Sliding over from writing a book to creating characters for gaming purposes is a fairly simple endeavor, plus one you can steal ideas from to build upon your book. Yes, I said steal. Because nothing says creative like your DM telling you that your gnome just bought a time share in Hell with a lovely view of the Lake of Fire. And why did your gnome do this?
“It seemed like a good bargain.”
Characters in gaming seem to never have to deal with the consequences of their actions. Kill off the local mayor because he was in cahoots with some dread underrealm godling and they move on, leaving the town to more or less pick up the pieces in the aftermath. The adventure party almost never has to deal with such trivial pursuits like “rebuilding” a town. But in books, it’s a far more compelling back story if the author keeps such incidences in mind.
How does a community, which had been ruled (unknowingly) by some evil and vile character, pick itself up after being “liberated”? Is there a massive power vacuum? Does the town crier take up the call to be mayor? Does the town (unwisely?) elect one of the heroes to become their new leader?
There is always a reaction to everything your heroes do. From a simple “No tipping the barwench” to “blowing up the Zerg Empire’s Space Station”, there is always some sort of reaction. Unless it is the culmination of the novel (or campaign), there is always fallout hat can be used in the novel. Tolkien did it. The best example, though, is what happened to Stargate: SG1 after they freed a bunch of worlds from the Go’auld.
An incredible power vacuum was created when the Stargate team rescued a planet from the evil aliens and then left. The people, most of whom lived as slaves, were left to fend for themselves. If advanced technology was available, the SG1 team took it. If the humans were “primitive”, then SG1 didn’t give them tech in return, because they felt obligated to leave them to their own natural directive. Eventually a bunch of said worlds banded together, created an alliance and declared war against Earth.
Sound unreasonable? It shouldn’t.
Star Trek: TNG did this too, once upon a time. They would preach about following the Prime Directive but whenever they came across new and exciting tech they would find a way to end up with it. There were many reactions to this later in the series (and subsequent series expanded on this), creating new allies and new enemies. It keeps the story fresh, casts the “hero” in a new light and the villain as a sympathetic being.
You sometimes want this. Really.
A good article from author Paul Carr about the dangerous thought process behind self-publishing. In the self-publishing vs going through a publisher route for print books, I’m a firm believer that authors should use publishers, especially if you already have a contract with them. Too many people shell out too much of their own money to vanity presses just so they can see their book in print.
Here’s a very telling excerpt from Carr’s article:
There’s a second – arguably even more important – benefit to the professional-publisher-as-filter principle: authors of professionally published books instantly have more credibility when it comes to securing lucrative speaking engagements, journalism gigs and a whole host of other money-spinners for which knowledgable talking heads command top dollar. Compare the number of professionally published authors you see opining in print and on television (or on stage) with the number of ebook-only authors you find in the same locations. Exactly. In a world where we’re being constantly told that piracy will kill sales and that authors, musicians and the rest will have to rely on live gigs – these bookings become even more critical.
Which brings me neatly to the marketing argument: that most professionally published books are woefully under-marketed by publishers, who seem obsessed with throwing millions of dollars at billboard advertising for a small number of superstars, while everyone else is left to organise their own book tour, or plug their titles on their Facebook fan pages. Authors – particularly those with pre-existing fanbases – can now cut out the publisher altogether, market their titles directly online and enjoy all the financial spoils.
I think I touched on this awhile back, here and linked to Dan Hoyt’s article here, but when people mention piracy and literature the first thing that comes to mind is Pliny the Younger wading through an army of stern librarians swinging the Sword of Uncertainty, cleaving his foes before him in his fury.
Go reach for your every day book. Open it up.
Go on, I’ll wait.
Okay, now quick: what is the main character’s name? Is it Bob? Kendra? Owen?
Names are vital to a story, more than just identifying the main character. Names help the book flow, make the book readable and keeps the interest of the reader. One of the worst mistakes I’ve seen other writers do is have a name of a character that is too hard to pronounce (or even figure out).
Take, for example, our new hero we just invented. He is tall, decent looking, loyal, friendly, a romantic at heart and all around good guy. He rides a winged unicorn and wears armor. He dashes off to save princesses and kingdoms. Let’s call him Vrenkeos.
Vrenkeos? What the…?
Most books that seem to be on the bestsellers lists have common names. The Postcard Killers, James Patterson’s latest novel, the main character’s name is Jakob. Frederick Forsythe’s latest, The Cobra, has named the main character as Paul. Even Kay Kenyon keeps it simple in Bright of the Sky, naming the hero Titus.
So then why, I ask, do new authors try to come up with the most fantastical names when creating a new character?
A self-published author I know recently let me borrow her book to look over. Self-publishing aside, she had a killer concept and decent descriptions of the world she was playing in. But half of the time I was reading, I spent valuable “attention time” trying to figure out the names of creatures, characters and places. I grew frustrated as I got deeper into the book, mainly because I was on Chapter 37 and still couldn’t figure out what the character’s name was.
Granted, I see this in fantasy and science fiction more than anywhere else, but why do writers try to make things harder on the reader than it already is? Most book buyers, while walking through the local bookstore, has so many choices to choose from that unless the writer’s publisher has a killer marketing strategy, most potential buyers aren’t even going to give your book a second glance. So imagine the feeling, if you will, of a reader picking up your book from the shelf, opening it up and starting to read…
…and promptly closing it and setting it back down on the shelf two pages later because they couldn’t figure out half the names you were throwing at them.
Sometimes, have an exotic name helps. When I named Gabriel’s love interest in Wraithkin, I wanted something that was exotic. I came up with “Lule”. One of my first readers, though, asked me how it was pronounced. She said “Is it “lull”? That’s kinda boring.”
In my head I had heard (and seen) “Loo-lay”, but nobody else did. I quickly changed it to a slightly different spelling (Lulé) and complaints eased.
So why do writers do this? Why do we sabotage ourselves with screwy names that only ourselves and some poor guy in Decatur can pronounce?
We all know what redshirts are. No? Huh… Well here’s an explanation.
Over at Monster Hunter Nation, Larry Correia is auctioning off redshirts. But this is for a good cause, to help a friend get a kidney transplant. More information can be found here.
It’s for a good cause. Really. I mean, it’s a good cause when thousands of people are slaughtered in a book. It’s a great and noble experience when you can open up a book and point to a page and say “See? I got eaten by a thousand zombies… man that was gruesome!”
Don’t believe me? Ask Joe Buckley how it feels. He’ll tell you it’s flattering that so many authors want to kill you.
Really.
I sometimes wish job hunting was more like submitting a book.
You see, with an interview, you submit your resume and application (usually online) and you wait weeks… months… with no word. Meanwhile, you chuck out another dozen to two dozen resumes amongst other companies and hope for the best. Eventually you hear back from one or more and you begin the next step in the process of being hired.
Meanwhile, a publisher or agent will usually let you know very quickly whether or not they are interested in your work. If they are, they ask for more. Or, better still, mail you a contract. However, most publishers and agents prefer you not submit to anyone else while you’re submitting your work to them, which begs the very simple question:
Why?
Why would any agent or publisher fear a dual submission? It’s not as though many new authors are going to have a bidding war break out for their book (if they do, more power to ‘em).
My theory is simple: it’s easier to know, for an agent or publisher, that this author really wants only them. Is it ego stroking or good business sense?
What do you think?
One of the best things about being a writer is having a good enough friend (or friends) who will listen to you while you throw the craziest stuff at them for your book.
Take Peggey the Editor for example. If I have an idea and I think it’s brilliant (because I think all my ideas are brilliant), I throw them at her. She’ll dissect them and let me know just how badly they suck (or have potential). I’ll take back the non-sucky bits, mutter darkly under my breath about her parentage and whatnot, and get back to work on the non-sucky bits. Then I’ll throw it back to her and she’ll go over things and tell me what is starting to no longer resemble a steaming pile of cow chips. I’ll start to question both her parentage and sanity while taking it back and trying all over again. Some people call those who throw themselves into the literary line of fire “sounding boards”. I call them brave.
The downside is that sometimes, no matter what you do, there is not a single non-sucky part of the idea. You try and try to get that baby to resemble something nice and not like something which got stuck in the garbage disposal. But you can’t give it up and you cling to it as though it were your life support. Heck, it may very well be. But in the end, you just gotta know when to fold ‘em and walk away.
Have you ever had that singular moment when you realized that the idea and story just isn’t going to work?
Okay I thought I was done for the week but then agent extraordinaire Mike Kabongo of the OnyxHawke Agency posted a very well-written article about why B&N is failing as a business model. Me being me, I had to post a link.
Mike’s got some valid points, especially the difference between readers in Massachusetts and Colorado and what they will read. Cookie cutter methodology is not something you want to apply to bookstores that are chains nationwide.
Hey, we all have those days. Mine just come in bunches. You might also know them as “weeks”. So instead of busting my butt trying to come up with a topic (other than the website layout update), I’m going to steer you to other bloggers and writer websites.
First, Sarah Hoyt talks about writing to a market and the pitfalls that entails. It’s a pretty good piece, and I always find the information that the Mad Genius Club posts to be solid and informational.
Last week, Larry Correia talked about the dangers of writing a “Mary Sue”. I, for one, had no idea what (or who) Mary Sue was. After reading his article, I started digging through my old novels and works in progresses. Thankfully I never Mary Sue’d myself. However, I started looking at other authors and realized that when you have a butt-kicking, mountain bike riding, black belt, SCUBA qual’d, Redneck rocket scientist and his name isn’t Travis then you Mary Sue’d yourself. Yes, that was a pointed reference. Curse you, Doc, for being able to Mary Sue yourself and still making your bio seem like a fictional character.
Go and read “Pimp My Mosque“, courtesy of Pajamas Media via The People’s Cube. I like absurdity at times. Really I do.
Finally, my friend Jenny over at Broke Foodie posted a killer recipe for an apple turnover/hot pocket. It doesn’t take long and came out very tasty. Her website, which is still getting going, has great recipes about how to eat well on home cooking with a cheap budget. Some of her stuff is hit and miss (I don’t like squash pizza but hey, to each their own) but she has tons of recipes. Go and give it a gander.
That’s all for this week. Keep the keyboard humming, writers.
Changed the format of the site a bit this morning. The old style, while nice, was a bit stale. This new one is pretty cool, I think.
Thoughts?
“Hi, my name is Jason and I peddle word crack.”
Hi Jason.
“It all started about nine years ago, when I was just a wee young man of 23. My service in the military was done and I was in the midst of attending school. I didn’t mean to, really. I just wanted to get these voices out of my head. The meds… just didn’t work anymore.”
Go on, Jason. Tell us what you did.
“These voices… they weren’t me, y’know? They were like me, but not me. I could hear their voices and occasionally, see their faces. It was terrifying. It was dangerous. It… thrilled me. The danger was a rush.”
So what did you do, Jason?
“I started by writing a few short stories down. Nothing big, just enough to get rid of the voices. But they kept coming back, stranger and stronger by the day. I would write more, and they would invade my sleep. I would talk to people and refer to my characters as real people, confusing my friends and family. Everyone shunned me. Everyone was afraid of me, because they knew deep down that I was a word crack dealer in the making. I felt dirty, but I couldn’t stop. I was addicted to the word crack as much as a regular user. The things… the things I did to create the word crack made me ashamed.”
…and now?
“Now I’m at peace with myself. I know that no matter what I do or create, there will always be someone else ready with their own ready supply of word crack. I cannot control other people’s reactions or needs for the word crack, just my own distribution of it. I no longer need to feel guilty about peddling some to a kid just getting started in high school, or to the mother of four who is bored on Tuesdays. I am a free man, you hear? Free! Hahahaha!”
Thank you for sharing, Jason. Now, would anyone else like to share?
