out to accomplish must be fulfilled for your reader to feel that the journey was worth the emotional and time investment. Even something minor.

Case in Point: The Empire Strikes Back. We all know that as the movie where the bad guys win. The Rebellion is sent reeling, Han is gone and Luke lost not only his hand but his innocence. But there is still some amount of closure in the film; Luke has enhanced his Jedi Training and faced his first real test. Leia and company were able to find and rescue Luke from Bespin and they gained a new ally in Lando. So it wasn’t a total loss: there was still hope that the good guys could come back and win in movie 3.

This is the advice Dave Barnett, Publisher of Necro Publications and author of “Dead Souls,” Gave me in one of my early drafts of Godmode. This led me to completely overhaul the ending of the book:

“I feel there is absolutely no payoff for the reader. There was no
climax and therefore no denouement. You establish the villain and he just gets away, no real tension or battle. I realize you’re trying to set this up to be a series, but there needs to be some sort of emotional payoff for the reader at the end. You basically have a book with no ending.
I know writers are told to write something that can be a series because it’s easier to sell. This can be a series, obviously, because of what you set up with the cityscape in ruins, but does it need to be? You could have just wrapped it up nicely in this book by at least killing the secretary then there’s a struggle and he almost kills the main villain or does, gets his wife and kid back, THEN is faced with having to survive in this destroyed city or world? Then the rest of the series is trying to get somewhere safe while finding out there’s something even bigger and more sinister at work. So you have something, but to repeat myself, you just to deliver more of a payoff, then set it up for the next book.”

I am currently writing a story where the heroes get their asses kicked at the end of the book. But there is an important side mission they manage to be successful at in the process of said ass-kicking, this is the feelgood moment so the reader doesn’t feel like the story is a total loss.

So next time you think of writing a story (especially a novel or screenplay) with a bad ending, consider giving the reader at least a little something to smile about amidst all the dourness.

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Interview with Dominique Morisseau

Quan

I’ve had the honor of knowing critically acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau since my college days at the University of Michigan. She is an immensely talented writer, storyteller, poet and activist, and as of this writing is promoting her latest his play “Ain’t Too Proud”. Here are some insights into the writing process.

What inspires your writing? 

 Life, humanity, and the everyday struggles of the marginalized

What is your process of developing characters?  

They sit with me a long time and I think about who they are and what they are willing to fight and/or die for.  That’s when I know who they are.

Did you start with a story outline or did you make it up as you went along?

I often do an outline or have some strong sense of where I want the story to go when I start writing.  Otherwise I’d end up never finishing my stories.  Sometimes even if I make it up as I go along, I still have a strong sense of where it needs to go.  The more I have figured out in outline or in theory, the more fun I have when it’s time to just fill in the dialogue.   The “WHAT” is always harder to me than the “HOW”. I consider the WHAT the structure of the plot, and the HOW is the dialogue and scene events.  Once I have the structure figured out, filling in the blanks is the fun part. 

How much research did you need for your story?

Depends on the story.  For my plays SKELETON CREW and PIPELINE, I had different research.  I had never been in an auto factory before, and SKELETON CREW takes place inside of a factory.  So for that, I needed to read many books.  Talk to factory workers.  Visit factory museums in Detroit.  For PIPELINE, I was writing about the school-to-prison pipeline and the world I was telling this through was the world of a teacher.  I was raised by a teacher and have been a teacher for half of my life.  So I needed very little additional research to tell that story.

What researching methods did you use?

Books.  Live people.  Music.  Documentaries.

Did you draw on any personal experience?

All of my stories have a bit of the personal in them.  That’s how the heart is fused into the work.  It’s all personal experience, even if I haven’t lived every moment myself.  Someone I know or care about has.

How did your publish?

In theatre, we have play publishers.  Once my work was produced by a major theatre, the publishers come looking to me to make me offers.  So instead of looking to get published, I was looking to complete the work and get it exposure in productions.

How long did it take to land representation?

I’d been writing plays for years before I got my agent, or even needed my agent.  My focus has always been on doing the work and getting better at doing it.  The more I stay in practice of my craft, and the more communities that I build my craft within, the more advocates I get for my work.  An agent came out of recommendation from a peer after developing my work at the Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference.  Everything comes from relationships with other artists, and committing to perfecting your craft.

How was your story marketed and promoted?

Theatre is different.  Theatre institutions have built-in marketing departments.  But I always increase my own marketing and visibility on social media and within various community groups.

How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?

As many as it takes.  Some plays have been developed five or six times over before I got a production and got published.  Sometimes ten times.  As many as it takes to make it amazing.

How does writing a script compare to writing prose, and were there challenges in adapting your script for publication?

I didn’t adapt my work for another form.  I write prose for prose.  I write scripts for theatre, tv, and film that are specific to that medium.  I am actually now adapting one of my plays for TV.  That takes some shaping and re-thinking about the story in a way that follows the demands of the new medium.  TV is character driven, so now I have to flush my characters out and think about their lives beyond the two-hour story I wrote for them for the stage.

What are the advantages & disadvantages of writing a story in script form as opposed to writing in regular prose?  

Each medium has its own value.

How did you get the people that put together your plays (production people, financial backers, actors, etc.) interested in bringing your script to life?

In Theater, typically work gets produced after its been developed at various play development programs.  The first step is applying and submitting your written work to the many programs out there that are seeking new work.

What are you writing now?

3 TV pilots, 2 screenplays, a musical, and 2 new plays.

What is your advice to other writers?

Read and engage with the kind of writing that you want to be doing.  If you want to write for the stage, you need to be seeing lots of theatre.  If you want to write for cinema, you need to be seeing films and reading screenplays.  Stay ever curious about the world and constantly consume the kind of work you want to be making.

Be sure to get your copy of Dominique’s latest book! And If you’re near where her latest play is being shown, go check that out, too.

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