The Mechanics of Setting

(Posted for P.I. Barrington)

I've learned a lot since I seriously started to write science fiction. Things like some readers love minimal setting description while others believe if the setting isn't detailed enough the book isn't satisfactorily complete. Yes, I've been told both by everyone from non-writing readers to reviewers and even my own co-author.

"The story is massive," she's said to me more than once. "You're trying to condense an epic!"  Readers have told me, "I love it that there's not too much detail, it's not overly written!"

So, where to draw the line? Some authors will tell you half and half; some will insist you must describe the fumes from an alien aircraft. Me? I mix it up. I'll put in what needs to be there and keep out what doesn't—sounds simple huh? It isn't. There are thousand comments on this discussion out there and many new and even seasoned authors get confused from time to time. Yet there is help and it's in the form of worksheets and generators!

And no, it's not cheating I don't care what you've heard or believe. Sometimes you'll have story with many characters, races, subplots, planets, ships, pretty much any and everything you can think up. In fact you're so deep into the story that you haven't taken the time to delve deeply into developing those items mentioned above or spent enough time creating names for places, characters, planets etc. Worksheets and generators help you out in these areas; they don't write the book for you. In fact, they'll probably kick start your own imagination!

I've culled what I think are the best worksheet and generator links and I think you should take a quick look at them. The worksheets cover everything from civilizations in detail to quick character lists to (my fave!) names of races, planets, religions…you name it. I hope these links will help you out and I hope you think they're as much fun as I do!

1.           Seventh Sanctum: This is one of the best for science fiction and magic and if you have some development skills you can even contribute your generator for others to use! Highly recommended! http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php

2.           ChaoticShiny: This is the other best generator, especially for fantasy based on RPG and is for "people who write game or live in fantasy worlds of their own creation". Highly recommended for fantasy & alternate history writing. http://chaoticshiny.com/

3.           ScaldCrow: Interesting but limited and limited to actual RPG rather than directed at writers. http://www.scaldcrow.com/GENERATORS.html

4.           Squid: Intense generator with real and imagined world generators (Afghanistan, Egypt, France, Japan and Congo to name just a few!). Definitely worth checking out! http://www.squid.org/tools/random/index.php

5.           Serendipity: Revamped and based a lot on Les Mis but specifically for fantasy authors! Serendipity has name generators from French to Japanese and bonus villain names. Recommended.  http://nine.frenchboys.net/

**The next four links are excellent for

character/civilization/food chain/planetary worksheets: Highly recommended***

http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/liljenbergworlds/index.html

http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/liljenbergworlds/planetworksheet.pdf

http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/liljenbergworlds/foodchain.pdf

http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/liljenbergworlds/civilizationworksheet.pdf

Recommended**

http://northbynotwest.com/Sherry_Ramsey/Script_Wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/World-Builder.pdf

http://www.the-writers-craft.com/support-files/character.pdf

One of my favorites is a classic world building worksheet that is astounding in the details it covers. It is the World Building form from Patricia Wrede—each link within this link opens up a whole world of information you create yourself—but as Patricia will tell you—if a section doesn't work for you, don't use it! Not only that but this link is the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America site which you should probably investigate anyway.

http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/  ****Highly recommended

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BzylBQC3SyqoM2JjMDkwZDEtNDI2NS00ZDMxLTg5MzctMThjODBkYmZkNTRh&hl=en&pli=1   ****Highly recommended

http://www.fantasymaps.com/101/  ***Recommended

And below this is a link FULL OF LINKS on fantasy mapping, creating, guidelines for the genre'! It's almost got it all!

http://www.oneofus.co.uk/index.php/how_to/how_to_create_fantasy_worlds/

If you're a purist, you can always spend time inventing your world in detail with copious notes or creating your own character or world building worksheets, there's nothing at all wrong with that and believe me, just filling out worksheets can be a blast on their own but if you're stuck for the name of a certain weapon or town and don't have a lot of time to research it or think it up, try out a generator or two. You may just get an idea for the next world you build!

In My Mind

I'm telling you all, in my mind I am so much more awesome. Action hero, kung fu master, and Jedi knight. Not a good cook though...I mean, there are limits to imagination, you know.

In my mind I always know the exact right thing to say, whether it be encouragement or a snappy comeback. I am a lemur monkey ready to strike at any ridiculous moment threatening to happen.

Hubby and my kids believe this comes from an overactive imagination, to which I reply my imagination is not overactive, their imaginations are underactive.

In reality my persona is, well let's just say, not so extraordinary.

I trip up stairs, lose my balance for no good reason (seriously, when I'm just standing I'll tip over and have to catch myself), and I never have a cool response. Okay, to be fair I do have cool responses, but only after the moment, when I'm driving home. THEN I have a million things that would've been awesome and snazzy to say.

Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly happy being who I am. It took a lot of years to accept me for me and I see the quirks as just that, quirks. They aren't faults or failings anymore.

But, my imagination is still what it is and being overactive (er - I mean just right) I love to sit back and daydream through my mind adventures. That is why I like writing. I get to experience and put to words what my mind creates. A permanency to the memory.

I also want others to read them. Yes, I know it's a bit egotistical to want others to experience my mind adventures. Like I'm such a cool thinker everyone is dying to read what I think up. But hey, every writer has a bit of ego. It's essential to publication. You have to have that touch of ego -- which is the mixture of super pride and uber guts -- to put forth your work to publishing houses.

I'd like to think that publication is my extraordinary. The super part that is real, and equals the extremely cool stuff happening in my mind. The thing my mind persona stops her adventure for, taps my mental antagonist on the shoulder and says, "Hey, check that out. That's pretty awesome."

So, who is your mind persona? If they were a character, who would they be closest to? Me, I think my persona is a blend of Bruce Lee and Wonder Woman (with maybe a touch of Optimus Prime thrown in).

More about author A. R. Norris

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Perspective. How do you define right and wrong?

While listening to Goyte's newest song, Somebody that I Used to Know, I had a writer's revelation about perspective and how it plays into the depth of an antagonist. Goyte starts the song by singing about how cruel his love went about their breakup. But then you get the woman, sung by Kimbra, who tells how cruel he was during their relationship and how she had to break up the way she did.

This is interesting, and a great writing method that not many writers utilize to its full potential (including myself). Done right, this can be very rewarding to the reader.

One good sign of a well thought-out antagonist for me is his/her believability in their perspective of right or wrong. Their sense of purpose is justified to them. I think the best writing is when the author can make the reader empathize with the antagonist and even have the reader wonder about his or her own position. Even more important, maybe even question the position of the protagonist(s).

My favorite antagonist of all time is The Deceiver from the Chronicles of the Shadow War (a series continuation of the Willow story). That character really defines the duality of choice for everyone and how easy it is to become the antagonist while seeing yourself as the protagonist.

Literally.

Throughout the stories, The Deceiver is attempting to take over Princess Elora's body, to rule over the 12 Realms. The band of Elora's friends, including the mage Willow (known from the second book on as Thorn), tries to save Elora and the world as they know it. Maybe even bring peace to the 12 Realms if all works out.

You find out in the end that The Deceiver is actually Princess Elora from the future. She goes back in time fix her own mistakes by attempting to "take over" herself as a toddler and start over. This slices time and creates a parallel existence. It's not until the end when The Deceiver confronts herself, Elora, that you see she really thinks she is the protagonist trying to save the world.

In the scene of them mind walking through a museum, the two woman use a Monet-style painting (the ones where all the little dots make up a scene) to see each other's perspective. The Deceiver points to each dot, which represents a moment in her life, and explains the reasons behind each action. She is trying to get Elora to understand the importance of her (er- their) mission. Elora pulls The Deceiver back to see the picture as a whole and shows what she's done to the world by her lifetime of small actions.

It is truly a revelation to The Deceiver that she is in fact the antagonist.

So, who is your favorite antagonist and why? What makes them stand out from the other villains?

Heroes of the Horde

Hey people!  I've decided to give you a very rare treat today.  A sneak peek at my current work in progress.  I'm about 2/3 of the way done, but I wanted to share a glimpse with you.  Please remember this is a very rough draft so ignore any major errors!  But I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!  Here's some info on it:

Working title:  Heroes of the Horde

Genre:  YA Urban Fantasy

Blurb:
Six mismatched students at Deacon Proprietary School are about to discover the demonic legend of their school's origin is actually true.   Not only have they obtained amazing powers, but they've also unleashed the demonic Horde.  Now it's up to these six high school freshmen to stop the Horde before its evil spreads throughout the school and beyond.

Scene:  The excerpt I'm about to give you is right when the kids start to realize they've received these amazing powers.  The two kids in this scene are twins. The boys name is Mike and his sister is Shelly. Mike gets the power of levitation (although he doesn't realize it yet) and Shelly... well, you'll see! Enjoy!

Excerpt:

He walked back through the bathroom and opened the door to his sister's room.  Shelly was sitting cross-legged on the floor with several school books spread out in front of her.  Even though she had a perfectly good desk three feet away, Shelly liked to sprawl out on the floor to do her homework.  It was just one of the little quarks his sister had that made him smile.

Mike replayed the dunk in his mind one last time in preparation to tell his sister.  This was something he had been trying to do for quite a while now and he wanted to tell the story just right.  I dunked the ball!  It was amazing!

"You'll never guess what I did today," he said enthusiastically. His grin practically reached from ear to ear.

"You slam dunked the basketball." Her statement was so matter-of-fact it caught Mike a little off guard.

"How did you know that?" he demanded.

"I don't know.  It just sort of popped into my head and I knew that's what you were gonna say."  Shelly looked up from her books.  With a furrowed brow and a frown, her face looked perplexed and Mike had to admit he too felt slightly dumbfounded.

"Huh… that's weird.  But Shells you should have seen it.  It was awesome!  It felt like flying.  Everybody at practice was shocked.  Maybe, after dinner, we could run outside to the hoop and I could show you."

"We've got Trick-or-Treaters tonight," Shelly reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Mike frowned momentarily but then he had a great revelation.  Now that Shelly's home maybe she'll make dinner and I won't have to make the Tuna Helper.  "Hey Shells, now that you're home why don't—"

"I make dinner instead of you," Shelly said cutting him off and finishing his sentence.

"Yeah, I was just gonna make some—"

"Tuna Helper."

"Why are you doing that?" he asked indignantly.

"What?"

"Finishing all of my sentences."

"Why?  Were you really planning on making Tuna Helper?" she asked.  Her voice sounded pretty baffled, which matched the way Mike felt.  How is she finishing my sentences so easily?

"Yeah.  Didn't you see the box sitting on the kitchen counter?"

"No.  I came straight upstairs.  I didn't go through the kitchen." Shelly shifted her position on the floor and Mike felt uneasy. This was odd.

"So how did you know?"  His brow creased with concern.

"I don't know.  I just knew you were thinking 'Tuna Helper'.  Pretty weird huh?" Shelly's voice shifted from baffled to worry.  Mike felt pretty worried too.  It certainly did seem weird, but he always felt the need to protect his sister, even from something as simple was worrying over Tuna Helper so he tried to placate the situation.

"Ah… don't worry about it," Mike said flashing his ever contagious grin.  He didn't want his sister to be upset.  "It's probably just some weird freaky twin thing.  This certainly isn't the first time we finished each other's sentences."

"I guess you're right."  As she moved to put her school work away, Mike watched her hair fall in front of her face.  Why does she hide behind her hair all the time, Mike wondered.

"I don't hide behind my hair all the time." Shelly declared sounding affronted.

"What?" Mike exclaimed shaking his head and taking a measured step back.  How in the world did she know what I'm thinking?

"You just said that I hide behind my hair, but I don't hide behind my hair."

"Shelly, I didn't say that."

"Yes you did!  I heard you as clear as day."

"I promise, I didn't say it out loud.  I thought it, in my head, but I didn't actually say it."  Mike was scared.  This was going beyond weird-freaky- twin-thing and moving into just straight up crazy.  He knew he didn't actually say the words.  He was certain he only thought them.

"Come on Mike!  Stop fooling around!  I heard you say it and now you're messing with me!"  Her voice genuinely sounded scared.  In fact, her voice matched the way Mike was feeling right now.  She got up from her spot on the floor and faced him. Arms folded across her chest and a serious look in her eyes.

"Okay Shells, okay.  Let's calm down."    Once she was sitting he continued, trying to ignore the look of pure hatred she was shooting at him, "I'm telling you, Shells, I thought it in my mind.  I didn't actually say the words."

She narrowed her eyes at him in total disbelief.

"Let's try something," Mike suggested trying to offer her his best smile, but he knew it was a feeble attempt. This whole situation had him genuinely worried.  "I'm gonna think of something totally random and you tell me what it is."

"You're joking, right?"  Her eyes narrowed even more and she chewed on her bottom lip.

"No I'm totally serious."  He cast his gaze around the room for a quick moment.  Ugh, there's nothing random enough in here to work.  Hmm… there's Shelly's old purple Teddy Bear, but that kinda obvious.  What about a purple truck.  Yeah, she'll never guess a purple truck.

"Purple truck," Shelly said in a frightening monotone.

Mike could feel his eyes widen as he stared at his sister.  She was reading his mind.

Remember, I want your thoughts so please feel free to comment!  Also, please feel free to harass me at the following locations:

Website: http://jenniferhartz.com
Twitter:  @JenniferLHartz
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000624983529

Blood Tells...What?

Today I want to talk about something close to my heart. Literally close to my heart.

"Blood. Take it or leave it? Your thoughts?"

*geeky snicker*

Okay, obviously it's take it, or cease to exist. What I wanted to discuss today is the importance of blood as a symbol. Not just in writing (and not just vampires and werewolves and MacBeth). 'Cause, face it, if it wasn't important in life, it wouldn't be in writing.

So, what is it that makes the liquid river of the body so essential to our psyche? I mean, it's mostly water (about 90% or so) with a little bit of proteins, glucose, minerals, hormones, and carbon dioxide. Oh, and don't forget those little blood cells themselves, two kinds: red and white. In those are micro puffs of oxygen.

It's vital, but so are so many other parts of our body. I mean we're not so sentimental about our lungs and yet if they weren't there we'd cease to exist. What about genes? We have a fondness for genes, yet when referencing heritage and lineage it's always the "blood line" we reference, not the "gene line"...

Ah, now we've hit the spot. Scientific evolution gives us an understanding of the blood's historical importance, and human sentimentality cements it.

Thousands of years ago no one knew about genetics. But they knew blood pumped through our body and allowed us to survive, and thrive. It was quite natural to claim blood was the source of lineage and the source of "being". So, resulto facto, blood became the symbol for life, spirit, and self.

Cannibals are a prime example. (Prime..haha, get it?) They don't eat for the purpose of answering their grumbling bellies. The eating of another is symbolic for them. Those that eat their kin or tribe members are doing so to continue the line of ancestors with them. Those that eat outsiders usually do so as a way to show dominance and seal them as the conqueror. Both acts boost the eater's power source in his/her and their tribe's minds.

Okay, cannibals aside, from this core belief of blood as our source of being, it was easy to develop a communication of feelings, emotions, and actions that tagged to blood. "She's cold-blooded", "he's out for blood vengeance", "blood tells". To show your bond you become "blood brothers/sisters" or sacrifice yourself by the letting of blood.

It was also easy for the world to create blood-focused monsters. Those creatures out to get your soul, and since blood equaled soul it got it by taking your blood. As a bonus, this helped society keep the masses in line and safe in those old days where beyond the village limits were dangerous and foreboding.

Vampires, zombies and werewolves, oh my!

Vampires use blood to more than feed and survive. By just sampling it, they manipulated and controlled that person. Signifying that blood somehow links to that person's soul and vitality. Zombies, once their bite hits your blood stream, you are no longer human. Your soul and humanity are stripped and you become nothing but a mindless cannibal. (Ahhh...see how I tied the earlier comment?) Once you were bitten by a werewolf you had to sacrifice your humanity on a monthly basis-- I'll take my monthly menstrual, thank you very much. By breaking that cardinal rule and venturing where you "weren't supposed to" you had to suffer the rest of your life with the consequences.

As society created these monsters to keep the moral compass of people and their soul intact, it was up to the writers and storytellers to keep the monsters alive, and to portray them and evolve them as the world evolved.

Now, at this point my SF roots are bubbling to the surface. How will the growing importance of genetics as the core of heredity and lineage impact that symbolism? You also have the industrial age and the expansion of electrical lighting, which have been slowly abating fears of the night. Not to mention, both the sexual revolution and equality movements have all but vanquished the purity angle.

Where does that leave the symbol of blood? Will that strong human sentimentality keep hold of it, or will it become obsolete as other, new symbols emerge? I just don't know. I'm not sentimental -- just ask my Hubby -- but there's something cool about blood as the main life force/energy.

What do you think?

Oh! Also, what is your favorite blood quote from a story? Mine is, and probably always will be, "Blood is life!" from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

(NOTE: Totally summarizing years of research and time lines from the pros here in this post...but unless we want this post to be thousands of words longs, it'll have to do.)