The One In Which I Discuss My Motive

As some of you will know, June is PTSD awareness month. This is a month dedicated to those that left the theater of war only to enter into a new battlefield where a home should be. Today is also the 6th of June, the anniversary of the Normandy Invasions and one of the most horrific days armed forces members had to live through. PTSD has known many names including Shell-Shock and Gulf War Syndrome but it has constantly been undermedicated and gone largely unnoticed by members of the civilian world.

I have had several friends who lost their battle with PTSD and have taken their own life. I have known more families who now suffer because of a family member's struggle. This is a conflict that I am too familiar with and want to see discussed in the mainstream.

For those of you that have read my fiction, you know that is it rooted in psychology and how human mind can be broken. You also know that I despise writing from a theme. This is just part of who I am, so, of course, it finds its way into my writing. I do not want to preach to you about caring for those suffering from Combat PTSD. I merely want to tell you stories that resemble what happens inside their minds. If my stories are told well enough, then you, as an individual, will, hopefully, be moved to care for those who are suffering.

An estimated 8,000 veterans commit suicide each year. If you are suffering from Combat PTSD or know anyone who is, then please do not hesitate to get informed and seek help. http://ptsdusa.org/

Write Literature, Not Parables

Many writers think that they're the bees knees. This, of course, leads to pieces or articles depicting the writer's struggle and how we just want our art to be shown to the world and why editors are evil. Well, editors are not evil and, more than likely, these writers are just pieces of crap posing as intelligentsia. 

Art is both objective and subjective. There is a definitive right way to go about the technical creation of a piece. Grammer, conventions, and industry practices all have a right and wrong way to go about them. Sometimes you can get away with breaking a rule but, generally, you just look like a right jerk. The subject-matter and theming are where it gets subjective. Once a piece leaves the writer's desk, they lose ownership of the theme and the message of the piece will be decided by the reader. (Hence, why themes and critical analysis are complete bullcrap according to Salinger.) If a writer crams nothing but their gospel or writes from a specific theme rather than emotional response, their piece stops being subjective art and is now just a tool of conversion. These will also get a writer declined since editors want literature, not a call to apostasy. 

Write pieces for both the audience and yourself as catharsis, not exclusively for one or the other, and not to be preachy. In essence, don't be bad. - Cheers. 

Thoughts on Niche and Keish

Niche: Something that most anyone that manages any sort of business will be familiar with is the concept of niche. Niche is the mixing of two or more market spaces to create a small but well-defined market. For instance, my twitter timeline consists of wrestling commentary, thoughts regarding metal and heavy (real) music, dad jokes, and sometimes stuff about being a professional writer and editor, so my target market is sports dads who appreciate good music and the occasional bit of literature. It may seem small but that's because it is. While I may not have immediate widespread success, I do tremendously well with five people in Brunei.

That's all one needs, to be honest. The form of marketing proven most effective is word-of-mouth. There are some sports dads who want to find creators involved in the same collection of hobbies they are. My dad readers tell their dad friends that I do cool stuff once a month or to check out a journal I'm in and they are introduced through only one denominator of my niche. After a brief time of following, a state of gradual influence occurs where a reader or following starts exploring the other aspects of my niche until they are invested in all elements to some extent.

Create a niche focused on markets you fully passionate about and let your hot little daddies spread your message for you.

Keish: Delicious. -Cheers

Legality in Entertainment: Nothing is Sacred

An issue that most anyone in the entertainment sector has to deal with at some point in their career is legality in regards to ownership of intellectual property. An intellectual property or IP, for the sake of my carpal tunnel, is any idea put into a product. Think game concepts, book plot, lyrics and chord progression in music, or essentially any media you've consumed ever.

Of course, as a creator of a work you want to protect it like it's your precious baby, or perhaps your sisters (R + L = J). The problem is that you can't really protect an idea. Someone might overhear you, or switch editorials, spiteful buggers, and publish an extremely similar work but if it's different enough, you can't do anything about it. Sure, if there are enough similarities, like down to character names and specific details about their mother's facial mole, you can pursue a lawsuit. But broad ideas or basic plot points in and of themselves are fair game.

As you make your way through the publishing game, bare in mind that every story has already been told, people will steal your ideas, and you are probably stealing someone else's idea subconsciously anyway so who are you to judge. - Cheers

Don't Tell: The Need for Justification for Adjectives.

An issue that I have come across recently in works that I have edited for other writers as well as in my own work is a problem referred to as "telling." Personally, I think of it as an unjustified trait or modifier but I went to school for philosophy so I view most everything in human existence as unjustified, especially short words.

The problem that comes from "telling" is that the writer gives us one word to describe an entity in their story, but they don't tell us what that means or how it's present in the fictional actual. We don't actually see the character, we only hear about them. To tell us that a dwarf is grumpy when all of his dialogue is mild and he doesn't have a constant frown is counter-intuitive. One might still include the adjective but they must also include salty language and paint a picture of just how sour this dwarf's mood is through his expression and demeanor. The action should stand, on its own,  to plant the descriptor in the reader's mind without the writer every having to put it in words.

Remember to always justify your modifiers and eradicate short words. - Cheers

Intelligent Story Telling: The Importance of Dumb Conversation.

One thing I hear from several other creators is that they hate small talk. Why discuss recent events when you can have long arching arguments of philosophy? To be fair, I have been known to enjoy both, but the reason of this writing is to endorse dumb or surface level discussion and reflection. Humans naturally discuss things at a surface level. The norm is to be privative and reserve deep conversation until we are already intimate with the other member of the discussion. There's a whole discussion on psychology and philosophy in that, but that's for another moment.

If one does not participate in small surface level discussions then one cannot accurately describe the way humans talk or act. As a creator, this is incredibly important as your characters will be entirely unrelatable without it. Creating characters that exist solely in a realm of esoteric reflection, while entertaining for a single art piece, does not make for good literature or genre work.

One also misses out on opportunities for creative inspiration when foregoing small talk. A good chunk of my own work comes from moments where I'm having a surface level discussion about a sporting event, comic, or any sort of culture and it makes a connection with a thought I had earlier today in the shower. The combination of ideas blends to create a prompt that I need to write and get out of my system.

That all being said, if you were to sit down with me at a BDubs and ask about my thoughts on compression versus decompression storytelling, or first person versus third person narration in comics or genre work I'll talk with you until dead Cthulu rises from his dreams in R'lyeh. But  just don't be snooty about small talk. - Cheers.

Flashbacks: Why? And Don't.

Something I've noticed grow increasingly annoying, and problematic from a critical standpoint are flashbacks. The flashback is a technique used by writers who don't feel like judiciously revealing information through dialogue or scenery. That being said a brief flashback to a vivid detail to capitalize on a poignant moment can make a piece all the more beautiful.

The issue arises when writers feel like telling their story through flashback. A graphic novel I recently read features a five-page flashback with two possible three panels worth of important information. The rest of the information was revealed through dialogue shortly before or after the flashback and made the waste of valuable page space rather saddening.

Ask yourself before incorporating a flashback, "Can this information be revealed naturally through any other method?" And for the love of all that is good and holy keep it contained to a flash of a detail in a single scene. It's a FLASHback, not a backstory. - Cheers

Decompressed Storytelling and You

In recent years, a plague has infested the comics industry and has even moved into screenwriting. That plague is decompressed storytelling, which essentially using prolonged segments of dialogue in the bulk of the narrative to evoke a more emotional response. The norm, before this trend, was to have a meaty chunk of dialogue contained in one panel or to use very snappy and concise dialogue sentences that got the point across with a few jokes, or emotive phrases. The dialogue would then be followed by a hearty serving of action to keep the reader in the moment. Rinse and repeat through the three arcs of a 20-page issue.

The compressed method would pound out the plot rather quickly and in an easy to follow manner then reward the reward the reader with some sweet eye-candy and art focused panels that evoke emotions themselves. While the decompressed method drags the reader through a muddied or often over-simplified plot through two pages for details that could be established in one panel.

I have recently noticed that season two of Daredevil uses a decompressed method which actively detracts from the dopeness that is Jon Bernthal's Punisher. I really want to like this show, but the pacing is making it real hard.

This is my call to action. If you are a writer and you want to tell a decompressed story, don't. - Cheers.

Friendly Competition in the Creative World

I recently went back and watched an interview with metal vocalist and political commentator Eric July from early 2015. In a discussion about different demographics of fans, he brought up a point about the one-upmanship that can occur in the creative world. A fan, or claimant of fandom, will sometimes only follow an artist just in an attempt to one-up them. One-upmanship has positive and negative potential.

First, the good. The progression of arts, science, and economic growth all come from competition, friendly or murderous. Just as a business provides a better service at a better rate to drive out its competition, an author will create a more concise and well-worded work to get their words heard in the white noise of publication, populated by every writer and their Instagram of adorable dog pictures. Personally, I'm a cat person. This competition drives critical growth and evolves the poetry of language.

Now, the bad. Too much competition can rot the very creative nature that drives one to make works. One can easily get hung up on the competition, rather than the product that results from it. If a creator loses sight of their vision, they lose the poetry of the words. When the creator takes their primary focus off of their vision, the one-upmanship can become a creative block instead of a kindling for the creative fire.

Use competition to fuel your work. Never lose sight of the product in the race. When you strive to better yourself, your competitors will grow to be better than you and the cycle continues. - Cheers.

Avoiding Relaxation and Staying Creative: Finding a use for my Psychology Classes.

At the time of writing this entry, I had just finished a week of industry panels, networking summits, kissing hands and shaking babies. I genuinely hate people. During this time, I still have my own projects that I need to continue working on as well as editing and reading other’s work. Literature waits for no man.

Exhaustion is a normal part of my existence. I have come to embrace it. Most of my best ideas come from periods of too much input and not enough sleep. Of course, to further develop them, rest and focus are required, but getting the idea in the first place usually occurs in the same way that one has a fever dream. When the mind cannot operate properly it draws bridges between poorly connected subjects and new experiences that don't make sense. Seeing the world in these obscured filter and mixing in things that shouldn’t be, creates a pastiche of what the world could be, given an odd twist of events. That is the point of a good story, to reflect on the world and what could be. 

So embrace your exhaustion, and strive for insomnia. - Cheers

Finding a Story: Reasons to Not Skip Leg Day

As a writer, I often look at the small things in life as part of a story that could be told. This thought process usually occurs when I'm listening to a song, and something in the lyrics feels like it belongs in a written story. My brain starts to make connections and extrapolating then gives me something that needs to be written.

Recently, I have been listening to one song's chorus on repeat. I know there is a story in there, but I haven't quite figured out what it is. This struggle sometimes locks up the creative part of me for a day or more. This is where leg day often finds its way into the equation.

I know far too many creative people that put off physical training. Exercise is a fantastic thing. Not only does it strengthen the body but it strengthens the mind as well. For creatives, maintaining a balance between mental and physical training is paramount. Physical exercise allows the creative to slow down and focus on their breathing and the form of their glutes. It's like meditation, but more American. In this trance, the brain is able to juggle the myriad of inputs it received in the last few days and bridge connections. Once the brain puts one and one together, it connects the lyrics in the chorus to a news article I read earlier and how great my glutes look then puts a character in a situation the is influenced by both.

After you discover the story you've been looking for, feel free to examine how marvelous your glutes are. - Cheers.

Critics: The Most Important of Jerks

There is a misnomer out there about critics and their actual value to culture and thus to society. Some say that critics are just hateful and unable to create their own work, so they tear apart the works of others. This opinion has given rise to idioms such as "everyone's a critic." This paradigm, however, is incredibly dangerous for creators.

When creating art, or pieces of culture, there are rules involved. There is a right way to go about making content and there is a wrong way. With writing, for example, there are grammar rules, pathos, the speed of a character's arc, tone, and description. These are all things which can be done right in any number of ways but they must be done correctly or else the story falls flat. 

A critic is someone so versed in modern culture that they have seen and studied the multitudes of ways something can be done correctly. The deep critique they offer points out areas where the creator has done something incorrectly and has subsequently damaged the piece of culture they made. Without critics, creators would not receive the detailed and specific feedback they need in order to better their creations. 

TLDR: Critic's feedback makes art and culture better. Stop hating. Read more classics and do things the right way. - Cheers

Reflecting on Word Turd Post-Publication

In the previous week's post, I reflected on the writer's innate hate for their own work and how that drives them to make better revisions before their deadline. One will always view their work as a turd. This paradigm is the writer's driving force in total self-improvement. Even after one's work is published, they will hate the work they wrote.

Looking back at my most recent publication, I hate it. Every bit.

The writer will notice where they could have used stronger words, poor descriptions, and every single little grammar matter they can think up. This is good. One would be wise to take notes during the unrelenting self-critique and make them as places for improvement. Embrace your words for the turds they are and continue to refine you poop until your brain melts. - Cheers.

On the Subject of Word Turd

The best gift a writer's mind will give to said writer is insomnia causing self-doubt that makes one believe that one's work is a steaming heap of turd. This crippling self-loathing causes a writer to rewrite the ever-loving poop out of their work until it resembles something that they are not entirely ashamed to put out into the world. When this doubt meets the nerve shattering panic of deadlines, a writer then has the proper motivation to revise their trash until an editor might not reject their submission, crushing their soul.

To all my fellow writers, recognize that your work is absolute garbage and let that mix with your anxiety, motivating you to produce something that is decent. - Cheers

Humanity as a Word

Something that I have noticed recently in the English language, and I do not know if it is something only a few other word-nerds would notice, is that when the word 'human' is used as an adjective, the phrase or term it is used in suddenly becomes much more pointed and relatable to the reader. If I were to say, "let's play murder scrabble," it would come off as a morbid attempt at humor, but with no substance. When John Hodgman, however, said, "we'll play the most dangerous game: human-murder-scrabble," the term feels much more real and connected to the entirety of the audience.

I believe it has to do with the inescapable label of 'human' that all readers and audience members subscribe to, by their being. To say something is applied to human's or is in someway related to the human condition means that it is in someway related to all of the audience, a sample of humanity. Humans, being individuals by nature, like to pick and choose their labels. When something is part of being human, particularly when murder is involved, humanity is forced to reconcile the sting of knowing that they are unable to escape the only requirement for mortality. For some, this is the fuel that causes them to rage at the dying of the light and become something more than human by being an extraordinary individual.

This leads me to believe that it is human nature, if not just a personal philosophy, that we should all strive to be something greater than human and individuals who rise above the crowd. - Cheers

Regarding The Ownership of Theme

When writing, the writer may be tempted to think about the theme of their work. This is something they should not do until the second rewrite, at least. The concept of theme is something that stems entirely from the author's subconscious. They will passively reveal their self through their writing if they just let the words flow.

Another issue that arises when an author claims a theme is that they do not actually own or decided what the theme of their work is. Their bias certainly influences the writing to fit the themes they live by but the ready is the last one to decided what they believe the theme is. Once they publish their writing they relinquish their creative control for the rest of its life, not legally but thematically. The reader sees the work in their own filter and puts their own meaning along with the words.

Focus on telling a good story and let the theme reveal itself. - Cheers

Nom de Plume

Many writers use pen names, myself included. Personally, I use my pen name to distance my writing following from my personal life. I will share what I want to share on my twitter and this blog but I reserve more intimate information for personal conversations. I recently met a few writers who use their pen name to distance their family from their writing. Maybe they just feel like what they are expressing in their writing is different from what they want to express to their family.

This is strange to me. The first to know when a piece of mine gets published or printed are my loved ones. I try to be vocal and honest with my views with everyone. If they get offended that is their problem.

I just thought that hiding your work from your family was interesting if anyone uses their pen name for a similar reason I'd love to know your reasoning. - Cheers

Keeping To Schedule

Something I have been guilty of for the last few weeks has been not keeping to schedule, not only on this blog, but in my professional life. I still got projects completed, albeit after much procrastination. The only remedy I have found for this is to "just do it" (Lebeouf 2015). Whether that be updating your website with filler on Monday just to get back in the habit, or vomiting a few hundred to a thousand words in a story or script that'll be cut later,  just do it. The only thing that will make you write more often is writing more often. - Cheers